besides batteries or solar cells or fuel cells, or generators what else is there that can produce high voltage

Question

when I was younger, I used to think that Nuclear Power Plants used nuclear material to collect electrons, but now I know that it's only the heat given off that creates steam which turns a turbine.
HOW LAME!

Why can't we use nuclear material to create electricity directly?
Or maybe even replace electrons altogehter.. replace the electrons with some other charged particle that repells objects similar to magnatism, maybe then we will no longer need copper wire???? If we could find an alternative to electrons and have repulsion properties, we could re-invent the electric motor, make it so that it works directly from nuclear material??

Guys! go see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF8otSSPgdA

if we can use an ATOMIC BATTERY then why can't we make a lifter with an onboard energy supply?

Answer 1

You CAN produce electricity directly from a nuclear fission source, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_battery#Direct_charging_generators

Answer 2

As with the other 2, electrons are here to stay. To produce electricity by other means, the heat from nuclear materials has been done. This process, using thermocouples, the 2 different metals thing, has been in use for years. This process does not make more radioactive materials. It takes neutron bombardment to make a material radioactive. The "SNAP" generators used in some satellites used this process of nuclear material heat to make electricity.
Magnetohydrodynamics concerns it's self with the use of heat, or more properly, plasma from extremely hot gases,to make electricity. Russia is reported to have been using s development would hutch generators at one time. Research has been done in this country with this way of producing electricity from fusion reactors.
To replace motors, an idea that I do know about is to use magnets as the power source for motors. Magnetic force is a form of energy, so why do we need to convert it first to electricity to run a motor. Why not use it directly? Keelynet.com is one place to find out more about such research. It isn't being sought after because of the effect such would have on the economy, and industry. Like it or not, we live on the principle of things ceasing to operate, and need to be replaced. A motor that spins by virtue of free energy from magnets is not how industry makes money.

Answer 3

You are correct a nuclear power plant = a coal powered power plant with the boiler replaced by a nuclear reactor.
Yes we can create electricity through other means, but we can't do it without electrons.

A thermocouple can also be added to generate electricity by inserting two dissimilar metals in the reactor pool, but that would just create more radioactive elements to mess around with.

A fusion reactor will probably be used to boil water to turn a generator as well.

Electrons are the source of electricity without an electron there is no electricity. So you can't create electricity that way. A nuclear reaction passes neutrons around and creates neutron radiation; the electrons and protons are not altered or affected in any way. Instead they reform smaller radioactive elements through the process of atomic decay.

A generator spins a coil of wire in a magnetic field to create electricity and beyond chemical reactions (batteries) and solar cells we don't know of any way to create electricity.

Is there another source of high voltage; yes, lightning. Lightning is static electricity created by the clouds moving across the earth. It is the same force that creates a spark when you rub your feet on a shag carpet and touch a door knob.

If you run a huge thermocouple into the volcanic earth and then cool the other ends in the artic atmosphere then you can create electricity, but the people in Iceland prefer to use the steam created to run conventional generators; they get more power that way.

Answer 4

probably we can harness energy directly from nuclear material. however, the feasibility of the process is the hindrance.
we need to control the release of energy plus it effects.

one of the simple way is to convert it to heat and harness the heat. in this way to we do not have to have different equipment for generating electricity.

similar to your question is why not build a solar cell farms to produce commercial electricity? because it is not feasble right now.

probably when the time comes and the technology is feasible, it will happen