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Scientists at the MIT Nuclear Reactor Laboratory have devised an unconventional plan for accelerating the development of a small, safe, cheap nuclear reactor: they want to build a prototype that piggybacks on their existing facility.
Since the planned one-megawatt demonstration reactor would be incapable of sustaining a fission reaction on its own, the researchers believe they could avoid building a standalone experimental prototype, which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission generally requires. That site selection and licensing process can take a decade or longer, so the hope is that this approach could cost hundreds of millions of dollars less and take half as much time to build.
[...] The researchers specifically want to test designs for a small, transportable molten-salt-cooled reactor, intended for off-grid purposes such as generating electricity for remote villages or worksites. Molten-salt reactors, first researched in the 1950s, are a subject of growing interest in the field because of the potential they offer for greater safety and lower costs compared with traditional nuclear power plants.
http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2017/03/mit-wants-to-build-add-on-1-mw-sub.html
(Score: 2) by Sulla on Monday April 03 2017, @03:31PM
I am not sure what came to your mind when you hear "remote village" but to me I thought "north slope drilling operations" , "native alaskan villages" , and "remote mining operations" . A small scale nuke reactor would replace the baseline need for coal and diesel generators when working on commercial projects. Would BP/Connaco Philips/etc rather have wasteful diesel generators as a baseline or a one-and-done nuke they can move project to project.
I was also unsure if you were talking about thorium mining operations, there is a crap ton of thorium in Alaskan topsoil up in the NW of the state.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam