Quote:
Originally Posted by wellspring
BTW, how does a fission reactor work in space in the first place? Do you have to rotate it for gravity, or does it use something other than convection to operate?
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I'm not sure what you mean by that. The basic (
very basic) operation of a fission reactor is to place sufficient radioactive material in close proximity to get a sustained nuclear reaction. This generates energy (in the form of heat plus other stuff I don't really know much about) which, in current reactors, is used to boil water. None of this is dependent on being in a gravity well - a steam turbine is driven by pressure, not gravity.