On Thu, Jun 20, 2024 at 2:50 PM Jed Rothwell <jedrothw...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Robin <mixent...@aussiebroadband.com.au> 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). > >