Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Dept of Good Ideas

Now here's an example of what a good idea is-

Sticky foam is back, defending nuclear weapon stockpiles.

Some facilities storing uranium and plutonium now boast steel doors with containers of hydrocarbon solution built into them. Breach the door, and the liquid comes foaming out under high pressure, expanding in bulk by a factor of forty and sealing the breach with an impassable obstacle.

The idea is that sticky foam will delay any attackers for long enough for the defenders to call in reinforcements. Experiments with explosives found it was impossible to break through the doors without the foam barrier deploying. Another test showed how a defender could release the foam by shooting it with an M-16.

This I like- simple and effective.

1 comment:

3Ply Stagliano said...

It would be good if there was a plausible and cheap way to use it in more mundane places than nuclear weapons facilities (or whatever the correct name for them is). Obviously it's good to use it there but it would be nice to see a more 'everyday' version of it too, for security purposes in banks, shops and the like. I'm sure it may well filter down in some form at some point.