Rising Fuel Prices

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

That would be the issue with this type of reactor, they are boring

The wind turbines are quite boring to simply look at. A hydro powerplant and a coal-fired one have much more things to look at, including the scenic view at the lake in a hydro (and eventually some leisure activities such as fishing, eating fried fish, boating, whatever makes some good use of the lake), or the less strict access to most parts of a coal-fired plant compared to a nuke. Let's suppose a nuke and a coal powerplant have the same size on the outside, one would be able to see more of the coal powerplant than the nuke, as it's supposed to have less hazards.

[freebeard]

http://www.citygirlgoeswest.com/2017...oulee-dam.html

A big room full of big stuff.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by freebeard

A big room full of big stuff.

Big stuff with lots of moving parts, to give a much more visual experience than a tightly-sealed container and a few pipes.

[freebeard]

I've been there. It hums like the a Starwars spaceship.

[Hersbird]

There is a pretty good little nuclear power museum in Arco Idaho. Arco was the first town powered by nuclear although just for an hour or so in 1955. The museum had radiation detectors and radioactive sources you could learn about distance and shielding. That along with time are the 3 factors that can make radiation safe. They even had a air force prototype power plant sitting in the parking lot that was to see if a flying nuclear reactor would be possible. Spoiler alert, it didn't seem feasible at least in the 60s.

Also near Arco is Craters of the Moon national monument. The real reason we went there. Very cool landscape of lava flows and tubes from the Yellowstone supervolcano. Even when it's 110 degrees out in August the lava tube caves still have ice floors because of the amazing insulation of volcanic rock.

Now there's a power source to tap, a supervolcano. And if we could drain the energy off so it never erupted again then that's a real humanity saving effort.

Found a video of the museum
https://youtu.be/YPxAxBul1BI

[redpoint5]

I used to think the earth's molten core was due to residual heat from the insulation of thousands of miles of matter and tidal forces from the moon, but recently learned it's mostly heated by thorium decay. Apparently core heat is quasi renewable (considering we call the sun renewable).

[MeteorGray]

[QUOTE=Hersbird;659296]

"Now there's a power source to tap, a supervolcano. And if we could drain the energy off so it never erupted again then that's a real humanity saving effort."



That thought occurred to me as well: How great it would be to have constant, reliable and massive heat source to make steam for power generation forever and save the planet while doing it.

There have been thermal plants that utilize heat from beneath in the past, but I guess the technical obstacles involving a monster volcano are too much to handle?

[Piotrsko]

I dunno: how does one process the steam from dumping a major great lake into such a volcano? Firstly you have this conflagration which is in the mega tonnage, then all the ejecta that remains airborne causes global cooling, then the massive reformation of the local earth crust tending to mess up any structural thing.

[freebeard]

Volcanoes are dynamic. Maybe not the best location for expensive infrastructure.

Geothermal heat is pervasive. Some locations deeper than others.

[Hersbird]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

I dunno: how does one process the steam from dumping a major great lake into such a volcano? Firstly you have this conflagration which is in the mega tonnage, then all the ejecta that remains airborne causes global cooling, then the massive reformation of the local earth crust tending to mess up any structural thing.

Well just like any other steam power plant, the turbine generator side is always similar. It's the source of the heat that changes. Nuclear, natural gas, coal, that's the difference on the heat side, that heat boils water in boilers the steam is ran through a turbine that is connected to a generator and then through a condenser to turn it back into water that can be pumped back into the boiler to make steam again. The water is never "used", just recycled over and over. What changes is what is that heat source to boil the water. In nuclear's case it is just other water in a separate loop that is kept at a high pressure so it's very hot but won't flash to steam. With coal or natural gas it's a fire directly under the boiler. With molten rock I would think you would do something like the nuclear but run the primary high pressure, high temperature loop down into the lava pool and then use that superheated water to make steam. You might even be able to use a liquid metal in the primary loop like sodium for even more power. The USSR did that with some of their best submarines but the danger there is sodium will react badly with all the ocean surrounding them if there was ever a leak. Sort of a glass jaw for something designed for battle.