Alternative nuclear power

[vh]

i had this idea....

[Hellpotatoe]

Send this to China and they will say: We already made that....

[swonx]

No they will probably say (*translates...) AH! : 我們已經取得... (traditional)

[karakris]

You do not need to go Nuclear with this.
If you did, it would cost Megabucks - and you COULD Crack the Earth Open, maybe.

If you could have Super-Conductors which have extremely low electrical resistance at extremely high temperatures.

Lower a Thermocouple "Hot Junction" down the Hole - With the "Cold Junction " on the surface.
For useful amounts of Power - Megawatts or Gigawatts - it needs to be be a damn big Thermocouple.
Even better - drill down from Antarctica - much colder "Cold Junction", more Power.

More practical - pump Water down your Hole - get Super-Superheated Steam out of the top - use that in a Steam Turbinbe to Generate Many Gigawatts of Power.  It will still cost Megabucks, but maybe Safer.

[vh]

I doubt a nuke or even a few million nukes could do more than scratch the surface of the earth -- the gravitational binding energy of the earth; how much energy is pulling it together, is 2.2e23 J. In comparison, a 1 megaton nuke has 4e15 joules  of energy, only half of it goes into the blast. It would take over 100 million nukes placed in the most optimal position to destoy or crack the earth.

without the electronics and ballistic fuel/missile casing; a nuclear bomb could be created relatively inexpensively; perhaps mass produced for $1,000,000 per megaton. At this price, even if less than 25% of the energy was collected, electricity could be generated for 0.36 cents per kilowatt hour, a very low amount compared to conventional methods.

[swonx]

* swonx  Is thinking if somehow something went wrong...

[karakris]

Agreed - That would be a Horrible thought

There was a Sci Fi Novel which used that idea - The Earth cracking wide open.
Some of the Space Ships in transit got away - some did not.

Leaving enclaves of Humanity stranded on the Colony Worlds of Mars and Venus.

This was a 1950's Sci Fi Novel -
So Mars had Canals, and a People with a primitive culture, who venerated the Memory of the "Ancient Ones" who had Built the Canals and the Ruins on Mars.   A very placid and beautiful People.
And Venus was largely steaming Jungle - with furry two-legged Animals who were rounded-up and used as Slaves.  Not Nice at all.

[vh]

* swonx  Is thinking if somehow something went wrong...

Not much could go wrong as the nuke is under a kilometer of rock or more on all sides. If somehow the yield was many times larger than predicted the damage would still be negligible. There might be some radioactive fallout but we've done tons of nuclear blasts; above and underground, and the world hasn't ended yet. The nuke yield shouldn't be larger than expected anyways, this can be tested. The only way such a thing should happen is if a terrorist group gets ahold of a nuke and places it there; if that's the case there are more important things to worry about