# Solar left out of the equation?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solar-left-out-of-the-equation/584955>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [June 10, 2011, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solar-left-out-of-the-equation/584955 "2011-06-10T07:20:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Paradyme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/6de8d8/32.png) [@Paradyme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paradyme)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solar-left-out-of-the-equation/584955/22 "2011-06-12T03:15:09Z")

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It is not too different from the potential panic caused by a dirty bomb (A bomb, contaminated by radioactive substance such as Cesium-60). The real problem would most likely be the massive public panic and outcry, rather than the very slightly increased cancer rates.

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**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solar-left-out-of-the-equation/584955/23 "2011-06-12T14:20:39Z")

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> [@RearEchelon](#):
>
> Is it just me, or does using a nuclear reaction to heat water to turn a turbine seem a little 19th century? We’re splitting the atom here. Could we not come up with a more direct way of harnessing this energy? I’m no nuclear scientist, and maybe this is nothing more than a pipe dream, but it just seems that there would have to be a more efficient way of turning nuclear fission into electricity than using technology that is, on the face of it, twice as old as nuclear fission itself.

Basically every way of generating electricity, except solar power cells, involve spinning a generator to generate electricity. Even large solar installation do that by heating a fluid and running it through a generator. The most efficient generator use a combined cycle where gas are run through at the high temperature and then used to boil water for a stream turbine.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas\_turbine#Industrial\_gas\_turbines\_for\_power\_generation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_turbine#Industrial_gas_turbines_for_power_generation)

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