Centauri's Thoughts

Nuclear cores and heat transfer


Back in the 1970's, when we had an energy crisis (high oil prices), my father (among many) started to seriously consider alterative methods of energy production and use. This led my dad to build a rather large parabolic dish that tracked the sun for a daytime heating element.

Although he managed to build this 12 foot parabolic dish and have it track the suns course (accounting even for seasonal variation (earths tilt), the one big problem he had was how do you get water from liquid to steam for power when the water is only in the focal point for a short time? Even with that, there was obvious pressure issues as the water became steam, it pushed back against the original supply system.


While researching something else today (mass of a small nuclear reactor) I came upon a design of a reactor in a nice, digestable, picture. In this, the heat of the reactor is absorbed in a line of liquid sodium, which is pumped through the reactor, absorbing the heat, then the other side of this flow line going through a heat exchanger, where the heat in the liquid sodium then heats the water to steam in a secondary system. Once I saw this picture, the gears were turning. I thought, Maybe my dad could have used a two stage system like this. Maybe not *exactly* liquid sodium, but the whole idea of 2 steps in the same manner intrigued me, not only for an old 1970s project, but for some of the solar power projects I have been thinking of ever since (even the big space based ones).
The real choice in material has to do with operating temps and range within that material for a given liquid or gaseous state. (Freon performs this same function in a common refrigerator)


Glass


An hour show on discovery about glass and architecture fires the mind. Not only do they discuss glass-making, history, and show some nice uses in architecture and art, but they show a few other things which catch my attention. Things like changing the properties of glass (I knew some of these already), and coating the glass to make it essentially self cleaning (like a special Titanium Oxide coating that acts like permanent Rain-X (tm)

Even though Glass is *mostly* melted sand (SiO2 or Silicon DiOxide), there are at times other small amounts of things in it. Let us look at one variation: 24% Lead crystal. Believe it or not, that is real lead melted into the molten glass, then cooled and hardened. Quartz? Almost pure natures' glass - the difference being that quartz is crystalline in form, not liquid as glass is. The structure of glass is more like Karo's Syrup.. still a liquid in structure at the molecular level.
Speaking of crystals: add a few things to quartz.. and you have a few other things which you know as gemstones: Emerald, for instance, is Quartz and copper.

Cu(CH3COO)2 * 3 Cu(AsO2)2 for those chemically inclined. If you have ever seen copper turn green over time from exposure to the elements (copper rust LOL) then the green of emerald makes even more sense.