 September 18, 2013 - 6:17am | The many of citizens of the Frontier live and work in close association with nuclear power plants- witness the common place use of atomic drives on star ships. This technology is fairly compact, reasonably safe and mature (its been around awhile and most of its bugs have been worked out. No reason that compact nuclear reactors would not be used to power cities, especially in a setting with an energy based economy. One side benefit would be free heat. Cooling down a reactor on a planet is commonly done with water and this produces steam. My old plumbing partner use to say, "You can heat a barn with steam heat." there are pros and cons to steam heat vs forced hot water but in a new start up colony where there may be extensive city planning before any ground is broken the plan may call for a reactor and waste heat to be recycled via a steam heat system piped through underground pipes in steam tunnels beneath the city. Since your going to the trouble of building the infrastructure for the steam pipes you could naturally use the same tunnel for power lines, water and sewage pipes as well. this would mean a maze of tunnels beneath a city like Port Loren. Since the underground is riddled with tunnels prior to the neccessity of mass transport, for simplicity they installed a mono rail after the fact rather than a subway. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 18, 2013 - 8:51am | Yes but, be careful. If the tunnels are old, you are sure to have leaks. With the nuclear steam - this would mean radiation. It could also mean mutant rats or maybe people (poor and homeless). This would be a great place out of the weather, has heat and if you siphon a line or two - water and electricity! |
September 18, 2013 - 9:32am | automated service bots with a mission and functions to clean up biological wastes and it mistakes PCs, due to faulty programming, as biological waste. And lets not forget the Vhim. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 18, 2013 - 2:15pm | Actually, radiation probably wouldn't be a problem. You wouldn't pump the radioactively "hot" steam through these pipes. Rather you'd have a heat exchanger in the reactor where the thermal heat from the "hot" steam would be transfered to the "clean" loop, heating the "clean" water and cooling the "hot" loop. It's the warmed up "clean" water that gets pumped around the city. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
 September 19, 2013 - 5:17am | Terl is right, in a properly constructed, safety oriented nuclear plant, where no corners were cut and no corporate goon squads run around keeping credit saving short cuts a secret would you find nice clean water in the pipes running around the city and not mutant rats and mutated core four. On the other hand where did I put my copy of Gamma Dawn? Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
September 19, 2013 - 7:29am | [cough] I know for a fact the water downstream from 3 Mile Island in PA is bath water warm while upsteam is much cooler. And I when I say bath water warm I mean hand me a bar of soap while I strip off my clothes and jump in the river warm. I also know that I didn't glow in the dark after my little rafting trip so...I'm sure that Tom is correct about the heat exchanger. RE mutations: In reality most if not all mutations are actually harmful. Gamma World, Gamma Dawn are even more in the realm of fantasy then Star Frontiers (though SF is technically a fantasy it tries, in my opinion to maintain a veneer of plausibility). So you might break out Gamma Dawn or simply state that there is a higher incidence of cancer among city workers assigned to do maintenance in the steam tunnels. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 19, 2013 - 12:28pm | (cough cough) Seriously!?! We are discussing a game about giant insects, really giant one celled blobs and flying monkeys are you are worried the veneer of plausibility. At least two of our main races are impossible, so I say go with the impossible and embrace the 4 meter tall two headed laser eye firing sewer rat who teaches crocheting to passing PCs. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
 September 20, 2013 - 5:39pm | I smell a scenario brewing that involves Eloi and Morlocks... |
