Strontium is also capable of being absorbed in place of calcium in the human body. I doubt anyone really wants to consider a radioactive lukemia causing car accident.

Before you get all diamond is hard on me, I consider murphy's law to be much more powerful, especially where cars are concerned.

Nothing Vanamonde said suggests that Vanamonde doesn't know about Strontium.

I also posted a link that gives a brief and general outline of Strontium.

Criticism is part of having an Idea.

the human body will absorb strontium in place of calcium not instead of calcium so the human body will only absorb if you lack calcium other wards it will merely pass through just as excess calcium it only absobs what it needs
and causes bone cancer and only one in a billion cells are affectd in ingestion
but if inhaled one in a trillion cells

plus nothing other than a superior sythetic diamond or extremely high temp can damage a synthetic diamond because it takes over half a million psi to produce a diamond
no matter how hard you try it break it will not beak

I really don't want to offend ace holmes, as I believe he is very skilled in engineering and his April 26th engineering details will be very educational for many of us. Even if his conclusions are unworkable, someone may find a way to advance human technology from the spring board ace holmes is offering. This is called brain storming. In brainstorming stupid objections are permitted, so I will proceed with what may be my really stupid comments. The upper temperature of a radio isotope is determined mostly by the ambient temperature, R value of the insulation and the temperature at which the insulation melts or sublinates. The watts, BTUs or other new fangled units of heat is determined by the mass of the pellet and which isotope. Likely about one kilowatt per pound for PU238, which is why I suggested 90 pounds of Pu 238 might put 50 kilowatts to the wheels of a typical SUV, using a turbine to convert heat to rotory motion. A few other isotopes likely produce more heat than one kilowatt per pound, but most also produce neutrons and/or gamma rays which are difficult to shield. Apparently Pu238 and strontium 90 produces little or no hard to shield radiation.
Diamond burns much like charcoal in an oxygen enviornment above about 500 degrees c = 932 f, so a diamond shield would likely fail in a bad car fire. A bad car fire is unlikely in a steel car without a flamable fuel, so that may be low risk. Diamond is however brittle and I think it can shatter from a sudden impact with softer materials. Perhaps the casing used for flight recorders is adequate protection. Strontium boils at 1384 c, but has three allotropic forms at 235c and 540c. That likely is irrelevent as metalic strontium reacts with water and oxygen less vigorously than sodium, but more vigorously than calcium. Strontium floride boils at 2489c which is rare even in hot fires, so the strontuim floride crystal is likely to remain intact in all but the worst scenarios, except it is slightly soluable in water 0.11 grams per liter in either hot or cold water. Neil

I recall a comedian asking, "Why don't they just make the whole plane out of that stuff?"

I'ts a good question though- What is the casing for the black box made of?

From the all-knowing Wiki:

"FDRs are usually located in the rear of the aircraft, typically in the tail. In this position, the entire front of the aircraft acts as a "crush zone" to reduce the shock that reaches the recorder. Also, modern FDRs are typically double wrapped, in strong corrosion-resistant stainless steel or titanium, with high-temperature insulation inside."

I'll wait for that post before I say anything about the practicality of the idea.

Hey lets just grab a few cars and make a dirty bomb.

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'The eye can only see what the mind is prepared to accept'

I think you may be confusing the hardness of diamond with its toughness. Hardness is a measure of scratch resistance and diamond is one of the best for that. Toughness is a measure of how easy it is to break and diamond isn't particularly good at that.

You can't scratch diamond easily but you can shatter it with a sharp blow. Try hitting a diamond with a hammer to make smaller diamonds - if you can afford it

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Always challenge the assumptions

I agree that diamond casing probably is not the best or most practical.
Next question is: What would be?

Okay, it has been a while since I reviewed ⁹⁰Sr, so, I went to my ole friend Wikipedia:

Strontium-90 (⁹⁰Sr) is a radioactive isotope of strontium, with a half life of 28.8 years. ⁹⁰Sr undergoes beta decay with decay energy of 0.546 MeV to the yttrium isotope ⁹⁰Y, which in turn undergoes beta decay with half life of 64 hours and decay energy 2.28 MeV for beta particles to 90Zr (zirconium), which is stable.
...
⁹⁰Sr is a product of nuclear fission. It is present in significant amount in spent nuclear fuel and in radioactive waste from nuclear reactors and in nuclear fallout from nuclear tests.
...
Strontium has biochemical behavior similar to calcium. After entering the organism, most often by ingestion with contaminated food or water, about 70-80% of the dose gets excreted. Virtually all remaining strontium is deposited in bones and bone marrow, with the remaining 1% remaining in blood and soft tissues. Its presence in bones can cause bone cancer, cancer of nearby tissues, and leukemia.
...
Accidental mixing of radioactive sources containing strontium with metal scrap can result in production of radioactive steel.
[and notice this!]
Discarded radioisotope thermoelectric generators are a major source of ⁹⁰Sr contamination in the area of the former Soviet Union.

