Contents

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Contents. 1

1.0 Energy for everything on Earth. 2

1.1 Nuclear Materials. 3

Bibliography. 3

 

1.0 Energy for everything on Earth

Ever since man discovered the use for electricity his energy needs have increased ten-fold every year. We utilize over 580 million Terajoules, which translates to over 13,865 tons of oil. The usage of energy by source is staggering. We utilize this energy for everything for our society. We utilize energy for growing food, power all the powerplants to heat our homes, and drive our manufacturing industry. A large portion of our fuel goes to the transportation industry for jet air travel. We utilize our cars for commuting to our jobs, traveling to vacation destinations, and transportation of good. Trains in our country utilize diesel fuel currently to transport mainly goods, and people across the country and in all countries in the world.

As you can see, we are utilizing over 36% of all energy derived from oil, it won’t last forever. We need to find a solution to this issue.  We are making strides in the use of solar energy and wind power to augment our increase need for energy production. As new materials technologies with the use of Graphene, Borosphene, which are nanotechnology materials, that exist in a 2-dimenstional matrix. In other words, this material derived from graphite and Boron are only 1 atom in thickness. The applications of these materials are astounding for applications in the realm of semi-conductors and energy generation applications.

We are producing high amounts of greenhouse gas emission from burning fossil fuels for energy. The health issues associated with burning gasoline in cars, jet fuel in airplanes, and diesel in cars and trucks has had a profound effect on the climate, and affected our entire ecosystem.

 

Energy source	Billion kWh	Share of total
Fossil fuels (total)	2,504	60.80%
Natural gas	1,575	38.30%
Coal	899	21.80%
Petroleum (total)	19	0.50%

                                          

 Table 1                                                                                     

Figure 2

 

1.1   Nuclear Materials

Most countries in the world recycle their nuclear waste from their reactors. The United States has stopped nuclear reprocessing of its nuclear waste for the past twenty years. Radioactive materials that are used in power plants utilize uranium, plutonium, and other elements. The efficiency of nuclear power is such that a 1-inch-long pellet of enriched plutonium can generate the equivalent of one ton of coal.

Nuclear power plants today produce over 20% of our energy needs, even though most of them have been shutdown due to older unstable design that utilize water to be kept cool, instead of liquid sodium and other less hazardous materials. When these plants burn the nuclear materials, they create low-level radioactive waste which is disposed. High level radioactive waste has to be stored in large drums, until they can be reprocessed into new control rods or similar use in a reactor. There is over 2,000 metric tons of radioactive material generated every year. 

Even with the use of Sodium-cooled Fast Reactors, and Molten Salt Reactors to recycle nuclear waste to generate electricity there is too much nuclear waste being produced today

There is a project called Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP) with stone and concrete to contain these radioactive materials since it has a half-life of at least 10,000 years. Half-life is a term referring to the radioactive decay of materials. It is self-evident that what do we do with this ever-increasing amount of used fuel that is stored in over 70 sites in 34 U.S. States.

Recently Oak Ridge Tennessee designed and manufactured a new set of buildings and facilities to reprocess nuclear rods and waste from nuclear power planet.

1.2   Re-Cycling Nuclear Materials

To recycle nuclear materials into materials that can be used for energy generation it has to go through a process of purification and recycle of non-irradiate enriched uranium. The usage of nitric acid and aluminum in a series of step whereby people use radiation proof glove boxes to bring in the round cans filled with nuclear materials and through a series of steps in many operations produce bricks of nuclear waste that can once again be used.

1.3   Types of Batteries

We utilize batteries of every type in our cellphones, computers, tablets, toys, cars, trucks, airplanes, and spacecraft. We have a wide variety of other batteries Lead-Acid – Car Batteries, Nickel- Cadmium Batteries, Lithium Batteries.

There are a wide range of batteries as indicated above, but the issue is that automotive batteries and single-use batteries and wasteful and difficult to recycle. They occupy millions of tons of our waste every year in landfills.

