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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas A Watson who wrote (173982)	8/23/2001 10:53:46 PM
From: goldworldnet	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

Tommy, we need more power. <grin> * Nuclear reactor fits in basement Japanese scientists take miniaturization to next level --London Guardian guardian.co.uk First it was Pokémon, now the Japanese have invented nukeman -- Special report: Japan James Meek, science correspondent Thursday August 23, 2001 The Guardian They gave the world the tiniest cassette player, hand-held television set and pocket-sized video cameras. But that was nothing. Japanese scientists' latest triumph of mass-market miniaturisation would trounce them all, if they could get anyone to buy it: a nuclear power station small enough to fit in your basement. Spurning the opportunity to extend a historic line by naming their device the nukeman, researchers have called it the Rapid-L reactor. As described in the latest edition of New Scientist, the reactor is six metres high and two metres wide - comfortably sized for the basement of an office or apartment block - and is capable of generating 200 kilowatts of power. To some, including many in Japan, the idea of a nuclear reactor downstairs will seem odd. But Mitsuru Kambe, head of the research team at the Central Research Institute of Electrical Power Industry argues the time for small reactors has come. "In the future it will be quite difficult to construct further large nuclear power plants because of site restrictions," he said. "To relieve peak loads in the near future, I believe small, modular reactors located in urban areas such as Tokyo Bay will be effective. "Rapid power plants could be used in developing countries where remote regions cannot be conveniently connected to the main grid." But John Large, an independent nuclear consultant, said those days were long gone and the Rapid-L was a symptom of an industry in decline: "There are limitations. No one sensibly expects to see a jet turbine powering a car, although it's perfectly feasible to build one small enough." The ingenuity of the Rapid-L is that it doesn't use the complex array of rods which need to be inserted and withdrawn into standard reactors to control the heat generated. Instead, it uses molten lithium, which expands and contracts to keep the reactor at a safe temperature with a minimum of human intervention. Unfortunately the reactor is cooled by another molten metal, sodium, which fizzes through it at a temperature of 530C and which, in the event of a leak, would react violently with air. A leak of radioactive sodium forced the shutdown of Japan's Monju fast-breeder reactor in 1995. Nuclear energy provides more than a third of Japan's electricity, but a string of accidents have cast doubt on the government's plans for 20 new large reactors by 2010. Small reactors have already been built - high-powered ones to drive submarines and low-powered ones for research. Until recently dustbin-sized research reactors called Argonauts were sited in Greenwich and at Queen Margaret's College in London. Even though they were not powerful enough to boil a kettle, they had to be provided with so much shielding that the entire installation was the size of several buses. "The problem becomes: can you afford the level of containment needed for a nuclear reactor without putting your capital costs completely out of the window?" Mr Large said. "Whenever an industry goes into a plateau, you get these crackpot ideas." * * *