Naquadah generator

< Tau'ri technology

Naquadah Generator
Production information
Manufacturer	Tau'ri
Designer	Orbanians
Technical specifications
Function	Power source
Power source	Naquadah
Usage
Affiliation	Tau'ri

The Naquadah Generator is a powerful energy producing device developed by Stargate Command with the help of the Orbanians.

Functions

A Naquadah Generator is an advanced reactor unit, which produces tremendous amounts of clean energy from small amounts of Naquadah - a rare mineral not found in Earth's solar system. Such a reactor contains enough reactants to generate an explosion of 20 kilotons following an overload (SGA: "Hide and Seek"). McKay said that it would take 30 seconds for the generator to overload. Assuming he was talking about building up energy. Estimating peak power from this case is difficult, since it's unknown if the liberated energies would be solely provided by the build up phase (in which case we could know the peak power capacity of the reactor), or if they'd be due to the reaction of all remaining naquadah, triggered by the initial explosion from the overload.

Later, the Mark II series was developed. It is capable of achieving 600% of the power output of the Mark I, however it operates at a state of barely controlled overload and is quickly depleted. Nevertheless, two of these devices can power an Ancient Control chair for a short period of time, something which formerly required a ZPM. (SGA: "The Siege, Part 2")

Naquadah Generators can also be turned into a powerful bomb, a function which is used by the Atlantis Expedition as a self-destruct device for the city. If such a reactor explodes it generates an electromagnetic pulse, similar to a nuclear weapon. (SGA: "Hide and Seek", "Hot Zone")

Uses of the Naquadah generator include:

• Powering a gate without a DHD on another world for manual dial-out.
• Powering the Daedalus-class series of warships.
• A miniature Naquadah generator was used to power the X-699 directed energy weapon, Earth's first energy weapon. (SG1: "Bounty")
• Powering the Ancient control chairs in Antarctica and Atlantis.
• Powering the city of Atlantis in lieu of ZPMs.

History

Earth was given Naquadah reactor technology by the Orbanians, and a workable prototype was developed at S.G.C. by Samantha Carter. (SG1: "Learning Curve") It is onwards used to power many technologies from Earth and also by SG teams to power Alien technologies.

Naquadah generators are heavily relied upon by the Atlantis Expedition to power the Ancient city in the distant Pegasus Galaxy, especially in their first years in the city when they didn't have access to a ZPM. After one was installed on Atlantis the Naquadah generators remained as a back-up energy system. (SGA: "Critical Mass")

When reinforcements were sent to Atlantis from Earth they brought with them the new Mark II reactors which were used to power Atlantis' control chair while defending the city from the Wraith. The two reactors doing so were however quickly depleted. Later several Mark IIs were used in the chair room as back-up energy source.

In an alternate future, a single Mark XII Naquadah generator was able to power the shield of Atlantis for nearly 400 years, after laying dormant for 48,000 years.