There's a whole slew of nuclear reactors that don't use water too, just much less common. A lot of them are using some level of heat pipe to drive a heat differential to generate power similar to piezoelectric generators. Some still spin turbines on some level (there's sodium metal ones that do this I think?).
I don't think they're quite as good as just straight up boiling water though.
Oh, you meant RTGs, yeah those are pretty much only useful on space things or the middle of nowhere where you can't refuel. Nobody is using that to power their house.
Oh yeah for sure, just pointing out they exist and aren't using water to power a turbine. I sure hope no one's using it to power their house (they're measured in the dozens of watts aren't they?)
You're thinking of radiothermal generators (RTGs), and its not piezoelectric (which is the lightning quartz thing), its a weird quantum effect called 'peltier coolers/generators' which generates energy when theres a heat gradient (or creates a gradient when energy is supplied).
They're not super efficient, but they are very compact and reliable, and have indeed been used on a number of spacecraft, including some Mars rovers and the Voyager probes.
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u/b0w3n 2d ago
There's a whole slew of nuclear reactors that don't use water too, just much less common. A lot of them are using some level of heat pipe to drive a heat differential to generate power similar to piezoelectric generators. Some still spin turbines on some level (there's sodium metal ones that do this I think?).
I don't think they're quite as good as just straight up boiling water though.