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.