Saturday, November 08, 2008

Mini nuclear plants to power 20,000 homes

This sounds promising:

Mini nuclear plants to power 20,000 homes | Environment | The Observer
Nuclear power plants smaller than a garden shed and able to power 20,000 homes will be on sale within five years, say scientists at Los Alamos, the US government laboratory which developed the first atomic bomb.

The miniature reactors will be factory-sealed, contain no weapons-grade material, have no moving parts and will be nearly impossible to steal because they will be encased in concrete and buried underground.

The US government has licensed the technology to Hyperion, a New Mexico-based company which said last week that it has taken its first firm orders and plans to start mass production within five years. 'Our goal is to generate electricity for 10 cents a watt anywhere in the world,' said John Deal, chief executive of Hyperion. 'They will cost approximately $25m [£13m] each. For a community with 10,000 households, that is a very affordable $250 per home.'

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's about time!

This type of reactor have been used successfully and safely for years as research reactors and as propulsion power plants for naval vessels.

The biggest use of these mini-nuc plants could in developing nations or to power up after a natural or man-made disaster.