I am currently working on a Back to the Future fan theory post and that got me thinking about the huge amount of power it takes to send the DeLorean featured in the franchise through time. What would a 3D printer powered by a small nuclear reactor look like?

So I had Stable Diffusion generate some images of that.

Image Source: Stable Diffusion

I guess this one below is an industrial 3D printer with enclosure to print large parts using high-temperature material like ABS.

Image Source: Stable Diffusion

This next 3D printer doesn't seem to have bulky shielding. Maybe this has an internal "cold fusion" reactor?

The spool and filament look slightly not quite right to my eye. That made me think about what affect higher than normal background radiation would have on filament. With something like PLA you don't want to keep it exposed to air for months at a time because the filament gradually absorbs moisture from the air. Even with shielding I suppose one factor for a nuclear-powered 3D printer is how resistant to ionizing radiation the feedstock it uses would be.

Image Source: Stable Diffusion

Pretty glowing light around the build plate of the 3D printer. Is that Cherenkov radiation? Maybe I am just trying to postulate a reason for why that glow is in the image but maybe the AI actually did "think" a 3D printer like that would have Cherenkov radiation associated with its function. I didn't think of that kind of detail until seeing the picture and then it made some sense when I thought about it.

Image Source: Stable Diffusion