If I cook it on the reactor, is it fusion cuisine?
1,000 Nubians with ostrich feather fans, perhaps?
Well, no. I was more wondering if they'd have something new and exotic in mind.
The typical way nuclear power is used is to heat water - you take the fast moving fission products, dump them into a large mass that stops them, and they deposit their kinetic energy as heat. It is really just a heat engine with fission as a heat source. And the efficiency of a heat engine rises as the difference in temperature between the hot and cold sides rises - so, you typically need lots of cold coolant to get them to work well.
But, what if what they're talking about isn't a heat engine? What if they have a way to extract the kinetic energy of the fusion products in a different way? Then, you might not need nearly so much coolant...
If, for example, they have a way to collimate the fusion products - basically, make a particle beam - they're charged particles, and you could extract the kinetic energy through magnetic fields, directly into electricity!
The typical way nuclear power is used is to heat water - you take the fast moving fission products, dump them into a large mass that stops them, and they deposit their kinetic energy as heat. It is really just a heat engine with fission as a heat source. And the efficiency of a heat engine rises as the difference in temperature between the hot and cold sides rises - so, you typically need lots of cold coolant to get them to work well.
But, what if what they're talking about isn't a heat engine? What if they have a way to extract the kinetic energy of the fusion products in a different way? Then, you might not need nearly so much coolant...
If, for example, they have a way to collimate the fusion products - basically, make a particle beam - they're charged particles, and you could extract the kinetic energy through magnetic fields, directly into electricity!
Scott DeWar
Prof. Emeritus-Supernatural Events/Countermeasure
Though not new, that would be exotic.
righ, exactly what I had in mind.
Or some form of heat transducer that is vast more improved and compact then water.
Out of curiosity, can a particle beam exert physical force?
Eventually, you have to dump heat into the broader environment. That means dumping it into air, water, or dirt. Dirt (used for household heat pumps, for example) requires a permanent installation, and doesn't have convection or mixing to help you spread the heat out - not useful for a mobile, high-power station. That means, ultimately, you need to dump into water or air.
Yes. They are particles. They have momentum. Technically, a stream of bullets is a "particle beam" - there are just *lots* of particles.
Ever hear of a "solar sail"? Just a really big, reflective sail catching the momentum of particles of light and turnign them into motion of an object.
Now, with modern technology, getting a beam of ionized single atoms/particles so energetic and numerous that it'd be felt as a force by, say, a guy standing in front of it... that's not something I expect to see here...
Scott DeWar
Prof. Emeritus-Supernatural Events/Countermeasure
Solar sail, of course. same thing. <duh!> I wasn't thinking of a particle beam as a weapon, but rather some sort of motin inducing generation source, such as a water mill or steam turbine moves a shaft to gear box to generator.
Oh, using the beam *directly*? Goodness, no, you wouldn't want to do that. This would be a beam of high energy Helium ions. It'd be not dissimilar to pointing a continuous lightning bolt or arc welder at your water wheel. I don't think we've yet built a substance that would withstand that kind of punishment.
Scott DeWar
Prof. Emeritus-Supernatural Events/Countermeasure
I was picturing something like an electron beam, like what is found in a CRT, focused slightly and pointed at a negatively charged surface of a chemical nature(?) and like charges repelling.
There is a limit to how much static charge you can put on a physical item - eventually, the charge is built up to the point where electrons will arc to nearby surfaces.
In essence, you're talking about a beam of plasma - in other fusion schemes, they use powerful magnetic fields to contain the plasma in which fusion is taking place, because no physical material can withstand the temperatures. I think the same holds here - the stuff has "heart of a star" kind of energies.
In essence, you're talking about a beam of plasma - in other fusion schemes, they use powerful magnetic fields to contain the plasma in which fusion is taking place, because no physical material can withstand the temperatures. I think the same holds here - the stuff has "heart of a star" kind of energies.
Scott DeWar
Prof. Emeritus-Supernatural Events/Countermeasure
understood. So, back to the solar sail, then. How would it be able to work with the above limitation?
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