Neighbourhood size reactors within 5 years

Safe, clean and inexpensive electrical power is something that a New Mexico based company called Hyperion is suggesting that we could have within five years. The company recently licensed the technology from the U.S. government that will let them build factory sealed, with no moving parts, nuclear power plants that are smaller than a garden shed.

These miniature reactors will not contain any weapons grade material and additionally they will be nearly impossible to steal because they will be encased in concrete and buried underground. Hyperion is confident that they will be able to start mass producing these mini-reactors within fives years and have already taken firm orders for some.

John Deal, chief executive of Hyperion, believes they will be able to generate electricity for 10 cents a watt anywhere in the world. Mind you these babies won;t be cheap as each one is estimated to cost around the $25 million mark. the sales pitch is though that for a community of 10,000 homes the end price would work out to $250 per household.

Business looks good if what Deal said to the Guardian is correct

Deal claims to have more than 100 firm orders, largely from the oil and electricity industries, but says the company is also targeting developing countries and isolated communities. ‘It’s leapfrog technology,’ he said.

The company plans to set up three factories to produce 4,000 plants between 2013 and 2023. ‘We already have a pipeline for 100 reactors, and we are taking our time to tool up to mass-produce this reactor.’

Hyperion isn’t alone in the mini-reactor business either as Toshiba has been testing 200KW reactors that are designed to fuel smaller numbers of homes for a longer period of time; even powering a single building for some 40 years.