A non-ultratech proposal for fusion power
Sep. 15th, 2007 06:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dsrtaoSomeone must have thought of this previously, but I'm not aware of it.
Let's say you have a technological base only slightly in advance of our own -- in particular, you can spend lots of money on engineering projects, but you don't have usable fusion as a power source. Here's a method that might work.
This technique is easier in freefall, but that's not actually required.
Start with a large stretchy balloon full of water. Very large. In the center, set off a fusion bomb. The balloon expands, as the water turns to steam. Water is a good neutron moderator, too. Now you have a large hot mass of gas under pressure. Let it out through a turbine-generator. Extract all the heat energy you can. If you don't have cheap supply of water. store the outflow in another balloon. You won't want to let it out, anyway, as there's probably a high degree of contamination.
Repeat as desired. Monitor the integrity of the balloon carefully.
Let's say you have a technological base only slightly in advance of our own -- in particular, you can spend lots of money on engineering projects, but you don't have usable fusion as a power source. Here's a method that might work.
This technique is easier in freefall, but that's not actually required.
Start with a large stretchy balloon full of water. Very large. In the center, set off a fusion bomb. The balloon expands, as the water turns to steam. Water is a good neutron moderator, too. Now you have a large hot mass of gas under pressure. Let it out through a turbine-generator. Extract all the heat energy you can. If you don't have cheap supply of water. store the outflow in another balloon. You won't want to let it out, anyway, as there's probably a high degree of contamination.
Repeat as desired. Monitor the integrity of the balloon carefully.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-15 12:02 pm (UTC)One megaton is about 10^22 ergs, and if you start off with water at about 10C, and elevate it to 205C (on average), you would need 5x10^19 grams of water to absorb the megaton of energy. This would require a starting radius of a little under 23 kilometers.
You'd probably need the entire balloon to be made of a good thermal insulator to give the whole contents a chance to mix and get up to temperature. Most of the contaminants would be pretty short lived. You'd have a few parts per trillion contamination from the bomb materials, and a little bit of Deuterium and Fluorine. I wouldn't use it for drinking.