WIth all this news about nuclear power and stuff I was thinking about the technology.

It's actually still pretty basic. Heat up water - create pressure - turn a turbine with magnets in - induce current.

The only bit that really changes is what you use to heat up the water.

Surely there must be another way of getting electrical energy out of raw mateirals that hasn't yet been exploited? Something like a battery but more advanced/efficient?

Hydrogen fuel cells for a start. One day we'll figure out zero point energy then all of this will be moot .

Ah yes, I just thought of hydrogen fuel cells whilst typing and photovoltaic cells. (Although solar panels are not exactly the same thing as the energy comes from the sun).

I wonder if there is a way of using something other than hydrogen to get the same (but a greater) effect?

Yes but the point is hydrogen is easy to find in massive quantities. If the periodic table is the best guide, we already use the obvious alternatives in batteries anyway; Lithium and Sodium for example. However IIRC hydrogen fuel cells are pretty damn powerful things - Top Gear showed a fuel cell powered bike in which the power cell was about the size of a laptop computer and claimed it could happily power your entire house.

Jon

Trouble is it gives off water vapour which contributes to the thing called 'global warming'.

Personally I think underwater turbines taking advantage of tidal currents are underrated, a constant source to drive the turbine and produce electricity unlike the wind which is dependent on the weather so the output is so variable.

Water vapour can be condensed at negative cost, unless you're in a plane. That is what condensing boilers do for example, and it increases their efficiency compared to dumping hot vapour into the air.

Think where the hydrogen came from anyway. If it's derived from fossil fuels, then burning the fuels would generate the exact same amount of water. If it's from renewable sources, then it's actually made from water in the first place.

Even if water vapour is released into the atmosphere, the effect is localised and only lasts for about 2 days. It then condenses out naturally, much of it in Manchester as rain. Apparently over 100 tons of rain falls on the world every hour of the day for every man, woman and child alive. How much waste water vapour do you think a fuel cell could release?

The other greenhouse gasses are very different because there is not such a vast natural cycle. There is a carbon cycle, but that's kinda broken because we chopped down all the forests...

Thorium reactors would appear to be the way forwards, IMHO.

In the medium term (ie 20 - 100 years) you're probably right. The reliability of current nuclear (as oppsoded to wind/solar etc), the environmental friendlyness of current nuclear (as opposed to CO2 etc from oil and gas) without as many nasty left overs as current nuclear.

They're doing trhis alraewdy in Norway, I heard a report this morning that a scottish island plant is to be built-powering the community and about 14 distillaries

Steam engines in ships are able to get more strokes out of one cylinder of steam by super heating it and letting it condense and expand. It was all to do with conserving fuel.

The problem, as noted here, is that we are using steam engines to generate power. I’m not sure if there is a solution as I can’t easily picture something that doesn’t involve steam and turbines. However, I have to ask if we need massive generators on that scale. If we could micro generate, then we could be self-sufficient, or at the very least the immediate neighbourhood could be. Maybe we are too hung up on the idea of mahoosive power stations to do all the work.

Those sea turbines going in under the sea in Scotland will power 5,000 homes. I like that idea - not just from the use of wave power, but because it’s a smaller system.

What happens when there's no flow of water when the tide is turning? No power?

Tides are predicatable, but inherently variable.

but still pretty much a constant source of power, so long as the moon keeps orbiting us anyway.