this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] ThePyroPython@lemmy.world 136 points 1 week ago (4 children)

So a nucler reactor is just a kettle with an extra spicy heating element?

[–] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 80 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Yes. Water + spicy rocks. Everything else is solar power, which is also nuclear power, but with the spiciness in the sky instead.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 43 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Fun fact. Coal plants release more radioactive materials than nuclear plants.]

Except the ones that blew up. Those ones were extra spicy.

[–] chaogomu@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Except, even then, an average coal plant will release more radioactive material over its lifetime than Fukushima did.

It's just Chernobyl that you have to top. And even then there are coal plants that come close.

Now, it's not apples to apples. Coal plants release uranium and thorium. Not ceasium and strontium.

But yeah, never go swimming in a coal plant ash pit. For more than the obvious reasons.

[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 week ago

How many average coal plants per Chernobyl though. I suspect that number is surprising lower than the total number of coal plants.

[–] Robust_Mirror@aussie.zone 16 points 1 week ago (5 children)
  • Solar panels: Direct sky-spiciness to electricity conversion
  • Wind: Sky-spiciness made the air move
  • Hydroelectric: Sky-spiciness lifted the water up, gravity brings it down
  • Fossil fuels: Really old stored sky-spiciness from ancient plants
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[–] jagungal@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I mean, radioactive isotopes are formed in supernovae, so it's really just solar power from a different sun, right?

[–] _stranger_@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

it's spicy rocks all the way down.

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[–] darthelmet@lemmy.world 55 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Not spicy. Everyone knows nuclear power is lemon-lime flavored.

[–] ThePyroPython@lemmy.world 36 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Taste: slightly metallic, not great, not terrible.

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[–] gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Cherenkov: The blue raspberry of nuclear radiation

[–] ThePyroPython@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago (2 children)

That moment when you take a drag of your Blue Raspberry vape and the dosimeter next to you maxes out.

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[–] Klear@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)
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[–] Shiggles@sh.itjust.works 25 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Most power generation is just steam spinning turbines. Solar’s just weird. Wind cuts out the steam loop.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Reflective solar is normal at least. But photovoltaics are weird. Even weirder is that they’re LEDs backwards, and the fact that transistors just are like that is why they’re encased in black plastic

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[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 98 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Reminds me of the meme using the Donnie Darko psychologist template.

Donnie: I made a new form of power generation.

Psychologist: New or steam?

Donnie: Steam...

[–] Draegur@lemm.ee 18 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Steam implies water! What if we used some OTHER phase-change working fluid? :D

||(No idea what, though. my question is implied with a playful tone and is at least 50% facetious; any actual discussion that might result would be little more than a pleasant coincidence)||

[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You want to see weird water look up super critical boilers. That stuff was nasty. A regular steam leak will set things on fire. That stuff would explode a broom. We looked for the leaks with straw brooms. You can't see steam in normal conditions. Only its effects.

[–] Benjaben@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago (9 children)

Blech, I've heard stories in my industrial automation days of people being clipped by invisible high pressure steam leaks. No frickin thank you, regular stovetop steam jacks me up frequently enough.

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[–] chaogomu@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

Molten salt?

We can then use compressed CO2 in the place of steam to drive the turbine.

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[–] I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago (3 children)

The only truly new method of power generation we've made in the last 100 years has been photovoltaic cells. Everything else is just finding new ways to make turbines spin.

[–] antrosapien@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 days ago

That's just boiling water with extra steps

[–] aprl02@feddit.nl 1 points 6 days ago

That’s wrong statement

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[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 64 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

It was interesting realizing that a lot of our power is still, at its core, a steam engine

[–] mosiacmango@lemm.ee 34 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

We discovered a banger like 400 years ago and have held on tight until right about now with wind/solar/hydro.

Still going to be using them geothermal/fission/fusion for at least another 100 years though.

[–] Theoriginalthon@lemmy.world 26 points 1 week ago (6 children)

Hydro is just more dense steam, wind is less dense steam, it's steam engines all the way!

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[–] ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one 40 points 1 week ago (2 children)

This is reminds me of a quote from one of the Encased loading screens.

To paraphrase it "Power generation before was about turning a turbine with steam. Under the Dome we have this fancy technology that we use to.....turn a turbine with steam."

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[–] LegoBrickOnFire@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago (6 children)

They just found rocks that are naturally hot and boiled water with it... Engineering is a scam.

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[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 28 points 1 week ago (11 children)

Nearly all power generation comes down to boiling water to steam which spins a turbine.

I can only think of two common exceptions off the top of my head. Solar is an exception and Hydro power is an exception ironically, that usually uses the vertical difference and gravity to spin the turbine.

[–] davidgro@lemmy.world 26 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Wind turbines also.

But some solar does focus it on a tower to make steam to drive a turbine.

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[–] TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee 11 points 1 week ago

Yeah, who would have guessed that modernity was invented by someone who stuck magnets to a fidget spinner and strapped it to a boiler.

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[–] FauxPseudo@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago

Nuclear power is just steampunk with magic rocks.

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago (4 children)
[–] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

Errich, is the refrigerator running? This is Mike Hunt, and he's a rich.

[–] PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 week ago

Eric Bachman, this is your mother. You are not my son.

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[–] dalekcaan@lemm.ee 12 points 1 week ago (8 children)

~~Nuclear~~ power is just boiling water

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[–] RubberElectrons@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

There are some fusion designs that use direct energy conversion.

Some work went into fission designs as well.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_energy_conversion

[–] unlawfulbooger@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I heard that somewhere in the US there were parts of a nuclear power plant being delivered by steam train. So that’s basically one steam engine supplying another! (^^,)

I can’t seem to find an article about it anywhere, so it might be an urban legend :(

[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Big Steam is playing us for suckers!

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