Nuclear energy for electricity generation has been the standard application for civilian nuclear power since the industry began seven decades ago. Heat produces steam, which spins a turbine—technology which uses readily available processes developed in coal, oil and gas burning power plants for over a century. Space and process heat, however, are major energy demands for cities and in industry, and a demonstration nuclear district heat plant has powered up in Dalian City, China. In the United States, a development program for scalable, truck-transportable small modular reactors may have encountered a restraining force more powerful than physics: inflation.
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