News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Geothermal May Beat Batteries for Energy Storage by kansface on Tuesday October 11, 2022 @03:05PM (#33167724)
Doesn’t the nuclear heating happen regardless of us harnessing the energy or not?
Re:Geothermal May Beat Batteries for Energy Storage by Schroedingersat on Tuesday October 11, 2022 @06:56PM (#33170339)
Unenriched uranium will fission eventually, but you're talking trillions of years. In a fission reactor, the U238 atoms are placed close enough to a minority of U235 atoms and to each othekr that neutrons from one fission will trigger the next at a rate just short of running away exponentially.

There are some ore bodies that are concentrated enough to fission faster, but they are rare (and not the uranium that is typically mined for fuel).

Re:Geothermal May Beat Batteries for Energy Storage by pfdietz on Wednesday October 12, 2022 @07:12AM (#33175277)
The uranium undergoes alpha decay first. Alpha decay is not fission.
Re:Geothermal May Beat Batteries for Energy Storage by Schroedingersat on Wednesday October 12, 2022 @08:12AM (#33175787)
Yes, this is correct. Thanks.