Both solar and nuclear are hitting the news with advances in efficiency and utility. CEO of Hyperion Power Generation interviewed about the Uranium Hydride reactor provides some numbers that yield scope and scale in thinking about energy sources.
- specifically designed to fit on the back of a flatbed truck at about 20 tons weight and a meter and a half wide by 2 tall.
- reactor life is 8 – 10 years with 70 Mw thermal or 30 Mw electrical output at about $100 million each. That appears to be about a nickel per kWh.
- certified ‘walk a way’ design does not need continuous operator monitoring or attention
- expected factory output is 400 reators per year or 10-12 Gw output – that’s like building more than 10 typical major sized power plants every year. The estimated market opportunity is for half a million of these units.
- “The waste that comes out of our reactor after powering 20,000 homes for 8-10 years is about the size of a football.”
That’s a pre-packaged solution for powering a 20,000 home community for near ten years.