4 ms·
> boiling water reactors It amazes me that we are still using steam power (mostly 18th and 19t century discovery AFAIR) in such advanced systems.
by krzyk 5y ago
> boiling water reactors
It amazes me that we are still using steam power (mostly 18th and 19t century discovery AFAIR) in such advanced systems.
- tsimionescu 5y agoThe funny thing is even fusion plants would produce energy by turning a steam turbine.
- ncmncm 5y agoNot useful ones. Predicting here there will be no fusion plants that drive steam turbines, ever. (Unless General Fusion's system turns out to work.)
- tsimionescu 5y agoHow else could a fusion power plant generate power?
- ncmncm 5y agoD-H3 and H-B fusion release their energy in a form that can be extracted electromagnetically, with no detour through heat and turbines, so at least in principle could be cheaper to use than fission, unlike the D-T fusion that ITER etc. target. There are projects working on these. They have much higher activation energy, so are harder to make happen -- for hydrogen-boron fusion, much, much harder. Helium-3 is scarce, effectively available only from decay of tritium, all of which has to be synthesized, then it needs to decay, with a half-life of 12 years.
- legulere 5y agoWhat is so advanced about it? We’ve had pressurized water reactors since the 50s
- makomk 5y agoYeah, we're pretty close to the point where as much time has passed since pressurized water reactors and boiling water reactors were invented as there was between their invention and the invention of the steam turbine.
- HeavyStorm 5y agoIt's even worse: most generators transfer mechanical power to electrical energy. Hydroelectric plants, nuclear reactors, gas and oil plants, all of them depend on mechanical movement.
- ncmncm 5y agoMechanical power is usually taken to imply a gear, belt, chain or other lossy linkage. Just rotating a shaft is lossless, and should not count.