Most news stories about Helium-3 discourse its potency as a next energy source , due to its abundance on the Moon ’s Earth’s surface . But , here on Earth , it ’s a rare substance that ’s getting rare . And that worries the Pentagon , which uses Helium-3 as a key ingredient in equipment to detect nuclear smuggling .
The sensors made with Helium-3 are plan to detect U and Pu that could be components of “ foul bombs”—which would use ceremonious explosives to disperse radioactive material and potentially contaminate a dumbly populated urban country .
The neutron emitted by plutonium and U are difficult to observe , but when Helium-3 is hit by a stray neutron , it creates a charged particle , which is readily detected and measure . Although there are other ways to work up detectors , engineer choose Helium-3 because it is atoxic , nonradioactive and exceedingly accurate .
In space , Helium-3 travel along solar winds , but Earth ’s magnetic playing area advertize it forth . ( Thanks to its negligible magnetic theatre of operations , the Moon does n’t stick out from this destiny . ) As such , the only way to obtain the substance on Earth is as a spin-off of the radioactive decay of tritium , which is a material used in atomic warhead .
But , over the years , as Helium-3 has been collected from aging warheads , the provision of the sum has dwindled as the U.S. armoury has produce smaller . regrettably , the agency responsible for gathering Helium-3 — the Nation Nuclear Security Administration — never sharedinformation about this dearth with the Department of Energy , which had already spent $ 230 million on the growing of detector that depend upon , you guess it , Helium-3 .
That has propel the Pentagon ’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency to try out raw engineering that can be as exact , or even better , than current detectors .
The Global Security Newswirereports :
The agency has awarded a $ 2.8 million declaration to Alion Science and Technology of McLean , Va. , to further its enquiry into a next - generation detection scheme that utilizes bundles of slender copper vacuum tube coat with boron … .The current coevals of Helium 3 - power detectors can alarm authorities to the presence of a nearby radioactive generator , but these systems can not determine the direction from which the actinotherapy is occur . Alion plans to use its Pentagon financial support to give its atomic number 5 - coated “ straw ” sensors the ability to pinpoint the direction of a source….beyond allow for a cliff - in replacement for Helium-3 detector ingredient , this engineering effort opens up a act of possibility for new or enhanced portable system that can be carried into refutable areas or for good installed to protect ports and depots .
The other choice , of track , would be establishing mining operations on the Moon — though that would require a foresightful prison term - frame than the Pentagon has in nous .
GeologymilitaryPhysicsScienceTechnology
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