Nuclear Reactor, home edition
Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 2:18AM 
The United States’ Los Alamos National Laboratory, in conjunction with private sector partner, Hyperion Power, has announced its first client for their miniature nuclear power reactors— TES of the Czech Republic.
The units will retail for US$25 million each. TES has committed to purchase 6 units (with an option on 12 more) to be delivered by 2013, and Los Alamos/Hyperion claim to have another 100+ orders in the pipeline. They have scaled their manufacturing capacity to deliver 4000 units over tens years.
Led by Dr. Otis Peterson, the reactors are based on a 50 year old design (the TRIGA), of a kind used by science students at University. It is said to be disaster proof (a completely sealed unit, with no moving parts) and nuclear-proliferation proof, as the fuel is Uranium Hydride which has proven ineffective as at being weaponized. Furthermore, the units will be installed underground to avoid tampering. The original patent was granted in 2003, for which Peterson was subsequently honored by the FLC.
Producing 70 megawatts of heat that powers a turbine that generates 25 megawatts of power, they will need refueling once every 7 to 10 years. By example they state that, based on contemporary US residential energy consumption levels, one mini-reactor would be capable of supporting the equivalent of 25,000 homes for five years. At the US$25M price tag, that comes to $200 per home per year.
Though the reactors were originally conceived for use by large industrial projects located off the power grid, Hyperion has adjusted their sales focus, after intense interest from remote communities including developers in the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands.
Recent growth in international energy demands coupled with concerns over global climate change have renewed interest in nuclear energy, which has the lowest Carbon emissions factor of any known form of energy production.
FURTHER READING:
Futurist, Science, Technology 