We need to solve this problem with billions of batteries disposed of leaking hazardous chemicals into our environment, and generating billions for LG Chem, Byd, Panasonic. Even re-chargeable batteries lose their charge after a few years and have to be disposed of the same as single use batteries. The crisis grows now with millions of people buying electric cars with hundreds of batteries in them costing thousands of dollars to replace after 8-10 years, costing the owner $10,000-$20,000 to replace. Recently, a person who bought a used 2014 Tesla for $14,000 didn’t realize that when they discovered after a few months the cost to replace the battery pack would more than the entire cost of the car.

Battery Type	Characteristics
Lithium/Soluble Cathode	High energy density, good performance, wide temp range
Lithium/Solid Cathode	High energy density, low temp performance, long shelf life
Lithium/Solid Electrolyte	Low power, extremely long shelf life

Table 2

 

Company	Battery Types	Headquarters*	Founded*	Estimated Annual Sales*
F.W. Webb Company	Lithium, Alkaline	Bedford, MA	1866	$250+
Tripp Lite	Lead Acid	Chicago, IL	1922	NA
Associated Bag	Alkaline	Milwalkee, WI	1938	<$1
Essentra Components	Alkaline	Erie, PA	1956	NA
Mouser Electronics	NiCd, NiMH, Lead Acid, Lithium, Alkaline	Mansfield, TX	1964	$250+
Power-Sonic Corporation	Lead Acid, Li-Iron Phosphate, NiCd, NiMH	San Diego, CA	1970	$50-99
Scott's Emergency Lighting & Power Generation, Inc.	Lead Acid, NiCd, Pure Lead, Gel Cell	Bensalem, PA	1971	$1-4.9
bisco industries	Lithium, Li-ion, Lead Acid	Anaheim, CA	1973	NA
Positive Battery Co.	Lead Acid, NiCd, NiMH, Lithium	Hartford, CT	1983	NA
Green Rubber Kennedy AG	Alkaline	Salinas, CA	1990	NA

 

Table 3

1.4   Nuclear Diamond Batteries

A Great solution to contribute to the environment is the support of NDB – Nuclear Diamond Batteries. They are also called carbon-14 diamond beta-voltaic battery. This means that the nuclear material at one end of the battery is encapsulated in a combination of diamond material combined with processed nuclear. material to only produce beta-radiation that can be easily shielded.

1.5    The Power Source

The batteries through a process called chemical vapor deposition, the same used in semi-conductor manufacturing. The use of c-14 Methane and Hydrogen plasma grow diamond films at very high temperatures. The diamond used for the battery will have many thin layers of large crystalline grains, imbedded with re-processed nuclear waste.

This is not new technology, Beta voltaic were invented back in the 1950’s. But the materials used has evolved such that with the application of graphene will make these new batteries more efficient. 

If you use a carbon-14, Arkenlight power cell it will take 5,730 years to reach 50% activity and current creation levels.

The NBD combines and emitter, NDB T1 Transducer, and collector to form an ohmic and Schottsky contact. There is the utilization of different dopants to enhance the batteries’ structure.

A Nuclear battery design. Credit: V. Bormashov et al./Diamond and Related Materials

Figure 4

1.6   Thin-Film Structure

The thickness of the battery is cell is critical as the region where the reprocessed nuclear material has to be with the radioisotope region, or call the internal absorption. In this thin-film area the NDB allows radiation to be absorbed by the collector, like a transistor, to the emitter and transformed into electricity, with the application of graphene which is excited by beta particles generated producing electrical current.

1.7   Nuclear Waste T1 System

The application of processed nuclear waste into a thin-film process I envision to be used in conjunction with Oak Ridge National Laboratories to produce output product that can be introduced into the diamond deposition process in conjunction with Graphene to produce artificial diamond manufacture that is added to the end of any type of battery.

1.8   Applications of Nuclear Diamond Batteries

I  see the application of this technology as infinite. Imagine having hearing aid batteries, pacemaker batteries never needing changing. Imagine having an electric car that never needs charging. Nuclear micropower batteries can power all of our electronics forever. All of our appliances, and electronics will have an inexhaustible supply of power.

