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  • Microreactors

    From JAB@21:1/5 to All on Tue Jul 8 13:04:53 2025
    Nuclear reactors smaller than a semi truck to be tested in Idaho

    Forget small modular reactors. Microreactors are the new hotness

    Earlier this month, the DoE conditionally selected Westinghouse's
    trailer-sized eVinci test reactor and Radiant's Kaleidos unit to
    conduct the first fueled microreactor experiments at its Demonstration
    of Microreactor Experiments (DOME) facility at Idaho National
    Laboratory.

    These experimental units are really, really small compared to other
    reactors, with self-contained designs from both companies no larger
    than a semi-truck trailer. The DOME project considers anything under
    50 MW of power to be a microreactor; the eVinci is designed to only
    produce 5 megawatts, and the Kaleidos is limited to just 1.2 megawatts
    of electrical power output.

    For perspective, the average US home only consumes around 30 kWh of
    electricity per day - so even 1.2 MW is enough for a lot of homes.

    https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/07/trailer_sized_microreactors

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    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Kerr-Mudd, John@21:1/5 to JAB on Tue Jul 8 21:46:07 2025
    On Tue, 08 Jul 2025 13:04:53 -0500
    JAB <here@is.invalid> wrote:

    Nuclear reactors smaller than a semi truck to be tested in Idaho

    Forget small modular reactors. Microreactors are the new hotness

    Earlier this month, the DoE conditionally selected Westinghouse's trailer-sized eVinci test reactor and Radiant's Kaleidos unit to
    conduct the first fueled microreactor experiments at its Demonstration
    of Microreactor Experiments (DOME) facility at Idaho National
    Laboratory.

    These experimental units are really, really small compared to other
    reactors, with self-contained designs from both companies no larger
    than a semi-truck trailer. The DOME project considers anything under
    50 MW of power to be a microreactor; the eVinci is designed to only
    produce 5 megawatts, and the Kaleidos is limited to just 1.2 megawatts
    of electrical power output.

    For perspective, the average US home only consumes around 30 kWh of electricity per day - so even 1.2 MW is enough for a lot of homes.


    That's handy. But do the trash collectors take spent Uranium?
    (I already presume Walmart etc will have some fuel packs near the checkout)


    https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/07/trailer_sized_microreactors




    --
    Bah, and indeed Humbug.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From JAB@21:1/5 to All on Tue Jul 8 16:03:48 2025
    On Tue, 8 Jul 2025 21:46:07 +0100, "Kerr-Mudd, John" <admin@127.0.0.1>
    wrote:

    That's handy. But do the trash collectors take spent Uranium?

    For years, they picked up radium-226, which was used on watches for radioluminescence

    I miss those radium dials....radioluminescence was a nice feature, but
    Radium Girls 'contracted radiation poisoning from painting radium
    dials'

    "After being told that the paint was harmless, the women in each
    facility ingested deadly amounts of radium after being instructed to
    "point" their brushes on their lips in order to give them a fine
    tip.[1] The women were instructed to point their brushes in this way
    because using rags or a water rinse caused them to use more time and
    material, as the paint was made from powdered radium, zinc sulfide (a phosphor), gum arabic, and water. "

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Girls

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  • From Michael Trew@21:1/5 to JAB on Thu Jul 10 16:07:11 2025
    On 7/8/2025 5:03 PM, JAB wrote:
    On Tue, 8 Jul 2025 21:46:07 +0100, "Kerr-Mudd, John" <admin@127.0.0.1>
    wrote:

    That's handy. But do the trash collectors take spent Uranium?

    For years, they picked up radium-226, which was used on watches for radioluminescence

    I miss those radium dials....radioluminescence was a nice feature, but
    Radium Girls 'contracted radiation poisoning from painting radium
    dials'

    "After being told that the paint was harmless, the women in each
    facility ingested deadly amounts of radium after being instructed to
    "point" their brushes on their lips in order to give them a fine
    tip.[1] The women were instructed to point their brushes in this way
    because using rags or a water rinse caused them to use more time and material, as the paint was made from powdered radium, zinc sulfide (a phosphor), gum arabic, and water. "

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Girls

    I've read about the girls who painted the radioactive glow paint on
    clocks, what a horrible way to go. I had a 40's baby ben alarm clock disassembled at the antique mall where I work, on a day when two Kent
    State college girls were in. They had with them a borrowed geiger
    counter, and when I gave one of them the clock face to test, her eyes
    got wide at the reading. She told me "I wouldn't be touching that if I
    were you".

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