Hot Rails To Hell

Again, I Have To Disappoint You
For this is not about Blue Oyster Cult and one of the tracks from their seminal album "Tyranny And Mutation", although again, if this coincidental title baits a few more visitors to check out what BOOJUM! is, then who am I to complain?

Technically I suppose it's "Tyranny And Mvtation"

     I am afraid that, once again, we are back on the subject of nuclear-powered transport; more specifically, trains - so you can tell where today's title comes from.  Your humble scribe was pondering about how heavy a locomotive is, and the upper bound for today's trains seems to be about 200 tons.  If you have an atomic reactor for motive power, then you need a lot of shielding to protect crew, passengers and passers-by, which would increase the weight of your train by perhaps 20 tons.  Art?

Die Atomik Rollbahn

     This kind of percentage increase in a train is pretty sustainable, because all it's doing is struggling with inertia and the increased weight might actually improve traction.
     If you look at the bigger types of aircraft then nuclear propulsion becomes more problematic, because they then have to get that extra mass airborne.  Taking a 747 as an example, this beast totals 300 tons and an increase of 20 tons for shielding, let alone what the reactor itself weighs, will seriously compromise it's flying characteristics.  Don't forget, a plane is fighting both inertia and gravity. This is not to say it can't be done - after all, they used to hack along with a Space Shuttle playing piggyback - just that it would be difficult.

Wheeeee!

     Whilst there is a risk of a serious nuclear "incident" if our nuclear-powered train crashes, one presumes this will only be at relatively low speeds, under 100 m.p.h. and is unlikely to spread the pile contents over more than a relatively small area.  I realise this is damning with faint praise - "Only a minor disaster!  Sighs of relief all round in Miles City, Iowa, as only 15 dead".  However, consider the literal fallout of an atomic-powered 747 dropping from the skies to a terminal impact - "Iowa declares State-wide emergency as thousands flee radioactive debris".  Just one of the reasons we may see nuclear-powered trains in the near future, given all this fuss about fossil fuels, yet never a nuclear-powered aircraft.

On the other hand ...

     Now it's time to give the motley a cup of tea and a biscuit!*

Whilst typing that, I think it's also time for your modest artisan to go make another pot of tea.  Gotta keep up that 3.5 pints daily average!

There Goes The Neighbourhood
Or at least it will if Hom. Sap. ever develop interstellar travel.  Just imagine it - fleets of spaceships crammed with hairless apes keen to export their culture: Nutella, Strictly Come Dancing and Main Battle Tanks <shudders with horror>.  Which is why I never give the location of my home planet; just in case.

The Devil's Diarrhoea, in spreadable form.

     "What is the semi-senile gherkin-guzzling l git on about now?" I hear you quibble.
     Pausing only to assert that I totally smashed a Codeword this morning, which means at least some of the - hey, gherkins are good for you! and those Polish ones have a nice flavour to them -
     Sorry, where was I?  
     Oh yes, the neighbourhood.  Art?


     "Neighbourhood" is perhaps being a little excessive, since I refer to the discovery of an exoplanet in orbit around Barnard's Star, which is 6 light years from Earth.  That's about 35 trillion miles, so a little bit too far for a daily commute - at a nice safe 30 m.p.h. it would take you 13 million years to get there.
     Interestingly enough, this planet was detected by going over old data and refining it, with additional information from contemporary spectrometers.  Given what is known, the surface temperature would be a balmy -1500C at noon, so just like home for Ruffians and Alaskans.  Also, that vile Nutella would be too frozen to spread.

An artist's impression of frozen Nutella Barnard b

"Nilbog"
Dunno why this word popped into my head.  It's not as if I was thinking of reversed words, but thank you, Steve**, for providing inspiration.
     It is, as you can tell, "Goblin" backwards, yet <admits this is reaching in a major way> it also applies to Barnard b - the newly-discovered planet orbiting Barnard's Star.
     "How so?" I hear you quibble.
     Pausing only to compliment you on your lack of insults this time, I shall explain.
     What is a bog?  A colloquial description of swampy ground, which Art can illustrate -

Swamp with bear (for scale)

     Note that there has to be liquid water for a bog to be present.  If you drop the surface temperature to -1500C, the water turns to ice, so there won't be any swamps present.
     Hence - nil bog.  Simple!***




*  This will worry it terribly.
**  My memory.  A serious cause for concern.
***  Okay, actually painfully convoluted.