The Hyperion Nuclear Power Generation Unit. This appears to be a small nuclear heat source that can be used to drive steam turbines. It uses a different fuel as compared to normal nuclear reactors so it's impossible for it to melt down, it self-damps (stops moderating neutrons, i.e., stops the reaction) when it gets above a certain temperature.
I've already noted that with oil and gas running out and the transition to a hydrogen infrastructure we're going to need not only a replacement for fuel oil and natural gas for home heating, but also a lot of energy to "crack" water into its hydrogen/oxygen components to use as fuel -- more energy than can be provided by wind and solar. There simply isn't enough energy density available in wind and solar to power a modern economy. Just ask Germany. They tried. They failed. Instead, Germany is now covered by a black cloud from coal-powered plants that are all that keeps Germany from sitting in the dark. Meanwhile, the skys are clear in France, where over 90% of their electricity comes from nuclear power. So for the near term, nuclear fission is "it" as an energy source for powering a modern economy. And as these small reactors prove, it *is* possible to create safe nuclear reactors.
The sad thing is that these new safe nuclear reactors are going to get installed in Eastern Europe long before they're installed here in America. The moron radical environmentalists would rather we all sit in the dark freezing, because sitting in the dark freezing is more "environmentally sound". Bah. Ideology wins over pragmatism once again. Environmentalism is yet another one of those "isms" like capitalism, socialism, and communism, all of which have some useful ideas, but when you turn them into an ideology what you get is poison.
-- Badtux the Nuclear Penguin
The higher temperatures of some of the newer designs of the GenIV reactors are ideally suited for producing hydrogen cheaply. Here is an article on producing hydrogen from nuclear power by the World Nuclear Association if you are interested.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.world-nuclear.org/sym/2002/walters.htm
Furthermore, nuclear reactors can also be used to heat communities by sending heat through pipes like in a district heating system. As far as the most versatile design of nuclear reactor for producing hydrogen from water it is probably the molten salt reactor (MSR). They have the advantage of running on a thorium based fuel cycle and none of the actinides ever leave the reactor core. It is also impossible for them to melt down because the core is already in a molten state.
http://thoriumenergy.blogspot.com/2006/04/brief-history-of-liquid-fluoride.html
Unfortunately, Badtux, you are right. The evironmentalists would never allow another nuclear reactor to be built in the US because of their paranoid fears of nuclear power. The loan structure to finance the building of a new reactor is also in shambles after the economic crisis, and finally the NRC would never allow a design such as a MSR to be approved because it makes too much sense.