Nuclear Micro-reactors, Maybe an Advancement for the Future?

 Al Ritter

I get lots of press releases from Congressmen, but this one piqued my interest. The Press release was from Rep. Byron Donalds from Florida and he talked about this new technology that I had never heard about until now. Donalds claimed that there is a new nuclear advancement that could be available in less than a year.

He claimed that the standard nuclear towers that exhaust condensation might be a thing of the past. These new micro-reactors could have saved precious time and restored power to Southwestern Florida in days to help with water purification and essential power requirements to help the restoration from Hurricane Ian.

These micro-reactors can be hauled in a tractor trailer to whatever location has a need. Originally designed for off grid areas such as mining or drilling operations where electricity isn’t readily available, but the technology can have multiple uses such as natural disaster areas as Rep. Donalds talked about.

The dangers of nuclear leaks is greatly reduced as these units can be powered by spent nuclear byproducts from conventional nuclear plants thereby making them even safer as a result. The units can supply up to 20 Mega-watts per unit, but can be daisy chained together for larger electrical requirements. The reported operational time is 8 years before refueling.

The wonderful part is that American Companies are already in production on these units and they may be available in as soon as 12 months. Very impressive technology that I never even heard about until this week.

Read more from Rep. Donalds:

https://floridianpress.com/2022/12/lesson-learned-from-hurricane-ian-lets-embrace-nuclear/

Explanation from Dept of Energy:

https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/what-nuclear-microreactor

Westinghouse is building them now:

https://www.westinghousenuclear.com/energy-systems/evinci-micro-reactor