Alaskan town opts for “pocket reactor”

subscribe

The town leaders of Galena, Alaska, which is hundreds of kilometres from the nearest power plant, have signed up for what some call a "pocket nuke" or "nuclear battery" that produces just 10 megawatts - about 1 per cent of the energy an average nuclear plant generates, Mark Clayton reports in The Christian Science Monitor.

Japanese manufacturer Toshiba has told the town it will install its new 4S (super-safe, small and simple) reactor free of charge by 2012. The unit, which would be buried about 30 metres underground, would only have to be refuelled about every 30 years.

Interest in pocket nuclear plants is growing among developing countries and island nations, advocates say. Unlike solar and wind power, the plants would generate power 24/7 and at a fraction of the cost of a diesel generator, they say.

Related News

residential electrical automation

What 2018 Grid Edge Trends Reveal About 2019

WASHINGTON - Which grid edge trends will continue into 2019, and what kind of disruption is on the horizon in the coming year?

From advanced metering infrastructure endpoints to electric-vehicle chargers, grid edge venture capital investments to demand response events, hundreds of data points go into tracking new trends at the edge of the grid.

Trends across these variables tell a story of transition, but perhaps not yet transformation. Customers hold more power than ever before in 2019, with utilities and vendors innovating to take advantage of new opportunities behind the meter. Meanwhile, external factors can always throw things off-course, and reliability…

READ MORE
electricity pylon

Solar changing shape of electricity prices in Northern Europe

READ MORE

Group to create Canadian cyber standards for electricity sector IoT devices

READ MORE

Barakah Unit 1

Barakah Unit 1 reaches 100% power as it steps closer to commercial operations, due to begin early 2021

READ MORE

Jacob Rees-Mogg

UK families living close to nuclear power stations could get free electricity

READ MORE