The Nucleostrictive Lining Project, also referred to as the Piezonucleic Lining Project[1] or the Nucleostrictive Plating Project,[2] was a pre-War research project of Cambridge Polymer Labs, LLC.
Overview[]
The Nucleostrictive Lining Project, funded under contract with the United States Armed Forces, was intended to produce a material that could convert ambient ionizing radiation into electrical energy. The military's interest lay in applying this material to power armor. Initial studies led the research team at the Cambridge Polymer Labs, under Dr. Ericka Elwood-Woolum, to hypothesize that taking a piezoelectric material, lead zirconium titanate (PZT), and applying a polymer of gold and lithium hydride could produce the desired effect.[3]
Initial tests proved the method to be sound. Radioactive energy harvest was fifteen times higher than contemporary automotive fusion engines. However, there was still a major problem to be solved. The use of gold in the energy conversion process created much excess thermal energy which would weaken the nanoweave material over time. In short, the weave destroyed itself rapidly, making it unsuitable for an extended deployment. To alleviate this, the team altered the way that the gold would be irradiated so that the heat would dissipate more easily.[4] This approach successfully created an efficient material with a lifetime of years, rather than days, at a negligible cost to energy harvest rate. However, the new material was only technically successful: Col. George Kemp, the military liaison for the project, rejected it out of hand, as the new material shredded under intense use. It was unsuitable for use as power armor lining and the colonel threatened to pull funding. The team returned to the drawing board.[5]
The Great War did not immediately end progress on the project. Jon Elwood, the lab's director, locked the team inside the laboratory to force them to complete the project (and thus secure a military extraction out of the war-torn city for the researchers, though they were unaware of this.) Many of the team, agitated, tried to find a way out, such as Wilfred Bergman, who would end up sealing the team's fate.
Wilfred's own musings about taking "a more oblique angle" during an escape attempt inspired Ericka to find the solution. To solve the thermal dissipation problem while still producing a hardy material, the team could produce a material that would only absorb radioactive particles approaching at an oblique angle. Though this would lower the energy harvest rate, it would solve the problem.[6]
This revelation came too late to save the research team. During the struggle for control over the facility's systems, Bergman locked the team out of the only source of U-238 needed to complete the project. The team soon perished as a result of a misguided attempt to force an exit, with the remaining members left to suffer a slow demise from radiation leaking from the lab's damaged reactor.[7][8]
References[]
- ↑ Molly: "Have you completed the research on the Piezonucleic Lining Project?"
(Molly's dialogue) - ↑ Molly: "Sir, wonderful news. The Nucleostrictive Plating Project has finally produced a working prototype."
(Molly's dialogue) - ↑ Cambridge Polymer Labs terminals; Ericka's terminal, Project Thesis
- ↑ Cambridge Polymer Labs terminals; Ericka's terminal, Thermal dissipation
- ↑ Thermal dissipation; Ericka's terminal, Tensile strain
- ↑ Cambridge Polymer Labs terminals; Ericka's terminal, Trapped
- ↑ Cambridge Polymer Labs terminals; Bergman's terminal, [J.Elwood] - Hacking Admin
- ↑ Cambridge Polymer Labs terminals; director's terminal, Can't hold out much longer