Although estimates vary, there is no doubt that the startup cost [called cost per watt] of a typical light water reactor nuclear power plant using low-enriched uranium as fuel is high compared to any alternatives. However, 70% of the electricity produced in the United States without direct carbon dioxide emissions comes from nuclear power. Are there ways to make it cheaper?

A mini nuclear reactor is one idea for creating small, closed "reactor modules" like the one being developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory and already presented by Hyperion Power of Santa Fe. The company intends to sell a 1.5-meter-wide, 2.5-meter-high, 25-megawatt enclosed reactor for $50 million that will be installed underground and last at least 7 years. Promotional materials presented at the conference show nothing but a green field and a tree on it, a large hidden battery - the message of Hyperion Power.

Of course, in reality, the steam turbine, generator and cooling device will be located on the same green field, displacing several trees from the advertising poster. A fast breeder reactor will operate at higher temperatures (about 500 degrees Celsius) than traditional reactors, requiring liquid metal cooling. Next, most of the heat will be transferred to water to rotate the turbine, generating electricity.

These small reactors are just as capable of a runaway core-melt chain reaction as traditional reactors, so they have control rods to slow down the reaction.

Hyperion Power is not the only company promoting this concept in the reactor industry. Although designs vary, Toshiba, Babcock & Wilcox and others have projects of similar small reactors with their potential clients, for example, the town of Galena in Alaska with a population of 700 people. However, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) refused to consider these small reactors, concentrating its efforts on reviving conventional technologies.

But the NRC's position may change. In February of this year, the NRC issued a call for potential manufacturers of small reactors (those under 700 megawatts, as defined by the NRC) to report potential future site, licensing, and certification requests for regulatory agency planning of their workload. According to Deborah Blackwell, vice president of Hyperion Power, his company is not waiting for the NRC and plans to begin shipping its new product to different parts of the world by 2013.

Recently, the concept of autonomous energy supply has been increasingly developed. Whether it is a country house with its wind turbines and solar panels on the roof or a woodworking plant with a heating boiler running on industrial waste - sawdust, the essence does not change. The world is gradually coming to the conclusion that it is time to abandon centralized provision of heat and electricity. Central heating is practically no longer found in Europe; individual houses, multi-apartment skyscrapers and industrial enterprises are heated independently. The only exception is certain cities in the northern countries - where centralized heating and large boiler houses are justified by climatic conditions.

As for the autonomous power industry, everything is moving towards this - the population is actively buying wind turbines and solar panels. Enterprises are looking for ways to rationally use thermal energy from technological processes, building their own thermal power plants and also buying solar panels with wind turbines. Those who are particularly focused on “green” technologies even plan to cover the roofs of factory workshops and hangars with solar panels.

Ultimately, this turns out to be cheaper than purchasing the necessary energy capacity from local power grids. However, after the Chernobyl accident, everyone somehow forgot that the most environmentally friendly, cheap and accessible way to obtain thermal and electrical energy is still atomic energy. And if throughout the existence of the nuclear industry, power plants with nuclear reactors have always been associated with complexes covering hectares of area, huge pipes and lakes for cooling, then a number of developments in recent years are designed to break these stereotypes.

Several companies immediately announced that they were entering the market with “home” nuclear reactors. Miniature stations ranging in size from a garage box to a small two-story building are ready to supply from 10 to 100 MW for 10 years without refueling. The reactors are completely self-contained, safe, require no maintenance and, at the end of their service life, are simply recharged for another 10 years. Isn’t it a dream for an iron factory or a commercial summer resident? Let's take a closer look at those of them whose sales will begin in the coming years.

Toshiba 4S (Super Safe, Small and Simple)

The reactor is designed like a battery. It is assumed that such a “battery” will be buried in a shaft 30 meters deep, and the building above it will measure 22 16 11 meters. Not much more than a nice country house? Such a station will require maintenance personnel, but this still does not compare with the tens of thousands of square meters of space and hundreds of workers at traditional nuclear power plants. The rated power of the complex is 10 megawatts for 30 years without refueling.

The reactor operates on fast neutrons. A similar reactor has been installed and operated since 1980 at the Beloyarsk NPP in the Sverdlovsk region of Russia (reactor BN-600). The principle of operation is described. In the Japanese installation, molten sodium is used as a coolant. This makes it possible to raise the operating temperature of the reactor by 200 degrees Celsius compared to water and at normal pressure. The use of water in this quality would increase the pressure in the system hundreds of times.

Most importantly, the cost of generating 1 kWh for this installation is expected to range from 5 to 13 cents. The variation is due to the peculiarities of national taxation, the different costs of processing nuclear waste and the cost of decommissioning the plant itself.

The first customer of the “battery” from Toshiba seems to be the small town of Galena, Alaska in the USA. The permitting documentation is currently being coordinated with American government agencies. The company's partner in the USA is the well-known company Westinghouse, which for the first time supplied fuel assemblies alternative to Russian TVELs to the Ukrainian nuclear power plant.

