(11.August) With this massive boost in power, MIT has been able to design a much smaller (and therefore cheaper) reactor that can still produce significant amounts of electricity. The first prototype ARC reactor would be a 270 MWe power plant, producing between three and six times as much energy as it requires to keep itself running. The reactor, which would generate enough energy to power some 100,000 homes, would be relatively compact at half the size of ITER. It would have the added benefit of having a module core, making it much easier to both service and experiment with.