Join each day information updates from CleanTechnica on e mail. Or observe us on Google Information!
Just lately, considered one of my children got here to me telling me concerning the Egg by Enron. He’s too younger to recollect the unique Enron, and he didn’t know that the brand new Enron web site is a parody (extra on that right here). So, when he noticed a video asserting the Enron Egg, a transportable nuclear reactor, he thought it could be actual.
A nuclear reactor to energy your private home. Right here’s how The Enron Egg works. #EPS2025 pic.twitter.com/5P3gsG9OCT
— Enron (@Enron) January 10, 2025
In a TED Speak–type presentation, the pretend CEO tells us a few nuclear gadget that’s supposedly secure to maintain in your house with the household. It supposedly generates as much as 200 amps of energy for at the very least ten years. Inside, the rendering reveals a “uranium zirconium hydride fueled reactor” that’s speculated to be extra secure and environment friendly. These are speculated to be inside boron management drums for regulation and avoiding meltdown. A small TV display screen offers information for customers and the gadget is monitored 24/7 by Enron (a reputation we will all belief, proper?), and the coolant is meant to be heavy water. Plus, the gas is meant to solely be 20% enriched uranium, which the CEO says is just too low for conversion right into a nuclear weapon (a disappointment to the leisure McNuke crowd, I do know).
Even should you didn’t know this was a hoax to promote T-shirts and get income from web sites like X/Twitter, a fast Google search reveals that the design is stuffed with intentional flaws. For one, 20% uranium is taken into account to be “extremely enriched”, and 20% Uranium 235 is adequate for implosion-type fission bombs to work with, even when impractical. However, it positively wouldn’t be inconceivable to construct a bomb out of Enron Eggs in the event that they had been each to essentially be bought. Nuclear reactions generate a number of waste warmth, making the closed coolant design principally inconceivable in the actual world.
What This Parody Is Actually Attempting to Say
Whereas the Enron Egg won’t ever actually be constructed, the jokesters behind it try to make an actual level.
First off, it’s a commentary on the limitless stream of hucksters coming into the choice power house. Some individuals are severe and try, however they don’t have the means to construct something extraordinary. Others have attention-grabbing concepts with severe issues that may’t be labored out. However, there are individuals who deliberately get on the market and promote issues they know gained’t ever work to make a fast buck.
By exhibiting us how straightforward it’s to idiot folks with a slick presentation and a few pc graphics, the Enron parody egg reveals us that we want individuals who may lay down money (both for a preorder or as buyers) to be extra savvy and skeptical.
The opposite factor that’s straightforward to poke enjoyable at is how uniform all of those kinds of shows are, whether or not actual or as a part of a rip-off. Everybody needs to indicate up on a stage trying like Steve Jobs, presenting issues on a darkish background, and promising the moon. As a result of we are inclined to see this presentation design language as extra official than different kinds, it leaves a gap for people who find themselves there to deceive (even when for a parody or to make a social commentary).
So, I’m really glad to see this hoax. It helps unfold an necessary message.
Featured picture: a screenshot of the Enron emblem (truthful use).
Chip in just a few {dollars} a month to assist assist unbiased cleantech protection that helps to speed up the cleantech revolution!
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Wish to promote? Wish to recommend a visitor for our CleanTech Speak podcast? Contact us right here.
Join our each day e-newsletter for 15 new cleantech tales a day. Or join our weekly one if each day is just too frequent.
CleanTechnica makes use of affiliate hyperlinks. See our coverage right here.
CleanTechnica’s Remark Coverage