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By superPC on 10/21/2009 9:53:19 AM , Rating: 0
Toyota will be real pissed if someone invented new battery technology that will make short time charging and long range drive possible.

maybe in the future we can have a high output RTG for our car. that way we never need to recharge battery for the rest of that vehicle lifetime. right now we only have 500 watts output RTG - - that makes 100 KW RTG that is needed to run a car still a long way, but imagine how great it will be. drive your car to work and generate electricity for your house while you park it (and no refueling for the rest of its lifetime).

By randomposter on 10/21/2009 10:09:22 AM , Rating: 2
An RTG is a passenger vehicle? Exactly what part of your vehicle's performance having a half-life sounds appealing to you? There are plenty of other technologies that are a whole lot more applicable here.

By randomly on 10/21/2009 1:03:04 PM , Rating: 2
This isn't feasible. To put it mildly.

To generate 100 KW power at the wheels will take about 500 KW of thermal power.
That would require 1 million grams of Pu238, or about 50 times the current world stockpile, which at $300 a gram costs you 300 Million dollars just for the isotopes for 1 car, and which weighs the car down with 2200 lbs of radioactive goodness.

Of course with 500,000 watts of thermal energy pouring out of your car nonstop (since there is no way to turn an RTG off) You can never park it in a garage or the whole thing will just melt, and melt your garage with it. You would need cooling fans and radiators running non-stop. If the fans ever failed even outside the whole thing would melt.

I think what you really wanted was one of these.
Which of course you can't make either.

