General Power Sources

[Timerover51]

I have been working on power sources for my sector, which would also work with the Traveller community at large. Going through Traveller 4 and also Traveller 5, it looks like the standard power unit is a cold fusion one, which also backs into Classic Traveller without it being spelled out quite as clearly. Now, for a cold fusion plant to work, without a large heat exchanger and power turbines to generate the electricity required, it means that there is some way in which the energy from fusion is converted with incredible efficiency to electricity without the needs of complex equipment. It also means that the plant is encased in some material that is essentially impervious to radiation from the fusion reaction.

If you look on Project Gutenberg in the science fiction area, there are several stories describing exactly such a situation, so this is not something coming out of nowhere. In addition, H. Beam Piper uses what he calls nuclear-electric power units, doing exactly the same thing with both fission power and straight radiation. I can work up a nice little fission reactor with a fair amount of power by using a mixture of reactor-grade Plutonium with a lot of Pu-240 and Uranium-238. If someone wants the details, I will post them.

As I see if, if the small cold-fusion plants work, then the nuclear-electric plants should work as well. This gives me two possible power sources. In addition, whatever field is being used to collect and generate power inside of those power units will make a great solar collector as well. Which leads to the collector on the ANNIC NOVA and other possibilities.

As I assume that the fusion power units will be using deuterium in some form, either as straight deuterium or storing it as heavy water or D2O. that also gives me a distinction between refined and unrefined fuel. Refined fuel is deuterium-based, with the unrefined fuel being mainly straight hydrogen. That can be used for the Jump Bubble, but deuterium in some form or another is used in the power plant. You can run the power plant on hydrogen as long as you start the reaction with deuterium, and it should not take a lot of deuterium to get things going. Maybe one or two kilograms. However, the power plant might not run exactly right, so the possibility of a mis-jump does occur, unless the plant is basically a multi-fuel one.

 

[tjoneslo]

Are you assuming Nuclear Damper technology exists?

If you are it would have a great effect on both nuclear fusion and fission. It will make the fusion easier to start and control, meaning it is less likely you will need deuterium to seed the fusion reaction.

It also means you have a regulator for your fission reaction, making them last longer and be more efficient.

For any fission plant I would look at using something other than weapons grade material. Thorium seems to be the new favorite fission plants and can't be turned into nuclear weapons.

 

[Timerover51]

Are you assuming Nuclear Damper technology exists?

If you are it would have a great effect on both nuclear fusion and fission. It will make the fusion easier to start and control, meaning it is less likely you will need deuterium to seed the fusion reaction.

I am not assuming that nuclear damper technology exists. I am already assuming that a system exists for the direct conversion of nuclear energy, either fission or fusion, exists, and with an incredibly high efficiency. I am also assuming that some means of shielding exists to keep these nuclear plants from killing all in the immediate area. My assumption as to the means by which nuclear energy is converted to electricity is the existence of an energy-absorbing screen such as carried by the ANNIC NOVA. Nuclear dampers are not mentioned in the LBBs, either edition, nor The Traveller Book or Starter Traveller. They get a very short mention in the Cepheus Engine as a Tech Level 12 technology. The highest Tech Level in my sector is 12, except for some "other" areas. I just do not feel that it is needed.

It also means you have a regulator for your fission reaction, making them last longer and be more efficient.

A fission reactor will continue to operate and produce power as long as a controlled reaction can be sustained, and as long as the fission by-products to not poison the reactive mass. I am not sure how nuclear dampers would increase either longevity or efficiency.

For any fission plant I would look at using something other than weapons grade material. Thorium seems to be the new favorite fission plants and can't be turned into nuclear weapons.

I am not sure where you get the idea that Thorium cannot be converted into weapons-grade material. Thorium is not naturally fissile, and cannot produce a nuclear reaction. To get Thorium into usable form for a nuclear reactor, you have to run a Uranium-Thorium breeder reactor to produce U-233 by neutron capture from Thorium-232. You then separate out the U-233 from the residual Thorium, and use that to fuel another Uranium-Thorium breeder. U-233 is quite fissionable, with a critical mass on the order of Plutonium-239. The U.S. and Russia, and I suspect India, have all made bombs from U-233.

I use reactor-grade plutonium, mixed with U-238, as it contains considerable quantities of Plutonium-240, which is a spontaneous neutron emitter, and makes putting together a bomb from the material a lot harder. It can be done, but you have to really know what you are doing or you are going to have a melt-down in the process. That is all I am going to say on the subject.

 

[kilemall]

Are you assuming Nuclear Damper technology exists?

If you are it would have a great effect on both nuclear fusion and fission. It will make the fusion easier to start and control, meaning it is less likely you will need deuterium to seed the fusion reaction.

