On Thu, Jun 20, 2024 at 2:50 PM Jed Rothwell wrote:
> Robin wrote:
>
>
>> I fell asleep about half way through. The "lead" was buried so deep (if
>> it even exists) that I just gave up.
>> They talk about producing 10-20 watts of excess heat, but what percentage
>> is that of the total? Do they mention it
>> anywhere?
>
>
> This is gas loading, so there is no input power. It is all gravy.
>
> I mean there is no direct input power. Not like electrolysis. Granted, the
> reactor has to be heated to ~800°C or it does nothing. No doubt that takes
> external electricity in this experiment. But in a practical insulated
> reactor, it would self-heat. After it reached the operating temperature of
> ~800°C you could turn off the external heater.
>
>
On the surface of Venus you would not need an external source of heat. ;-)
Harry
> 10 W from 20 g of material is excellent performance for an experiment. It
> is easy to measure. The calorimeter precision is ~0.2 W. 800°C would give
> excellent Carnot efficiency. However this is still far below the power per
> gram from something like a fission reactor pellet, which is 180 W/12 g (1
> cubic centimeter).
>
>
