technology

It’s one of those things like the Hoover Dam - certainly an impressive finished product- but the number of engineering/construction innovations that made it possible (e.g. concrete curing methodology) and then disseminated to the industry at large is even more impressive (imo).

For instance I’m so excited about this:

The 200MW heat generated by the reactor is not used directly to drive the ship, according to Hu. Instead, it powers a supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) generator using the Brayton cycle – a highly efficient thermodynamic process that converts heat into electricity far more effectively than traditional steam turbines.

The Brayton cycle uses compressed gas – in this case, carbon dioxide – heated to extreme temperatures, then expanded through turbines to generate power. Supercritical CO2 behaves like both a liquid and a gas, allowing for compact, high-efficiency systems.

And about molten salt reactors in general (honestly I’ll take any meaningful innovation at this point).

To sound like a gamer, it does make me feel like a CIV scientist working a space race victory but being obviously far behind other countries. Very happy someone is making progress, hopeful it will spread to my backwater nation, and annoyed that the nation which employs me constantly switches to pursuit of a domination victory (which they also are woefully flailing at).