[rbanffy]

> Nuclear plants remain stupidly expensive and lack this feature.

Combining nuclear with some secondary application that can run only at energy surplus times, such as desalination or pumped hydro, might help with the economics.

Desalination and pumping desalinated seawater through long distances might actually be a nice idea to reduce desertification or to increase agricultural output.

[leonidasrup]

Nuclear powered desalination was demonstrated using BN-350 reactor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BN-350_reactor

The question is always: costs. In the Middle East and North Africa dominating source of power for desalination is natural gas.

https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/energy-consum...

[rbanffy]

Cost of the energy input is less important if it uses the energy surplus the grid isn’t paying for.

[thijson]

That would require an energy market with spot prices that incentivize the buildout.