Compact nuclear power had long been considered intractable for civilian use. But on a cold December day, at an alternative energy conference, a team of academics reveals a new discovery: charging up small nuclear reactors over several days at high energy can produce clean power output. It is not yet competitive with other energy sources, but it does seem promising. The name of this new technology is Compact Nuclear Power (CNP).
Some note that at larger energy loads, CNP cores might become unstable, leading to meltdowns or explosions. The risks remain theoretical for now.
OpenAtom
Fuel materials and CNP core design continue to improve. ExxonMobil releases some early commercially viable cores. It is becoming clear that this technology will be transformative—at minimum, it will accelerate world energy production at a time that it is greatly needed, and some even say that it will unlock transmutation, creating plentiful quantities of various elements from feedstock. A group of concerned nuclear engineers convene to create a nonprofit, OpenAtom, that will distribute the benefits of the technology better than a private company would.
Its stated goal: "Our goal is to advance energy distribution in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return... it’ll be important to have a leading research institution which can prioritize a good outcome for all over its own self-interest."
Given the competitive nature of what the technological race could develop into, OpenAtom commits to joining efforts of other humanity-focused nuclear energy producers in its charter, if it runs into a scenario where race dynamics would limit the capacity to develop CNP in a safe manner.
Notwithstanding, the same document maintains "OpenAtom must be on the cutting edge of nuclear energy development—policy and safety advocacy alone would be insufficient."
The concerns around the new technology are not universal. Leading nuclear physicist Arnold Ng adds, "Worrying about a massive CNP explosion today is like worrying about ChatGPT going rogue."
Concerns multiply
Social media is abuzz with reports that the big energy providers are mining uranium in large quantities. The environmental movement is enraged. Some critics say that the uranium depletion pales in comparison to existing coal mining and oil drilling, but their reports never quite seem to curb the uranium outrage.
2023
In May, CNES, the Center for Nuclear Energy Security, releases an open letter: "Mitigating the risk of planetary explosion should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and AI takeover." CEOs of the foremost nuclear energy companies and nuclear scientists sign.
That summer, OpenAtom releases a statement saying: “Currently, we don't have a solution for shielding or controlling a potentially supernuclear core, and preventing it from exploding.”
April 3rd, 2025
A nonprofit investigating the rate of progress on nuclear energy production, the Nuclear Futures Project, releases a scenario forecast where they predict that supernuclear energy production is possible—but with high odds of blowing up the entire planet. Vice President TJ Mantz remarks: "We could wake up very soon in a world where there is no protection from nuclear explosions."
Later in July, the US government unveils a directive: Winning the Race—America's Nuclear Action Plan. It calls for faster energy production and removal of regulations.
April 2026
Elemental announces a new core with improved power density. Rumors surface that the core can convert traces of certain long-lived radioactive isotopes into shorter-lived ones. The process still requires carefully prepared samples, but appears to work across a wider range of materials than earlier cores. Some researchers see it as an early sign that CNP could eventually produce scarce elements from common feedstock.
At the same time, Elemental finds that it can use these new cores to accelerate improvements in radioactive shielding. It spins up a program for other organizations to improve their ability to remove nuclear fallout, in case of any future CNP meltdowns.
Amarillo
It is July 16th. Residents on the outskirts of the Texas city of Amarillo are awakened in the early morning to a deep boom. Later, they learn that an OpenAtom CNP has exploded. The fallout kills thousands of livestock from local ranches, but thankfully, no people are killed. The ranches affected by the fallout sue for $100 million in damages.
OpenAtom lets a group of three researchers enter its facilities and examine some security footage. The initial records are incomplete, and the investigation’s scope excludes earlier incidents. OpenAtom subsequently provides more footage. The researchers produce a report describing a network of over a thousand linked cores, hundreds of which were involved in the chain reaction.
Sept 2026
OpenAtom releases a result: using some of its ultra-high-energy cores, it is able to convert lead into silicon. The new cores are still unavailable to the government or wider public.
