Nuclear Energy

[mhanimemastr]

Throughout my life, I have always been fascinated with nuclear energy, splitting of atoms, energy, etc. Recently, I had a report to do for summer school, and I got into researching. It would seem that the current method of Nuclear Fission isn't as energy-efficient as it could be, as with all heat-to-energy reactors. I believe there is a way to turn the thermal energy directly into electricity, versus the way they work right now which is:
Thermal Energy from the fission reactor boils water (usually Deuterium, or "heavy water") into steam to power a turbine.
The turbine spins, powering a generator to provide the electricity that we use daily.

However, this seems so highly inefficient because much of the (potential?) energy is lost by converting the thermal energy into steam, then electricity, whereas there is possibly a way to turn the thermal energy directly into electricity.

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