David L Chandler of MIT writes for SciTechDaily about innovative nuclear batteries.
- “Nuclear batteries” are smaller versions of traditional nuclear reactors that are factory built and able to be “plugged in,” similar to an oversized battery.
- These batteries are safer than traditional reactors, which are already safe, due to their size and containment structure.
- So far these batteries have been more cost-competitive than other forms of nuclear energy, which could aid in the rapid deployment of our largest source of carbon-free power.
“We may be on the brink of a new paradigm for nuclear power, a group of nuclear specialists suggested recently in The Bridge, the journal of the National Academy of Engineering. Much as large, expensive, and centralized computers gave way to the widely distributed PCs of today, a new generation of relatively tiny and inexpensive factory-built reactors, designed for autonomous plug-and-play operation similar to plugging in an oversized battery, is on the horizon, they say.”
Read the full article here.
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