Well, it could've been radioisotope batteries, that convert the decay into electricity either through a thermoelectric generator or directly through a semiconductor, but then we realised that would mean ordinary people carrying around radioactive materials in everything and that's not very safe.
literally the same concept as steam power with coal except rather than burning harmful shit and pumping it into the air it’s just… hot by itself, more or less. and it boils the water for as long as it is hot, and when it’s no longer hot enough, you can take the residual material and bury it deep enough and securely enough where it continues to not cause harm. this is deeply paraphrased, but more or less true.
lol. It seems so simple and silly right? That’s it. All the complexity and science of nuclear power is mainly around how to control and safely maintain the generation of sufficient heat to make lots of steam. The heat generated by the “rocks” themselves isn’t enough to make much more power than you might use for small electronics and such. To get the heat required for mass steam production you are trying to create a chain reaction of nuclear fission or (aspirationally) fusion. As long as the balance is maintained that reaction is self sustaining until the nuclear “fuel” is used up. To get that reaction is complex and if you are too conservative it doesn’t work and too agrees Ive it is a nuclear bomb basically. Steak itself can be very dangerous. Of course it is hot and wet- dangers to humans and hard on machines and materials like metals that can melt or corrode- but to do work steam must be under pressure. Steam pressure explosions can be quite powerful. The blast at Chernobyl and..
In most nuclear power disasters with breaches (explosions) hasn’t been a nuclear blast- its steam. The steam pressure is enough to lift and throw many hundreds or tons of material and break buildings apart. So you must manage the nuclear reaction and control systems as well as manage the steam, maintain the components and regularly inspect for deterioration in the hot humid conditions and high pressures and if you let your reaction get too hot you can end up with an explosive amount of pressure the system can’t contain. But- for most of human history and into the modern day, the physical generation and use of power, the lynchpin of our technology is basically… the circle. Even sillier than the idea of hot rocks- most of the technological world runs on circles.
“Power” doesn’t really exist In that cartoon sense. As we understand and are capable of using it, physics requires conversion of energy. Most brakes on cars and vehicles converts kinetic energy- movement- into heat, the car stops not because the brakes “grab” the spinning drum/rotor/etc and stop the wheel- the wheel stops because it’s kinetic energy has been turned into heat because of the friction between the touching surfaces. Electricity “flows” akin to water in simple terms, amperage is like the “pressure” we could say. Alone it doesn’t really do much work- we have to take that electricity and apply it in some way that we can covert other types of energy from it and use those to do work. The resistance of electricity can generate heat- your toaster or an electric space heater or hair drier are possible examples where we convert that “flow” into heat energy. Converting electrical energy into kinetic energy we can use is slightly more complicated.
For that purpose we usually use a common electric motor. There are different types but to keep it simple, a shaft is spun using a magnetic field. The electrical energy is converted to change the strength of the magnetic fields in the motor so the shaft spins and one magnet pulls more strongly and so forth then the shaft spins and that spinning can be translated to work. If you do not apply electricity to the motor but instead spin certain types of electric motor shafts using another force, the motor instead generates electricity. Hooking such a device up to some sort of engine or such that can spin the shaft creates electricity from kinetic energy. This is a basic version of how things like wind turbines and hydroelectric power work- the blades of a turbine are spun by wind or water flowing over them and they are attached to a giant “electric motor” aka generator which as it spins, converts that kinetic energy to electricity. A home power generator generally uses fuel like gasoline…
.. or diesel to power an internal combustion engine- usually a reciprocating piston engine though rotary engines and other types are used- they basically all are examples of the circle at work.
The explosions from combusting fuel create shock waves- pressure- in a sealed chamber. That pressure pushes against a surface- in a common reciprocating piston engine the piston face is pushed “down” by the explosion and sits on a shaft that is lobed or eccentric- designed so that as the piston moves straight “up and down” the shaft is spun. The explosions cause pistons to move which spins the shaft and that shaft can be used to do work. If you couple that shaft to a generator (“electric motor”) so that the motor shaft is spun. That then makes electricity. Coal and other “fossil fuel” power sources can be used to generate energy this way too- but steam is very common. When we convert one type of energy to another there is almost always loss. When you burn fuel to power an engine the engine..
.. doesn’t convert 100% of the energy of that combustion into work. This is why engines get got- a certain amount of energy is lost to heat. Steam systems can be very efficient- you can capture the thermal energy and some is lost to conservation as the cooler surrounding air or medium and any piping etc. between the steam system and the air is heated, but you can get it to a very efficient point where most of your energy is being used to convert into steam.
