I almost pitched a similar reactor in the last YC round, since they asked for energy. I assumed they'd never fund fission because of the crazy regulatory risk,

I almost pitched a similar reactor in the last YC round, since they asked for energy. I assumed they'd never fund fission because of the crazy regulatory risk, and anyway I wanted to wait until I got a simulation working. I'm glad uPower pitched and succeeded. With the possible exception of Radix/Dunedin, they're the only folks working on appropriate-size reactors today. However, I doubt they'll get 28% thermal efficiency with heat pipes, and I doubt they'll get a 12-year core with pragmatic enrichments.