It also means you have a regulator for your fission reaction, making them last longer and be more efficient.

For any fission plant I would look at using something other than weapons grade material. Thorium seems to be the new favorite fission plants and can't be turned into nuclear weapons.

Another direction in terms of established Traveller tech is gravitics. Perhaps you can light off or more readily control/maintain your fusion if you can recreate a small ball of stellar pressure.
Thermogenics is another direction, translating heat straight into electricity.
Some fusion reactions also generate electricity as a by-product.

I'm assuming early TL8 fusion is He³ and the later TL fusion is MCF (muon catalyzed fusion), with gravity assisting in both pressure maintenance AND muon generation.
Muon injectors are a major subcomponent, helping to develop portable particle accelerators which are then weaponized. MCF also makes portable fusion power for smaller vehicles possible.

Fission is not out of play IMTU, because there are legacy ships, doesn't require refueling for years and I assume a certain amount of power to start up fusion, more for He³ then MCF. So sometimes out in mission critical away from support applications, the startup power on tap of fission or say fuel cells is important, even if only to light off the main fusion plant.
For ships you could possibly assume an auxiliary power unit for startup built in to the standard power plant tonnage- or not.

 

[mike wightman]

And where do you conjure the muons from?

 

[kilemall]

A fission reactor will continue to operate and produce power as long as a controlled reaction can be sustained, and as long as the fission by-products to not poison the reactive mass. I am not sure how nuclear dampers would increase either longevity or efficiency.

Nuclear dampers are described as breaking nuclear weapon detonation by causing premature neutron 'shedding' as per LBB4. It allows manipulating the strong nuclear force, which is what allows dampers to both hold onto normally short half-life Californium into a mass driver nuclear round, and stopping regular nukes.


So presumably it could be built into a fission reactor and increase fission rates per second, generating more power (but burning through it faster too) and/or increase the stability of fissile fuel, preserving it better when not in use.


The technology of nuclear force manipulation could also explain major materials science advancements such as the superdense armors.

 

[kilemall]

And where do you conjure the muons from?

Look bunkie, if I had that answer I would be tooling around in a Type S not playing at it.

 

[whulorigan]

There is also the possibility of Proton-Boron Fusion, which is largely aneutronic (producing slow-moving He-4 as a byproduct) and which can be harnessed directly to produce a powerful magnetic field and electricity from resultant reaction products (which are charged particles).

The problem is that ignition temperatures are much higher that hydrogen and helium based reactions.

Recent research - Science Daily: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171213104941.htm

 

[mike wightman]

Look bunkie, if I had that answer I would be tooling around in a Type S not playing at it.

Great answer :rofl: :rofl:

I wonder if damper and/or meson technology can make muons in a way unknown to us today.

 

[kilemall]

There is also the possibility of Proton-Boron Fusion, which is largely aneutronic (producing slow-moving He-4 as a byproduct) and which can be harnessed directly to produce a powerful magnetic field and electricity from resultant reaction products (which are charged particles).

The problem is that ignition temperatures are much higher that hydrogen and helium based reactions.

Recent research - Science Daily: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171213104941.htm

Aneutronic fusion is a big desirable, have to tote around a lot less shielding and less risk in civilian/planetary settings. A typical tradeoff I have is CT/HG less tonnage, a Power Plant-4 creates PP-5 EPs, but with costly fueling.



I'm just assuming heat is as big or bigger a problem, not to mention the startup cost both as you say in energy and possibly exotic fuels.

 

[whulorigan]

I wonder if damper and/or meson technology can make muons in a way unknown to us today.

Not to get too far off-topic from Timerover51's OP, but according to T5 Muons are a byproduct of Meson technology (π ^± decay into µ^± and ν_µ before decaying to e^± and ν_e). Dampers could be used to keep the muons stable within the reaction chamber. The problem would be keeping the muons from binding to the helium product.

 

[willtron3030]

Fission is not out of play IMTU, because there are legacy ships, doesn't require refueling for years and I assume a certain amount of power to start up fusion, more for He³ then MCF. So sometimes out in mission critical away from support applications, the startup power on tap of fission or say fuel cells is important, even if only to light off the main fusion plant.
For ships you could possibly assume an auxiliary power unit for startup built in to the standard power plant tonnage- or not.

This is my take on it in IMTU. An RTG is used to cold-start the fusion plant with aid from the jump capacitors, and supplies emergency backup power for life support, and low berths.

 

[Timerover51]

Steam Power

There are quite a few planets in my sector where the Tech Level is 5 and lower, so their primary power sources are going to be powered by steam. I found the following quote in a treatise on naval architecture written for the students at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1868, that sums up the requirements nicely. Emphasis added.

