From a discussion with others engineer - we were wondering what could you do with radioactive atoms.
Given that geometry, distance, pressure are all critical. Lately you can come up with some interesting Carbon-Carbon Nano tubes with various magnetic and electric properties.
I realize some of this must be 'duh' questions -but what the hec:
So at 10 Nano meter you can get some quantum effect. Can you use these to help engineer these atoms?
Thought experiment - could you build a nano nuclear power supply?
How about containing antimatter? Vacuums at this level are easier to maintain. Another thought experiment was could you have charged Bucky Ball to contain Positrons. We figure that were easier and cheaper to work with.
I have actually attended a Foresight Institute meeting in Palo Alto--probably about ten years ago--and I got to meet some important people in the fields of nanotechnology, electronics, and computers. Creating nanometer scale structures using molecular assembly, and staged x-ray lithography were also topics discussed.
To put nano engineering into perspective very quickly: no one has yet built what K. Eric Drexler coined as the "nano-assembler" in his book "The Engines of Creation."
We can simulated some of the aspects of an assembler by outfitting an Atomic Force Microscrope with a tungsten tip: charging the tip allows it to pick and place single atoms. The down side: the tool and the work area must be cooled with liquid helium so that thermal effects don't 'dissamble' the work...
Can radioactive atoms be used as a power source? maybe.
One of the interesting effects of nanometer devices is that they do not entirely behave like their millimeter and larger cousins. Things like computers require the flow of electrons to cause microscopic switches to 'flip-flop': it's the sum total of hundreds of billions of those 'flip-flops' each second that manifests itself into the game "Doom III" on a pc. Molecular computers on the other hand are (will be?) built up one atom at a time, and using nanometer scale structures, will probably be mechanical in operation. The reason for this is to take advantage of an effect first explained in detail by Albert Einstein one hundred years ago: Brownian Motion. Nanometer scale devices may infact be powered by the natural thermal oscillations of a fluid bath--by using a system of 'ratchets' like a fine Swiss watch, only a million times smaller, thermal energy could be transmitted throughout a nanomachine....
Anyways, it's entirely possible that the source of this heat could infact, be an isotope source. I'm not sure about radiation damage to the nanomachine operating nearby--it's definately a possibility and it is entirely dependent upon how small the mechanisms are.
An you're right about nanomachines having quantum effects--because atoms begin to 'feel' quantum effects, then so should the atomic components of nanometer scale machinery. This could have positive and negative affects--and I'm pretty sure that no one has really explored that idea thoroughly yet. Some very interesting quantum effects may be possible...
I did my yearly walk through some of the sites - sounds like we have several years before we have matter compilers (Diamond Age - Neil Stephenson). But as in all things we slowly move forward.
So - backing up and looking at the micro-meter instead of the nano-meter level. Engineering is quite well understood. Plus the machinery exists.
Could a nuclear engine or generator be built at this level?
I suppose so. Certainly something like an alpha-recoil isotope generator is possible. However, one would have to look at the mechanical issues: the instantaneous energy density and momentum from a nuclear decay or fission would exceed by many orders of magnitude the molecular binding energy associated with any covalent bond (physical sharing of electrons between two or more atoms.)
Although I suspect that the physical realities of nanometer scale engineering are such that at this level of construction it is necessary to redefine what is meant by the term 'generator.' It is entirely possible that conventional 'discrete systems engineering' as a construction philosophy will be impractical to apply, but will instead require something more along the lines of an integrated approach. Viruses, enzymes and cell organelles would almost certainly be the closest biological analogs to nanometer scale machines, and those things operate almost entirely by the statistics of an inherent thermal bath (warm fluid.) I think it is difficult to think of something heterogenous like a molecular nuclear reactor--I just don't think that laws of mechanics and physics would allow that.
