OK not to conventional

[raburgeson]

The craziest thing I have done in my life still haunts me. Thermite for fuel. How do you build a combustion chamber that won't melt. Burning the fuel under the water helps a little, not much because the water around the lit fuel turns into super steam. The area of combustion is relatively dry. Come up with the answer to this and we have destroyed the need for radioactive power plants. Answer this and power will become much cheaper. This can put out more power than a nuclear plant and the materials are safe.

[MarkE]

You don't get more energy out of thermite than has to go into smelting ore to get the constituent metals.

[raburgeson]

You go to the scrap yard and pay very little for an engine block to grind up and while you are there get about ten shovels full of rust, doesn't cost much at all. Do you have any idea how to make thermite? And some Sulfur and other cheap compounds and you got it, fuel that burns really hot.

I recommend crushing the rust into powder and using it in a sandblaster to reduce the block to small particles.

[MarkE]

You go to the scrap yard and pay very little for an engine block to grind up and while you are there get about ten shovels full of rust, doesn't cost much at all. Do you have any idea how to make thermite? And some Sulfur and other cheap compounds and you got it, fuel that burns really hot.

I recommend crushing the rust into powder and using it in a sandblaster to reduce the block to small particles.

You aren't going to get a supply of unoxidized light metal for free.

[raburgeson]

Compared to the price of a nuclear fuel rod it would be for free and it will not leave nuclear waste that gets stored forever in a pool that will remain dangerous for millions of years. They have plans to build storage that will cost billions and fail long before the waste is cold.And that will not contain all the waste we have accumulated.