> I can't figure out the economics here. They project $2.7B to construct each 440MW plant. This is presumably an optimistic estimate since they haven't even des

> I can't figure out the economics here. They project $2.7B to construct each 440MW plant. This is presumably an optimistic estimate since they haven't even designed it. Same here, this makes no sense from an economic perspective. The article quote was even worse: they think that after they have built a few, they think they will be able to build them at roughly $2.7B a pop. How much will the first few cost? Who pays for the handling and storage of the nuclear waste? That's never included in the cost estimates for nuclear plants, mini or not. How much grid-scale battery would $2.7B buy today? Looks like a Tesla megapack is ~$300/kWh with all the batteries and electronics included (https://cleantechnica.com/2020/10/05/tesla-megapack-powerpack-powerwall-battery-storage-prices/ https://cleantechnica.com/2020/10/05/tesla-megapack-powerpac...). $2.7B would pay for ~9GWh of grid-scale storage, or about 20 hours of output from a 440MW plant. Of course you would still need to add the generation piece - solar or wind is cheapest today. I'm going to guess that in 10 years, when those mini-plants may finally be a reality, the combination of grid-scale batteries with solar/wind or wave generation will be so much cheaper that there will be no market for mini-nuclear plants.