So I always wondered what is the issue that countries/companies do not look on manufacturing “mini” atomic generators?
I know that there exist small atomic generators maybe but they are like the size of a house or at least of a room.
Why not using e.g 10 grams or even 1 gram of uranium or any other suitable element to make really small generators that could fit e.g inside a bike or a small car?
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The power you generate depends on the geometry of the reactor elements. Each splitting Uranium atom fires off neutrons and you need those neutrons to fit other Uranium atoms for the reactor to keep running. The neutron direction can’t be controlled, because they have neutral charge, you have to have a Uranium atom that coincidentally happens to be in the right place. As a result, even for solid Uranium, you need a goodly amount – called a critical mass. That’s 52kg for U235 (the kind that’s hard to get). In a giant reactor, this isn’t a problem, but the atoms themselves don’t miniaturize.
You also need to consider that these reactors only generate heat, in a radioactive liquid. You’d need to extract that heat, hopefully without spilling any radioactive waste. That’s going to take pumps and pipes and “not going to fit on a bike” stuff.
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