What exactly is powering the temple?

McGuiness wrote:SPOILER????

We know from the textev that the Temple has robotic "servitors" that scrub the floors and most likely do whatever other chores and maintenance need doing. So whatever power source is used (and there may be more than one) we don't need to worry overmuch about maintenance. If some robots need to exist to keep the Temple's power sources running, then they exist!

I would imagine that's right, RFC will have worked all this out to his own satisfaction, given how much other background he has. Can you give a citation for the textev, or post it if short, I would be interested to re-read it but can't recall it just now. Thanks.

I have an idea. RTG's (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator) What if the temple was powered by these. The one that was described to me weighed 2.7 kg and generated 1500 watts of heat that can generate 100 watts of power.

saber964 wrote:I have an idea. RTG's (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator) What if the temple was powered by these. The one that was described to me weighed 2.7 kg and generated 1500 watts of heat that can generate 100 watts of power.

Two words: Half life.

Typical RTG fuels like Cobalt, Strontium or Cesium have half lifes of 5 to 30 years. After 1000 years, they'd only provide a fraction of the original output (from basically nothing to ~0.000001% of the original output).

clancy688 wrote:

saber964 wrote:I have an idea. RTG's (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator) What if the temple was powered by these. The one that was described to me weighed 2.7 kg and generated 1500 watts of heat that can generate 100 watts of power.

Two words: Half life.

Typical RTG fuels like Cobalt, Strontium or Cesium have half lifes of 5 to 30 years. After 1000 years, they'd only provide a fraction of the original output (from basically nothing to ~0.000001% of the original output).

And the the RTG that powers the movement of the crustal plates is easier to use. The Earth is a really big radio thermal generator, what else could power the heat that drives volcanic activity. Geothermal energy is just a few thousand orders of magnitude up up.

clancy688 wrote:

saber964 wrote:I have an idea. RTG's (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator) What if the temple was powered by these. The one that was described to me weighed 2.7 kg and generated 1500 watts of heat that can generate 100 watts of power.

Two words: Half life.

Typical RTG fuels like Cobalt, Strontium or Cesium have half lifes of 5 to 30 years. After 1000 years, they'd only provide a fraction of the original output (from basically nothing to ~0.000001% of the original output).

It depends on what isotopes you are using for sure. Plutonium 238 half life is 87 years but Americium 241 half life 432 years, and if you have enough shielding some isotopes can last thousands of years.

Hey, here's an out there idea: What if the Temple really is powered by the Holy Light of God?

After all, we know the Writ isn't ALL lies...

saber964 wrote:
It depends on what isotopes you are using for sure. Plutonium 238 half life is 87 years but Americium 241 half life 432 years, and if you have enough shielding some isotopes can last thousands of years.

And you need a shitload of that stuff. Am-241 supplies 0.139 W/g. And the longer living the isotope is, the smaller this number is likely to get.

clancy688 wrote:

saber964 wrote:
It depends on what isotopes you are using for sure. Plutonium 238 half life is 87 years but Americium 241 half life 432 years, and if you have enough shielding some isotopes can last thousands of years.

And you need a shitload of that stuff. Am-241 supplies 0.139 W/g. And the longer living the isotope is, the smaller this number is likely to get.

I agree that such a generator is possible. I was going to point out the SLOWPOKE reactors, some of which have run 40 years at constant neutron output and 20kW. Note that these are very small devices that are installed at *UNIVERSITIES*, often at the centre of a city (eg: UofToronto had one for 30 years, and UofT is in downtown Toronto, quite central, the 4th largest city in North America). To be honest, I've never understood why such a device wasn't installed under every hospital and army base, not to mention data-centres instead of relying on grid power.

But I don't think that's what was done, anyhow. If Merlin can be a walking, self-maintaining (micro) fusion reactor, I don't see why the temple cant have a few dozen micro-fusion reactors too, or maybe just one big fusion reactor. Maybe one of the reactors from the junked ships, so they wouldn't even need to build it. And of course, as has been said multiple times, geothermal would work for the temple just as well as it does for Owl.

MTO wrote:<snip>
And of course, as has been said multiple times, geothermal would work for the temple just as well as it does for Owl.

The problem with the power source being Geothermal is the waste heat vents the poor were sheltering on - geothermal systems use heat to produce power and don't produce "waste" heat, especially if they are very efficient (as we could expect TF technology to be).

This is not saying that Geothermal systems wouldn't be a good idea (especially for a structure designed to last millennia), but that it doesn't appear to match the description given.

Theemile wrote:The problem with the power source being Geothermal is the waste heat vents the poor were sheltering on - geothermal systems use heat to produce power and don't produce "waste" heat, especially if they are very efficient (as we could expect TF technology to be).

A geothermal system which uses the heat to boil a liquid, and then uses the resulting steam to power a turbine will produce "waste heat" as it would need to lower the working fluid's temperature before sending it back underground. I have my doubts about the turbines continuing to work for a 1000 years or more though ...

However that waste heat would be (IMHO) more prevalent during the summer months than winter, as during the winter you could use it to help heat the temple. I suspect the temple has adequate "mystical" ice rooms for preserving food, and it might even need "air con" during the summer months so maybe it's a trigeneration system?

Or the Terran Federation made thermocouples that where vastly superior to 20th century technology and the geothermal plan does a straight "hot fluid to electricity" conversion?