Chlorine is nasty stuff. It's great for sterilizing pools, but it burns eyes and skin, and bleaches hair. It also evaporates quickly, needing continuous replenishment. Why not replace chlorine with something much safer, like uranium? Spent nuclear fuel pools are perfectly safe--so long as you don't dive too deep. Then it's deadly.

Water is a neutron moderator, and acts as radiation shielding. As long as the nuclear fuel is submerged to sufficient depth, there is no radiation danger to swimmers. A heavy metal grating strictly enforces the safe swimming zone.

Algae, however, are doomed. The pool's pump circulates water directly through the fuel, ensuring any microorganisms receive a lethal dose of alpha particles. As an added bonus, the pool is nice and warm year round. It even provides its own lighting, through pretty Cherenkov radiation.

For those who prefer to swim in private, a cobalt-60 filtration stage can be used for the home version.
-- Aq_Bi, Jul 06 2014

Water irradiation Cheap_20water_20Irradiation
I like the idea of using a radiation source to purify water. [bungston, Jul 07 2014]

You know, I initially thought this was about public urinals.

Sounds dodgy [+] kinda like it.

If you add two dividing glass walls somewhere below your metal grate to seal off a space in a relatively non-lethal area we might fill it with fast breeding species of fish (less time to develop lethal tumours & faster generations so any new non-lethal mutations can establish faster) & in a few years have ourselves a mutant aquarium.
-- Skewed, Jul 06 2014


// lethal dose of alpha particles// Really? Surely it would be beta particles or gamma rays?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 06 2014


1. Pools leak and need to be fixed - how?

2. "Oh honey i just dropped my wedding ring. You can see just on top of that pile of stuff that glows blue. Could you be a dear and get it for me? "

3. Bird shit and leaves will fall in the pool. A forest fire near our pool turned it black and opaque, as the ashes rained down. Sun tan oil clogs up works. And it all needs to be filtered out. Can you flush that down the sewer if there is any radioactive ?

Wonder how much water it could sanitize and heat, Maybe many swimming pools could work off the pile.

Like at an Olympics Games site.
-- popbottle, Jul 07 2014


Novel & cool.

But near the surface, around the rims, it would still be a nice site for life (bacteria, algea, etc.) Anything that clings to the wet wall will not get circulated & will enjoy the environment & thrive.
-- sophocles, Jul 07 2014


/wet wall will/

The blue glow holder can move slowly up the wall and back down, radiantly purging all adherent growth.

Good to read an Aq_Bi idea. It has been a while.
-- bungston, Jul 07 2014


Very cool to think about.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jul 08 2014



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