General > Discussion

Power Plant

<< < (12/12)

Borsti67:
May be we should think about some self-containing shield...
Let's say, normally the AM-storage is powered by the base's plant.
In case of a power outage, the storage will behave like an AM-reactor - it will consume AM to hold up the shield (and ONLY that) until external power is restored or the antimatter is exhausted.
This way we'll never see "KA-BOOM", only the amount of AM will drain.

slothlord:

--- Quote ---Our only major successes have come from studying how the aliens store their antimatter. We're confident we can employ the same magnetic storage techniques, creating special facilities for safely storing up to ten grammes of antimatter. I've sent you a set of blueprints in a separate message to peruse at your convenience. We've also designed antimatter fuel tanks that should fit in our interceptors given some major overhaul. Of course we'll need a full understanding of the alien engines before we can begin incorporating it.
--- End quote ---

that's an excerpt from the wiki(ufopaedia) on antimatter research.


--- Quote ---The Antimatter Storage facility is designed to safely store antimatter for later use, at least as safely as antimatter can possibly be stored. It is based around an advanced magnetic containment system we've derived from alien antimatter technology, which we call the 'inner shell'. The 'outer shell' consists of several radiation airlocks over the main passages, a heavily-armoured control room, and a host of other security and containment measures -- all designed to keep any radiation inside the outer shell.

The outer shell's design borrows heavily from that of UN nuclear ammo dumps. In case of problems in the inner shell, there's an automatic security system which will lock down the instant containment drops below safe levels. The facility will first close its blast doors, then secure every airlock with tungsten locking rods, fill the outer shell atmosphere with radiation-retardant gas and inject anti-shock foam behind the walls, and then try to contain the inevitable blast.

This procedure will not give any personnel caught inside time to escape, but that's the price we'll have to pay if we want to have a chance of saving the entire base.

To understand how dangerous this facility really is, building an Antimatter Storage at one of our bases will require us to list that base with the UN nuclear site register. At full capacity -- 10 grammes of antimatter -- just one storage facility will be containing the equivalent of nearly half a megaton of TNT. While this isn't much compared to modern thermonuclear weapons, it's enough to turn the entire base and everything inside to cinders in less than a second. It's difficult to 'blow up' antimatter, but under the wrong circumstances, it can happen.

Even if no explosion occurs, a loss of containment would result in the annihilation of the stored antimatter with the normal matter of the containment system. If there were any fault or damage in the outer shell at this point, then the ensuing blast of gamma radiation and high-speed particles would escape and strip the area clean of life. The base would be poisoned and rendered uninhabitable for centuries to come.
--- End quote ---

and that's from the wiki(ufopaedia) on the antimatter storage base facility.

seems like the safety measures (what little possible that is) are already built in...what was the point of this thread again?

the only way to shield the base would be to create some kinda force field or alter the curvature of space (like a black hole) around the antimatter storage building. 

although it might be possible to simply purge the antimatter a microgram at time into a sealed blast room made of alien alloy. 

but frankly, if you didnt bury the antimatter building in a corner of your base then let the aliens blow it up...you probably deserved it.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page