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Is there a way to convert radiation from atomic decay into energy directly, the same way we do sunlight with a solar cell?
(lemmy.dbzer0.com)
Couldn't we have a lead box lined with these radiation to electricity converters with a small amount of radioactive material in the center, and have an energy generating device that would last for thousands or even millions of years? Imagine putting the sun in a box lined with solar cells, but on a much smaller scale.
Is there a reason this wouldn't work?
On of the fusion reactor designs works this way. Sorta.
The reactor creates a magnetic field, then fusion happens, creating a magnetic (or electric… iono. Not a nuclear engineer) field flux in the same coils that created the initial field. Fusion stops, then the flux is ‘harvested’ somehow to generate electricity directly. Then the field is primed again, and fusion happens again. It’s pulsed and happens 60-100 times a second.
I think the company working on this is called Helion.