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Random thought experiment -- why not just drop it in the middle of a lifeless desert, forget about heat exchangers, and just let it slowly melt its way down through the crust of the earth? Assuming it went straight down and into the mantle, it would probably not impact the ecosystem.


Even in a desert, you'll cross the water table before reaching the mantle. And people prefer to consume electricity in hospitable locations.


"probably" being the key word here; Chernobyl was in a fairly remote area but the fallout spewed over a big part of Europe.

If you go to the desert to make use of the space, might as well build a solar array instead.


Wouldn’t be particularly helpful for power generation since the salt needs to be cooled by water to create the steam to make the power.


That's more or less what terrapower plans to build: dig a hole fill it with nuclear stuff and let it burn for decades.


Like an uncontained nuclear reaction spewing radioactive materials over a large area?


brb inventing teleportation




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