![It's true. They don't want us to know what the aliens think [960x721 - 61KB]](https://pic8.co/sh/CgPOVr.jpg){kind=link}
Modern turbogenerators are far from primitive.
The most effective way to generate electricity is by spinning a generator. Generators can be built as small or as large as required, provide VAR sinks for grid voltage stability, and are a physical spinning mass for grid frequency stability.
I don't disagree with these statements one bit. Their uses in stability and control of reactive/apparent power and spinning generation for frequency maintenance are both vastly important and useful. The problem I have is in the conversion of fission energy to electricity through the water intermediate. Water is not terribly efficient with heat transfer, but it's the best we have for simplicity, cost and maintenance.
Since there is no direct atomic or nuclear to electricity conversion that we know of, the use of steam holds us back. Perhaps this is the real test for the aliens. If we cannot master the physics to harness the fission/fusion energy directly, then we are not ready to join their club. Water is the best we have, but I suspect we will discover more about other methods in the future.
Water is an effective heat transfer agent. convective heat transfer is a function of fluid flow rate, fluid density, and fluid heat conductance. Water i fairly high with all of these (though of course less than, say, liquid metals). Where water really shines is the boiling heat transfer coefficient, which is about an order of magnitude higher than convective alone.
Since there is no direct atomic or nuclear to electricity conversion that we know of, the use of steam holds us back.
There is, it's called the photoelectric effect. As noted above. But very little of fission's energy is released as gammas so it'll never be worth it.
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