Newcomer / Intro Where is all the plutonium in this game?

[Silaz Carbryck]

Surely there ought to be tons of the stuff by this century available to us to play with by now. And yet there is no plutonium to be seen anywhere in sight.

Has anyone got any ideas about where all that plutonium is hidden?

I do realise that if you are irresponsible, in the wrong hands plutonium can be very dangerous as it can be used to make nuclear weapons of mass destruction.

But this game is called Elite: Dangerous for a reason. So where is the plutonium Frontier? Where did you hide it all? And is it somewhere safe?

 

[SteveWW57]

It was replaced by handwavium.

Apparently plenty of that to be found in the Elite 'verse!

Steve

 

[GroG79]

There is Hafnium and Polonium

 

[Chris Simon]

Surely there ought to be tons of the stuff by this century available to us to play with by now. And yet there is no plutonium to be seen anywhere in sight.

Has anyone got any ideas about where all that plutonium is hidden?

I do realise that if you are irresponsible, in the wrong hands plutonium can be very dangerous as it can be used to make nuclear weapons of mass destruction.

But this game is called Elite: Dangerous for a reason. So where is the plutonium Frontier? Where did you hide it all? And is it somewhere safe?

Plutonium has got a half-life of less than hundred years and therefore doesn't really exist in the universe created by natural means and stored in rock like the Uranium does, for example.
Plutonium is manufactured to serve as an energy source and/or weapon material. Considering the fact that in Elite, humanity has been able to discover and produce both insanely efficient power sources and insanely strong weapons that do not require hard to obtain and expensive to manufacture nuclear materials, there isn't really the need for plutonium.
So it's not in the game.

 

[Silaz Carbryck]

Plutonium has got a half-life of less than hundred years and therefore doesn't really exist in the universe created by natural means and stored in rock like the Uranium does, for example.
Plutonium is manufactured to serve as an energy source and/or weapon material. Considering the fact that in Elite, humanity has been able to discover and produce both insanely efficient power sources and insanely strong weapons that do not require hard to obtain and expensive to manufacture nuclear materials, there isn't really the need for plutonium.
So it's not in the game.

Pretty certain it's in the game somewhere, you're just not looking in the right place. If our spacecraft power plants are fusion, then they need Helium 3 and Deuterium for fuel. Presumably we are getting all the Helium 3 and Dueterium that we need when we scoop from various stars, which would be possible in real life, if it were possible to really get up that close to a real star.

One of the more recent fusion experiements has resulted in a reactor that has been designed that can make electricity without using a steam-driven turbine, which could mean the end of the steampunk era. Also meaning that if this new system ever takes off, it can take off in a spacecraft because spinning turbines is the last thing you want on your spacecraft as it would need solid state energy production to maintain it's stablility in space.

Plutonium is as you state only a manufactered resource and it does not exist as a minable one, as we need to process either Uranium or Thorium through nuclear reaction and by going through several other isotopes some of which are highly radioactive and dangerous to handle to finally get down to our stable and safe to handle Plutonium. I'm sure these processes are still going on in the Elite: Dangerous universe, but I don't think most people realise it, just as most people don't seem to know where all the Plutonium is hidden and what it's being used for. I can state that It is being used in precisely the right way.

And I can say with certainty, that there is definitely an awful lot of Plutonium being used in this game by a great many players. But I probably shouldn't give the game away, becuase it would ruin some people's fun!

If you know, then you know not to say!

 

[Chris Simon]

Pretty certain it's in the game somewhere, you're just not looking in the right place. If our spacecraft power plants are fusion, then they need Helium 3 and Deuterium for fuel. Presumably we are getting all the Helium 3 and Dueterium that we need when we scoop from various stars, which would be possible in real life, if it were possible to really get up that close to a real star.

One of the more recent fusion experiements has resulted in a reactor that has been designed that can make electricity without using a steam-driven turbine, which could mean the end of the steampunk era. Also meaning that if this new system ever takes off, it can take off in a spacecraft because spinning turbines is the last thing you want on your spacecraft as it would need solid state energy production to maintain it's stablility in space.

Plutonium is as you state only a manufactered resource and it does not exist as a minable one, as we need to process either Uranium or Thorium through nuclear reaction and by going through several other isotopes some of which are highly radioactive and dangerous to handle to finally get down to our stable and safe to handle Plutonium. I'm sure these processes are still going on in the Elite: Dangerous universe, but I don't think most people realise it, just as most people don't seem to know where all the Plutonium is hidden and what it's being used for. I can state that It is being used precisely in the right way.

And I can say with certainty, that there is definitely an awful lot of Plutonium being used in this game by a great many players. But I probably shouldn't give the game away, becuase it would ruin some people's fun!

