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Reactors being developed by Hyperion Power Generation of Santa Fe, N.M.; NuScale Power of Corvallis, Ore., and the giant Japanese conglomerate Toshiba use different nuclear fuels, but all rely on the same basic design: a self-contained cylindrical nuclear reactor that is factory-sealed and produces electricity for years without any human oversight or maintenance.
Each reactor would be transported to a site, buried underground, hooked up to a power grid and started up.
After five to 20 years, depending on the design, the nuclear fuel would exhaust itself and the cool reactor would be dug up and shipped back to the manufacturer.
The companies hope to have their minireactors on the market and running within the next decade, marking what could be the beginning of a nuclear-energy renaissance.
But critics say there are safety and security risks, as well as the possibility that the reactors could fall into the hands of terrorists. And those risks, they say, outweigh any benefits the minireactors may bring.
“Our concern is that it really takes a concerted effort to protect a nuclear power plant from terrorist attack,” said Edwin Lyman, a senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists. “It’s just not plausible that you could deploy these small reactors widely to communities and the developing world with no infrastructure and no experience with operating and protecting a nuclear reactor.”
Michael Greenberger, professor at the University of Maryland School of Law and the director of the University of Maryland Center for Health and Homeland Security, said the minireactors’ size will make them attractive to terrorists.
“Anything that’s portable, provides technology, would assist terrorists in their goal to perfect a nuclear weapon, and it’s very dangerous to the United States,” Greenberger said.
But the companies that are designing the minireactors say they will be safe in every way.
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