Hyperion Power Generation and Hyperion Reactor

These American guys seem to be the first to enter the commercial market for miniature nuclear reactors. The company offers installations from 70 to 25 megawatts costing approximately $25-30 million per unit. Hyperion nuclear installations can be used for both electricity generation and heating. As of the beginning of 2010, more than 100 orders have already been received for stations of various capacities, both from private individuals and from state companies. There are even plans to move the production of finished modules outside the United States, building factories in Asia and Western Europe.

The reactor operates on the same principle as most modern reactors in nuclear power plants. Read . The closest in principle of operation are the most common Russian VVER type reactors and power plants used on Project 705 Lira (NATO - “Alfa”) nuclear submarines. The American reactor is practically a land-based version of the reactors installed on these nuclear submarines, by the way - the fastest submarines of their time.

The fuel used is uranium nitride, which has a higher thermal conductivity compared to ceramic uranium oxide, traditional for VVER reactors. This allows operation at temperatures 250-300 degrees Celsius higher than water-water installations, which increases the efficiency of steam turbines of electric generators. Everything is simple here - the higher the reactor temperature, the higher the steam temperature and, as a result, the higher the efficiency of the steam turbine.

A lead-bismuth melt, similar to that on Soviet nuclear submarines, is used as a cooling “liquid”. The melt passes through three heat exchange circuits, reducing the temperature from 500 degrees Celsius to 480. The working fluid for the turbine can be either water vapor or superheated carbon dioxide.

The installation with fuel and cooling system weighs only 20 tons and is designed for 10 years of operation at a rated power of 70 megawatts without refueling. The miniature dimensions are truly impressive - the reactor is only 2.5 meters high and 1.5 meters wide! The entire system can be transported by truck or rail, being the absolute commercial world record holder for the power-to-mobility ratio.

Upon arrival at the site, the “barrel” with the reactor is simply buried. Access to it or any maintenance is not expected at all. After the warranty period expires, the assembly is dug up and sent to the manufacturer's plant for refilling. The features of lead-bismuth cooling provide a huge safety advantage - overheating and explosion are not possible (pressure does not increase with temperature). Also, when cooled, the alloy solidifies, and the reactor itself turns into an iron blank insulated with a thick layer of lead, which is not afraid of mechanical stress. By the way, it was the impossibility of operating at low power (due to the solidification of the cooling alloy and automatic shutdown) that was the reason for the refusal to further use lead-bismuth installations on nuclear submarines. For the same reason, these are the safest reactors ever installed on nuclear submarines of all countries.

Initially, miniature nuclear power plants were developed by Hyperion Power Generation for the needs of the mining industry, namely for processing oil shale into synthetic oil. Estimated reserves of synthetic oil in oil shale available for processing using today's technologies are estimated at 2.8-3.3 trillion barrels. For comparison, the reserves of “liquid” oil in wells are estimated at only 1.2 trillion barrels. However, the process of refining shale into oil requires heating it and then capturing the vapors, which then condense into oil and by-products. It is clear that for heating you need to get energy somewhere. For this reason, oil production from shale is considered economically unfeasible compared to importing it from OPEC countries. So the company sees the future of its product in different areas of application.

For example, as a mobile power plant for the needs of military bases and airfields. There are also interesting prospects here. Thus, during mobile warfare, when troops operate from so-called strong points in certain regions, these stations could power the “base” infrastructure. Just like in computer strategies. The only difference is that when the task in the region is completed, the power plant is loaded into a vehicle (airplane, cargo helicopter, trucks, train, ship) and taken to a new location.

Another military application is the stationary power supply of permanent military bases and airfields. In the event of an air raid or missile attack, a base with an underground nuclear power plant that does not require maintenance personnel is more likely to remain combat capable. In the same way, it is possible to power groups of social infrastructure objects - water supply systems of cities, administrative facilities, hospitals.

Well, industrial and civil applications - power supply systems for small cities and towns, individual enterprises or their groups, heating systems. After all, these installations primarily generate thermal energy and in cold regions of the planet can form the core of centralized heating systems. The company also considers the use of such mobile power plants at desalination plants in developing countries to be promising.

SSTAR (small, sealed, transportable, autonomous reactor)

A small, sealed, mobile autonomous reactor is a project being developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA. The principle of operation is similar to Hyperion, only it uses Uranium-235 as fuel. Must have a shelf life of 30 years with a capacity of 10 to 100 megawatts.

The dimensions should be 15 meters high and 3 meters wide with a reactor weight of 200 tons. This installation is initially designed for use in underdeveloped countries under a leasing scheme. Thus, increased attention is paid to the inability to disassemble the structure and extract anything valuable from it. What is valuable is uranium-238 and weapons-grade plutonium, which are produced as they expire.

