Cool--and Hot

Here's something I've been discussing for years.

Nuclear power plants smaller than a garden shed and able to power 20,000 homes will be on sale within five years, say scientists at Los Alamos, the US government laboratory which developed the first atomic bomb.

The miniature reactors will be factory-sealed, contain no weapons-grade material, have no moving parts and will be nearly impossible to steal because they will be encased in concrete and buried underground.

...'You could never have a Chernobyl-type event - there are no moving parts,' said Deal. 'You would need nation-state resources in order to enrich our uranium. Temperature-wise it's too hot to handle. It would be like stealing a barbecue with your bare hands.'

Other companies are known to be designing micro-reactors. Toshiba has been testing 200KW reactors measuring roughly six metres by two metres. Designed to fuel smaller numbers of homes for longer, they could power a single building for up to 40 years

This is very practical--although you'll note they were careful not to mention the price for the re-fuelings. There is no smoke; no emissions of CO2; no consumption of petroleum or natural gas; and with a tweak or two, these little critters can also provide your home's hot water for just as long as they provide electricity.

And you get to have that neat little sign in the front yard.

There IS the matter of obtaining a license from the NRC, which is (at last report) around $250K, and having the NRC dweebs running around the back yard with their Geiger counters...