Airplanes, Trains, and entire communities will no longer be dependent on fossil fuel for power generations.  Spacecraft with high power NDB batteries can utilize ion thrusters for high-speed space travel to Mars and beyond, without worrying about energy needs. Many Russian and American Satellites that were sent to the furthest reaches of the solar system used a crude nuclear reactor for all power needs. Russian researchers in Moscow recently designed a nuclear battery generating power form the beta decay of nickel-63, a radioactive isotope.

The future is bright with the application of NDB to help our civilization in meeting its energy needs, and contribute to ever growing need of energy and power utilized by the people of Earth.

Bibliography

(n.d.). Retrieved from Nuclear Diamon Batteries: https://ndb.technology/technology

5 Fast Facts about Spent Nuclear Fuel. (n.d.). Retrieved from Office of Nuclear Energy: https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/5-fast-facts-about-spent-nuclear-fuel

About Nuclear Power Plants. (n.d.). Retrieved from Environmental Protection Agency: https://www.epa.gov/radtown/nuclear-power-plants#:~:text=Radioactive%20materials%20found%20at%20nuclear,as%20one%20ton%20of%20coal.

Are Radioactive Diamond Batteries a Cure for Nuclear Waste? (2020, Aug 31). Retrieved from Wired: https://www.wired.com/story/are-radioactive-diamond-batteries-a-cure-for-nuclear-waste/

C.PMcGinnisR.AJacobusL.HBell. (n.d.). CEUSP: A large-scale conversion and solidification of highly radioactive liquid waste. Nuclear And Chemical Waste Management . Retrieved from Scioence Direct: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0191815X88900708

Development of nuclear microbattery prototype based on Schottky barrier diamond diodes. (2015, June). Retrieved from Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277724182_Development_of_nuclear_microbattery_prototype_based_on_Schottky_barrier_diamond_diodes

FEATURE: Diamond batteries are forever. (n.d.). Retrieved from Institution of Mechanical Engineers: https://www.imeche.org/news/news-article/feature-diamond-batteries-are-forever

https://www.epa.gov/recycle/used-household-batteries. (n.d.). Retrieved from EPA: https://www.epa.gov/recycle/used-household-batteries

Kolbert, E. (2014). The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. United Kingdom: Henry Holt and Company.

Prototype nuclear battery packs 10 times more power. (2018, June 01). Retrieved from Phys.org: https://phys.org/news/2018-06-prototype-nuclear-battery-power.html

Roser, H. R. (n.d.). Our World in Data. Retrieved from Renewable Energy: https://ourworldindata.org/renewable-energy

Spent Nuclear Fuel: A Trash Heap Deadly for 250,000 Years or a Renewable Energy Source? (n.d.). Retrieved from Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nuclear-waste-lethal-trash-or-renewable-energy-source/#:~:text=All%20told%2C%20the%20nuclear%20reactors,nowhere%20else%20to%20put%20it.

Top US and International Battery Suppliers and Manufacturers. (n.d.). Retrieved from Thomas: https://www.thomasnet.com/articles/top-suppliers/battery-manufacturers-suppliers/

U.S. energy facts explained. (n.d.). Retrieved from U.S. Energy Information Administration: https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/us-energy-facts/

What are the Different Types of Batteries? (2021, May 25). Retrieved from Electronics Hub: https://www.electronicshub.org/types-of-batteries/

 

Water For ALL, But, not enough for Everyone

 There are so many ways to bring fresh water to every state. 

If congress can give $5.7 trillion for Covid and PPP Loans, we can do the same to finally provide unlimited water for everyone in this country.

    We need Roman type Aqueducts to move water from flooded areas to areas that don't have enough water.  Someone needs to convince the Mayors of cities in Arizona, California (West Coast). 

    Didn't  we have a dust bowl era in the early 1900's when all crops couldn't grow due to the lack for fresh water. https://drought.unl.edu/dustbowl/

Maybe every stupid realtor, and person in LAs Vegas need to boycott all the Casinos until they take their billions and make high--tech Desalination, and Solar/water extraction plants in the state. The Reservoirs' are drying up, time has run out, but our politicians and all the people and corporations in the state are in a state of denial.

