Mini Nukes For Home and Office

Not endorsing anything nuclear here on Green Nuclear Butterfly until the industry can prove the product is A) safe, B) the waste can be adequately and safely disposed of, and C) the health risks are properly dealt with. IE-where is the compensation to those whose cancer was likely caused by their close proximity to, or employment at a plant, and where is our ability as home owners to have nuclear accident insurance?

That being said, for those so HOT to embrace nuclear, let it be a PERSONAL choice, rather than a choice forced on us by our Federal Government and the NRC. Seems that Toshiba is going to start marketing MINI Nukes, and they should be available here in the USA starting in 2009. We have to admit, the idea of getting off the grid, and even positioning oneself to sell electricity back to the grid does have a certain appeal to it. The projected kilowatt costs is five cents, so a few neighbors banding together could easily eliminate that monthly Con Edison or Entergy bill in their mailboxes...sure that one fact alone will see the NRC figure out a way to ban us from owning our own nuclear reactors, and instead insist our tax dollars be given to the industry giants.

Toshiba Builds 100x Smaller Micro Nuclear Reactor

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.