Steam is relatively simple to work with and can be made with abundant water. Of course steam occurs in nature but isn’t super common away from where heat and ware meet like some volcanoes or is not sufficient for pressurized power generation- like the steam rising off a wet rock on a sunny day. To create large amounts of high pressure steam anywhere on demand we generally need a heat source to evaporate water.
Fire from combustion is one way, and nuclear fusion or fission are other ways. Various materials have their strengths and weaknesses as well as considerations.
But the circle tends to be the basis. Circular turbines for capturing kinetic energy to turn to electricity and then circular machines to translate that to work.
Pumps and flywheels and motors and such. The efficiency and mechanical advantages and practicality make the circle a go to for turning energy into work in the physical world. Gears and pulleys and flywheels that store energy- the backbone of machines. Wheels to provide or facilitate movement, wheels to turn tracks or belts to move and so on.
So power generation and the generation of work are actually, like many things, almost laughably simple- but making it work is the part that gets complex. If it were that simple such machines would grow on trees.
Although- here is a fun fact. We do have evidence that suggests very strongly that natural nuclear reactors have formed on their own at various times!
The basic materials for a functional reactor- though perhaps not the best or highest output reactor- occur in nature. Caves have been found with the remains of fission products and other evidence that we only know to be produced by certain events such as nuclear fission. A combination. Of the presence of sufficient fuel and fissionable materials along with just the right amount of ground water entering the cave and acting as a moderator has allowed for sustained nuclear fusion to take place completely independent of humans! So that’s kinda neat- however these naturally occurring fission reactions can’t REALLY be called power plants or generators as to our previous discussions they didn’t posses the means to convert the heat or other effects of fission into targeted work or electricity.
It’s still sort of fun though to know that even something like nuclear fission which is considered relatively advanced science is something that can happen completely by accident. There are also certain organisms that thrive on radiation and evenThose which use relatively strong natural radiation to as a source of energy or regulation for metabolic and physical processes. Technically most life on earth including humans survives in irradiated conditions- there is a natural background radiation from the cosmos and all the radiation sources on earth. Because it is difficult to create sizable areas with almost no radiation, and because it is effectively almost impossible to create a space where there is NO radiation at all, we actually don’t really know how many organisms including people might get along without any radiation at all. It may be that we need some small amount to be healthy or that without some small amount we might not be able to regulate.
The explosions from combusting fuel create shock waves- pressure- in a sealed chamber. That pressure pushes against a surface- in a common reciprocating piston engine the piston face is pushed “down” by the explosion and sits on a shaft that is lobed or eccentric- designed so that as the piston moves straight “up and down” the shaft is spun. The explosions cause pistons to move which spins the shaft and that shaft can be used to do work. If you couple that shaft to a generator (“electric motor”) so that the motor shaft is spun. That then makes electricity. Coal and other “fossil fuel” power sources can be used to generate energy this way too- but steam is very common. When we convert one type of energy to another there is almost always loss. When you burn fuel to power an engine the engine..
Steam is relatively simple to work with and can be made with abundant water. Of course steam occurs in nature but isn’t super common away from where heat and ware meet like some volcanoes or is not sufficient for pressurized power generation- like the steam rising off a wet rock on a sunny day. To create large amounts of high pressure steam anywhere on demand we generally need a heat source to evaporate water.
But the circle tends to be the basis. Circular turbines for capturing kinetic energy to turn to electricity and then circular machines to translate that to work.
Pumps and flywheels and motors and such. The efficiency and mechanical advantages and practicality make the circle a go to for turning energy into work in the physical world. Gears and pulleys and flywheels that store energy- the backbone of machines. Wheels to provide or facilitate movement, wheels to turn tracks or belts to move and so on.
So power generation and the generation of work are actually, like many things, almost laughably simple- but making it work is the part that gets complex. If it were that simple such machines would grow on trees.
The basic materials for a functional reactor- though perhaps not the best or highest output reactor- occur in nature. Caves have been found with the remains of fission products and other evidence that we only know to be produced by certain events such as nuclear fission. A combination. Of the presence of sufficient fuel and fissionable materials along with just the right amount of ground water entering the cave and acting as a moderator has allowed for sustained nuclear fusion to take place completely independent of humans! So that’s kinda neat- however these naturally occurring fission reactions can’t REALLY be called power plants or generators as to our previous discussions they didn’t posses the means to convert the heat or other effects of fission into targeted work or electricity.