Dakota Nuclear

[kenbo0422]

Not many people know this but a reactor can be designed to produce high voltage direct electricity instead of heat. This eliminates the ineffficiency of the steam/turbine process that wastes energy.

Bruce,

I've heard of this....? Is it thermocoupling or free electrons from the process of fission?   

Ken

[Kysmett]

Just read that patent Bruce.  Thanks for the link.  I wonder, though, how much heat in the nuclear reactor is actually caused by beta particle emmissions as a percentage.  It talks about beta collection and alpha degradation throught the insulating layers, but nothing about heat in any other way.  Is he saying that a reactor properly configured in this manner would run cool?  If not do we have the materials that could stand up to that kind of heat without the need for cooling?

Thoughts only... do you have any further insight in this or is this irrelevent when compared to the production of voltage between the conductors and the rods?

[Bruce A. Perreault]

Kysmett,

Column two of the patents indicates... "beta rays may be conducted externally of the neutronic reactor tthrough terminals as electrical energy rather being dissipated in the form of heat energy in the reactor." However, you are correct, the patent doesn't further elaborate on the heat generated from the alphas, etc... Do the thermal neutrons generate heat or not? I would think that a small fission battery could be designed using a cold neutron source that would not generated too much heat.

                      -Bruce P.

[Kysmett]

My only problem with this is the relativistic way in which we view heat in reactors, when compared with our normal lives.  Is not too much heat still more than, say, what occurs in a combusion engine?  I don't mean to be a pain, just looking at the possibilities.

[roggy32]

All of the satellite power sources used or currently use that method to generate power from nuclear reactions, because of anti-nuclear activist worries about a possible explosion releasing radioactive debris from a failed space mission. NASA has looked at storing power in high speed super efficient flywheels and permanent magnet dc generators to siphon off power from the flywheel.