Here are some of the technologies we can use today. Humans need Water, Food, and Shelter. Our congress and corporations have done a piss poor job in all the areas. They are so obsessed with money, and power they forgot why the heck they were elected in the first place.

Desalination Methods for Producing Drinking Water by  Justin K. Mechell and Bruce Lesikar

Source waters

Several factors influence the selection of source waters to feed desalination plants: the location of the
plant in relation to water sources available, the delivery destination of the treated water, the quality of
the source water, the pretreatment options available, and the ecological impacts of the concentrate discharge.
Seawater Seawater is taken into a desalination plant either from the water’s surface or from below the sea
floor. In the past, large-capacity seawater desalination plants have used surface intakes on the open
sea.
Although surface water intake can affect and be affected by organisms in the ocean, the issues related
to this method can be minimized or resolved by proper intake design, operation, and maintenance of
technologies. The technologies include passive screens, fine mesh screens, filter net barriers, and
behavioral systems. They are designed to prevent or minimize the environmental impact to the surrounding intake area and to minimize the amount of pretreatment needed before the feed water reaches the primary treatment systems.
Subsurface intakes are sometimes feasible if the geology of the intake site permits. When the water is
taken in from below the surface, the process causes less damage to marine life. However, if the geology
Desalination Methods for Producing Drinking Water
As quality fresh drinking water decrease, many communities have considered using desalina- populations increase and sources of hightion processes to provide fresh water when other
sources and treatment procedures are uneconomical
or not environmentally responsible.
Desalination is any process that removes excess salts and other minerals from water. In most desalination processes, feed water is treated and two streams of water are produced: 

• Treated fresh water that has low concentrations of salts and minerals

 • Concentrate or brine, which has salt and mineral concentrations higher than that of
the feed water The feed water for desalination processes can be seawater or brackish water. Brackish water contains more salt than does fresh water and less than salt water. It is commonly found in estuaries, which
are the lower courses of rivers where they meet the sea, and aquifers, which are stores of water underground.
An early U.S. desalination plant was built in 1961 in Freeport, Texas. It produced 1 million gallons per day (mgd) using a long vertical tube distillation (LVT) process to produce water for the City of Freeport, Texas. As technology rapidly improves, two other processes—thermal and membrane—are becoming viable options to convert saline water to drinkable fresh water.

*Justin K. Mechell and Bruce Lesikar
* Extension Program Specialist, and Professor and Extension
Agricultural Engineer, The Texas A&M University System
E-249
04-10
2
of the site is unfavorable, a subsurface intake can harm nearby freshwater aquifers. Methods of subsurface intake include vertical beach wells, radial wells, and infiltration galleries. A major advantage to using a subsurface intake
is that the water is filtered naturally as it passes through the soil profile to the intake. This filtration
improves the quality of feed water, decreasing the need for pretreatment. 
Brackish water
Brackish water is commonly used as a source for desalination facilities. It is usually pulled from
local estuaries or brackish inland water wells. Because it typically has less salt and a lower concentration of suspended solids than does seawater, brackish water needs less pretreatment, which decreases overall production costs. However, a disadvantage is that disposing of the brine from an inland desalination location increases the cost and can raise environmental concerns.
Desalination technologies
Two distillation technologies are used primarily
around the world for desalination: thermal distillation and membrane distillation.
Thermal distillation technologies are widely
used in the Middle East, primarily because the region’s petroleum reserves keep energy costs low. The
three major, large-scale thermal processes are multistage flash distillation (MSF), multi-effect distillation (MED), and vapor compression distillation
(VCD). Another thermal method, solar distillation,
is typically used for very small production rates.
Membrane distillation technologies are primarily used in the United States. These systems treat
the feed water by using a pressure gradient to forcefeed the water through membranes. The three major
membrane processes are electrodialysis (ED), electrodialysis reversal (EDR), and reverse osmosis
(RO).

Thermal technologies
Multi-stage flash distillation
Multi-stage flash distillation is a process that
sends the saline feed water through multiple chambers (Fig. 1). In these chambers, the water is heated
and compressed to a high temperature and high pressure. As the water progressively passes through
the chambers, the pressure is reduced, causing the water to rapidly boil. The vapor, which is fresh
water, is produced in each chamber from boiling and then is condensed and collected.

