On 15/12/16 16:06, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Thu, 15 Dec 2016 15:38:46 +0200, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

On 15/12/16 15:33, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Thu, 15 Dec 2016 14:56:06 +0200, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Its Leonardo waiting for that Rotax engine. It might not turn up for
400 years. Or it might turn up tomorrow.

Nuclear fusion has been "just around the corner" since I started
reading science books in the 1970s.

Te point is, we don't have a suitable container.

We don't even know what a suitable container would consists of.

So we have no way of knowing when one might turn up.

Meantime, there's lots of worthwhile research to be done. Its like
building gliders that fly for 70 seconds, to get to understand
aeronautics, without actually having one that will rise off flat ground
without a tow.

And hoping that a lightweight engine turns up.

I've always wondered if there is a way to use nuclear power to generate
electricity directly ? Rather than all that faff with steam |(and the
associated inefficiencies).

yeah. Move plasma through a magnetic fed and it generates leccy.

Or you can use another working fluid than water in say a gas turbine,
followed by a steam turbine

It's amazing how much engineering just happens to work because of a
peculiar quirk in physics or chemistry, and that's the only way we have
to do....whatever...