I don't like it. I would ban all fission from this biosphere and put all products of fission under armed guard. This is nasty stuff and nasty people would love to have enough to ruin a lot of peoples' day. As in a dirty bomb. Encasing in diamond is not going to stop them. Reviewing this article only reenforced my feelings on this. I think that finding a way to storage more hydrogen in a vehicle would be a better solution, or ultra-capacitors. Ultra-capacitors for electric cars looks very promising to me.

That has got to be fixed. Or least banned at the state level.

Where are the Chinese mining it? Where they once tested nuclear weapons? Once the waste dumps and contaminated sites are deleted, you are going to have to reprocess fuel rods to get it. This has been tried, to recover the plutonium. No place in the U.S., where this has been tried has it been successful with making a huge mess. Karen Silkwood knew something about this. And they murdered her for it.

Again, I have to vote no on this idea. ⁹⁰Sr shorter half-life may seen to make it easier to handle but you have to think the whole industrial cycle you are going to need, because the problem of making large amount available for terriorism and you cannot just make ⁹⁰Sr by itself.

Bold Mine:
Reenforced your fear?

You seem very very anti-nuclear going off of several of your posts.

"Gentlemen, don't confuse me with facts. I've made up my mind."

Ban them! Everyone's building Nukes!
No.. wait
No they aren't....

BAN ANYWAY! They COULD! It's Got To Be Fixed!


Sheesh...

Well with the rate of car accidents New York would end in a place 100.000 more dangerous than chernobyl

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Old Grammar teachers have power in this forum!!...i tell u!! :D

At the rate of car accidents- True

end in a place 100.000 more dangerous than chernobyl- Maybe. It also may be a stereotype relying on a lack of knowledge.
I'm uncertain of this one myself and need more information before I can state an opinion on that.
I'm willing to hear his idea out.
Currently, in our daily lives we have very deadly poisons stored under our kitchen counters. In our garages.
I don't know how often (I'm a plumber) i go to a customers house and see a gas can sitting right next to their stupid gas water heater. Sheesh.


We NEED to think about better energy sources than what we are currently using.
Develop them- and that will take time too. And we are on limited time.

I wonder what replacement we will use for plastic.

We've become dependent on plastic- it's in EVERYTHING...

There's also the other side.

What if we apply Ace Holmes idea to a DIFFERENT application than cars?

Say rovers on mars?
Or various other uses?

I don't know these answers either. But I would like more information before I poopoo the idea.

I am not afraid. I am very angry at the sad track record and the irresponsibility of the waste issue for my grandchildren's grandchildren. I do not want go on and one about this but I will answer all direct questions. Yes, I am a retired antinuclear activist who objects to all fission and fission by-products being industrialized in the one and only biosphere we know. I am fine with this industry as long as it is at least a .5 AU from this biosphere.

neil thanks for the chem info and john b stone thanks for the clarification i have looked into high density and all are heavy heat insulators i thought diamond would work because it boils at a high temp 3000+ and would block the radiation
heres the deal diamond casing is must for the rod
i believe a retractable screen powered by an electic motor and controlled by sensors could enclose the rod and be made from heavy insulators and high density material
these "screens" could be used as emergency failsafe and to prevent gas expansion during the filling stage
ev on their own require a power source me idea is small scale mobile power generation
u get into an accident in hydrogen car you will die hydrogen is a level 4 explosive material
unless its the type of hydrogen car that converts water to hydogen mobily
but winter happens

also hydrogen and ev will never happen because the general public rejects them due to minor inconveniece

Hydrogen is explosive, yes but it is lighter than air and goes up. Gasoline flows downward and spreads. I was talking with a JPL scientist who pointed that out. But true, the enormous pressure required to store enough hydrogen is a big factor limiting the fuel cell vehicle to just a few concept cars - a working but very expensive concept car.

On issue of demand for electric vehicles, rent "Who Killed the Electric Car", a great documentary on the EV-1 that GM leased to people until they got a California law overturned and it was no longer required. A lot of people are stilll up with GM taking them all back and destroying them. The CEO even now attempts killing it was a big mistake. Also check out Tesla Motors. They have sold all of the cars they plan to make, at $100,000 each. Truth, not a *big* market compared to the Yaris or Precis but my point is, there is demand.