Toshiba Builds 100x Smaller Micro Nuclear Reactor
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Those Japanese, always one step ahead! Bring on Mr. Fusion!
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.
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minbo
9:08 pm | Dec 21, 2007This is the 4S prototype that Toshiba offered to build for a Genela, an Alaskan town for free, provided the NRC would give them the necessary permits. If you want a PDF with the skinny on that project, the link is below.
http://www.utnl.jp/~rohonbu/PBNC/1-1.pdf
A link to an articles when the Alaska project were first announced:
http://www.alaskajournal.com/stories/122604/loc_20041226003.shtml
Status on current NRC permit negotiation
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=a.5RbNhJu6wI&refer=japan