Rolls-Royce gets funding to develop miniature nuclear reactor for moon base

Feb 8, 2020
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As I understand it, mini nuclear reactors circulate the hot radio active fuel solution around an entombed heat exchanger from which the steam produced can drive a turbine/alternator.
Luckily, UK still has plenty of old nuclear stations where these could be installed as well as on the moon.
 
Is it a fission reactor? Or could it be a Helium 3 Fusion rector?
See paragraph on aw materials in this article.
There are no actual attempts to do Helium 3 fusion - it is purely hypothetical and a lot more difficult than deuterium/tritium fusion. And that is still a long way from viable.

If it did work we wouldn't get the Helium from the moon, we would make it - and probably have seen significant improvements and innovations in the ways to make it by then.
 
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How about developing a small, portable nuclear power station for Earth!?
They are too expensive, by a large margin. Nuscale recently got approvals for it's SMR's but they are very high cost. Wind and solar make up 2/3 of new electricity capacity being built around the world because they are so cost competitive, not out of great commitment to clean "green" energy.
 

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