Ben Crowell wrote:
> I'll admit the theoretical possibility that beta decay could be used
> to create electrical energy without a heat engine, but I don't think
> it could possibly do the job here. To get the kind of power output
> we're talking about from beta decay, rather than a chain reaction,
> you'd need a blazing-hot beta source with a short half-life, and
> I'd think the amount of material would have to be extremely large --
> large enough that all the betas would be stopped internally in the
> source, and their energy thermalized, so you'd end up with a heat
> engine again.
So something more exotic, then - make the beta decay stimulated so you
can turn it on or off at will, for example, or maybe the thing's a big
superconducting battery that charges itself by interaction with the dark
matter flux passing near it. It doesn't have to be all _that_ plausible
since the characteristics of the generator - size of a fist, glows
bright blue, produces several gigawatts, is safe to install inside a
human chest cavity - are basic premises of the hypothetical scenario
that are accepted out of the gate.
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