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Comment by jedberg | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if it would be feasible for a neighborhood to get together and get one of these for everyone to share. In theory 1MW powers about 400 homes. Or for a new development to put one in and tout "free electricity for 50 years" as benefit of the development.

Or a condo complex getting one with their condo fees.

So many possibilities.

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I can just imagine going to that HOA meeting:

Here's the plan for the reactor installation. Does it look good to everyone?

Yes.

Okay, next item: What color shall we paint the bike shed?

No, you have to use up the whole meeting with the bike shed then slip in the nuclear reactor at the very end.

Then send a mailer after the meeting about the increase in fee to cover the new reactor maintenance.

You seem to have overlooked the refreshment expenses!

"The agenda included three items: approving the plans for the plant, discussing a new bicycle shed for employees, and the refreshment expenses of the Welfare Committee."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Avoid_Parkinson%27s_...

I think the more immediate use cases will be industrial. These sound like exactly the power requirements of a data center.

Combine it with the data centers being placed under water. Now you got a big heat sink too.

This is a great model, because then the neighborhood can use the reactor waste-heat for district heating!

And they can use it for hundreds of years! With time, every home can get it own waste reactor with waste heat for heating!

Future is here, it just unevenly distributed.

Which is actually really important because heating and cooling are big contributors to climate that aren't as obvious as electricity and transportation.

There's actually interesting issues with how property paid for through mortgages are impacted by nuclear regulations. I recall something deep in my mortgage about how (I think) the nuclear regulatory control act placed restrictions on local use vis a vis nuclear energy.

Why do people not get as excited by the prospect of renewable energy?

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