Could new RTG technology lead to a revival of the ‘car’?
By Sirhan Gupta,
ZI Sacramento Transport Writer
5 May 2050
You have seen it in movies from the turn of the century – the motor vehicle built for a family, but usually only driven by one person.
It’s a heresy today but back in the days of cheap energy and climate vandalism it wasn’t unusual to see two or more of these parked in the front gardens of the average suburban home, one for each member of the family.
And in these days of on-demand mass transit, is there any reason to think of the motor car as anything but a dinosaur?
Certainly the new concepts division at Yahoogle-GMH in Sacramento California thinks there is. And the secret is Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generation, or RTGs.
“People don’t realise it but 50 year old RTG technologies are still powering the Gallileo and Cassini space probes today, and operating at 80% of their original capacity,” said team leader Yin Hu.
“We have revisited the RTG technology which has basically sat undeveloped since the oil wars, because of the general taboo on all things nuclear.”
Hu is quick to point out the RTG does not use nuclear fission.
“RTGs use nuclear decay to generate heat, not fission. There is absolutely no chance of a meltdown or explosion from one of these things.”
RTGs take a nuclear fuel, usually plutonium, and using an array of thermocouples translate the heat from radioactive decay into electricity which can drive engines or computer systems.
“The RTGs in the Cassini probe were the size of a standing person, and weighed 150kg,” Hu said.
“Our prototype powerplant (ED: at this stage just a computer model) is the size of a home barbecue kettle, weighs 50Kg and can put out enough power to drive a half tonne vehicle at 50 miles an hour, for a hundred years.”
“It would mean a revolution in transport engineering,” Hu said. “Instead of replacing vehicles when they are obsolescent, power plant and all, you would have a removeable power plant that would go from vehicle to vehicle over time, whenever you upgraded – meaning people could upgrade more often, more cheaply.”
EnviroSceptics spokesperson Sanjiv Taylor Neilsen said he believed the announcement of the new concept project by Yahoogle-GMH was “unserious”.
“Most metropolises today have on-demand mass transit systems that mean a person can travel door to door from their home to their destination and only ever face a ten to fifteen minute waiting time between connections,” he said.
“They don’t have to think about how to get where they are going, they face almost no risk of personal accidents, they don’t have to worry about where to park and how much it will cost and they are sharing the energy cost with other travellers instead of having to carry the entire burden themselves.”
He said RTGs might have application for powering urban-rural transport networks but enzymatic engines were likely to remain the power plant of choice for these systems because of the continuing fear of abuse of nuclear power and technology.
“It is one thing to say that the RTG cannot explode or melt down, but it has a core of pure plutonium which could be used in so-called “dirty weapons” and it is highly irresponsible to even suggest a return to exploring nuclear technologies,” Taylor Neilsen said.
Veteran Sacramento Congressman, Mr Rodney King Jnr, warned ZI that he believes the Yahoogle-GMH proposal is just spin, intended to push legislators into approving their other major development proposal, the P-Mover 2055, by presenting a less attractive alternative.
“Y-GMH want to scare legislators into a corner by saying you can fund investment on this radioactive vote losing monster, or our obsolete but safe P-Mover 2055, the choice is yours,” Mr King said.
“I’ve spoken to the Mayors of New York, LA, Chicago and Baltimore and they are not interested in extending the P-Mover contract - they want new ideas, and they say Y-GMH is not offering them.”
By Sirhan Gupta,
ZI Sacramento Transport Writer
5 May 2050
You have seen it in movies from the turn of the century – the motor vehicle built for a family, but usually only driven by one person.
It’s a heresy today but back in the days of cheap energy and climate vandalism it wasn’t unusual to see two or more of these parked in the front gardens of the average suburban home, one for each member of the family.
And in these days of on-demand mass transit, is there any reason to think of the motor car as anything but a dinosaur?
Certainly the new concepts division at Yahoogle-GMH in Sacramento California thinks there is. And the secret is Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generation, or RTGs.
“People don’t realise it but 50 year old RTG technologies are still powering the Gallileo and Cassini space probes today, and operating at 80% of their original capacity,” said team leader Yin Hu.
“We have revisited the RTG technology which has basically sat undeveloped since the oil wars, because of the general taboo on all things nuclear.”
Hu is quick to point out the RTG does not use nuclear fission.
“RTGs use nuclear decay to generate heat, not fission. There is absolutely no chance of a meltdown or explosion from one of these things.”
RTGs take a nuclear fuel, usually plutonium, and using an array of thermocouples translate the heat from radioactive decay into electricity which can drive engines or computer systems.
“The RTGs in the Cassini probe were the size of a standing person, and weighed 150kg,” Hu said.
“Our prototype powerplant (ED: at this stage just a computer model) is the size of a home barbecue kettle, weighs 50Kg and can put out enough power to drive a half tonne vehicle at 50 miles an hour, for a hundred years.”
“It would mean a revolution in transport engineering,” Hu said. “Instead of replacing vehicles when they are obsolescent, power plant and all, you would have a removeable power plant that would go from vehicle to vehicle over time, whenever you upgraded – meaning people could upgrade more often, more cheaply.”
EnviroSceptics spokesperson Sanjiv Taylor Neilsen said he believed the announcement of the new concept project by Yahoogle-GMH was “unserious”.
“Most metropolises today have on-demand mass transit systems that mean a person can travel door to door from their home to their destination and only ever face a ten to fifteen minute waiting time between connections,” he said.
“They don’t have to think about how to get where they are going, they face almost no risk of personal accidents, they don’t have to worry about where to park and how much it will cost and they are sharing the energy cost with other travellers instead of having to carry the entire burden themselves.”
He said RTGs might have application for powering urban-rural transport networks but enzymatic engines were likely to remain the power plant of choice for these systems because of the continuing fear of abuse of nuclear power and technology.
“It is one thing to say that the RTG cannot explode or melt down, but it has a core of pure plutonium which could be used in so-called “dirty weapons” and it is highly irresponsible to even suggest a return to exploring nuclear technologies,” Taylor Neilsen said.
Veteran Sacramento Congressman, Mr Rodney King Jnr, warned ZI that he believes the Yahoogle-GMH proposal is just spin, intended to push legislators into approving their other major development proposal, the P-Mover 2055, by presenting a less attractive alternative.
“Y-GMH want to scare legislators into a corner by saying you can fund investment on this radioactive vote losing monster, or our obsolete but safe P-Mover 2055, the choice is yours,” Mr King said.
“I’ve spoken to the Mayors of New York, LA, Chicago and Baltimore and they are not interested in extending the P-Mover contract - they want new ideas, and they say Y-GMH is not offering them.”
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