Multi-effect distillation 

Multi-effect distillation employs the same principals as the multi-stage flash distillation process except that instead of using multiple chambers of a single vessel, MED uses successive vessels (Fig. 2).
The water vapor that is formed when the water boils is condensed and collected. The multiple vessels
make the MED process more efficient. 

Figure 1. Example of a multi-stage flash distillation (MSF) process (Source: Buros, 1990).

Vapor compression distillation

Vapor compression distillation can function independently or be used in combination with another thermal distillation process. VCD uses heat
from the compression of vapor to evaporate the feed
water (Fig. 3). VCD units are commonly used to
produce fresh water for small- to medium-scale purposes such as resorts, industries, and petroleum
drilling sites.

Solar distillation

Solar desalination is generally used for small scale operations (Fig. 4). Although the designs of
solar distillation units vary greatly, the basic principals are the same. The sun provides the energy to
evaporate the saline water. The water vapor formed from the evaporation process then condenses on
the clear glass or plastic covering and is collected as fresh water in the condensate trough. The covering
is used to both transmit radiant energy and allow water vapor to condense on its interior surface. The
salt and un-evaporated water left behind in the still basin forms the brine solution that must be discarded appropriately. This practice is often used in arid regions
where safe fresh water is not available. Solar distil

Figure 2. Example of a multi-effect distillation (MED) process (Source: Buros, 1990).

Figure 3. Example of a vapor compression distillation (VCD) process (Source: Buros, 1990).

Distillation units produce differing amounts of fresh water, according to their design and geographic location. Recent tests on four solar still designs by the Texas AgriLife Extension Service in College Station, Texas, have shown that a solar still with as little as 7.5 square feet of surface area can produce enough water for a person to survive.
Membrane technologies
A membrane desalination process
uses a physical barrier—the membrane—and a driving force. The driving
force can be an electrical potential, which is used in electrodialysis or electrodialysis reversal, or a pressure gradient, which is used in reverse osmosis. Membrane technologies often require that the water undergo chemical
and physical pretreatment to limit blockage by debris and scale formation on the membrane surfaces. Table 1
(page 5) details the basic characteristics of membrane processes.
Electrodialysis
and electrodialysis reversal
The membranes used in electrodialysis and electrodialysis reversal are
built to allow passage of either positively or negatively
charged ions, but not both. Ions are atoms or molecules that have a net positive or net negative charge. Four
common ionic molecules in saline water are sodium, chloride, calcium, and carbonate.
Electrodialysis and electrodialysis reversal use the driving force of an electrical potential to attract 

Figure 4. Example of a solar still desalination process desalination process (Source: Buros,1990). and move different cations

(positively charged ions) or
anions (negatively charged ions) through a permeable membrane, producing fresh water on the other
side (Fig. 5).
The cations are attracted to the negative electrode, and the anions are attracted to the positive
electrode. When the membranes are placed so that
Figure 5. Example of an electrodialysis process showing the basic
movements of ions in the treatment process (Source: Buros, 1990).

Membrane process	Membrane driving force	Typical separation mechanism	Operating structure (pore size)	Typical operating range, (µm)	Permeate description	Typical constituents removed
Microfiltration	Hydrostatic pressure difference or vacuum in open vessels	Sieve	Macropores (> 50 nm)	0.08–2.0	Water + dissolved solutes	TSS, turbidity, protozoan oocysts and cysts, some bacteria and viruses
Ultrafiltration	Hydrostatic pressure difference	Sieve	Mesopores (2–50 nm)	0.005–0.2	Water + small molecules	Macromolecules, colloids, most bacteria, some viruses, proteins
Nanofiltration	Hydrostatic pressure difference	Sieve + solution/ diffusion + exclusion	Micropores (< 2 nm)	0.001–0.01	Water + very small molecules, ionic solutes	Small molecules, some hardness, viruses
Reverse osmosis	Hydrostatic pressure difference	Solution/ diffusion + exclusion	Dense (< 2 nm)	0.0001– 0.001	Water + very small molecules, ionic solutes	Very small molecules, color, hardness, sulfates, nitrate, sodium, other ions
Dialysis	Concentration difference	Diffusion	Mesopores (2–50 nm)	--	Water + small molecules	Macromolecules, colloids, most bacteria, some viruses, proteins
Electrodialysis	Electromotive force	Ion exchange with selective membranes	Micropores (< 2 nm)	--	Water + ionic solutes	Ionized salt ions

