I was always kind of disappointed Heathkit Radio Shack never made a lower-cost kit for DIY’ers. “Free Power! And, You Did It Yourself!” Kidding aside, are there engineering reasons why a small reactor couldn’t power a single household or maybe 30 to 100 homes?
That’s exactly the point here I think, why build horribly expensive power plants with so much capacity instead a bunch of much cheaper units and spread them around.
Locally we have an old (WW I) Army ammo training ground (Camp Bonneville) that is still heavily contaminated with old (small) ordinance of all descriptions. The County has been trying to figure out what to do with that land for years, as well as find the money to clean it up. In my view that land would be perfect for a small plant like the Hyperion Power Module the article talks about.
http://www.hyperionpowergeneration.com/index.html
Fascinating concept that makes a lot of sense for a lot of reasons.
“Kidding aside, are there engineering reasons why a small reactor couldn’t power a single household or maybe 30 to 100 homes?”
There have been serious proposals for these but I don’t think they ever came close to being licensed.