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
Energy isn’t real. It’s very similar to money and is used for accounting. Like for dropping something and measuring the value m x g x h of something dropping down by a height h you find that it equals to the final 1/2 x m x v^2. That’s all. It’s a conserved quantity sort of like money. You can trade 3 ferraris for a big house. You can trade an mgh for a 0.5mv^2 . But the ferrari is not money and the house is not money and the ferraris is not house. It’s just accounting.
In reality to get electricity you want a moving electric field. To get that you want a moving magnetic field. To move a magnetic field continuously you want it to rotate. To rotate something you want a reaction fluid to push it. To get the fluid to a high temperature and pressure to be able to push a turbine you need to heat a fluid. Fusion gives off lots of heat.
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