Table 1. General characteristics of membrane processes (Source: Metcalf and Eddy, 2003).
some allow only cations to pass and others allow
only anions to pass, the process can effectively remove the constituents from the feed water that make
it a saline solution.
The electrodialysis reversal process functions as
does the electrodialysis process; the only difference
is that in the reverse process, the polarity, or charge,
of the electrodes is switched periodically. This reversal in flow of ions helps remove scaling and other
debris from the membranes, which extends the system’s operating life.

Reverse osmosis
Reverse osmosis uses a pressure gradient as the driving force to move high-pressure saline feed
water through a membrane that prevents the salt ions from passing (Fig. 6).
There are several membrane treatment processes, including reverse osmosis, nanofiltration,
ultrafiltration, and microfiltration. The pore sizes of the membranes differ according to the type of
process 

(Fig. 7). 
 Because the RO membrane has such small pores, the feed water must be pretreated adequately before being
passed through it. The water can be pretreated chemically, to prevent biological growth and scaling, and physically,
to remove any suspended solids. The high-pressure feed water flows through the individual membrane elements. The spiral RO membrane element is constructed in a concentric spiral pattern that allows alternating layers of feed water and brine spacing, RO membrane, and a porous product water carrier (Fig. 8). The porous product water carrier allows the fresh water to flow into the center of the membrane element to be collected in the product water tube. To enable each pressure vessel to treat more water, the individual membrane elements are connected in series (Fig. 9). After the water passes through the membrane elements within the pressure vessels, it goes through post treatment. Post treatment prepares the water for distribution to the public.
Concentrate management options
Both thermal and membrane desalination processes produce a stream of brine water that has a
high concentration of salt and other minerals or chemicals that were either removed during the desalination process or added to help pretreat the feed water. For all of the processes, the brine must be disposed of in an economical and environmentally friendly way.

Figure 6. Basic components of a membrane treatment process.

Figure 7. Range of nominal membrane pore sizes for reverse osmosis (RO),
nanofiltration (NF), ultrafiltration (UF), and microfiltration (MF) (Source: Metcalf
and Eddy, 2003).

Options for discharging the brine include discharge into the ocean, injection through a well into a
saline aquifer, and evaporation. Each option has advantages and disadvantages. In all cases, the brine
water should have a minimal impact on the surrounding water bodies or aquifers. Specific considerations for the water quality include saline concentration, water temperature, dissolved oxygen concentrations, and any constituents added as pretreatment.
Summary
As high-quality freshwater resources decrease, more communities will consider desalination of
brackish and salt water to produce drinking water. All desalination technologies have advantages and
disadvantages based on site-specific limitations and requirements. Small-scale desalination of brackish
water using solar stills is a promising method in remote locations where good-quality water for drinking and cooking is unavailable. For more widespread 

Figure 8. Cutaway view of a spiral reverse osmosis membrane element (Source: Buros, 1990).

Figure 9. Cross section of a pressure vessel with three membrane elements (Source: Buros, 1990).
implementation, desalination processes need technological improvements and increased energy
efficiency.

References
Buros, O. K., The ABC’s of Desalting,
International Desalination Association.
Topsfield, Massachusetts. 1990.
Krishna, Hari J., Introduction to Desalination
Technologies, Texas Water Development
Board. 2004.
Metcalf and Eddy, Wastewater Engineering:
Treatment and Reuse. McGraw-Hill, Inc.,
New York. 2003.
Pankratz, Tom, Desalination Technology
Trends, CH2M Hill, Inc. 2004.
This material is based on work supported by the
National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture,
under Agreement No. 2009-34461-19772 and Agreement No. 2009-45049-05492.