Here Come the Mini-Nukes

 

Nuclear power advocates are touting the benefits of miniature nuclear reactors that they say could allow an apartment building, a neighborhood, or a small city to generate its own electricity. Several designs are said to be nearing commercialization, including a 200 kilowatt unit developed by computer maker Toshiba, and a 25 megawatt unit that will be made by Santa Fe, New Mexico’s Hyperion Power Generation. Hyperion recently received an undisclosed amount of venture capital funding, and plans to build 4,000 of their miniature nuclear reactors, each capable of powering about 25,000 homes. Hyperion’s plan is to bury the units underground, then come back every five years to dig them up and replace them. No plans for disposing of the radioactive waste appear on the company’s website.