On 23/01/2014 19:25, harryagain wrote:
"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
On 23/01/14 17:13, Tim Streater wrote:
In article , Nightjar
wrote:

On 23/01/2014 14:57, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 23/01/14 14:17, Nightjar wrote:
On 21/01/2014 11:17, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 21/01/14 09:33, Nightjar wrote:
...
OTOH, the Laser Power Systems thorium powered car might well be a
better
option than the ICE car, if they can sort out the engineering
problems
of utilising all the energy it can create. That really is a
technology
in its infancy.

Colin Bignell

More likely you will see nuclear powered freight haulers.

Where I would expect to see it first is in military vehicles. The
logistical advantages of never needing to refuel would justify
spending
lots of money on the development. I still want a nuclear powered car
though.

Umm. the problem with that is cooling pure and simple, shielding and
weight.

Its not hard to make a 20-50,000 bhp reactor. But air cooling it is
non
trivial.

And it still needs a lot of shielding if you are going to sit next
to it
all day.

The laser excited thorium reactor LPS are working on is a beta
emitter. To crash proof it for use in cars, they are fitting it inside
a 3" thick stainless steel case, which is heavy duty overkill
shielding for beta particles.

And you need some way to turn the heat into mechanical energy.

That seems to be the stumbling block ATM; creating a steam turbine
that will give enough power output while still being small enough to
fit into a car.

And what about the condenser?



well that is less an issue, sibce most cars dump 75% of the energy in the
actual radiators anyway.

a fan blown radiator gets rid of VAST amounts of heat.

And in fact a lot of gas power stations use similar these days to do the
condensing

It could be done with a flash steam boler, and then a secondary water
circuit running through radiators.

No water ever lost, only heat.

Been tried in the past and failed.

True of a great deal of technology, until somebody comes along and
figures out how to make it work.

Colin Bignell