Understand nuclear power by scale.
See how reactors work, what small modular and microreactors are for, where nuclear heat and electricity can be used, and compare real designs from portable concepts to gigawatt plants.
Already know what you need? Size a power requirement or compare reactors side by side.
Tools that answer a specific decision
These are interactive calculations and structured comparisons, not article summaries.
Power requirement planner
Enter a continuous load, capacity-factor assumption and reserve margin. See unit counts across the reactor set.
COMPAREThree-way reactor compare
Put a microreactor, SMR and large reactor in the same table with output, fuel, status and deployment context.
CALCULATEEnergy & radiation calculators
Convert reactor output, uranium fission energy and radiation dose with assumptions shown beside the result.
From transportable units to gigawatt plants
Learn it visually before you calculate it.
Start with the simple version: how a plant makes electricity, what “SMR” actually means, where nuclear heat and power can be used, and what the main safety layers do.
How nuclear power works
Fission → heat → steam → turbine → generator, explained without reactor-engineering jargon.
What is an SMR?
What “small” and “modular” mean — and why an SMR is not automatically a portable reactor.
What can nuclear power do?
Electricity, data centres, industrial heat, district heating, hydrogen, desalination and remote power.
Safety, simply
See the physical barriers and the broader “defense in depth” idea in one simple stack.
Nuclear records & oddities
500 watts in orbit, a reactor on Army trailers, nuclear power under Greenland ice, floating plants and an 8.2 GW giant.
What changed recently?
Program status is separated from design specifications so a licensing or test milestone does not get confused with commercial operation.