> For one thing, Aurora is a liquid metal-cooled fast reactor, a design that has been used almost exclusively on submarines. That is incorrect. We have about 4

> For one thing, Aurora is a liquid metal-cooled fast reactor, a design that has been used almost exclusively on submarines. That is incorrect. We have about 450 reactor-years experience as a world in terrestrial sodium-cooled fast reactors [1]. The Seawolf was a sodium-cooled submarine for a while, but Rickover converted it to water since it was a pain to deal with sodium in an ocean environment. The Russians ran some Alfa-class lead-cooled submarines, but these are a tiny fraction of the world's liquid metal experience. [1] https://www.iaea.org/publications/7581/fast-reactor-database-2006-update https://www.iaea.org/publications/7581/fast-reactor-database... In fact, the first nuclear electricity was produced by a liquid-metal cooled reactor called EBR-I in 1952. It's a museum now near Arco, ID, and is totally worth visiting. In the US we ran EBR-1, EBR-2, and FFTF across decades, as well as some smaller experimental reactors. France ran Phénix well and SuperPhénix poorly. The Russians ran BOR-60, BN-350, BN-600, and now BN-800. The Indians have FBTR. China is operating the CEFR. All of these are sodium-cooled. The Oklo design is highly de-rated. If you have a fuel loading that lasts in a normal plant for 3 years at 300 MW, you can run it for 9 years at 100 MW and 90 years at 10 MW. From a nuclear perspective, the fuel wouldn't know. Except for corrosion. Corrosion will get ya with time-at-temperature. To beat corrosion, you need good chemistry control and low temperatures to operate a long-lived nuclear core.