New Generation of Mini Reactors?

This is something Ive been waiting for...a long time!

If this tech is successful will it put an end to all wind and solar options???

http://www.dailytech.com/Miniature Nuclear Reactors to be on Sale Within 5 Years/article13389.htm

Hyperion, Toshiba, others, race to produce personal nuclear power.

"Using technology licensed from the U.S. government, an Arizona-based company is planning to bring a new generation of miniature nuclear reactors to market. The Hyperion Hydride Reactor is not much larger than a hot tub, is totally sealed and self-operating, has no moving parts and, beyond refueling, requires no maintenance of any sort. The reactor will output 27MW, enough to power a community of 20,000 homes, says Hyperion Energy, makers of the new reactor. The first models will roll off the assembly line in five years.

Unlike conventional nuclear reactors, the Hyperion design uses no water for cooling, meaning it can be sited anywhere. It is designed to be covered in concrete and then buried while in operation, to reduce the risk of tampering. The reactor must be excavated every 7-10 years for refueling, but can otherwise be left entirely undisturbed.

"Our goal is to generate electricity for 10 cents a watt anywhere in the world", says Hyperion CEO John Deal.

Deal says that more than 100 orders have already been placed, from both the oil and electricity industries, as well as developing nations. The small size of the reactor makes it ideal for smaller, isolated communities which can therefore avoid the heavy cost of high-power electricity transmission lines.

Since power is produced 100% of the time, the total energy output is more than 15 times what the world's most powerful 400-foot tall 5 MW wind turbine will produce. The total cost is estimated at $25 million USD. It generates no greenhouse gases while in operation and, when one takes into account the total amount of resources used during manufacture, is said to have much less of a carbon footprint than even wind or solar power.

"We now have a six-year waiting list," says Deal. "We are in talks with developers in the Cayman Islands, Panama, and the Bahamas".

The reactor uses a uranium hydride core, surrounded by hydrogen gas. The fuel is not enriched to weapons-grade, meaning it can't be used for building a nuclear device.

Hyperion plans to eventually have three factories mass-producing the reactors, a step which will further reduce costs and increase the number available.

Toshiba is also working on its own mini nuclear reactor, the "4S", which the company says stands for "super-safe, small, and simple". The 4S is based on a smaller 10 MW design that can last 30-40 years before refueling. The 4S is sodium-cooled, and uses liquid lithium-6 to moderate the reactor, instead of conventional control rods. Like Hyperion's design, the reactor is totally sealed and requires no maintenance or operation.

Toshiba says the reactor will make power available for as little as 5 cents/kWh. A demonstration version of the 4S is planned to be online in 2012, and will be sited in the Alaskan village of Galena. After that, Toshiba plans to offer the 4S for sale throughout North America and Europe."

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How do they even get 25 million dollars into that little box, anyway? 25 million dollars is about a dollar per watt of output. A dollar per watt takes 20*3600=72,000 hours of operation to come down to 5 cents per kilowatthour. That's about ten months. If you get 25 million dollars worth of reliability, that's a nice little money machine.

One of the things that I read about this was that it generates 70 megawatts of heat to get that 27 megawatts of electricity. That's a lot of heat to dispose of. That could heat a sports arena or operate a desalinization plant by the heat alone. I don't know how they plan to get rid of that much heat but when you have 43 megawatts of heat to throw away, that's a lot of power for someone to figure out how to use.

I don't know how they plan to be able to just bury it. The ground around it would be cherry-red really soon.

Someone has been working while the environmentalists have been bitching.

 

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Complete BS, no mention of how it makes electricity or shielding requirements.

 

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Where did you read that?

And did you read anything about how electricity is produced in the unit?

 

Without moving parts it could at best be thermal ionics, which has conversion efficiency between 10-25%

 

Like a thermoelectric cell??? Maybe this explains the excess heat Metakron spoke of.

There is a technical pdf document on the Hyperion site.

 

Thermoelectric could at best to 5-15% conversion efficiency, do the math, 27MW and 70MW heat means ~28% efficiency which puts it on the low end of a steam cycle.

 

I read it on James P. Hogan's website and he referred to Hyperion's own website.


