Nuclear energy

Discussion in 'Chemistry' started by jaiii, Apr 15, 2012.

  1. jaiii Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    195
    Hi.

    If put into a container sub critical amount of U238 and the container filled with hydrogen.
    The particles emitted from uranium to create high-energy plasma ionized hydrogen?
    The plasma could be used as a source for electricity generation, or to start fusion?

    Thanks.
    By.
     
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  3. AlphaNumeric Fully ionized Registered Senior Member

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    The amount of ionisation wouldn't be high enough to generate electricity directly. The amount isn't cumulative because the electrons are still around. It's relatively easy to ionise Hydrogen, the issue with fusion isn't stripping electrons from Hydrogen, it's getting the Hydrogen nuclei (ie protons or Deuterium or Tritium) close enough to fuse. The ionisation energy of Hydrogen is 13.6eV (a Hydrogen atom at least), while the amount of energy a Uranium decay gives off is into the millions of eV, which is mostly in the form of kinetic energy of the decay products.

    It's more efficient to use the energy of the Uranium to heat water, which turns to steam, which drives a turbine (after using various transfer loops).
     
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  5. jaiii Registered Senior Member

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    And if they removed the electric voltage electrons and ions dragged rotating electric field with a frequency> 1GHz synthesis would be possible? Or combined use of heat energy to electrical mognetickou at high frequencies

    Thanks.
     
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  7. origin Heading towards oblivion Valued Senior Member

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    11,888
    The ions would just recombine. Radioactive substances like PU238 are used to directly produce electricity through heat generation with metals that have large thermoelectric properties.

    Thermoelectric generators
     
  8. jaiii Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    195
    Thank very much.
    I yust seekeng for small simple energy source for spaceship.
    By.
     
  9. river

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    17,307
    I recently whatched a program about fusion reaction , but only lasted 10sec.

    used 192 lazers foucsed on a pellet ( a pellet of what I can't remember )

    I think that fusion needs to be thought of as a system rather than " a " pellet to bring fusion into a lasting reaction

    so my question is

    why not build a cube of the pellets fed into the reaction or a sphere ?
     
  10. origin Heading towards oblivion Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    11,888
    That was a multi-million dollar expermiment to determine if that method should be investigate further. To understate the situation; controlled fusion in is not an easy thing.
     
  11. KilljoyKlown Whatever Valued Senior Member

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    6,493
    Those lasers work off capacitors that take time to recharge after every use. So you would need enough capacitors fully charged to rotate through until the ones that were discharged can be fully recharged. I'm not sure how many that would be, but I'm betting it's a lot. Also, I don't know how long the capacitors stay viable. If they have a fairly short life cycle that would create a reliability problem that would have to be provided for. After all that you still need to produce more power than you use.
     
  12. AlexG Like nailing Jello to a tree Valued Senior Member

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    The problem is not initiating a fusion reaction, the problem is containing it and controlling it.
     
  13. KilljoyKlown Whatever Valued Senior Member

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    6,493
    I would like to know how much time is needed between pellets to be fused. Like can they do one every minute or what?
     
  14. AlexG Like nailing Jello to a tree Valued Senior Member

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    I haven't looked, so I don't know. But, I would strongly suspect that there has never been more than one pellet fused. And that as soon as fusion began, the reaction was uncontrolled and died.

    You have to be able to contain the fusion reaction, and there is no material which can accomplish this. With laser fusion, (as I understand it), the lasers are aimed so that they provide equal containment force, but as soon as the fusion reaction begins, it fizzles due to containment failure.
     
  15. KilljoyKlown Whatever Valued Senior Member

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    6,493
    I was under the impression that the lasers provided enough energy to fuse the the complete pellet, but am not very clear on how the fusion energy is collected for use. Sounds like for now it's just going to waste and then they take a lot of time setting up for the next pellet.
     
  16. jaiii Registered Senior Member

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    195
    Thank you for discussion. I am very interesting to Thermoelectric generators .
    Problem is only that I need weri high electric power for create strong magnetic and electric power.
     
  17. jaiii Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    195
    I think this is fusion .

    Can you eplain please how ca I get thermal energy from this materials in thermal generators ?
     
  18. origin Heading towards oblivion Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    11,888
    No, that is not right. Fusion is when two atomic nuclei are fused. In that instance 2 elements become another element. Like hydrogen becoming helium.

    Ionization only has to do with the electrons. For instance a florescent lamp uses electrical current to strip the electrons from the atoms in the gas filed tube and create a plasma. When the current is turned off the electrons quickly return to their orbitals around atoms in the gas.

    Radioactive materials can give off heat as a result of their decay. For the plutonium example the heat comes from alpha decay. The Pu emits an alpha particle, which is a helium nucleus (2 protons and 2 neutrons), at extremely high speeds; a sizeable fraction of the speed of light. The postively charged high velocity particle causes massive secondary ionizations, this results in the material increasing in temperature. The effect of one decay is negligable but when millions are occuring the temperture increase can be significant.

    I happen to have 2 thermoelectric generators in my home. They are in my gas fireplaces. There is a pilot light that heats a thermoelectric piece of metal, the current produced is high enough to run a thermostate and operate a solenoid valve opens and shuts based on the thermostate. Pretty cool, huh an electrical device that works without any external electicity.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  19. jaiii Registered Senior Member

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    195
    Thank very much.
     
  20. origin Heading towards oblivion Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    11,888
    Your welcome
     
  21. Walter L. Wagner Cosmic Truth Seeker Valued Senior Member

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    2,559
  22. jaiii Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    195
    Hi.

    In its last reply to you say about ionization.
    It means that to create a stream of electrons that can be used for other purposes?

    Thanks veri much.
     
  23. origin Heading towards oblivion Valued Senior Member

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    11,888
    The easiest way to produce a large number of electrons in a stream is with an electron gun. These are found in the old style CRT television sets. The electrons are produced by heating an element to the point that loosely held electrons are emited the electron beam is acclerated and focused in an electiric field.

    Electron Gun.

    DO NOT try and investigate an electron gun from a television!!

    Even after the television has be unplugged for a considerable amount of time there are capacitors in the television that could discharge and KILL YOU.
     

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