Geothermal engineers might have a hot future in the Army
By
Logan Nye
Updated on
Apr 27, 2023
SUMMARY
If you need an inexhaustible source of steady power, what’s even better than a nuclear reactor? Well, the military is now targeting geothermal engineers to harness geothermal energy. It’s basically…
If you need an inexhaustible source of steady power, what's even better than a nuclear reactor? Well, the military is now targeting geothermal engineers to harness geothermal energy. It's basically a nuclear reactor that contains about a third of the earth's mass and can never meltdown. And you can pee on it safely. If you're into that. Or you could eat off of it. Or like, tailgate, I guess. Look, it's really safe.
What is geothermal?
If you're not at the forefront of the lava flow that is the geothermal energy, here's a quick primer. The earth has a bunch of molten rock in it, right? Hence the lava reference. And that molten rock is insanely hot, thanks to immense pressure, friction, and nuclear reactions in the earth's core. That heat transfers up into the mantle, then the earth's crust, and is then captured.
Engineers target areas where underground reservoirs constantly turn into pressurized steam from the heat. But newer tech allows for geothermal fracking, where engineers inject water and other chemicals into the crust to gather up that same heat, then the resulting steam flows to a turbine or a heat exchanger.
https://www.wearethemighty.com/military-news/geothermal-engineers-in-the-army/