If you know, then you know not to say!

I'm not really that caught-up on 21st century fusion advances but I'm pretty sure our ships' reactors (and by extension most reactors in Elite) are a "simple" Hydrogen-Hydrogen fusion.
It's possible there's some crazy scientist dug up somewhere who is producing heavy radioactive elements for fun or nefarious reasons. But even if I had such information, I wouldn't tell.

 

[GroG79]

Pretty certain it's in the game somewhere, you're just not looking in the right place. If our spacecraft power plants are fusion, then they need Helium 3 and Deuterium for fuel. Presumably we are getting all the Helium 3 and Dueterium that we need when we scoop from various stars, which would be possible in real life, if it were possible to really get up that close to a real star.

One of the more recent fusion experiements has resulted in a reactor that has been designed that can make electricity without using a steam-driven turbine, which could mean the end of the steampunk era. Also meaning that if this new system ever takes off, it can take off in a spacecraft because spinning turbines is the last thing you want on your spacecraft as it would need solid state energy production to maintain it's stablility in space.

Plutonium is as you state only a manufactered resource and it does not exist as a minable one, as we need to process either Uranium or Thorium through nuclear reaction and by going through several other isotopes some of which are highly radioactive and dangerous to handle to finally get down to our stable and safe to handle Plutonium. I'm sure these processes are still going on in the Elite: Dangerous universe, but I don't think most people realise it, just as most people don't seem to know where all the Plutonium is hidden and what it's being used for. I can state that It is being used in precisely the right way.

And I can say with certainty, that there is definitely an awful lot of Plutonium being used in this game by a great many players. But I probably shouldn't give the game away, becuase it would ruin some people's fun!

If you know, then you know not to say!

It is not in the game. Only in your fantasy

 

[Silaz Carbryck]

It is not in the game. Only in your fantasy

I can assure you it's in the game. But the game is still only fantasy.

 

[GroG79]

You are contradicting your self

 

[aRJay]

It was replaced by handwavium.

Apparently plenty of that to be found in the Elite 'verse!

Steve

While there is a lot of handwavium around almost everything you can mine that has a silly made up name that I have checked is actually a real substance.

While Plutonium will still be a dangerous substance if produced in 3309 I will point out that the same could be said of Gunpowder and I consider both of them to be more likely to be found in some historical reenactment scenario than in mainstream use.

 

[Silaz Carbryck]

While there is a lot of handwavium around almost everything you can mine that has a silly made up name that I have checked is actually a real substance.

While Plutonium will still be a dangerous substance if produced in 3309 I will point out that the same could be said of Gunpowder and I consider both of them to be more likely to be found in some historical reenactment scenario than in mainstream use.

Plutonium can be used for peaceful purposes to make energy instead of war. Just as gunpowder can be used for peaceful purposes to make fireworks for our celebrations, instead of weapons of war. Gunpowder was originally used for fireworks not rockets or guns. Just as Plutonium can be used for producing energy, not nuclear weapons of mass destruction. It's down to the morality and responsibility of ourselves.

If we humans were more responsible and more moral, then we could have pure untainted alcohol to use as a cleaning fluid or for cooking and heating clean biofuel to buy from the supermarkets at a cheap price of perhaps just £1 per litre. But because pure untainted alcohol can be drunk, it would put makers of spirits like whiskey and vodka out of business because irresponsible people would just buy cheap non-denatured alcohol to drink instead of using it for cooking and heating fuel and for cleaning things.

And so it is the same with Plutonium. Because we simply can't be trusted with it to use for peaceful energy production purposes the responsible people who do have access to it have to limit is production and supply and allow it's use to space exploration only, and I think this is a damning shame on our society that needs to be worked on.

 

[Fnord Velkor]

.., in the wrong hands plutonium can be very dangerous as it can be used to make nuclear weapons of mass destruction.
...

Plutonium is extremely hazardous as it emits alpha-particles.

...

But this game is called Elite: Dangerous for a reason. ...

{ BIG YAWN } The name is taken from a commander rating - not from the state of peril that exits in the galaxy...

 

[Silaz Carbryck]

Plutonium is extremely hazardous as it emits alpha-particles.

It's safe to hold. You can even hold it in your hand. Alpha particles are stopped by a thin sheet of paper my friend. (And I'm sure you already knew that.)

 

[Silaz Carbryck]

{ BIG YAWN } The name is taken from a commander rating - not from the state of peril that exits in the galaxy...

You can make the game as dangerous as you want it to be. There are three modes of play, open, group and solo. Open is the most dangerous and it's got nothing to do with the title of the game which is Elite.

