Mini Nuclear Reactors to Power Remote Areas

[classicman]

Mini Nuclear Reactors

Nov. 21, 2008 -- It's the size of a shed, but you're not likely to find it in any backyard.

Using technology originally developed by scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, Hyperion Power Generation is creating mini nuclear fission reactors that will provide electricity and hot water to remote locations, nearly all outside the United States.

"There is a strong humanitarian bent to these reactors," said John "Grizz" Deal, Hyperion's CEO. "This was invented to provide electricity and hot water to remote locations, where people might not have electricity or clean water."

Deal says that Hyperion has already received more than 100 orders for the $25-30 million-dollar reactors, which are sealed shut with concrete and have no moving parts. The reactors are designed to generate electricity or boil water clean after being hooked up to water piped near their 500-degree surfaces.

Standard nuclear fission will generate the heat. As the uranium inside the reactor breaks apart naturally, it creates heat and sends neutrons (tiny particles that exist in the nucleus of atoms) blasting out. If those neutrons hit other uranium atoms they break apart as well, creating even more heat and more new neutrons.