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Comment by bnegreve | Hacker News Reader

> I still can't think of any use for this that isn't better solved some other way.

What about this?

"In some safety-critical scenarios, such as concerning the integrity of reactor containments, and metal vaults and bulkheads in maritime structures, it can be important to minimise the number of penetrations made through such metal structures for communications cabling. The use of neutrons for information transmission through such structures could negate the need for such penetrations and is perhaps also relevant to scenarios where limited transmissions are desirable in difficult circumstances, such as for emergency rescue operations."

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Well what about mechanical waves /sound waves. I mean we are talking about rates of less than a bit per second. Just have a small hammer ping your metal container. Will go much further is much cheaper and can easily do a higher data rate.

More moving parts than an electrically-modulated neutron source. But this was my first thought as well.

Piezoelectrics?

Acoustic was also my first thought. Neutron generators are quite complicated and relatively delicate. Meanwhile acoustic transducers (e.g. piezo) are super simple and low power.

Piezoelements would work well. Not really a moving part in the traditional sense, with worn surfaces from friction.

The danger zone for humans is smaller though.

You can probably do something with optical communications through a thick, leaded glass window, depending on your containment needs.

The ‘safety critical maritime structures’ they are talking about are probably pressure hulls on nuclear submarines. They are well equipped to handle radiological material and really want to be quiet.

Yeah I read that, but it's not going to be good for that. For one thing that isn't going to work in a nuclear reactor core because the neutron background is orders of magnitude higher than any neutron generator could hope to produce. For the other uses they mentioned... I mean like I said there's no reason it wouldn't work (over short ranges) but there are simpler solutions that don't involve [very dangerous] neutron radiation. Plus a neutron generator requires a decent bit of power to run (they're basically a compact particle accelerator) so you're back to needing a vessel penetration. And the idea that such a device would be useful for emergency rescue operations is frankly silly.

That's still more than a bit of a stretch considering the drawbacks, such as making that vault or bulkhead material radioactive even after the neutron beam has been shut off. In practice the duraction of the induced radioactivity varies considerably depending on the material; just hope it's not an alloy that includes cobalt.

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