Nuclear binding-energy difference → Electrical work
Nuclear binding-energy differenceNuclear fissionHot gasWorking-fluid expansion (heat-engine cycle)Mechanical motionElectromagnetic inductionCharge carriersElectrical work
Epistemic state of the route
- known constituent relations
- 7 / 7 established or replicated · weakest constituent established
- constituent maturity floor
- K4 · experimentally observed
- search for this exact route
- Not assessed — complete composition not searched.
- recorded-pathway overlap
- shares relations, in order, with Boiling-water reactor direct-steam plant · 4/7 relations shared
- route-level evidence
- 0 sources for the complete composition · 9 cited by the constituent steps
- boundaries and interfaces
- BOUNDARY compatible · no region transition
Explorematrix context · physics checks · steps · route evidence · constituent evidence · cite
Matrix context
D = disequilibrium row · C = coupling family column. A cell reads the state of the atlas for that pair.
D.20 × C.27 · Nuclear binding-energy difference × Nuclear heatfamily: Nuclear heatD.20 × C.08 · Nuclear binding-energy difference × Heat engine (thermomechanical)family: Heat engine (thermomechanical)D.20 × C.14 · Nuclear binding-energy difference × Electromagnetic inductionfamily: Electromagnetic induction
Typed bounds on this route
Every limit the atlas holds for this route, as constraint records: reached through bounded_by claims on the route's own entities. Hard bounds (an upper bound or a formula) decide the thermodynamic-bound check above; benchmarks, constitutive relations and resource limits are listed and never decisive. No prose limit exists anywhere (pass 42).
- Carnot limit · formula-bound · hard, applies to this routeη ≤ 1 − T_c/T_h for any heat engine between reservoirs at T_h and T_c
- Curzon–Ahlborn efficiency at maximum power · benchmark · listed, never decisiveη_CA = 1 − √(T_c/T_h)
Steps
- 01nuclear → kinetic · loss to radiative
- for neutron-induced fission: a fissionable nuclide and an incident neutron in an energy range with non-zero fission cross-section
- critical geometry is required only for a self-sustaining chain reaction; a moderator is reactor-design dependent
About 200 MeV per event, almost all as fragment kinetic energy (Frisch 1939); thermalisation is a separate step.refs [1] [2] - 02kinetic → thermal · loss to radiative
- fission heating produces a vapour or gas working fluid in a DIRECTLY heated, same-circuit configuration: the reactor coolant itself boils in the vessel and its steam goes to the turbine (a boiling-water reactor), or the fissioning or fission-heated gas is the working medium (a gas-core or fissioning-plasma reactor)
- not a pressurised-water reactor: there fission heats a pressurised liquid whose heat crosses a steam generator into a separate secondary circuit — the heat exchanger, not the core, makes the turbine's steam, and that topology belongs to the system layer, never hidden inside this claim (pass 38)
refs [3] [4] - 03thermal → mechanical · loss to thermal
- the hot gas expands through a turbine or against a piston from an upstream pressure to a lower downstream pressure
gas · above ~700 Krefs [3] [5] - 04mechanical → mechanical · loss to thermalrefs [3]
- 05mechanical → electrical · loss to thermal
- a magnet moving relative to a coil
conductor required · magnetic field requiredrefs [6] [7] - 06electrical → electrical · loss to thermalrefs [6] [8]
- 07electrical → electrical · loss to thermal
- carriers driven through an external load at the potential difference the source maintains
refs [9]
Evidence for the complete composition · 0
No source on record for this exact composition. The sources below support the individual steps, not the route as a whole.
Evidence for the constituent relations · 9
- [1]O. Hahn, F. Strassmann. Über den Nachweis und das Verhalten der bei der Bestrahlung des Urans mittels Neutronen entstehenden Erdalkalimetalle (1939)
- [2]O. R. Frisch. Physical evidence for the division of heavy nuclei under neutron bombardment (1939)
- [3]A. Bejan. Advanced Engineering Thermodynamics (4th ed.) (2016)
- [4]U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Boiling Water Reactors — how a typical commercial BWR works (2025)
- [5]S. L. Dixon, C. A. Hall. Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics of Turbomachinery (7th ed.) (2014)
- [6]M. Faraday. Experimental researches in electricity (1832)
- [7]S. P. Beeby, et al.. A micro electromagnetic generator for vibration energy harvesting (2007)
- [8]L. D. Landau, E. M. Lifshitz, L. P. Pitaevskii. Electrodynamics of Continuous Media (Course of Theoretical Physics, Vol. 8, 2nd ed.) (1984)
- [9]N. W. Ashcroft, N. D. Mermin. Solid State Physics (1976)
Cite this route
Physical Transformation Atlas (2026). route p-37781940ce: Nuclear binding-energy difference → Nuclear fission → Hot gas → Working-fluid expansion (heat-engine cycle) → Mechanical motion → Electromagnetic induction → Charge carriers → Electrical work. Dataset revision rbfbfcbb70e57 (hash of the canonical data). https://physical-transformation-atlas.wldud5192.workers.dev/path/37781940ce
Ids and matrix addresses are stable across revisions; the revision hash identifies the exact canonical files the record was compiled from and is meta.data_hash in every /api export. Reuse terms: see the license field in any export.