|
The MoA Week In Review – OT 2026-136
Last week’s posts on Moon of Alabama:
—
Other issues:
Gaza:
Finance:
Schadenfreude:
China:
Others:
Use as open (not related to the wars in Ukraine and Iran) thread …
If we harken back a couple months there was a speculative discussion about how Russia’s Burevestnik cruise missile worked. I speculated on it being a High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor, similar to a pebble-bed or prismatic block core reactor, and that it was directly cooled by the atmospheric air used for propulsion in a conventional turbojet arrangement. While there were other possibilities such as breeder reactors suggested, I argued against these as being too heavy, too bulky, too slow to start, too complex and too expensive. There was even some confusion expressed by a poster with a very high opinion of its own intellect that we were for some reason discussing rocket engines! Oh, the poor tragically confused poster… In any case, it appears that researchers from MIT have come to the same conclusion that I did: Here’s how Russia’s nuclear-powered ‘Skyfall” missile works This is actually not at all surprising as the size and operational characteristics of the missile significantly constrain the possible options for how it could be made to work, but it is useful to have the speculation about how Burevestnik works reinforced by deeper analysis from others with knowledge of the potential technology involved and who are not prone to mixing up rocket engines with jet engines.
Posted by: William Gruff | Jun 28 2026 15:44 utc | 6
******************
Thanks for your post and the embedded link. Both are very informative and warrant a brief synopsis, which will provide a useful illustration of the importance of paying close attention to, and basing detailed assessment on, primary sources.
Mr. Gruff’s post claims justification for the correctness of his earlier conjecture, re-visits the ‘tragically confused’ poster who allegedly cannot discriminate between a rocket and a jet engine, references an NPR article written by Geoff Brumfiel and Connie Hanzhang Jin (who have no relevant technical background) which was based on the podcast of an interview between the host, Steve Inskeep, and Jake Hecla, Brumfiel, and Jeffrey Lewis. For entertainment value, President Vladimir Putin makes a guest appearance in the podcast, but speaks only in Russian. Nobody pays any attention to President Putin. Jake Hecla is a co-author (with R. Scott Kemp), both from MIT, of a paper:
https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.mit.edu/dist/6/1499/files/2026/06/Burevestnik_Paper_Final_pdf.pdf
referred to, but not referenced, in the NPR article.
So, just to recap the sequence of “Chinese Whispers” detailed above: Mr. Gruff presents his interpretation of comments made by two non-expert NPR writers who were conveying their understanding of a podcast (or transcript) hosted by a non-technical person (Steve Inskeep), where the transcript of the podcast details the total contribution of one of the co-authors (Hecla) of the technical paper referred to above in five very brief comments:
- “This is a concept that had not been explored in a serious way, really, since the 1950s or early 1960s.”
- “Is something that is possible but wildly expensive and very dangerous.”
- “I realized that there was a ton of data here.”
- “I spent many hours repeating these measurements over and over and over again.”
- “It is likely to leave a radioactive trail. And as a result, anyone living near is at enormous risk, potentially, if this system flies off course.”
Hecla’s contribution to the podcast could hardly be characterised as informative. Of interest, a brief bio of Hecla from the MIT website, edited and emphasis mine ( full bio here: https://spacenuclear.mit.edu/research-thrusts/ )
Jake Hecla is a Stanton Postdoctoral Fellow in Nuclear Security at the Laboratory for Nuclear Security and Policy at MIT. His work focuses on the technical characteristics, signatures and deterrence impacts of air-breathing nuclear propulsion, an emerging technique for high-persistence flight. The ongoing development of the Burevestnik nuclear-armed, nuclear-powered cruise missile has generated unique detection and countermeasure challenges. To better understand this system and to gain insight into future applications of air-breathing nuclear propulsion, Hecla has developed tools for predicting nuclear engine performance that couple thermodynamic cycle modelling and neutronics. …
And then to terminate the chain of building informed understanding, the interested barfly forms their own opinion based on their understanding of Mr. Gruff’s analysis and summary of his understanding of information received from the above process.
What could possibly go wrong??
By the way, no-one – so far as I have seen – has actually commented on the original paper. I highly recommend reading the paper. It is ‘accessible’ in the sense that, since it was written by a postdoc specialising in nuclear security, it is not highly technical – so it is an excellent introduction for the interested layperson. I read it a couple of weeks ago, and if time permits I will try to write some brief reading notes for the interested barfly – assuming one exists.
Enjoy!!
Posted by: General Factotum | Jun 29 2026 11:22 utc | 53
|
