00:00Not so long ago, a freezing winter caught many people off guard, especially with the heating bills.
00:06Maybe some folks living in private houses even thought,
00:09man, if only I had some simple fuel-free generator buried in my backyard.
00:14But what if this device isn't from the distant future, but from the very recent Soviet past?
00:20Let's take a look at this invention from the Soviet era,
00:23an isotope mini-power plant that, among other things, produces virtually free heating during its operation.
00:30Here's the backstory.
00:32In 1821, physicist Thomas Johann Seebeck discovered an interesting effect.
00:38If a conductor consisting of two different metals is heated on one side and cooled on the other, electricity is
00:44generated.
00:44This phenomenon was named thermoelectricity, or the Seebeck effect.
00:49The efficiency of such a generator was very low, so it was forgotten for a long time.
00:54Soviet physicists remembered this effect during the Great Patriotic War.
00:58To charge the batteries of partisan squad radios, a simple and reliable power generator was needed.
01:05They urgently set up the production of these pots, generating thermoelectricity from the heat of an ordinary campfire.
01:12After the war, thermogenerators were used to power household radio receivers.
01:16A kerosene lamp served as the heat source, the most common light source in homes back then.
01:22Even the Grundig company bundled their radios with a thermogenerator for a long time.
01:27Time.
01:28With the dawn of the space age, thermogenerators were needed once again.
01:33While solar panels can be used in near-Earth space, they are useless in deep space.
01:39They began using nuclear isotopes as a heat source for thermogenerators.
01:43Such generators are called RTGs, radioisotope thermoelectric generators.
01:49An isotope is great because it can deliver consistently high thermal power for many years.
01:54The drop in output is less than 1% per year.
01:58Spacecraft used the plutonium-238 isotope with a half-life of 88 years.
02:05It is considered the safest of all isotopes.
02:08Take a look at this photo.
02:10This girl is testing the Arimo electric generator without any protective suits.
02:15The only downside is the astronomical cost of plutonium-238.
02:20Such RTGs have been operating for 44 years on the American Voyager probes that have traveled beyond the solar system,
02:26supplying electricity and heat to scientific instruments.
02:30For terrestrial RTGs, a different isotope was used.
02:33Strontium-90.
02:35It is very cheap, but it requires a much more massive protective casing.
02:39It also has a shorter lifespan, with a half-life of 29 years.
02:43Thermoelectric generators were widely used in the USSR to power lighthouses and remote radio navigation systems.
02:50In the early 1970s, the decision was made to develop a high-power, maintenance-free nuclear thermoelectric generator
02:57to supply electricity, heating, and hot water to remote settlements.
03:02In 1981, the project for the plant with the romantic name Elena was ready.
03:08The nuclear thermoelectric plant was completely maintenance-free.
03:12When assembled, the structure was a cylinder buried underground.
03:17There were no mechanisms, pumps, or motors in the design,
03:20so it could operate without maintenance for up to 30 years.
03:24It generated up to 100 kilowatts of electricity and up to 3,000 kilowatts of thermal energy.
03:31That was more than enough to heat an entire village.
03:34To confirm the accuracy of the calculations,
03:37an experimental gamma plant was built at the Kerchatov Institute.
03:40The station operated for the designated 30 years without a single incident.
03:45Moreover, scientists artificially simulated critical operating conditions,
03:49including a complete short circuit at the input, and gamma withstood all the tests.
03:54Even after the collapse of the USSR,
03:57enthusiasts suggested launching widespread deployment of such plants,
04:00proving their high economic efficiency.
04:02But by that time, at the helm of Russia's power grid,
04:05Rao Ues, was this red-haired character,
04:08who clearly had no need for any of these innovations.
04:11The whole project was buried,
04:13citing an alleged impossibility of protecting it from vandals and terrorists.
04:17As an example, they cited the RTGs in Kamchatka that were looted by scrap metal hunters.
04:22The vivid photos of vandalism were, of course, striking.
04:26But striking.
04:27Such shots were no surprise, as the RTGs were freely accessible,
04:31no one guarded them,
04:32and the organizations responsible for these installations
04:35had simply been liquidated by the new government.
04:38Similar breakthrough developments of the late USSR
04:40were being nipped in the bud in droves back then.
04:43Take the Buran, it flew once,
04:45everyone was thrilled,
04:46but then came the order to terminate the project.
04:49Or this so-called Caspian Sea Monster,
04:52which is now something between scrap metal and a hovercraft monument.
04:56Well, all right, that's all long in the past, but what about now?
05:02Neither the Russian Ministry of Defense nor the Emmercom
05:05is interested in such generators,
05:07despite the need to power remote facilities.
05:09The red-haired character was transferred from Rusnano
05:12to an honorary retirement post,
05:14though in all fairness he should be out there
05:16developing the inaccessible reaches of the far north using hand tools.
