points by poszlem 3 days ago | 0 comments
Another huge reason, I bet is that it's possible for me to have my own solar system, but not really possible to have my own little reactor.
[–] xnorswap 3 days ago
[–] dv_dt 3 days ago
If its any consolation, with your solar system you have a shared massive fusion reactor
[–] numpad0 3 days ago
The simplest form of a nuclear reactor is some small sphere of purified heavy metal put onto a cavity on a thick Be sphere and covered by another piece of the same metal. The reactor can be started up and shut down by lowering or lifting the top piece using a flathead screwdriver shoved between two pieces, which can kill anybody nearby if dropped and the pieces go ultra super critical. That has to be a lot simpler than even a basic solar cell by itself.
[–] triceratops 3 days ago
Surely this is satire. The reference to the screwdriver is what convinced me it is.
[–] omnivortex 2 days ago
I believe it refers to the death of the Los Alamos scientist Louis Slotin in 1946 when his own sloppiness around a plutionium core lead to a chain reaction and a dose of radiation that killed him within days: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Slotin#Criticality_accid...
[–] maxhille 3 days ago
I you only need heating, something like this might work
[–] bhouston 3 days ago
The nature of disruptive solutions is that they can be adopted easily at the bottom of the market - which means in this case people like you rather than at the centrally planned utility.
Finally, some much needed progress towards Sagan's apple pie.