@NoelWauchope@mastodon.social This depends on the particular nuclear reactions selected, and whether multiple reactors on the same site can feed into each other (e.g. recycling fuel, and or using alternative fuel paths, or even using a different "virgin" fuel source like thorium salts).

Additionally, some people at my university are currently working on making these reactors passively cooled (I mentioned radiative sky-cooling to them as well) to further reduce demand on water for coolant and such.

So while yes, these may present a few challenges initially, the reduced startup costs, means more clean energy produced faster to get us to net-0 CO2 or even negative CO2 (consider just one SMR could power a fleet of carbon capture devices which could be converted into eco-fuel, graphene, etc) and I think the potential benefits far outweigh the drawbacks, especially when you consider how safe appropriately stored nuclear waste is.