neal@lynx.uucp (Neal Woodall) (08/29/89)
In article <1989Aug25.170058.6538@cs.rochester.edu> dietz@cs.rochester.edu.UUCP (Paul Dietz) writes: >In article <1910@crdgw1.crd.ge.com> oconnordm@CRD.GE.COM (Dennis M. O'Connor) writes: >>I believe Voyager uses one or more RTGs. RTGs contain a sub-critical >>mass of a fissionable material ( plutonium, I think ? ). The >>fission occuring causes the fuel to be hot. >No, the RTGs use Pu-238, which undergoes alpha decay, not fission. I read recently (in the Wall Street Journal maybe) about a company that wants to market a commercial RTG in the US! The design was their own, was based on decay of strontium 90, was the size of a large coffee can, and supplied 75 watts (no voltage/current given). It can supply power for about 25 years (even though the article did not say it, I am sure that the power by the end of the RTG's lifetime must be way down). And, the company wants to market a larger version in the future! They envision a larger version that will be about the size of a 5 gallon water container (like is used on a water cooler) and will produce about 300 watts! Now we are talking about some useful power! The article said nothing about the cost of such a device, but since it was in the WSJ, I would assume that the thing has some kind of viable life as a commercial product, IFF the NRC will allow the sale of them in the US. "Who would buy them", you ask? Well, how about survivalists, or people who live in very remote areas, or even people who are pissed off at the electric utilities (assuming the cost is not prohibitively high). I would buy one of the large ones if it were less than 2500 $ or so.....it would be a great way to power a VERY remote mountain retreat. I will try to find the article an post more details...... Neal
johns@calvin.EE.CORNELL.EDU (John Sahr) (08/30/89)
In article <6087@lynx.UUCP> neal@lynx.UUCP (Neal Woodall) writes: > >I read recently (in the Wall Street Journal maybe) about a company that >wants to market a commercial RTG in the US! The design was their own, was >based on decay of strontium 90, ... [] >[..]envision a larger version that will be about the size of a 5 gallon water >container (like is used on a water cooler) and will produce about 300 >watts! Now we are talking about some useful power! [] >"Who would buy them", you ask? Well, how about survivalists, or people who >live in very remote areas, or even people who are pissed off at the electric >utilities (assuming the cost is not prohibitively high). I would buy one of >the large ones if it were less than 2500 $ or so.....it would be a great way >to power a VERY remote mountain retreat. Why screw around with strontium? If you are willing to pay $2500 for 300 watts, solar cells can do that right now, including the batteries to get you through the night. Several outfits will sell you kits to do precisely this. "P"TG's are in use in the Cascade Mountains*, to power remote weather data gathering stations (rain, snow depth). They have some solar cell power as well, but people know what they are, and steal the panels. Not too many people know a "P"TG when they see it. "P" is for propane, by the way. *and probably elsewhere... -john -- John Sahr, Dept. of Electrical Eng., Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 johns@{alfven,calvin}.ee.cornell.edu, {rochester,cmcl2}!cornell!calvin!johns --When the dust settles, each B2 bomber will fund NSF for more than a year--