Small reactors, like ones to power a neighborhood or a single factory are being developed and built right now. Some of these reactor designs cannot melt down and nuclear waste is solved problem, even with the absurd politics.
A really big neighborhood or single factory, and it’s not cheap (upfront), even if you believe their own cost projections. OP was talking about the “plutonium to heat your personal swimming pool” kind of scale. (That’s an actual idea Glen Seaborg put forward in the 50’s, BTW)
It’s also worth mentioning intrinsic safety is kind of mutually exclusive with fast reactors that can use waste. If your neutrons are at millions of degrees it’s a lot harder to set up a feedback loop with reactor’s temperature at all, let alone an unbreakably stable one.
Small reactors, like ones to power a neighborhood or a single factory are being developed and built right now. Some of these reactor designs cannot melt down and nuclear waste is solved problem, even with the absurd politics.
A really big neighborhood or single factory, and it’s not cheap (upfront), even if you believe their own cost projections. OP was talking about the “plutonium to heat your personal swimming pool” kind of scale. (That’s an actual idea Glen Seaborg put forward in the 50’s, BTW)
It’s also worth mentioning intrinsic safety is kind of mutually exclusive with fast reactors that can use waste. If your neutrons are at millions of degrees it’s a lot harder to set up a feedback loop with reactor’s temperature at all, let alone an unbreakably stable one.