Toshiba Builds 100x Smaller Micro Nuclear Reactor

[Tylerdurden]

Toshiba has developed a new class of micro size Nuclear Reactors that is designed to power individual apartment buildings or city blocks. The new reactor, which is only 20 feet by 6 feet, could change everything for small remote communities, small businesses or even a group of neighbors who are fed up with the power companies and want more control over their energy needs.
The 200 kilowatt Toshiba designed reactor is engineered to be fail-safe and totally automatic and will not overheat. Unlike traditional nuclear reactors the new micro reactor uses no control rods to initiate the reaction. The new revolutionary technology uses reservoirs of liquid lithium-6, an isotope that is effective at absorbing neutrons. The Lithium-6 reservoirs are connected to a vertical tube that fits into the reactor core. The whole whole process is self sustaining and can last for up to 40 years, producing electricity for only 5 cents per kilowatt hour, about half the cost of grid energy.
Toshiba expects to install the first reactor in Japan in 2008 and to begin marketing the new system in Europe and America in 2009.

[Paul Pless]

COOL!!!

Can liquid lithium-6 be weaponized???

[Canoez]

How about :

[paladin]

Can liquid lithium-6 be weaponized???

yes.....but......you could build something a thousand times more powerful for .0001 percent of the money and in .0000001 percent of the time.......splitting the Lithium atom was man's first nuclear reaction (Lithium Deuteride) and was the fusion fuel for staged nuclear reactions....but as a metal it's very unstable, a little moisture in the air and it turns to a black oxide compound.....but it's also high on the list of one of the most abundant materials on earth so there's lots to play with...

[Popeye]

i have a Toshiba DVD player at home

it sucks

[Iceboy]

Hmm. looks kinda like the old Navy PM3 reactor. Jim....

[Woxbox]

If these things work as claimed, it really does change everything.

But will the environmentalists push their use to reduce coal and oil consumption? Will the US govt. allow them to be installed anywhere? Will the US energy industry lobby hard against them to protect their own interests?

Five cents per kwh is less than I pay now, and I have a lower than average time-of-day rate. I expect to see "who killed the electric car" all over agian.

[LeeG]

does that $.05/kwh figure in waste disposal?

seems to me a proliferation of small nuke plants provides a proliferation of waste sites.

[Greg P H]

We can hardly handle recycling plastic bags,
can you imagine.......

I'm holding out for zero point energy

[Woxbox]

seems to me a proliferation of small nuke plants provides a proliferation of waste sites.

How do you compare pounds of waste from fission plants to tons of waste from the burning of coal and oil --- waste that's released into the atmosphere and which is demonstrably destroying the planet? Do you really think there's a choice?

[Nanoose]

Question....what is the technology like in a nuclear powered sub? Something like this?

[Kaa]

Question....what is the technology like in a nuclear powered sub? Something like this?

No. That's what's called a pebble reactor, a fairly new idea. Nuclear subs use conventional nuclear reactions, albeit somewhat miniaturized to the extent possible.

Kaa

[Paul Pless]

[Hot Air]

I like my modules right where they are.

[Nanoose]

Why not ?

[Milo Christensen]

I applied for a civilian nuclear reactor operator position for a swimming pool research reactor way back in the early 70's. The law then was that 3 licensed operators had to be on duty 24/7, one had to be within 30 (?) feet of the SCRAM switch at all times. Wonder if that's been changed?

Any idea what they might cost?

This is a lot like what Dwight Eisenhower had in mind in the late 50's when he envisioned a day when nuclear generated electricity would be so cheap that they wouldn't bother to meter it.

[Bruce Hooke]

This is a lot like what Dwight Eisenhower had in mind in the late 50's when he envisioned a day when nuclear generated electricity would be so cheap that they wouldn't bother to meter it.

Which does raise the question if is this another dream that in practice will not look nearly as pretty as it does in conception...

[Milo Christensen]

The lads over at slashdot are having some fun with this:

Hopefully Sony doesn't get into this business. If you thought exploding laptop batteries were bad, wait until you get a Sony exploding nuclear reactor.

[Paul Pless]

Why not ?

Those smilies were in reference to Norm remark.

[Chris Coose]

The 200 kilowatt Toshiba designed reactor is engineered to be fail-safe and totally automatic and will not overheat.

This ought to be fun to watch. I've got this electrician who reminds me some of "Curley". He'd probably take one of these suckers on with a hammer and a screw driver, if challenged.