Unusual amount of Radioactive Material on Rifts Earth

[BigLEE]

I'm pretty sure someone's posted on this subject, but does anyone find it peculiar that the Coalition and other powers have enough Uranium or Plutonium to make all their nuclear powered bots?

Don't think about such things, they'll just give you a headache. The economics/logisitics of Rifts make about as much sense as it's physics (i.e. none). Just accept and move on.

[Tinker Dragoon]

I'm pretty sure someone's posted on this subject, but does anyone find it peculiar that the Coalition and other powers have enough Uranium or Plutonium to make all their nuclear powered bots?

If they're powered by nuclear fusion, rather than fission, neither would be required (though that creates its own set of logistical problems, dealt with in other topics). This would also free up all that uranium for Triax to make its U-Rounds and DU-Rounds from.

[G]

Keep it Simple. Just pretend they use some technology that hasnt been invented yet. It does not use rare radioactive materials, and destroying one doesnt make it explode (but it could result in leaking radiation).

[Rallan]

If they're powered by nuclear fusion, rather than fission, neither would be required (though that creates its own set of logistical problems, dealt with in other topics). This would also free up all that uranium for Triax to make its U-Rounds and DU-Rounds from.

Except that, unfortunately, the books have been kinda clear on more than one occasion that the Rifts Earth powers aren't using fusion power (although those whacky Phase World types are).


Rallan

[Svartalf]

Except that, unfortunately, the books have been kinda clear on more than one occasion that the Rifts Earth powers aren't using fusion power (although those whacky Phase World types are).


Rallan

FMI rallan, would you remember where that is written? I'm not calling you, just curious and I don't remember where that piece of info would be

[Rimmer]

Have always assumed Fusion power, very interesting.

[R Ditto]

I was looking up info on various power sources a while back, and I found this tidbit of info when it comes to "portable" nuclear power.
A 4x4x2 inch "heater unit" from an RTG for a newer system uses plutonium encased in iridium, with the overall unit weighing around 1.5 kilos and generating 250 watts of thermal energy.

If I understand correctly, the systems are about 5% efficient for an RTG which uses solid state stuff to generate energy from heat, or about 10% for a Stirling Engine unit. They can put out up to 650 degrees celsius, which I'm sure is not enough to cause a meltdown. One unit is supposed to use to heater units and two stirling engines and generate an estimated 55 watts of power from 500 watts of thermal energy.

It might also be possible for system to also use radiation itself to generate energy, perhaps via some sort of "catalyst" that generates useable energy when "stimulated" by radiation. Who knows what kind of advancements in chemistry could greatly benefit radioisotope thermal-electric generators.

While I'm no scientist, I'm sure that with much higher efficiency systems (say at least 50%) and systems that are much more power efficient, plus energy capacitors, could make things possible.

I have a technical question for the "brains" on the boards.
If a single "watt hour" of energy was stored in an efficient capacitor, would that capacitor be able to output several thousand watts of energy for a single second?

So... a displaced Hardware specialist could make a mint manufacturing soda can sized micro fusion power plants eh?

Snickering maddly to self here....

IIRC, somewhere in the HU books (Century Station, perhaps) it says that alien tech got introduced to HU Earth around 1950's.

Besides, in HU, there is alien tech that is possibly 'more advanced' that tech on Rifts Earth, perhaps even when alien tech was introduced to 1950's HU Earth. On top of that, some of the alien tech in HU2 and AUGG appears to possibly be more advanced than some stuff in PW. That gives HU Earth a slight tech advantage.

But for your on remark, I say toss in an Analytical Genius that is a Latent Psychic and who has Telemechanics and total recall, and who has worked with all sorts of stuff, human and alien, then toss them into Rifts with some sort of failed experiment.

[Shin Kenshiro]

Biggest reason they used the word nuclear in the game is so people couldn't complain about having to gas up their robots or power armor. Makes the game more adventurous and less Mad Maxish, not to mention everyone around knows about nuclear power making alot of energy. It was done to simplify things I'd imagine.