Why can’t raw energy be stored or used but has to be transformed to heat or other forms and then be used for e.g. electricity?

Question

They explained how a power plant works in the Chernobyl mini-series. One part that got me thinking is how they use the energy from the fission to heat up that generate the steam which in turn run the turbin and give electricity (Correct me if i’m wrong).

What I don’t understand is why can’t the raw energy from the fission directly be used instead of going the whole cycle? What kind of energy is released from the fission and why can’t it be stored in a battery or capacitor-like thing?

In: Physics

Answer 1

Atomic batteries do exist which use charged particles like positrons(anti-electron), beta (high energy electrons) or alpha radiation (helium nuclei) to create current, but they are very inefficient. Most of the energy from fission is heat, so that’s what we use.