You make a good point Robin. My concept is to make one pebble first that has the characteristic that you wish and then to work on the complete system of them to end up with a good overall plan. For instance, if a coolant is flowing through a large number of them, it will extract heat from the group. I suspect that the geometry of the complete system can be played with so that all of them contribute to the net heat being extracted. This may require that coolant be injected along the container sides or other structures so that none of the pellets is over stressed.
I would not think that a big random pile of these devices would work properly due to problems with heat generation and extraction, but a good engineering plan should be able to solve the problems. I would assume that a nuclear reactor would face similar issues with their multiple fuel rod assemblies yet they seem to be able to operate properly. Perhaps one of our reactor experts can help with this issue. I am discussing a design of this type in response to the pebble concept mentioned by Axil. I am not biased either for or against that idea. Dave -----Original Message----- From: mixent <[email protected]> To: vortex-l <[email protected]> Sent: Thu, Jan 15, 2015 4:15 pm Subject: Re: EXTERNAL: [Vo]:TRISO LENR pellet In reply to David Roberson's message of Thu, 15 Jan 2015 10:18:27 -0500: Hi, [snip] >The amount of positive feedback can be adjusted by establishing the proper ratio of sphere surface area to volume. As the pellet becomes larger the surface area varies as the square of the radius. At the same time the volume varies with the cube of the radius. In an ideal case that suggests that the feedback ratio would vary directly with radius. If some form of insulating material is coated upon the outer surface the fuel volume can be reduced considerably. > Take into account that this is only valid for a single separate sphere. Once they are all bundled together, heat leaving one will enter another, so in the limit, the surface area is reduced to the external surface area of the conglomeration. Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
