From: "Frederick Sparber" > Look up the Russian "Topaz" Thermionic Converter space power system http://www.kiae.ru/eng/inf/tex/t6.html > You are hitting all around it. :-)
> That technology transfer was conducted in this area in the early to mid 90s. > They had a Topaz on display at the National Atomic Museum here. a beautiful piece of engineering. http://www.atomicmuseum.com/ Yes, but unfortunately it was just a TIC diode and rather inefficient... except, I suppose, compared with everything else they could have used in space. IOW it would not replace steam conversion for terrestrial use - side-by-side, and that is what is needed for the future. Most of the problems with fission revolve around the steam cycle and/or fuel enrichment, one way or another. I am told that those cooling towers alone cost $400 million apiece, and many plants have three or four. I wish someone back in mother Russia had at least tried the multipactor tetrode, before their fascination with nuclear technology went out with the wormwood, so to speak ... but. alas, it is conceivable... admittedly, that some of the hype today about Farnsworth and the very high multipactor efficiency is just a form of Tesla-esque nostalgia - IOW an extreme form of misplaced hero worship... I have spent about a full day in the Cal engineering library looking through dusty journals to try to find one bona-fide peer-reviewed article about the press-reported efficiency of the multipactor... but came up empty. The same would be even more true about almost any of the present day Tesla claims. Jones
