"Any current robot that works with people, including factory transport robots, emerging domestic robots, even collocated utility robots such as the PackBot, could benefit from this," Young said.
"The disadvantage generally involves the logistics of building in a factory and transporting over the road," Mr. Hallahan said.
What they learned surprised them; it wasn't running the factory or transporting the heavy juice containers, but the nitrogen fertilizers, which require natural gas to make and can turn into a potent greenhouse gas, that were the primary contributor.
An upside down train forms the "U"; factory workers transporting boxes curve the letter "C"; a backroom of some sort makes up "L"; in "Q" an aquarium takes form; and "A" is build up entirely from ladders.
Instead, SMRs, would be turned out by the dozen in a factory, then transported to sites and plugged in, making them – in theory – cheaper.
If it could be built in a factory and transported to the site, she reasoned, the family could trade up with minimal disruption.
They are pitched by industry as a cheaper and quicker way to provide low-carbon energy capacity than conventional big nuclear plants because they could be built in a factory and transported to where their power is needed.
But for companies that use a lot of energy to run factories, transport goods or simply as a raw input, this trend is welcome news.
With growth comes not just new factories, transport and commerce, all power-hungry sectors of any economy, but the individual wealth to put more and bigger cars on the road, to build bigger homes that need heating, cooling and lighting, and to acquire the kilowatt-consuming gadgets of modernity, from electric rice cookers to PCs.
Since more than 80% of the U.S. grocery purchases are now processed foods, a huge percentage of the carbon or fossil fuel footprint of industrial agriculture comes from transporting factory farm crops or animals to the processing plant or slaughterhouse and then transporting these processed foods from the processing plant to the dinner table via the supermarket.
