And now in Pointer form :D

[Hydroas]

I found this nice think on Youtube:
( Hand-operated laser cutting for nuclear decommissioning - YouTube )
5kW of Laserpower, now I want it in Pointer size, but I thin I have to wait 25 years or so :crackup:

 

[Cyparagon]

It's like a cutoff wheel.... except of course it is $0.5million, requires obscure PPE, is far more dangerous to bystanders, requires a hundred times the power, and is quite fragile.

 

[ARG]

What would be a practical application for this?

 

[The Lightning Stalker]

What would be a practical application for this?

My garage :na:

 

[Hydroas]

It's used to cup Radiative Waste into little parts. A laser don't make so much Dust as a angel grinder.

 

[Cyparagon]

Radioactive waste is already in the form of pellets though, isn't it? That's not small enough?

If they're talking about something like the graphite blocks at Chernobyl... those would be too large, as this laser can only cut ~1cm they say. So unless your radioactive waste is in conveniently thin sheets, this isn't helpful.

 

[TheDukeAnumber1]

He may be referring to the piping in BWR's but I don't think less dust is why it would be used. I bet it could cut down a lot of man hours during decommissioning.

 

[The Lightning Stalker]

There's the reactor vessel, pumps, turbines, etc. They're not going to be cutting the fuel pellets or
assemblies themselves. At least not like that. You wouldn't be able to get near that stuff. And TheDuke
is right. People doing that work expect to be paid more weather they're cutting something that is
contaminated or not, so time is at a premium. And if they do have to cut something this is a bit
contaminated, exposure time has to be limited. So the faster a cut can be made, the better.

 

[Antharak]

That looks like the plutonium spark plug from a two stage thermonuclear secondary.
This is the best way as with a controlled atmosphere you can cut it with out any fire danger. And pellets are far better than dust.

 

[KapHn8d]

Now THAT's a handheld. It seems more dangerous than practical, but it's still off the charts cool. It would be rate higher on the awesome scale if the beam was in the visible wavelength range. Hasha!

 

[The Lightning Stalker]

Well, technically it's not a handheld. The actual resonator weighs hundreds of pounds and is not shown in the video.

 

[ARG]

It's used to cup Radiative Waste into little parts. A laser don't make so much Dust as a angel grinder.

Didn't think of that, interesting. As Cyp pointed out, still of limited usage

 

[Atomicrox]

Looks like they defocused it on purpose to avoid burning stuff further back. Focus it at infinity and you'll have a ton of uses.