Thursday, November 13, 2008

It works for me

Big Potential Seen in Miniature
Nuclear Plants


In an editorial, Investor's Business Daily (11/11) writes that former vice
president Al Gore, in his call for the US to produce all of its electricity
"from carbon-free sources within 10 years," "does not mention nuclear
power, a source from which we already get 20% of our electricity and from
which we could get more, thanks in part to the development of a new
type of power plant that compares roughly to the evolution from the
room-size vacuum-tube computers of the 1950s to today's laptops. Using
technology developed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and licensed
from the U.S. government, New Mexico-based Hyperion Power Generation
Inc., has taken its first orders for miniature nuclear power plants that
could literally fit in your backyard. The module produces about 70
megawatts of thermal energy or 27 megawatts of electricity via steam
turbine, enough to power about 20,000 American-style houses." IBD adds,
"Other companies are working on similar nuclear projects, large and
small."

Now we can only hope they don't try to make them fool proof, it'll never happen because fools are so ingenious. It just makes them bigger.

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