Is there a cost effective way to move that heat to where it could be used?
Nuclear reactors can produce very high temperatures, but in most reactors the heat is moved to turbines using water. Are there ways to move the heat at the high temperatures required to melt steel? (AFAIK, even molten salt is too cold.)
People have been talking about this since at least the 1970s, but no existing reactors have high enough temperatures. There are various concepts on paper that could do it.
Nope. Nuclear isn't hot enough. Only about 315°C at the output end. Electricity, though, has no thermodynamic upper limit on what temperature can be generated.
Steelmaking takes place around 1650C. Getting up to molten steel temperatures is hard.
Yes, you could potentially use waste heat from a reactor to preheat the tundish, and maybe the scrap and ladle. Nucor preheats using natural gas to save on electricity. No need to bring everything up from room temperature on electric power. A nuclear reactor immediately adjacent to a steel caster is probably not a great idea.
Nuclear reactors can produce very high temperatures, but in most reactors the heat is moved to turbines using water. Are there ways to move the heat at the high temperatures required to melt steel? (AFAIK, even molten salt is too cold.)