Dynamo maker ready to roll

[n2doc]

Susan Young
07 December 2011
http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.1705.1323251536!/image/480162a-i1.0.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_300/480162a-i1.0.jpg
The 3-metre-tall ribbed sphere looks like a 'visitor' from another planet, dramatically lit and encased within a sturdy steel box. In fact, the giant orb, housed in a cavernous warehouse at the University of Maryland, College Park, is meant to approximate Earth's core.

Ten years in the making, the US$2-million project is nearly ready for its inaugural run. Early next year, the sphere will begin whirling around while loaded with 13,000 kilograms of molten sodium heated to around 105 °C. Researchers hope that the churning, electrically conducting fluid will generate a self-sustaining electromagnetic field that can be poked, prodded and coaxed for clues about Earth's dynamo, which is generated by the movement of liquid iron in the outer core. If it works, it will be the first time that an experiment that mirrors the configuration of Earth's interior has managed to recreate such a phenomenon.

“Dynamos are easy to generate in nature,” says project leader and experimental geophysicist Daniel Lathrop. “The same is not true for the lab.” Yet simulating this process in the laboratory will guide our understanding of processes that take place 3,000 kilometres below ground, at depths that can be probed only indirectly — by analysing seismic waves that have travelled through Earth's deep interior, for example.

“There's no way for us to measure anything near the core directly,” says Lathrop. “It exceeds the deepest well by a factor of 100.”
http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.1711.1323253889!/image/coremachine.jpg_gen/derivatives/fullsize/coremachine.jpg
more
http://www.nature.com/news/dynamo-maker-ready-to-roll-1.9582

[eppur_se_muova]

1. 13,000 kg of molten sodium ... cool toy !

Nerd heaven. Nothing could go wrong.

[formercia]

2. I used to play with Sodium Metal when I was young and foolish

After loosing a couple of eyebrows and a face peel, I decided it wasn't so much fun after all.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. What's the best use for liquid sodium / potassium alloy ?

Why, in a coolant loop for a nuclear reactor ... in a *SUBMARINE* !!

A liquid metal cooled nuclear reactor, liquid metal fast reactor or LMFR is an advanced type of nuclear reactor where the primary coolant is a liquid metal. Liquid metal cooled reactors were first adapted for nuclear submarine use but have also been extensively studied for power generation applications. They have safety advantages because ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_metal_cooled_reactor

BTW, they did try mercury first. :\

[formercia]

4. Especially Potassium

That really makes a beautiful Orchid flame when it hits Water. It's also a lot more reactive than Sodium Metal.

Nobody ever expects a leak...lol