The only argument I make is that there may be about 43 megawatts of heat to get rid of. They seem to know what they are doing. I'm amazed. Whether it's 25, 27, or 70 megawatts of heat coming out of the thing, that's so many millions of joules of energy coming out of that tiny thing every second. That's how many dynamite sticks? If this isn't a hoax it's going to revolutionize physics.

I don't suppose they could build one that's good for a single megawatt for 125 years? I could think up some good uses, like space stations or small colonies. A good handful could be sent up with one launch.

No, I didn't see anything about how it produces electricity. Someone may have found better ways to get electricity out of it.

 

I seem to remember the USSR had units like this for remote outposts.

 

More info..it uses plain old steam turbine generation above ground:

http://green.bligblog.com/hyperion-reactor-takes-on-energy-crisis-in-a-green-way-5455.html

"Hyperion Power Generation was formed last month to develop the nuclear fission reactor at Los Alamos National Laboratory and take it into the private sector.

Scientist Otis Peterson’s brainchild, the portable nuclear reactor, might strike one as having a striking resemblance to a hot tub. It’s shaped like a sake cup, filled with a uranium hydride core and surrounded by a hydrogen atmosphere. This apparently simple setting possesses the capability of generating enough electricity to power a 25,000-home community for at least five years, when it is encased in concrete, trucked to a site, buried underground and hooked up to a steam turbine. In theory, the reactor uses uranium crystals and hydrogen isotopes to create an internal, self-regulating balance.

Hyperion prefers to call it a ‘drive’ or a ‘battery’ or a ‘module’ instead of a “reactor”, though it would produce 27 megawatts worth of thermal energy.

The protagonists of the device claim that compared to traditional reactors and carbon-based fuels, Hyperion is...

-Safer, as it is self- regulating with no moving parts to break down or corrode.

-Small, compact and portable, reducing enormous infrastructure costs, reliability and loss issues which plague the transmission of power from large generating facilities to distant locations.

-Cleaner, as it produces only a tiny fraction of the waste produced by other types of reactors and doesn’t produce greenhouse gases.

-Less expensive, as Hyperion offers a 30% reduction in capital costs from convention gigawatt installations (from $2,000 per kW to $1400 per kW) and a 70% reduction in operating costs.

If all goes according to plan, Hyperion could have a factory in New Mexico by late 2012, and begin producing 4,000 of these reactors. However, scientist Otis Peterson’s patent filed in 2003 is still pending as the nuclear power activists are yet to be convinced about the new concept."

 

The company has stated that the enclosure is dense enough to provide shielding even without being buried in the earth.

 

this idea of mini-reactor is impractical as it is failing in engineering specifically thermodynamics, the engine will need to be cooled and after a while the thing will explode if it is not cooled constantly by water means or freon or whatever...

 

To even pump enough water through the vessel to get that 70 megawatts of heat out will be an engineering accomplishment.

 

yeah... right. Someone do the math:
1. How much heat would be given off per second at 100MW, calculate the heat transfer rates needed.
2. Calculate the radiation luminosity of the thing, all the neutrons and gamma rays it would be giving off and than how much shielding that would require.

 

Must be what the 27 million is for.

 

No that what they claim comes out as electricity.

 

I meant dollars.

 

if we had lesbian girls makin love maybe we could generate electricity that way

 

Well, I see the usual amount of ignorance and basic lack of understanding being expressed here. A couple of you people need to get a serious grip on some fundamental science and engineering.

The device is NOT a complete electricity-producing package!

It's basically nothing more than a sealed, shielded and pretty safe source of heat. That heat is used to drive a conventional steam turbine - which is NOT included with the reactor.

The buyer has to supply the turbine, water and a means of dumping the excess heat (stream or cooling tower).

In no way does it "revolutionize physics" - it's just a basic heat source and NOTHING more.

But it's selling points are that it's small, completely self-contained, does not need the usual internal cooling (pumps, piping and the associated possibility of their failure) and can be bought for MUCH less than a conventional reactor on today's market.

Sheesh!!

 

my question is how in the world does it not need an internal cooling but now that you said that the thing needs a water turbine w/water which is not included I see how it all works.