The main problem in implementing small output conventional power plants comes from the difficulty of altering power output swiftly enough to follow rapid changes in load. The traditional steam generator method, regardless of the source of heat, has a large amount of inertia which makes its response sluggish. Making them small to get a more nimble response sacrifices efficiency. The conventional method of dealing with this difficulty is to have a huge grid with a quantity of large baseline generators, supplemented with peaking generators which are started up or shut down as needed. The size of the grid smooths out the fluctuations enough so this method works, usually. As long as nineteenth century methodology, boil the water, use the steam to turn a turbine, dominates the generation of electricity, the use of small generation facilities will be confined to applications such as factories where the load is fairly constant.

This is in fact a dangerous technology -- but only economically and politically. There are squads of high powered contractors and ambitious politicians lining up to promote the next generation of the same old stuff, light water reactors. They are not going to be pleased to see their attempts to extract buckets of wealth by building risk laden plants to generate expensive electricity emasculated by a simple, relatively safe and inexpensive machine. Eric Lerner and his team know what they are doing. They have taken a giant leap into the future, but if we want to take advantage of their discoveries, we will have to fight for it.