Re: Electric cars
- From: Jim Yanik <jyanik@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 11 Mar 2009 02:54:05 GMT
Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:45qdr4d9km7ariargstcr67nqnul5toatv@xxxxxxx:
On Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:29:27 -0400, Van Chocstraw
<boobooililililil@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
How many miles could an electric car go on a single charge with
plutonium batteries?. The Voyagers are still running on them.
How far can you go on a power source that delivers only about 300
watts? (Hint: 1 horsepower = 746 watts). The Voyager "battery" uses
thermocouples to produce the electricity. While very efficient, with
no moving parts it is very reliable.
The Voyager Pu-238 batteries use 11 kg of the toxic Pu-238 stuff.
Assuming 33% conversion efficiency, to build a 100 horsepower vehicle,
you would need 6,500 kg of Pu-238 using the same technology. Not
every useful. You would probably be better off using the heat to boil
water and power your vehicle with a steam engine.
Incidentally, 11 kg is very close to the critical mass for Pu-238, so
anything bigger would probably cause control and safety issues.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_mass>
<http://sti.srs.gov/fulltext/ms9900313/ms9900313.html>
Light reading:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Nucleon>
of course,that is only if you have the Pu in just ONE mass,instead of
dividing it into subcritical cells and summing the outputs.
BTW,a "battery" is a number of individual CELLS,
wired together for a higher output.
--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net
.
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