But without the need for the... coal!
The time between refueling the tiny amount of nickel-whatever substance is very, very long in these units.
And the emissions of anything worth worrying about are for all practical purposes zero.
So, assuming this isn’t a scam, you could put a near infinite number of these generator stations all over the place. That means the source of the power is near the destination of use. Less line less. Less infrastructure. Less EVERYTHING that costs a ton of money to maintain.
If, and it’s a big IF this isn’t a scam... large scale power plants would only be needed near major industrial plants where power requirements are just too massive for these units to work.
And that’s just in the near future. Who knows how refined this technology could become.
And please don’t assume I believe in this, just daydreaming about what might be if it’s real. Since this test was so secretive and no one involved is getting named we have to continue to assume this is the scam of the decade until proven otherwise.
The alleged nuclear reaction in it is said to produce low energy gamma rays (they call it X rays). Maybe no worse than old fashioned TV sets, but people will be skittish about having one sit just anywhere.
Even if it runs on nothing, it still has to recoup the cost over the life of the machine. If it were 100 dollars per megawatt, it would be competitive. At 100 per KW, things would have to get much more expensive before it would enter serious production.