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Toshiba Builds 100x Smaller Micro Nuclear Reactor
Next Energy News ^ | December 17, 2007

Posted on 12/18/2007 9:44:50 PM PST by HAL9000

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.



TOPICS: News/Current Events; Technical
KEYWORDS: energy; hitech; micronuclearreactor; nuclear; nuclearenergy; nuclearreactor; toshiba
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To: Mr170IQ

Actually, Toshiba has been working on this for about a decade. It is a pretty cool idea. It is inheritely safe, due to a sliding neutron reflector used to sustain the chain reaction in the core. The reflector is heat controlled, when it is hot enough, it stops. When it cools, it slides down until it gets hot again. Simple and elegant.

The whole reactor is a cylinder, with 2 pipes coming out of it. One for water in, and one for steam out. There is no need for personnel to run it. Once it is turned on, it stays on until it is exhausted, in 40 years. Security would not be a problem, because you build a bunker with a whopping concrete lid, and slip it in, and drop the lid on. No maintenance, no repairs, and secure. When it is used up, you pull the entire thing out and ship it back.

You would have to have a steam turbine and power generators, along with the afore mentioned building, people, and maintain and repair that, though. I never said that it was a free lunch.


101 posted on 12/19/2007 7:32:57 AM PST by Mr. Quarterpanel (I am not an actor, but I play one on TV)
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To: Squantos; HAL9000; Travis McGee; Larry Lucido; Tijeras_Slim

Lithium-6? I thought I remembered reading about that being used to enhance output from nuclear weapons? :-)


102 posted on 12/19/2007 7:38:53 AM PST by hiredhand (My kitty disappeared. NOT the rifle!)
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To: agere_contra
Chernobyl killed, at most, 500 people - and that's counting all early deaths from the poorly protected cleanup crew.

The number is debatable, but almost certainly larger than that, especially if you count the cancer deaths, which are still occurring. And it also rendered an area larger than the state of Connecticutt uninhabitable for the foreseeable future. If you are trying to say that Chernobyl wasn't a big deal, that's ridiculous.

103 posted on 12/19/2007 7:44:57 AM PST by rmh47 (Go Kats! - Got Seven? [NRA Life Member])
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To: listenhillary

“If we do, Achmed has succeeding in dragging us back to the 7th century.”

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for it. We need to do something. The biggest threat I see to small powerplants is the large energy companies. They wouldn’t like it if Joe Blow can buy a reactor and power a neighborhood with it. They would probably buy some politicians and get them to legislate against it.


104 posted on 12/19/2007 7:45:38 AM PST by dljordan
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To: Travis McGee

Good point !

But is is Toshiba.......it’s gonna fail at some point !


105 posted on 12/19/2007 7:47:01 AM PST by Squantos (Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet. ©)
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To: hiredhand

Shhhhhhhhhhhhsh !


106 posted on 12/19/2007 7:47:43 AM PST by Squantos (Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet. ©)
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To: arderkrag

That’s a damn good mech .... I know exactly how you feel. No major changes since 1989 or so sucks.


107 posted on 12/19/2007 7:50:16 AM PST by Centurion2000 (It's only arrogance if you cannot back it up.)
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To: Squantos; Travis McGee

BWAH! HA! HA! ..took the words right outta my mouth! Do you remember when the USAF was buying Toshiba laptops back around 1996 or so?...and what JUNK they were?! :-)


108 posted on 12/19/2007 7:51:42 AM PST by hiredhand (My kitty disappeared. NOT the rifle!)
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To: dljordan
What happens when Abdul goes down to the basement and puts 20 pounds of C4 under the reactor?

It's not going to do much if you seal the reactor in 5 feet of reinforced concrete.

109 posted on 12/19/2007 7:54:38 AM PST by Centurion2000 (It's only arrogance if you cannot back it up.)
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To: HAL9000

A little nukie never hurt anyone!


110 posted on 12/19/2007 8:01:17 AM PST by Boiler Plate ("Message received, is message sent" Claire Cooper)
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To: Ditto

The rocket engine test stand is still at the NTS, about halfway between Mercury and Yucca Mtn.


111 posted on 12/19/2007 8:06:45 AM PST by Tijeras_Slim
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To: RJR_fan; MARTIAL MONK
As quoted by Arlington National Cemetary Records:

"3 January 1961: A reactor explosion (attributed by a Nuclear Regulatory Commission source to sabotage) at the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho Falls, Idaho, killed one navy technician and two army technicians, and released radioactivity "largely confined" (words of John A. McCone, Director of the Atomic Energy Commission) to the reactor building. The three men were killed as they moved fuel rods in a "routine" preparation for the reactor start-up. One technician was blown to the ceiling of the containment dome and impaled on a control rod. His body remained there until it was taken down six days later. The men were so heavily exposed to radiation that their hands had to be buried separately with other radioactive waste, and their bodies were interred in lead coffins."


112 posted on 12/19/2007 8:07:47 AM PST by Calvin Locke
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To: Rockitz
"...the Soviets were able to make their submarine propellers significantly quieter and the damage was done. I’ll never knowingly purchase a Toshiba product again..."

Thank you for reminding us of this pertinent information.

113 posted on 12/19/2007 8:45:42 AM PST by -=SoylentSquirrel=- (I'm really made of people!)
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To: HAL9000

I’m still waiting on Mr.Fusion.


114 posted on 12/19/2007 8:48:24 AM PST by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: hiredhand

Yep ........crap at it’s best !.....LOL !!


115 posted on 12/19/2007 8:59:09 AM PST by Squantos (Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet. ©)
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To: -YYZ-
No, but nuclear reactors, even low powered ones running on natural or low-enriched uranium (LEU) have a tendency to produce some nasty radioactive by-products which could make quite a mess if spread around.

Not as big a mess as it would first appear. After all, standard coal-fired plants put tons of radioactive waste into the environment with virtually no controls at all on their disposal.
116 posted on 12/19/2007 9:01:38 AM PST by aruanan
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To: FreedomCalls

Funny, the Navy has been cruising around for the last 50 years with out drama. The same media morons that are hyping Global Warming once hyped Three Mile Island.

I’d rather live next to this reactor than a neighbor with a Prius.


117 posted on 12/19/2007 9:03:13 AM PST by Dead Dog
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To: FreedomCalls

Glena Alaska’s Toshiba Mirco-Nuke

http://www.primidi.com/2005/02/06.html


118 posted on 12/19/2007 9:05:05 AM PST by Dead Dog
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To: HAL9000

“The new reactor, which is only 20 feet by 6 feet, “

I want one..


119 posted on 12/19/2007 9:06:37 AM PST by HereInTheHeartland ("We have to drain the swamp" George Bush, September 2001)
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To: Rockitz

I remember seeing, back in the 1980s, a bumpersticker — in Dearborn — which said, “Thanks Toshiba For Making Russian Subs Run Better”. Thanks for that reminder.


120 posted on 12/19/2007 9:07:22 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Profile updated Tuesday, December 18, 2007___________________https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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