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> The fifth step is to attach it to power generating equipment The part that jumped out at me as strange is that they claim their process generates electricity

by wtracy 7y ago

> The fifth step is to attach it to power generating equipment The part that jumped out at me as strange is that they claim their process generates electricity "directly" without having to drive a turbine. Supposedly they produce helium cations, and that can drive a circuit. Can anybody comment on whether that makes sense?

frankus 7y ago
Huge if true. Most fission plants throw away about two-thirds of their energy output as waste heat (according to: https://www.answers.com/Q/How_much_of_the_heat_generated_in_a_nuclear_power_plant_is_waste_heat https://www.answers.com/Q/How_much_of_the_heat_generated_in_...), and their cooling towers are so much bigger than the reactor itself that they've become a symbol of the plants as a whole.
- graycat 7y ago
  Sorry to get away from some really nice physics and suggestion of some really good news for some of relevant reality: The cooling towers? The photographs in the news commonly show huge clouds of water vapor escaping from the tops of the towers with a picture caption about "nuclear" power or some such. So, the suggestion is that nuke plants generate huge clouds of dangerous radioactive byproducts. Such news content is easy: (1) Suggest that the cooling towers are the nuclear reactors and (2) don't mention that what is coming out is just water vapor, from water recently in some river or lake. Now the news people have their audience by their eyeballs for ad revenue and/or politics as in https://www.peakprosperity.com/2019-year-in-review-part-1/#climate https://www.peakprosperity.com/2019-year-in-review-part-1/#c... “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.” ~ H.L. Mencken
  - philipkglass 7y ago
    Nuclear plant operators show the steaming cooling towers on their own web sites: https://www.exeloncorp.com/locations/power-plants/limerick-generating-station https://www.exeloncorp.com/locations/power-plants/limerick-g... The same imagery shows up on the covers of nuclear textbooks: https://www.amazon.com/Nuclear-Engineering-Handbook-Mechanical-Aerospace/dp/1482215926 https://www.amazon.com/Nuclear-Engineering-Handbook-Mechanic... If anything, laypeople think that radiation is scary because it's invisible, tasteless, and odorless.
    - Gibbon1 7y ago
      Laypeople think radiation is scary because they don't understand it and the nuclear industry lies reflexively.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
Rhinobird 7y ago
The main Proton-Boron reaction produces charged particles instead of neutrons. You can capture the charged particles directly as a source of voltage with no intermediate step. Just stick a piece of metal in the way and hook up wires. Conventionally, neutrons are used to generate heat which is then used to drive steam turbines.
- NortySpock 7y ago
  Wouldn't it produce high-velocity charged particles? Thus you would capture the energy with a "reverse coilgun", "regeneratively braking" the particles down to a non-relativistic speed, rather than just using them to charge a capacitor plate.
  - rklaehn 7y ago
    Once the capacitor plate has a voltage in the range of the kinetic energy of the particles, this is exactly what will happen. The particles convert their kinetic energy into electrical energy by rolling "uphill" against the electric potential.
    - pfdietz 7y ago
      And all the free electrons produced in that target are helpfully just sitting there, right?
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
- Zardoz84 7y ago
  Interesting... I remember reading about fusion on the high school, and I thought that must be a way to collect the energy directly.
vilhelm_s 7y ago
There are various proposed schemes for doing so: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_energy_conversion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_energy_conversion In principle this could be more efficient than a heat engine, although the Wikipedia page seems to say that an "economically feasible" version would have around 60% efficiency, which is the same as a combined-cycle power plant.

by wtracy 7y ago

frankus 7y ago

Huge if true. Most fission plants throw away about two-thirds of their energy output as waste heat (according to: https://www.answers.com/Q/How_much_of_the_heat_generated_in_a_nuclear_power_plant_is_waste_heat https://www.answers.com/Q/How_much_of_the_heat_generated_in_...), and their cooling towers are so much bigger than the reactor itself that they've become a symbol of the plants as a whole.

graycat 7y ago
Sorry to get away from some really nice physics and suggestion of some really good news for some of relevant reality: The cooling towers? The photographs in the news commonly show huge clouds of water vapor escaping from the tops of the towers with a picture caption about "nuclear" power or some such. So, the suggestion is that nuke plants generate huge clouds of dangerous radioactive byproducts. Such news content is easy: (1) Suggest that the cooling towers are the nuclear reactors and (2) don't mention that what is coming out is just water vapor, from water recently in some river or lake. Now the news people have their audience by their eyeballs for ad revenue and/or politics as in https://www.peakprosperity.com/2019-year-in-review-part-1/#climate https://www.peakprosperity.com/2019-year-in-review-part-1/#c... “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.” ~ H.L. Mencken
- philipkglass 7y ago
  Nuclear plant operators show the steaming cooling towers on their own web sites: https://www.exeloncorp.com/locations/power-plants/limerick-generating-station https://www.exeloncorp.com/locations/power-plants/limerick-g... The same imagery shows up on the covers of nuclear textbooks: https://www.amazon.com/Nuclear-Engineering-Handbook-Mechanical-Aerospace/dp/1482215926 https://www.amazon.com/Nuclear-Engineering-Handbook-Mechanic... If anything, laypeople think that radiation is scary because it's invisible, tasteless, and odorless.
  - Gibbon1 7y ago
    Laypeople think radiation is scary because they don't understand it and the nuclear industry lies reflexively.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]

Rhinobird 7y ago

The main Proton-Boron reaction produces charged particles instead of neutrons. You can capture the charged particles directly as a source of voltage with no intermediate step. Just stick a piece of metal in the way and hook up wires. Conventionally, neutrons are used to generate heat which is then used to drive steam turbines.

NortySpock 7y ago
Wouldn't it produce high-velocity charged particles? Thus you would capture the energy with a "reverse coilgun", "regeneratively braking" the particles down to a non-relativistic speed, rather than just using them to charge a capacitor plate.
- rklaehn 7y ago
  Once the capacitor plate has a voltage in the range of the kinetic energy of the particles, this is exactly what will happen. The particles convert their kinetic energy into electrical energy by rolling "uphill" against the electric potential.
  - pfdietz 7y ago
    And all the free electrons produced in that target are helpfully just sitting there, right?
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
Zardoz84 7y ago
Interesting... I remember reading about fusion on the high school, and I thought that must be a way to collect the energy directly.

vilhelm_s 7y ago

There are various proposed schemes for doing so: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_energy_conversion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_energy_conversion In principle this could be more efficient than a heat engine, although the Wikipedia page seems to say that an "economically feasible" version would have around 60% efficiency, which is the same as a combined-cycle power plant.