“…a 15-megawatt (MWe) small modular reactor (SMR) designed to operate a mile beneath the Earth’s surface.”
Geothermal is, literally, right there.
https://interestingengineering.com/energy/us-firm-deep-fission-6000-ft-well
Same steps! Drill down a mile, fool around a bit, hope that the water mostly stays put. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_dry_rock_geothermal_energy
@smiteri What possible application does this serve? Who needs 15MW a mile down?
Turns out that if you don't use a coolant that boils at 100 C at atmospheric pressure, you don't need a mile of water column to keep your reactor coolant liquid.
Everything about this seems stupid and wasteful.
(Full disclosure: they are technically a competitor to my employer. Still doesn't explain how this design solves any actual problem.)
@arclight It’s gotta be, “as someone interested in attracting trendy SMR investment, I need a gimmick to make my SMR seem special,” right?
(In the unlikely event that you get as far as building and running it, you can still safely abandon it in place when you’ve used up everyone else’s money. Ethical!)
@smiteri Yup. No need to haul the reactor to the surface, extract the fuel, _vitrify it so the fission products aren't mobile, and put it somewhere very very dry_. Abandoning fueled reactors underwater has worked out well for everyone who's tried it (_Novaya Zemlya, cough cough_)