A company called Hyperion is touting clean, safe, affordable energy; where you need it, when you need it. In fact, this energy supply is about the size of a hot tub, can be transported by truck or lorry and can be used to power 20,000 homes at a time, at an initial cost of $25 million. The catch? These are mini-nuclear plants, encased in concrete and buried in the ground. These mini-reactors, however, do not contain any weapons grade plutonium. That's a relief!
The technology was developed by U.S. government scientists at Los Alamos and leased to Hyperion, which claims to already have 100 orders and a 6 year waiting list. "Our goal is to generate electricity for 10 cents a watt anywhere in the world," John Deal, chief executive of Hyperion, told the Guardian newspaper.
The company plans to start mass producing these reactors in the next five years by setting up three factories. In fact, they plan to make 4000 of them, or enough to meet 20% of America's energy needs. Toshiba is also working on micro-nuclear reactors. These are even smaller and would be used to power individual buildings or a few city blocks. Toshiba claims that the process is self-sustaining and that these micro reactors will last about 40 years, producing energy at a cost of 5 cents per kilowatt hour. The Hyperion models need to be refueled every 7 to 10 years. Missing is any explanation of what is done with the spent materials.
Safety concerns? None says Hyperion, they can't overheat and have no mechanical functions or moving parts to maintain. Other reasons they're safe:
'You could never have a Chernobyl-type event - there are no moving parts,' said Deal. 'You would need nation-state resources in order to enrich our uranium. Temperature-wise it's too hot to handle. It would be like stealing a barbecue with your bare hands.' -The Guardian
They even use as one of their safety claims that the mini-reactors are "factory-sealed". So safe, in fact, that they don't like to call it a reactor at all.
‘In fact, we prefer to call it a ‘drive' or a ‘battery' or a ‘module' in that it's so safe,' Hyperion spokeswoman Deborah Blackwell says. ‘Like you don't open a double-A battery, you just plug [the reactor] in and it does its chemical thing inside of it. You don't ever open it or mess with it.' - Tomorrow's Trends
They also make the claim that "because the reactor is based on a 50-year-old design that has proved safe for students to use, few countries are expected to object to plants on their territory." Huh? I am not sure that the 50 year-old design argument gives me that much comfort. In an age of loose nukes, the black market trading of nuclear materials, the raising of safety concerns in France's supposedly safe nuclear energy industry and a continuing issue of what to do with nuclear waste, the seems like a misguided idea. It seems particularly misguided when we have other options - wind, solar, geothermal, hydrogen fuel-cell - that don't come with the same down side.
As one blogger puts it, "Eh, I dunno...I wouldn't want to be a beta tester, I'll tell ya that."
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