3 ms·
It's a heat sink right now. Hydroelectric generation aside, efficiency for electricity generation is pretty much always below 40%! That, however, is since alm
by Breakthrough 14y ago
It's a heat sink right now. Hydroelectric generation aside, efficiency for electricity generation is pretty much always below 40%! That, however, is since almost all our plants use the Carnot/Rankine cycle heat engine.
Again though, even those watts of electricity eventually get turned back into heat. Gotta love entropy...
The consequences of us having fusion?
The good, we get cheap, abundant electricity for the entirety of the planet's lifespan with almost no harmful byproducts, made by a nuclear plant that's impossible to melt down or be used in the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
The bad, we have to build the plants, and possibly replace the old ones. That indicates a large shift in jobs, and makes you wonder how we can afford it (although improving economic conditions should make the latter less of a downside as fusion becomes viable).
- Retric 14y agoThere are power plants that hit 42% theremal and dump waste heat, others reuses that waste heat for things like home/office heating and hit 70+ efficiency. So really one of the best solutions is simply to find ways to reuse waste heat. Granted, you would still need massive shielding even with a tin can sized fusion reactor, but assuming ther safe enough to put near city's you could got a lot of winter heating practically for free.
- Breakthrough 14y agoYes, that's called co-generation (or combined heat/power plants). I can't comment on fusion reactors, but this isn't really feasible with fission reactors, since the coolant becomes radioactive. Sure you could run it through several loops to bring it down to a safe level, but then you're losing efficiency at each sub-stage. I'd also like to point out you can only achieve those high efficiency numbers when you're actually using the heat.
- icegreentea 14y agoThe coolant in the actual nuclear reactor itself is radioactive. But all the working fluid in the heat engine (including heat dissipation) is safe. Could you imagine how ridiculous it would be to do maintenance on your radioactive turbines?
- Retric 14y agoThe turbines become slightly radioactive. http://natgeotv.com/asia/worlds-toughest-fixes/videos/going-nuclear http://natgeotv.com/asia/worlds-toughest-fixes/videos/going-... but one more loop and your home free.