General > General Technical Chat
Russia and China to Build a Nuclear Plant on the Moon.
strawberry:
vacuum tubes can radiate some IR ~20W heat but it is not enough to radiate more power per volume
need direct anode cooling heatsink fins or water cooling for power TX tube >100W
probably reactor will melt if sun shines effectively onto such IR radiator
dcbrown73:
So, People are I believe already building Thorium-based molten salt reactors that basically are manufactured in what amounts to a shipping container. Some people think they can be the future of nuclear reactors for all. Each house subdivision has it's own energy supply. Instead of street side transformers, you have street side Thorium-based molten salt reactor powering the neighborhood. That could eliminate the need for electrical grids and remove all the risk that they pause to greater communities.
So, why build one if you could just deliver one already built? :)
Obviously, I'm no nuclear scientist, but if this is the future. Why would you ever attempt to build a reactor on the moon? Well, unless it's weight or something else makes it not practical to deliver / use. Melt down shouldn't be a problem since molten salt reactors operate in a meltdown state!
dcbrown73:
--- Quote from: strawberry on April 26, 2024, 12:37:03 pm ---probably reactor will melt if sun shines effectively onto such IR radiator
--- End quote ---
A heat shield would fix that. The James Webb Telescope has a heat shield. It's -452F (-269C) in the shade and 752F (400C) on the hot side that faces the Sun.
CatalinaWOW:
--- Quote from: dcbrown73 on April 26, 2024, 05:29:20 pm ---
--- Quote from: strawberry on April 26, 2024, 12:37:03 pm ---probably reactor will melt if sun shines effectively onto such IR radiator
--- End quote ---
A heat shield would fix that. The James Webb Telescope has a heat shield. It's -452F (-269C) in the shade and 752F (400C) on the hot side that faces the Sun.
--- End quote ---
The Webb heat shield benefits from being a long ways from anything else, so the cold side effectively sees the cold sky everywhere. A shield over a reactor on the lunar surface would stabilize to the temperature of the lunar surface, which would in turn be set by thermal conduction from the subsurface layers. Somewhere around 300K.
But in any case radiating the heat from a reactor is just an engineering problem. A heat pump can raise the hot side temperature above any local temperature and radiate the heat away. Adds weight and complexity and reduces net power available, but doesn't violate any physical laws.
strawberry:
dont know some say that earth could be overheated by sun if didnt radiate excess heat to space
energy conservation law
maybe some fraction converts into kinetic energy
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