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.

Japan Just Dodges Nuclear Disaster, Is Indian Point Next?

Japan is recovering from a devastating earthquake, but they should consider themselves very lucky, as they just missed what could have been a far more devastating event, the total annihilation and destruction of a nuclear reactor. The explosion and fire at the Kashiwazaki nuclear plant bears an eerie resemblance to the dangerous event we experienced at Entergy's failing Indian Point reactors earlier this spring when a transformer simply BLEW UP, threatening workers, and potentially members of the public as well. If the earthquake had been a bit stronger, or a little closer, the Kashiawazaki Reactor could have been split right down the middle like a cracked egg, and if that had happened, the early morning earthquake would be the least of japan's problems.

Here in America, Entergy's aged and dying reactors known as Indian Point FAILED to meet five of the six siting criteria necessary to be built. Instead of just saying no, our government WAIVED the criteria and allowed these reactors to be built anyway. More astounding, said brittling reactors are built on a known earthquake fault line. Do we have to wait until the egg is broken for the NRC to correct their errors? The time to close Indian Point is now. FAST BREAKING NEWS...the reactor accident is MUCH WORSE than first admitted, Japanese officials admitting radioactive release into the environment...ARE CITIZENS AND THE ENVIRONMENT AT RISK?

Japan Quake Kills Six, Injures Hundreds
By KOJI SASAHARA,
AP
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/japan-quake-kills-six-injures-hundreds/20070715221509990001
Posted: 2007-07-16 07:51:56
Filed Under: Natural Disaster, World

KASHIWAZAKI, Japan (July 16) - A strong earthquake struck northwestern Japan on Monday, destroying hundreds of homes, buckling roads and bridges and causing a fire at a nuclear power plant. At least six people were killed and hundreds were injured.

The quake hit the region shortly after 10 a.m. local time and was centered off the coast of Niigata state. Buildings swayed 160 miles away in Tokyo. The hardest-hit area appeared to be Kashiwazaki, a city of about 90,000 in Niigata

Japan's Meteorological Agency measured the quake at a 6.8 magnitude. The U.S. Geological Survey, which monitors quakes around the world, said it registered 6.7.

"I was so scared, the violent shaking went on for 20 seconds," Ritei Wakatsuki, who was on her job in a convenience store in Kashiwazaki. "I almost fainted by the fear of shaking."

Flames and billows of black smoke poured from the Kashiwazaki nuclear plant, which automatically shut down during the quake. The fire, in an electrical transformer, was put out about two hours later and there was no release of radioactivity or damage to the reactors, said Motoyasu Tamaki, a Tokyo Electric Power Co. official.

Tsunami warnings were issued along the coast of Niigata but later lifted.