Enron Egg Parody Stunt Shows Us How Ridiculous Nuclear Promises Can Be

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Recently, one of my kids came to me telling me about the Egg by Enron. He’s too young to remember the original Enron, and he didn’t know that the new Enron website is a parody (more on that here). So, when he saw a video announcing the Enron Egg, a portable nuclear reactor, he thought it might be real.

A nuclear reactor to power your home. Here’s how The Enron Egg works. #EPS2025 pic.twitter.com/5P3gsG9OCT

— Enron (@Enron) January 10, 2025

In a TED Talk–style presentation, the fake CEO tells us about a nuclear device that’s supposedly safe to keep in your home with the family. It supposedly generates up to 200 amps of power for at least ten years. Inside, the rendering shows a “uranium zirconium hydride fueled reactor” that is supposed to be more safe and efficient. These are supposed to be inside of boron control drums for regulation and avoiding meltdown. A small TV screen gives data for users and the device is monitored 24/7 by Enron (a name we can all trust, right?), and the coolant is supposed to be heavy water. Plus, the fuel is supposed to only be 20% enriched uranium, which the CEO says is too low for conversion into a nuclear weapon (a disappointment to the recreational McNuke crowd, I know).

Even if you didn’t know this was a hoax to sell T-shirts and get revenue from websites like X/Twitter, a quick Google search shows that the design is full of intentional flaws. For one, 20% uranium is considered to be “highly enriched”, and 20% Uranium 235 is sufficient for implosion-type fission bombs to work with, even if impractical. But, it definitely wouldn’t be impossible to build a bomb out of Enron Eggs if they were every to really be sold. Nuclear reactions generate a lot of waste heat, making the closed coolant design basically impossible in the real world.

What This Parody Is Really Trying to Say

While the Enron Egg will never really be built, the jokesters behind it are trying to make a real point.

First off, it’s a commentary on the endless stream of hucksters entering the alternative energy space. Some people are serious and are trying, but they don’t have the means to build anything extraordinary. Others have interesting ideas with serious problems that can’t be worked out. But, there are people who intentionally get out there and promote things they know won’t ever work to make a quick buck.

By showing us how easy it is to fool people with a slick presentation and some computer graphics, the Enron parody egg shows us that we need people who might lay down cash (either for a preorder or as investors) to be more savvy and skeptical.

The other thing that’s easy to poke fun at is how uniform all of these sorts of presentations are, whether real or as part of a scam. Everyone wants to show up on a stage looking like Steve Jobs, presenting things on a dark background, and promising the moon. Because we tend to see this presentation design language as more legitimate than other forms, it leaves an opening for people who are there to deceive (even if for a parody or to make a social commentary).

So, I’m actually glad to see this hoax. It helps spread an important message.

Featured image: a screenshot of the Enron logo (fair use).