alt Hacker NewsFission is "simple" but it seems every designer in the XX century made it as much complicated as possible for not so great reasons (and don't even get me started on the "let's not use breeding reactors" stuff)
Cooling that requires pumps, as an example, should be a non-starter in new projects.
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SoftTalker • 11/07/2024
Weapons proliferation concerns is/was the reason fission power is so complicated.
The designs are complicated, well, because in practice it's not as simple as "put these rocks next to each other and they get hot". When you put the rocks next to each other, they not only get hot, but also emit some nasty radiation that has to be shielded. And if the rocks get a liiiitle bit too close together, they might explode, which leads to huge headaches for everyone involved, so you'd better make sure that doesn't happen...