Hyperion has announced that they will be
shipping their self contained nuclear power modules
(batteries) within the next three years. From a
recent press release there is this quote:
"the HPM utilizes the energy of low-enriched uranium
fuel and will be licensed by the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission. Each unit produces 70
megawatts of thermal energy, or 27 megawatts of
electricity when connected to a steam turbine. That
amount is enough to provide electricity for 20,000
average-size American-style homes or the industrial
equivalent. Extremely proliferation-resistant, the
HPM meets all of the Global Nuclear Energy
Partnership?s stringent criteria for the safe and
secure deployment of small ?grid-appropriate? nuclear
reactors for distributed power."
"Conceived at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the
Hyperion Power Module intellectual property portfolio
has been licensed to Hyperion Power Generation for
commercialization under the laboratory?s technology
transfer program. The company has already received
commitments for ten HPMs, priced at around $25
million each, for various locations. Three factories
spread across the globe are planned by the company to
produce and ship the approximately 4,000 units of the
first design."
RTG stands for "radioisotope thermoelectric
generator", and has been used since 1961 to power all
spacecraft and satellite initiatives. These units
are also called "space batteries" or "nuclear
batteries". The first naval vessel to use nuclear
power was the USS Nautilus, built in 1955. Although
US military design and use of nuclear power is
supposed to be secret, it is widely believed that
this is where RTG nuclear power was perfected.
With over 50 years of experience with portable
nuclear power, one would think that we have an energy
solution in hand, awaiting permission to deploy as a
safe, efficient, cost effective and unlimited source
of commercial energy. What's the holdup?
~ge~
Discussion on:
Message 14 of 1
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