Biological Fission Reactor
Large organisms engineered by the Unified Arkan Council to harness nuclear power.
Although biological fission reactors have become entirely obsolete due to the existance of fusion, antimatter and ZPE reactors and power sources, they have seen a lot of common use by various pre-space Harkas cilivizations. They had the ability to produce a very large amount of nutrients and food from fission reactions, massively improving the potential food output compared to traditional farms, requiring a much lower area of land, using an entirely different energy source.
Initially, the use of these organisms meant that the harkas had to deal with the issue of nuclear waste. They thus protected their reactors by engineering a symbiotic radiotropic fungus, which also made the area around the reactors themselves much more safe from radiation. Should an area become irradiated, they could also seed this species of fungus to slowly remove the hazard. As their understanding of handling radioactive materials and their knowledge of bioengineering improved, they developed safer and more complex ways to handle the nuclear waste. They would initially bury it before adopting methods to use it and, finally, reprocess it. By the time fusion reaction organisms were invented, they managed to make fission reaction organisms very efficient and reliable by also harvesting energy from the radiotropic fungus and adding more symbiotic organisms to reprocess nuclear waste for the host. The entire microbiome was engineered and configured to help the host manage its exotic physiology fully automatically. In the event this was disrupted, the reactors were also designed to make any issues obvious to any harkas working on the reactors. The reactors could make many different sounds relating to different conditions. Biological fission reactors would not be able to reproduce on their own, but were designed to have its DNA easily harvestable by any harkas, who could then easily replicate them using their genetic modification appendage when used on a relatively large organism. They could range in size significantly, the smallest ones (~20 m across) designed to power (or sometimes feed) various ships and in many cases feed their crew. The largest (~1 km in size) are made to feed entire cities. Even in the modern day, many harkas are proud of the sheer ingenuity of their ancestors that designed these types of organisms. Many still exist despite the greater efficiency and safety of fusion reaction organisms. Most of these are museum displays, but despite that are still in actual use. If a biological fusion reactor cannot obtain nuclear fuel, it is likely to die because the reactor itself also siphons energy from nuclear fuel. They lack digestive systems.
There have been controversy to these sorts of organisms. Firstly, sometimes the food they produce could contain traces of harmful radiation, but this was significantly reduced in later versions. There was also a freak nuclear accident in one early version where the harkas working on that creature allowed its microbime to become inbalanced, leading to too few emitted neutrons being absorbed, in turn leading to a rapidly increasing nuclear reaction, effectively turning it into a nuclear bomb as it obliterated the entire facility and irradiated much of the city for several centuries. Many harkas have thus been known to protest about these in history before their obsolescence. In modern times, the properties of nuclear materials are very well understood and no other nuclear accident relating to the organisms have been observed in thousands of years. Furthermore, similar creatures have been used as nuclear weapons. Several factions of harkas, particularly those with an abundance of uranium (or other fissile material), have designed a much smaller version. These could be far more compact, as these would not be required to maintain a delicate balance of neutrons being emitted and absorbed, nor would they have to reprocess nuclear waste. These factors made them quite easy to produce. The use of these almost led to the complete destruction of harkas society 2 times, until one group designed another organism to defend against them by rendering nuclear reactions less energetic by absorbing most free neutrons in a large radius around it. Classical biological fission reactors also allowed for the possibility of harnessing the very mass-desnse isotope U-238, which was used as kinetic energy penetrators in many non-WMD weapons. Nuclear weapons are far less effective in space than on a planet and much more effective in dense areas such as the metallic hydrogen layer of Jyara. The spaceborne harkas would make use of this, and sometimes their bioships would survive direct hits from nuclear weapons if the pressure wave could not reach the atmosphere if the bioship.
Although biological fission reactors have become entirely obsolete due to the existance of fusion, antimatter and ZPE reactors and power sources, they have seen a lot of common use by various pre-space Harkas cilivizations. They had the ability to produce a very large amount of nutrients and food from fission reactions, massively improving the potential food output compared to traditional farms, requiring a much lower area of land, using an entirely different energy source.
Initially, the use of these organisms meant that the harkas had to deal with the issue of nuclear waste. They thus protected their reactors by engineering a symbiotic radiotropic fungus, which also made the area around the reactors themselves much more safe from radiation. Should an area become irradiated, they could also seed this species of fungus to slowly remove the hazard. As their understanding of handling radioactive materials and their knowledge of bioengineering improved, they developed safer and more complex ways to handle the nuclear waste. They would initially bury it before adopting methods to use it and, finally, reprocess it. By the time fusion reaction organisms were invented, they managed to make fission reaction organisms very efficient and reliable by also harvesting energy from the radiotropic fungus and adding more symbiotic organisms to reprocess nuclear waste for the host. The entire microbiome was engineered and configured to help the host manage its exotic physiology fully automatically. In the event this was disrupted, the reactors were also designed to make any issues obvious to any harkas working on the reactors. The reactors could make many different sounds relating to different conditions. Biological fission reactors would not be able to reproduce on their own, but were designed to have its DNA easily harvestable by any harkas, who could then easily replicate them using their genetic modification appendage when used on a relatively large organism. They could range in size significantly, the smallest ones (~20 m across) designed to power (or sometimes feed) various ships and in many cases feed their crew. The largest (~1 km in size) are made to feed entire cities. Even in the modern day, many harkas are proud of the sheer ingenuity of their ancestors that designed these types of organisms. Many still exist despite the greater efficiency and safety of fusion reaction organisms. Most of these are museum displays, but despite that are still in actual use. If a biological fusion reactor cannot obtain nuclear fuel, it is likely to die because the reactor itself also siphons energy from nuclear fuel. They lack digestive systems.
There have been controversy to these sorts of organisms. Firstly, sometimes the food they produce could contain traces of harmful radiation, but this was significantly reduced in later versions. There was also a freak nuclear accident in one early version where the harkas working on that creature allowed its microbime to become inbalanced, leading to too few emitted neutrons being absorbed, in turn leading to a rapidly increasing nuclear reaction, effectively turning it into a nuclear bomb as it obliterated the entire facility and irradiated much of the city for several centuries. Many harkas have thus been known to protest about these in history before their obsolescence. In modern times, the properties of nuclear materials are very well understood and no other nuclear accident relating to the organisms have been observed in thousands of years. Furthermore, similar creatures have been used as nuclear weapons. Several factions of harkas, particularly those with an abundance of uranium (or other fissile material), have designed a much smaller version. These could be far more compact, as these would not be required to maintain a delicate balance of neutrons being emitted and absorbed, nor would they have to reprocess nuclear waste. These factors made them quite easy to produce. The use of these almost led to the complete destruction of harkas society 2 times, until one group designed another organism to defend against them by rendering nuclear reactions less energetic by absorbing most free neutrons in a large radius around it. Classical biological fission reactors also allowed for the possibility of harnessing the very mass-desnse isotope U-238, which was used as kinetic energy penetrators in many non-WMD weapons. Nuclear weapons are far less effective in space than on a planet and much more effective in dense areas such as the metallic hydrogen layer of Jyara. The spaceborne harkas would make use of this, and sometimes their bioships would survive direct hits from nuclear weapons if the pressure wave could not reach the atmosphere if the bioship.
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