Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Toshiba Builds Ultra-Small Nuclear Reactor

Posted by samzenpus on from the a-reactor-in-every-home dept.

DeusExCalamus writes "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."

5 of 683 comments (clear)

  1. Re:A slogan by cozziewozzie · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There are many cleaner ways to generate electricity than nuclear. Hydro, geothermal, tidal and wave, wind and solar energy are all cleaner.

  2. Re:A slogan by aurispector · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sure, but there are plenty of areas where none of the above apply. I live in an area where that is not near any water, has only intermittent sun and wind so another power source is necessary. Geothermal looks great on paper but AFAIK there are still tech barriers involved. Nuke power is certainly better to coal or oil/gas. Coal spews more heavy metals and radioactive material into the atmosphere than nukes ever did. With fossil fuels the mess gets spread all over the planet, with nukes it all stays in one place.
    If you took all the toxins, etc., from coal and condensed them on one place, the greens would have a fit no matter where you tried to bury it.

    Besides, did you turn YOUR air conditioner off last summer?

    Anyway, this will never fly in the US - I can guarantee that the big utilities will lobby congress and FUD it to death.

    --
    I have mod points. The reign of terror begins now.
  3. Are you kidding? by professorguy · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Why don't you come out to my house and install your solar panels on my roof? I'm sure it will be no problem that they are under a few feet of snow for 4 months a year. Or that we get 50 sunny days (on average) a year, half of which are when we have snow. Or that at 44 degrees north, even at the solstice at high noon we have low wattage/area.

    Gee, I guess I'll be selling all my extra power to the grid.

    I love it when someone from Arizona tells me that solar power is going to solve all my power problems here in northern New Hampshire.

  4. Re:A slogan by FireFury03 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There are many cleaner ways to generate electricity than nuclear. Hydro, geothermal, tidal and wave, wind and solar energy are all cleaner.

    Depends how you define "clean" - hydro power is usually environmentally quite damaging. Tidal power can also be quite damaging if done inappropriately (I'll point at the proposed Severn Tidal Barrage as an example of how do do a lot of damage to the environment through harnessing the tides). Thermal solar based systems are probably pretty clean, but photovoltaic systems use quite a lot of rather nasty chemicals in their manufacture which must be handled carefully (kind of like fission products in fact...)

    --
    http://blog.nexusuk.org
  5. The radical change of Slashdot by whoda · · Score: 5, Insightful

    10 years ago, this article would have abounded with threads on how cool this is, and "I wonder if you could make a Beowulf cluster of those."

    Now, it's all, nuclear is bad, nuclear is evil because "The terrorists might get it".

    Listen to yourselves. You've eaten the terrorist propaganda the government has been feeding you, AND YOU LOVE IT.
    "We can't do this because it might help the terrorists."
    "Yeah, that's cool, but what about the terrorists?"
    "If it weren't for terrorists, this would be awesome."

    George Bush loves you guys, he's got you on his side and you don't even realize it.