Reply To: would nuclear energy really be accessible to all?

[vansig]

i started dreaming up an advanced material..
perhaps: take graphene nano-ribbons, allow them to twist nicely, spin them into thread, weave this on the bias, and stretch it over the anode, like a tea cosy. then it would conduct electricity along the surface, but allow thermal penetration to the interior, and remain very strong at high temperatures.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/e092tm31km023064/

but then i realized two things:

first, graphene is basically single-layer graphite, which is stable at high temperature and used in refractory materials and high-voltage electrodes. in graphite, the layers are ~.33 nm apart, so we could use coatings of 100 layers of that, maybe, or just make the whole electrode from ordinary graphite. it’s a bit crumbly, but ought to be better in vacuum.

but, the show-stopper:
it’s going to react with the protons in the plasma, producing hydrocarbons and maybe compromising the anode integrity (not sure).