 

[aRJay]

You can make the game as dangerous as you want it to be. There are three modes of play, open, group and solo. Open is the most dangerous and it's got nothing to do with the title of the game which is Elite.

Open is the most dangerous only in a few locations mainly in and around the bubble everywhere else that danger drops to the same level as the other modes as you encounter fewer players.

 

[Fnord Velkor]

It's safe to hold. You can even hold it in your hand. Alpha particles are stopped by a thin sheet of paper my friend. (And I'm sure you already knew that.)

The hazard is from inhaled (less so ingested) particles. The alpha particles then can cause cancers etc since the Pu seems to concentrate in the liver and bone marrow. It is the deceptiveness that makes it so much of a health hazard. Incidence of lung-cancer and leukaemia historically in weapon production attests.

A simple, thin "blind / shutter" over the detector element in a geiger-counter is (was? - been out of the field for years) the method to discriminate if the detector was experiencing alpha particles (more dense "blind / shutter" further discriminates for gamma).

Oh and re the game's name:

Source: https://youtu.be/rOYhoFYIWmw?t=300

EDIT : Oh yes, forgot to mention - you can find Pu in the game in Sol - the Voyager and New Horizon probes are modelled in the game and of course they use Pu-238 generators.

 

[Silaz Carbryck]

Open is the most dangerous only in a few locations mainly in and around the bubble everywhere else that danger drops to the same level as the other modes as you encounter fewer players.

In the early days it was only the old systems around Diso and Leesti that were dangerous where Code operated. I lost so many Type 6's to Code trying to run rares back then. But now it's usually the systems where CG's are running that we need to be carefull in when playing in open mode. I used to play in open flying my sheildless Type 7 between Shinrata and Bunda taking consumer equipment to Bunda and bringing back wine and it was safe. Then things changed and we needed to start worrying about greifers and gankers and Shinrarta is no longer safe. Also now we seem to have to also worry about hackers that come at you with impervious shields or unlimited target lock breakers and Anacondas that fly at FDL speeds, so the game has become far more dangerous than it was before.

 

[Silaz Carbryck]

The hazard is from inhaled (less so ingested) particles. The alpha particles then can cause cancers etc since the Pu seems to concentrate in the liver and bone marrow. It is the deceptiveness that makes it so much of a health hazard. Incidence of lung-cancer and leukaemia historically in weapon production attests.

A simple, thin "blind / shutter" over the detector element in a geiger-counter is (was? - been out of the field for years) the method to discriminate if the detector was experiencing alpha particles (more dense "blind / shutter" further discriminates for gamma).

Oh and re the game's name:

Source: https://youtu.be/rOYhoFYIWmw?t=300


View attachment 355085

EDIT : Oh yes, forgot to mention - you can find Pu in the game in Sol - the Voyager and New Horizon probes are modelled in the game and of course they use Pu-238 generators.

So then I guess it's best not to inhale Plutonium, that would be common sense really. The Curiosity Mars Rover uses an RTG, so did the Pioneer probes and Voyager launched back in the sixties and they're still transmitting data from the furthest reaches of the solar system even now. RTG's will go for 86 years. My fleet carrier will most likely last for less time, because I don't think we will still be playing Elite: Dangerous for that long. There will be other games.

 

[aRJay]

In the early days it was only the old systems around Diso and Leesti that were dangerous where Code operated. I lost so many Type 6's to Code trying to run rares back then. But now it's usually the systems where CG's are running that we need to be carefull in when playing in open mode. I used to play in open flying my sheildless Type 7 between Shinrata and Bunda taking consumer equipment to Bunda and bringing back wine and it was safe. Then things changed and we needed to start worrying about greifers and gankers and Shinrarta is no longer safe. Also now we seem to have to also worry about hackers that come at you with impervious shields or unlimited target lock breakers and Anacondas that fly at FDL speeds, so the game has become far more dangerous than it was before.

Shinrata wasn’t considered all that safe even in the two years before I got access in 2018, the other areas that caution needs to be taken are of course the early engineers systems.

So then I guess it's best not to inhale Plutonium, that would be common sense really. The Curiosity Mars Rover uses an RTG, so did the Pioneer probes and Voyager launched back in the sixties and they're still transmitting data from the furthest reaches of the solar system even now. RTG's will go for 86 years. My fleet carrier will most likely last for less time, because I don't think we will still be playing Elite: Dangerous for that long. There will be other games.

Now you are just being nasty. Other games indeed.

 

[Cmdr Sharky]

Oh and re the game's name:

Source: https://youtu.be/rOYhoFYIWmw?t=300

Thanks, that was a great bit of nostalgia, I don't think I'd ever seen that before (even though I was playing the alphas at the time).