[TML] World's most power rail gun delivered to Navy

[Jerry W Barrington]

On 1/31/08 6:58 AM, "shadow at shadowgard.com" <shadow at shadowgard.com> wrote:

> On 29 Jan 2008 at 17:19, Jerry W Barrington wrote:
> 
>> On 1/29/08 2:39 PM, "John Kwon" <jtkwon at jtkgroup.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> Using a 2GW commercial nuclear reactor as a power source, we're going to
>>> cause a continuous shower of high density bowling balls to rain down at
>>> intercontinental distances - up to 48 hours at a time.  Let's say 5 balls
>>> per second.
>> 
>> I'm trying to visualize the loading mechanism that feeds 5 bowling balls per
>> second!  For that matter, the storage area adjacent to the launcher for
>> nearly 1 million bowling balls...  (48 hours * 5 balls/sec)
> 
> Gonna be expensive too.
> 
> I tried looking up tungsten prices, but they are $250 or more per
> MTU. And I'm having no luck finding out what an MTU *is*

I found this on a page (old from the looks):
<http://www.nnsl.com/ops/tungsten.html>
*****
The average annual price of tungsten since 1950 has fluctuated between a low
of US $10 per tonne in 1963 and a peak of $175 in 1977. Prices have risen
dramatically in recent years, mostly because China and Russia have run out
of the stockpiles they've been 'dumping' for years.

The current U.S. spot market price for tungsten is $55 US per metric tonne
unit. North American has not disclosed the price for its product.
*****

>From Michael's explanation of MTU as 10kg, that's expensive!