Steam Navigation, or the propelling of a ship by steam, is effected by means of three great instruments. The source of the entire steam-power of a ship resides ia the boiler, and it is the power of this boiler to produce steam, which ultimately determines the entire question of the power and speed of the ship. Boilers, therefore, are the first consideration ia marine engineering.

The second part, is that which applies the steam made in the boiler to the purpose of producing mechanical motion, and forms what is called the machinery, or steam-engine. It is by the engine that the steam is turned to use and worked ; but engines accomplish their purpose better and worse; they all waste some steam in moving themselves, and not in moving the ship, some waste much steam, and do little work, others waste less steam, and do more work.

The third instrument of steam navigation, is that by which the ship is made to move. The boiler makes the steam, and the steam moves the engine merely, but not the ship. The engine has to move something which has to move the water, and which by moving the water, shall compel the ship to move.

The third instrument, the power train, can be replaced by things like electric generators turned by either a steam engine or steam turbine, or be connected directly to things like drive belts, as on a steam traction engine.

While the MegaTraveller Referee's Manual starts with Internal Combustion Engines, other add-on rules do include steam engines. They do seem to lack any consideration of how the steam engine gets the steam, however. They do have the steam engines using solid hydrocarbon fuel, which would be interesting to see.

The British 2nd Class Battleship HMS Renown had a 10,000 Indicated Horse Power steam plant, which simplifies into about a 7500 kilowatt plant. There were 8 fire-tube boilers supplying steam at 155 psi to the steam engines. There were four boiler rooms, two abreast of each other, with the length of the boiler rooms being 40 feet each. The engine rooms, of which there were two, divided by a centerline bulkhead (a very bad idea), and 44 feet long. The total length of this steam plant was therefore 124 feet, and occupied the greater part of the midsection of the ship. The total weight of the plant was 1,260 long tons of 2240 pounds, not counting water. Water would add about another 120 tons or so to the weight. The coal consumption, while steaming at 15.3 knots at roughly 60 per cent power, was 1.88 pounds per indicated horse power. She was completed in January of 1897, and represents a well-developed fire-tube boiler plant. The Royal Sovereign-class of battleships had a very similar power plant, and required an engine room complement of 138.

The information on the HMS Renown is taken from R. A. Burt's British Battleships 1889-1904.

 

[Timerover51]

Resurrecting my own thread. The following is a link to a booklet put out by the old U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. (The AEC was subsequently abolished by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 and succeeded by the Energy Research and Development Administration (now part of the U.S. Department of Energy) and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.) The booklet is the Direct Conversion of Energy. Basically, the booklet covers way of directly producing electricity for other energy sources.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/66033/66033-h/66033-h.htm

 

[Timerover51]

Another interesting U.S. Atomic Energy Commission book on Project Gutenberg, The Atom and the Ocean, from 1968. It has a nice write-up on a Strontium-90 isotope power generator powering a weather buoy in the Caribbean. There are a lot of drawing in the booklet.

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/66268/pg66268-images.html

The AEC book on the nuclear-powered Savannah, a civilian nuclear-powered ship. This has a lot of information on the pressurized water reactor of the ship.

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/63584/pg63584-images.html

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Groovy.

I like your introductory post, especially how you go from fission and nuclear-electric power systems to Collector tech based on the radiation capture for those systems.

 

[kilemall]

If one retains fission sourcing or only has that, then presumably the high value of radioactives in most Traveller speculation would make sense.



That would also mean possibly saving on the constant refueling part and maybe saving on that space or using it for a coolant loop, but one heck of a power bill once it's nuclear refueling time.


Don't forget neutron embrittlement.

 

[Condottiere]

That is dependent on endurance, because twenty five or fifty year refuelling cycles, and let's add solar panelling, makes it feel nearly infinite.

The fly in the ointment would be annual maintenance.

 

[Straybow]

"Cold" fusion doesn't mean "room temperature" fusion, but rather "not 30 million K" fusion. Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and inverse cyclotron conversion (ICC) both require at least a partial plasma (with correspondingly partial efficiency), something over 1200 K. A gas turbine can operate below 1200 K with decreasing efficiency at lower temps. Turning gamma rays into electricity is quite a trick as well, since you can't use photoelectric effect at that photon energy level.

 

[aramis]

"Cold" fusion doesn't mean "room temperature" fusion, but rather "not 30 million K" fusion. Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and inverse cyclotron conversion (ICC) both require at least a partial plasma (with correspondingly partial efficiency), something over 1200 K. A gas turbine can operate below 1200 K with decreasing efficiency at lower temps. Turning gamma rays into electricity is quite a trick as well, since you can't use photoelectric effect at that photon energy level.

Theoretically, you can make use of the X-ray sand gamma-rays generated to induce current via electron cascade... It's technically still photovoltaic effect, but it's different media and construction from optical/near UV/Near IR photovoltaics.