Buy your own nuclear plant to power your home

November 9, 9:33 AMBusiness ExaminerDarrell Proctor

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The Hyperion Power Module could power up to 20,000 homes.

Imagine powering your home with a mini nuclear plant. Imagine that's it's not just a pipe dream.

Scientists at Los Alamos in New Mexico say the plants will be on sale within five years. Hyperion Power Generation, based in New Mexico, said it's already taking orders and will start mass production of its Hyperion Power Module within the same time frame.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, of course, has to sign off on the plan. Its "Periodic Briefing on New Reactor Issues" from February of this year lists the NRC's review of the Hyperion project as being in the pre-application review stage until 2012, and in the manufacturing license review stage from 2012-2015.

The goal of the reactor "is to generate electricity for 10 cents a watt anywhere in the world," according to a Hyperion executive. That same executive also said "you could never have a Chernobyl-type event" with one of the reactors.

According to this Guardian article, the plants would be smaller than a garden shed (Hyperion says "about the size of a hot tub") and would be buried underground. They could be used to power 20,000 homes, which could then spread the cost (some $25 million per unit) among an entire community.

The Energy Information Administration has lots of information concerning the costs of power, including both electricity and nuclear.

And for more stories on nuclear power, visit 1 Nuclear Place.