Nuclear Backyard

Imagine if you could create your own electricity, enough to power your home and your appliances for decades, in your own backyard. Would you like a nuclear reactor in your back yard? I know I would!

Now i'm not taking about the gigantic nuclear reactors we are used to hearing about. No, i'm talking about a reactor that is slightly taller than a fully grown person and as wide as a king size bed. This is not your typical run-of-the-mill nuclear reactor. This is the new Hyperion Portable Reactor, tiny enough to be in a backyard but powerful enough to supply electricity to 20,000 homes.With a self adjusting auto moderation of every reactor, there is no need for human oversight. To be able to do that, a nuclear reactor needs to carry out two very important things:

1. Dissipate heat from the core of the reactor.
2. Absorb stray neutrons before they can cause some damage.

To ensure safety, the folks at Hyperion Power Generation swapped out the traditional fuel of solid, low-enriched uranium hydride with that of lead hydride, which is chemically similar to the uranium hydrde. However, in this case, the lead hydride works not only as the fuel but also as the cooling agent and the stray neutron-absorber.A Hyperion reactor can easily be buried deep underground and left there for years on end in remote locations, such as impoverished areas around the world and allow for the constant generation of power with the benefits of a nuclear reactor without the safety and security concerns. Now, even though the entire reactor is not that big, its not something that can be hauled away because it will literally be too hot to handle.

Nuclear power is still a very dependable and eco-friendly way to generate electricity and if we can make reactors safer and smaller, then this form of energy should be seriously considered as an alternative.