Your own personal, NUCLEAR REACTOR

11:52 AM Posted In , , , , Edit This 3 Comments »
"Nuclear power plants smaller than a garden shed and able to power 20,000 homes will be on sale within five years, say scientists at Los Alamos, the US government laboratory which developed the first atomic bomb.
The miniature reactors will be factory-sealed, contain no weapons-grade material, have no moving parts and will be nearly impossible to steal because they will be encased in concrete and buried underground."
Am I the only one who thinks this is a bad idea? Thanks to Bronn, who told me about this.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Depends on who they are selling it to. Based on that kind of power output and the probable cost, we're not talking backyards, here. Probably targeted at research centers, universities, and hospitals, most of which are already certified to handle radioactive materials (there's a radioactive materials lab less than twenty feet down the hall from where I sit, in fact). I highly doubt this'll wind up in the hands of Joe the Plumber.

~Reave

SLiver of Jade said...

Further on in the article it says: Deal claims to have more than 100 firm orders, largely from the oil and electricity industries, but says the company is also targeting developing countries and isolated communities. 'It's leapfrog technology,' he said.

It's the isolated communities part that scares me, which would be Joe the Plumber. Not to mention developing countries.

Anonymous said...

Then perhaps you should have read a bit farther. The same article that you are quoting states that every reactor will be protected by a security detail, has mo moving parts, and is sealed from the factory.