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0 pointsnickhalfasleep8y ago0 comments

An RTG uses the Seebeck effect, which gets you microvolts per degree kelvin. A Stirling engine can theoretically extract many times more energy from the same temperature differential, but with a larger complexity.

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jessriedel8y ago

Actually, when I mentioned thermoelectric conversion I wasn't referring to an RTG (which is just nuclear decay) but rather to the true nuclear reactors that the Soviets put in space:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romashka_reactor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOPAZ_nuclear_reactor

They used thermoelectric conversion rather than a Sterling engine with moving parts (although I guess TOPAZ is technically "thermionc coversion").

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0 pointsnickhalfasleep8y ago0 comments

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jessriedel8y ago

Actually, when I mentioned thermoelectric conversion I wasn't referring to an RTG (which is just nuclear decay) but rather to the true nuclear reactors that the Soviets put in space:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romashka_reactor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOPAZ_nuclear_reactor

They used thermoelectric conversion rather than a Sterling engine with moving parts (although I guess TOPAZ is technically "thermionc coversion").

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse