Quote:
Originally Posted by mmartin798
I always try to find a way to scale technology like this with known quantities. If we can assume it scales linearly the prospects are good.
Using the only real numbers we have from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and some optimistic lithium-ion numbers the NDB is 23.8 times more energy-dense for the same weight. So if we use the Tesla battery pack as our reference at 85kWh weighing 540kg, an NDB of the same weight would generate 2MWh. Given that the densities of materials only be slightly higher, it would be about the same size.
The only possible problems are around the thermals. All the materials talk about maintaining the optimum temperature for the battery stack. The radioactive decay is constantly heating the stack. There may be a limit on how dense the cells can be packed, making the battery larger.
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I believe on the current lithium battery packs for cars, 20-30 percent of the mass of the pack is devoted to cooling. The heat being generated could be passively or actively dealt with using radiators or cooling systems. The down side is anyone with thermal tech would see you miles away. I am going to assume that if the MP were to use NDB technology they would have addressed or found a way to deal with the thermal/ cooling issues. there are many solutions to deal with the heat and even combined solutions. It comes down to scale and how much power a vehicle or device needs...
On a side note, I can also see NDB's being used for cryotubes as a power source as well. you dont need a big one and they are easy enough to incorporate into the design of a tube. The batteries then can be reused for other purposes such as portable generators.