The world hears, some for the first time, that the employees at nuclear energy companies are increasingly worried about the technology. One writes:
I resigned from Elemental today. I spent the last three years doing thermal physics research at both OpenAtom and Elemental. Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to build supernuclear machines and gambling with our lives. More thoughts below.
A researcher currently at Elemental adds:
He's correct here—we really do earnestly believe CNPs could trigger a world-destroying explosion! I personally think it is >10% within the next decade. I believe Elemental is trying its best, but we do not yet have a plan to solve spontaneous reactor blowups and are not clearly on track to.
Less than a week later, Elemental's CEO publishes an essay titled Nuclear Caution. In it, he prescribes the need to slow the acceleration of energy production and high-energy experiments. OpenAtom, DeepCore, and xNuke CEOs join him in supporting the need for nuclear energy companies to slow the rate at which they accelerate energy production.
In the aftermath of these indictments, news reporters find themselves asking the nuclear researchers the same question: "How would CNPs actually explode?" The response: "We don't understand the mechanisms of how CNPs could actually produce as much energy as they are. It's hard to predict how they could actually explode, there are so many ways it could happen that would be unimaginable from our vantage."
CNP explosions become so routine that the month of October is christened "Grey October". However, Elemental and OpenAtom continue with their programs to help rural communities with the fallout cleanup.
Nov. 5, 2026
NETR, the Nuclear Evaluation and Threat Research nonprofit, releases a report of Elemental’s progress on CNP development. It estimates that the pace of improvements on standardized core-performance tests has roughly doubled relative to the earlier trend. The evaluators tentatively attribute most of the acceleration—perhaps 80%—to using existing cores in the development of better ones, with substantial uncertainty.
The full report is not available to the public. Company leaders shelve a project looking to investigate the energy allocation used on CNP development. The report that is released is full of redactions—Elemental’s RSO (Responsible Scaling Officer) maintains that further knowledge of the lab’s processes would enable competitors to produce more and more energy, making it possible to create cores that could be more dangerous than those made before. The extent to which Elemental's leadership is willing to slow down its own efforts remains unclear.
2012
Compact nuclear power had long been considered intractable for civilian use. But on a cold December day, at an alternative energy conference, a team of academics reveals a new discovery: charging up small nuclear reactors over several days at high energy can produce clean power output. It is not yet competitive with other energy sources, but it does seem promising. The name of this new technology is Compact Nuclear Power (CNP).
Some note that at larger energy loads, CNP cores might become unstable, leading to meltdowns or explosions. The risks remain theoretical for now.
OpenAtom
Fuel materials and CNP core design continue to improve. ExxonMobil releases some early commercially viable cores. It is becoming clear that this technology will be transformative—at minimum, it will accelerate world energy production at a time that it is greatly needed, and some even say that it will unlock transmutation, creating plentiful quantities of various elements from feedstock. A group of concerned nuclear engineers convene to create a nonprofit, OpenAtom, that will distribute the benefits of the technology better than a private company would.
Its stated goal: "Our goal is to advance energy distribution in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return... it’ll be important to have a leading research institution which can prioritize a good outcome for all over its own self-interest."
Given the competitive nature of what the technological race could develop into, OpenAtom commits to joining efforts of other humanity-focused nuclear energy producers in its charter, if it runs into a scenario where race dynamics would limit the capacity to develop CNP in a safe manner.
Notwithstanding, the same document maintains "OpenAtom must be on the cutting edge of nuclear energy development—policy and safety advocacy alone would be insufficient."
The concerns around the new technology are not universal. Leading nuclear physicist Arnold Ng adds, "Worrying about a massive CNP explosion today is like worrying about ChatGPT going rogue."
Concerns multiply
Social media is abuzz with reports that the big energy providers are mining uranium in large quantities. The environmental movement is enraged. Some critics say that the uranium depletion pales in comparison to existing coal mining and oil drilling, but their reports never quite seem to curb the uranium outrage.