05:20Meanwhile, several companies around the world
05:22are already working on small nuclear thermoelectric power plants,
05:26for example, Toshiba already has a ready-made project,
05:30the Toshiba 4S SuperSafe, small and simple.
05:33In terms of appearance,
05:34the design is very similar to the Soviet Elena Nuclear Thermoelectric Plant,
05:38whose demonstration prototype, by the way,
05:40has already been operating successfully for 12 years
05:43at the Institute of Atomic Energy.
05:45The company claims the cost of the generated electricity
05:48is 5 cents per kilowatt hour.
05:50That also includes decommissioning costs after 30 years
05:52and, of course, the profit from sales.
05:55Should we expect that very soon
05:57anyone will be able to install a nuclear generator in their basement
06:00or even build a larger one into the basement
06:02or on the roof of an apartment building
06:04instead of a gas boiler house?
06:06It's hard to say how soon that will happen,
06:08but after all,
06:09Engineering Ingenuity did manage to pull this off.
06:12Look, at first glance,
06:14this seems like some kind of home renovation fail,
06:16but actually these two sinks are inside this vessel
06:19and they are there for a reason.
06:21This ship, or to be more precise,
06:24floating instrument platform,
06:25was built over half a century ago in 1962
06:28for use by the U.S. Office of Naval Research.
06:32It was built for a specific purpose,
06:35to study underwater sound waves
06:36in order to improve sonar systems
06:38for detecting submarines and mines.
06:41What do you get?
06:42Maria Zakirša,
06:43he does that weird YouTube
06:44a parasitic background noise
06:45that interfered with the operation
06:46of ultra-sensitive equipment,
06:48which required submerging the sensors underwater.
06:50The culmination of the design process
06:52was the research vessel RP Flip,
06:55108 meters in length.
06:56Of that,
06:5791 meters are occupied by tanks,
07:00and once they're filled,
07:01the ship's stern submerges underwater,
07:03leaving the RP Flip standing
07:04at a right angle to the water's surface.
07:06This is the vessel's operational position,
07:08while the horizontal one is used for transit.
07:11The vessel had no propulsion system of its own
07:14and relied on a tugboat to get around.
07:16What's more,
07:17the tugboat moved it
07:18in both horizontal and vertical positions.
07:21That's why all the beds and tables
07:23were mounted on swivel mechanisms,
07:25instruments, and equipment
07:26were secured in corners,
07:28and each room had two doors.
07:30Or here's another powerful example
07:32of engineering ingenuity.
07:33All it took was crossing a T-34
07:36with a MiG-21
07:37to get this monster,
07:38the Big Wind Firefighting Tank.
07:41The need for such a fire truck,
07:43powerful enough to extinguish
07:45a burning oil well,
07:46arose in Kuwait in the early 1990s.
07:50During the hostilities,
07:52Iraqi combat engineers
07:53blew up about 700 wells,
07:55burning 10 million barrels of oil
07:57every day.
07:58The urgency was dictated
08:00by the environmental situation
08:01in the region.
08:02Black, suffocating smoke
08:03spread for hundreds of kilometers.
08:05Mounted on a Soviet T-34 tank chassis
08:08with RD-25-300 turbines
08:10from a MiG-21 fighter,
08:12this monster pumped
08:13800 liters of water
08:15per second icon
08:16when activated.
08:17The powerful jet
08:19cut off the unburnt layers of oil
08:20and cooled the red-hot pipelines.
08:23That was exactly how they managed
08:25to extinguish a burning oil well.
08:27But it's not just tanks
08:29with jet engines
08:30that can extinguish fires.
08:32Vintage sports cars
08:33can do it too.
08:35Luxury Horch 853
08:36was produced from 1937 to 1940.
08:39It was this very car
08:40that became the last Horch
08:42of that class.
08:42A wide range of body style variations
08:44included, of course,
08:45a convertible.
08:46And not just any convertible,
08:48but a sports one.
08:50After the Second World War,
08:51one of these machines
08:52was brought into
08:52a Czechoslovakian town
08:54and surprisingly,
08:55it ended up not with a minister
08:56or a general,
08:57but at a fire station.
08:58There, it was modified
09:00so it could respond
09:01quickly to fires
09:02and from 1949 to 1960,
09:05this car served faithfully
09:06at the fire station,
09:07arriving on the scene
09:08before anyone else.
09:09What are all these examples for?
09:11We showed this to prove
09:12that engineering ingenuity
09:14is capable of great things
09:15and practically any idea
09:17can be brought to life,
09:18including the portable generators
09:20you saw at the beginning
09:20of the episode.
09:22But, apparently,
09:23there are other factors
09:24preventing such units
09:26from entering mass production.
09:27That's a good question
09:28and one that would be interesting
09:30to discuss in the comments.
09:31Hit the like button
09:32if you enjoyed this episode
09:34and want me to continue this topic
09:35and I'll see you on the Karamolu channel.
