I have glimpsed the future and it must work!

Curly Judge

Firstly...Hands up... I am an unapologetic exponent of nuclear power.
I cannot see anything else getting us out of our current, energy deficit, mess.
Renewables are merely a scam proposed by charlatans and latched on to by well meaning but deluded wishful thinkers.
Even if renewables could fill the power [grid] requirements of a country we would be still left with the problem of transport and how to fuel it.
Battery technology may in time evolve to make the small family saloon a viable option but I cannot see it powering a heavily laden 16 wheeler or a large cargo ship, or for that matter an Airbus A380.
The only light I can see, on a far away hill, is Hydrogen!
It is not without it's problems of course but it at least has the potential to replace oil as a fuel source.
High temperature nuclear reactors, operating at above 800 degrees C, running night and day at full capacity - and producing hydrogen by high temperature electrolysis - might, just might, work.
The investment will be enormous, just as the investment in building oil refineries was/is enormous, but nature gives up energy only very grudgingly and so the price, whatever road we choose, will be considerable.
So, there you have it!
Genearation IV nuclear reactors combined with hydrogen fuel cells is the way to go.
Any takers?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_IV_reactor

Capt'n Midnight

Curly Judge wrote: »

Firstly...Hands up... I am an unapologetic exponent of nuclear power.
I cannot see anything else getting us out of our current, energy deficit, mess.
Renewables are merely a scam proposed by charlatans and latched on to by well meaning but deluded wishful thinkers.
Even if renewables could fill the power [grid] requirements of a country we would be still left with the problem of transport and how to fuel it.
Battery technology may in time evolve to make the small family saloon a viable option but I cannot see it powering a heavily laden 16 wheeler or a large cargo ship, or for that matter an Airbus A380.
The only light I can see, on a far away hill, is Hydrogen!
It is not without it's problems of course but it at least has the potential to replace oil as a fuel source.
High temperature nuclear reactors, operating at above 800 degrees C, running night and day at full capacity - and producing hydrogen by high temperature electrolysis - might, just might, work.
The investment will be enormous, just as the investment in building oil refineries was/is enormous, but nature gives up energy only very grudgingly and so the price, whatever road we choose, will be considerable.
So, there you have it!
Genearation IV nuclear reactors combined with hydrogen fuel cells is the way to go.
Any takers?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_IV_reactor

Nope.

They still haven't got a single generation III reactor debugged. So generation IV is still fantasy.

Fuel elements would be a nightmare.
One the reasons current reactors can't achieve high temperatures is because the fuel expands (look up allotropes)
The metals react with both oxygen and hydrogen ( and the hydrides react with oxygen and the oxides react with hydrogen )


Even if it works and you get hydrogen , and it's cheaper than photolysis for the whole life of the plant - can't see that happening - you still have the problem that Hydrogen has an extremely low energy density. Not only is it the lightest gas known it's also the leakiest by virtue of it's small size. It takes a lot of energy to liquify it and then it's the lightest liquid known. To store it as a liquid you need to keep it at a cosy -253C.

An aircraft uses up to it's own weight in fuel. Using hydrogen would save a lot of weight so you would only need 4 times the exiting tank volume. so you would need a fuel tank as big as the existing fueslage.

Again hydrogen will probably be got by photolysis.