The Next Nuclear Reactor May Arrive Hauled by a Truck

Uranium (Nuclear Minerals) / Nuclear Power - Economics, Design, & Industry

Date posted: 07/06/13

The first commercial nuclear plant in the United States, commissioned in 1957, was just a scaled-up version of the reactors that powered submarines, and for decades afterward engineers made them bigger and bigger to maximize economies of scale. But the hot idea now is to think small, small enough to fit a reactor on a railroad car or even a heavy-haul truck. Such a reactor could be built in a factory, sidestepping the problems of assuring high-quality fabrication in the field and allowing fast installation. And such reactors would have a built-in safety feature: in an emergency, natural convection could help a small core cool faster than a big one, just the way a cup of coffee cools faster than a pot of coffee. Proponents say that makes meltdowns far less likely.