This seems closer to an RTG [1].
Legality aside, could one design a desktop RTG with a practical power output? Say with an open-cycle boiling-water design, to keep things simple.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_ge...
Legality aside, could one design a desktop RTG with a practical power output? Say with an open-cycle boiling-water design, to keep things simple.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_ge...
The general rtg use cases care less about efficiency than long term reliability though so that’s why they use thermocouples. But it would be reasonably trivial to use a Stirling engine instead (unless you’re going to extreme environments where mechanical parts no longer work well)
2) Use the heat given off to generate more power