2023
In May, CNES, the Center for Nuclear Energy Security, releases an open letter: "Mitigating the risk of planetary explosion should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and AI takeover." CEOs of the foremost nuclear energy companies and nuclear scientists sign.
That summer, OpenAtom releases a statement saying: “Currently, we don't have a solution for shielding or controlling a potentially supernuclear core, and preventing it from exploding.”
April 3rd, 2025
A nonprofit investigating the rate of progress on nuclear energy production, the Nuclear Futures Project, releases a scenario forecast where they predict that supernuclear energy production is possible—but with high odds of blowing up the entire planet. Vice President TJ Mantz remarks: "We could wake up very soon in a world where there is no protection from nuclear explosions."
Later in July, the US government unveils a directive: Winning the Race—America's Nuclear Action Plan. It calls for faster energy production and removal of regulations.
April 2026
Elemental announces a new core with improved power density. Rumors surface that the core can convert traces of certain long-lived radioactive isotopes into shorter-lived ones. The process still requires carefully prepared samples, but appears to work across a wider range of materials than earlier cores. Some researchers see it as an early sign that CNP could eventually produce scarce elements from common feedstock.
At the same time, Elemental finds that it can use these new cores to accelerate improvements in radioactive shielding. It spins up a program for other organizations to improve their ability to remove nuclear fallout, in case of any future CNP meltdowns.
Amarillo
It is July 16th. Residents on the outskirts of the Texas city of Amarillo are awakened in the early morning to a deep boom. Later, they learn that an OpenAtom CNP has exploded. The fallout kills thousands of livestock from local ranches, but thankfully, no people are killed. The ranches affected by the fallout sue for $100 million in damages.
OpenAtom lets a group of three researchers enter its facilities and examine some security footage. The initial records are incomplete, and the investigation’s scope excludes earlier incidents. OpenAtom subsequently provides more footage. The researchers produce a report describing a network of over a thousand linked cores, hundreds of which were involved in the chain reaction.
Sept 2026
OpenAtom releases a result: using some of its ultra-high-energy cores, it is able to convert lead into silicon. The new cores are still unavailable to the government or wider public.
The world hears, some for the first time, that the employees at nuclear energy companies are increasingly worried about the technology. One writes:
A researcher currently at Elemental adds:
Less than a week later, Elemental's CEO publishes an essay titled Nuclear Caution. In it, he prescribes the need to slow the acceleration of energy production and high-energy experiments. OpenAtom, DeepCore, and xNuke CEOs join him in supporting the need for nuclear energy companies to slow the rate at which they accelerate energy production.
In the aftermath of these indictments, news reporters find themselves asking the nuclear researchers the same question: "How would CNPs actually explode?" The response: "We don't understand the mechanisms of how CNPs could actually produce as much energy as they are. It's hard to predict how they could actually explode, there are so many ways it could happen that would be unimaginable from our vantage."
CNP explosions become so routine that the month of October is christened "Grey October". However, Elemental and OpenAtom continue with their programs to help rural communities with the fallout cleanup.
Nov. 5, 2026
NETR, the Nuclear Evaluation and Threat Research nonprofit, releases a report of Elemental’s progress on CNP development. It estimates that the pace of improvements on standardized core-performance tests has roughly doubled relative to the earlier trend. The evaluators tentatively attribute most of the acceleration—perhaps 80%—to using existing cores in the development of better ones, with substantial uncertainty.
The full report is not available to the public. Company leaders shelve a project looking to investigate the energy allocation used on CNP development. The report that is released is full of redactions—Elemental’s RSO (Responsible Scaling Officer) maintains that further knowledge of the lab’s processes would enable competitors to produce more and more energy, making it possible to create cores that could be more dangerous than those made before. The extent to which Elemental's leadership is willing to slow down its own efforts remains unclear.