November 10, 2008

Mini Nuclear Power Plants

I heard about these mini nuclear power plants, about as big as a garden shed, that would power around 20,000 homes.  The thing would have no moving parts and be encased in concrete and buried underground.   Hyperion, out of New Mexico, is the company licensed to create them.  A power plant of that size would put out 27MW -- not nearly enough to send a Delorean back in time (that would require 1.21GW).  They don't require water for cooling like a big plant does, you just dig it up every 10 years and replace the uranium.  They do not use weapons grade fuel.

There's already a six year waiting list -- and they only cost $25 million... so add that to your Christmas list!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've got room in my backyard for some of these. Here's hoping that these made in the USA items don't all end up in other countries.

Cool stuff, thanks Dan!

Dan said...

It was interesting when I started reading about these nuke stations... all of the Internet sites at the top of the google search list were from England and the Middle East and Japan... I had to really search to find more info at America media sites.

Apparently, the set up is like a battery -- the nuke power plant is buried and feeds a steam powered turbine which resides up above. Then once every 10 years you dig up the power plant and send it in for servicing/refueling.