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'Super Steel' Sought For Fusion Reactors

Posted by samzenpus on from the everything-melts dept.

Smivs writes "New research shows how steel will fail at high temperatures because of the magnetic properties of the metal. Scientists say an understanding of how the Twin Towers collapsed will help them develop the materials needed to build fusion reactors. The New York buildings fell when their steel backbones lost strength in the fires that followed the plane impacts. Dr Sergei Dudarev told the British Association Science Festival that improved steels were now being sought. The principal scientist at the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) said one of the first applications for these better performing metals would be in the wall linings of fusion reactors."

7 of 421 comments (clear)

  1. If it doesn't work... by maniac/dev/null · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...it will be only the third time that fire has melted steel.

    1. Re:If it doesn't work... by kcelery · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yes, this is could be.

      The Twin Tower is built like a metal tube. So if it fails, it should fail in dignity, fail like a metal tube. But on that mighty day, PUFF (note: not flame). A metal tube turned into a pile of crackers.

      Hell, tensile strength, bending moment, grain boundary, finite element... all thrown out of the window, because it was hit by black magic.

      Where is my toad?

  2. Up Next by meist3r · · Score: 4, Funny

    Ceramics Compound Steel with NanoMesh stabilizing support. Or a couple of layers of transparent aluminium ... oh wait, we ain't supposed to have that yet.

    1. Re:Up Next by Ukab+the+Great · · Score: 5, Funny

      You'd invent more stuff if you used your computer mouse instead of talking to it.

  3. Don't get it from UKAEA by tygerstripes · · Score: 4, Funny

    I know they produce stylish, compact and inexpensive wall-linings for fusion reactors, but the self-assembly is a fucking nightmare, and you always end up spending at least fifty quid on candles too.

    --
    Meta will eat itself
  4. Re:Mythril by SmurfButcher+Bob · · Score: 4, Funny

    The fusion reactor in MY house is built from SOLID UNOBTANIUM.

    --

    help me i've cloned myself and can't remember which one I am

  5. Re:It's Certainly a Strange Coping Mechanism by SimonGhent · · Score: 4, Funny

    it can safely be concluded that they are weightless.

    Not quite... scientists have postulated the existence of the Pedant's boson which would give them mass (as opposed to weight).

    They plan to build the Large Grammar Collider which will fire a stream of apostrophes at near light speed and create scores of sub-punctuation particles, one of which may prove to be the elusive Pedant's boson .

    --
    simon