At the end of the lease agreement, the recipient will be required to return the unit to the United States. Am I the only one who thinks these are mobile factories for the production of weapons-grade plutonium for other people’s money? 🙂 However, the American state has not advanced beyond research work here, and there is not even a prototype yet.

To summarize, it should be noted that so far the most realistic development is from Hyperion and the first deliveries are scheduled for 2014. I think we can expect a further advance of “pocket” nuclear power plants, especially since other enterprises, including such giants as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, are conducting similar work on creating similar stations. In general, a miniature nuclear reactor is a worthy answer to all kinds of tidal turbidity and other incredibly “green” technologies. It looks like we may soon see military technology moving into civilian use again.

1. A free-piston Stirling engine is powered by heating with “atomic steam” 2. An induction generator provides about 2 W of electricity to power an incandescent lamp 3. The characteristic blue glow is the Cherenkov radiation of electrons knocked out of atoms by gamma rays. Can serve as a great night light!

For children over 14 years old, a young researcher will be able to independently assemble a small but real nuclear reactor, learn what prompt and delayed neutrons are, and see the dynamics of acceleration and deceleration of a nuclear chain reaction. A few simple experiments with a gamma spectrometer will allow you to understand the production of various fission products and experiment with the reproduction of fuel from the now fashionable thorium (a piece of thorium-232 sulfide is attached). The included book “Fundamentals of Nuclear Physics for Little Ones” contains descriptions of more than 300 experiments with the assembled reactor, so there is enormous scope for creativity

Historical prototype The Atomic Energy Lab set (1951) gave schoolchildren the opportunity to join the most advanced fields of science and technology. The electroscope, Wilson chamber and Geiger-Muller counter made it possible to conduct many interesting experiments. But, of course, not as interesting as assembling a working reactor from the Russian “Tabletop Nuclear Power Plant” set!

In the 1950s, with the advent of nuclear reactors, it seemed that brilliant prospects for solving all energy problems loomed before humanity. Energy engineers designed nuclear power plants, shipbuilders designed nuclear electric ships, and even car designers decided to join the celebration and use the “peaceful atom.” A “nuclear boom” arose in society, and industry began to lack qualified specialists. An influx of new personnel was required, and a serious educational campaign was launched not only among university students, but also among schoolchildren. For example, A.C. The Gilbert Company released the Atomic Energy Lab children's kit in 1951, containing several small radioactive sources, the necessary instruments, and samples of uranium ore. This “state-of-the-art science kit,” as the box said, allowed “young researchers to conduct over 150 exciting science experiments.”

Personnel decides everything

Over the past half century, scientists have learned several bitter lessons and learned to build reliable and safe reactors. Although the industry is currently in a downturn due to the recent Fukushima accident, it will soon be on the upswing again and nuclear power plants will continue to be seen as an extremely promising way to produce clean, reliable and safe energy. But now in Russia there is a shortage of personnel, just like in the 1950s. To attract schoolchildren and increase interest in nuclear energy, the Research and Production Enterprise (SPE) “Ekoatomconversion”, following the example of A.S. Gilbert Company has released an educational set for children over 14 years old. Of course, science has not stood still over these half-century, therefore, unlike its historical prototype, the modern set allows you to get a much more interesting result, namely, to assemble a real model of a nuclear power plant on the table. Of course, it is active.

Literacy from the cradle

“Our company comes from Obninsk, a city where nuclear energy is familiar and familiar to people almost from kindergarten,” Andrey Vykhadanko, scientific director of the Ecoatomconversion Research and Production Enterprise, explains to PM. “And everyone understands that there is absolutely no need to be afraid of her.” After all, only the unknown danger is truly scary. That's why we decided to release this set for schoolchildren, which will allow them to experiment and study the principles of operation of nuclear reactors without exposing themselves and others to serious risk. As you know, knowledge acquired in childhood is the most durable, so with the release of this set we hope to significantly reduce the likelihood of a repeat of Chernobyl or

Fukushima in the future."

Waste plutonium

Over the years of operation of many nuclear power plants, tons of so-called reactor plutonium have accumulated. It consists mainly of weapons-grade Pu-239, containing about 20% admixture of other isotopes, primarily Pu-240. This makes reactor-grade plutonium completely unsuitable for creating nuclear bombs. Separation of impurities turns out to be very difficult, since the mass difference between the 239th and 240th isotopes is only 0.4%. The production of nuclear fuel with the addition of reactor plutonium turned out to be technologically complex and economically unprofitable, so this material remained out of use. It is the “waste” plutonium that is used in the “Young Nuclear Scientist Kit” developed by the Ecoatomconversion Research and Production Enterprise.

As is known, for a fission chain reaction to begin, nuclear fuel must have a certain critical mass. For a ball made of weapons-grade uranium-235 it is 50 kg, for one made of plutonium-239 - only 10. A shell made of a neutron reflector, for example beryllium, can reduce the critical mass several times. And the use of a moderator, as in thermal neutron reactors, will reduce the critical mass by more than ten times, to several kilograms of highly enriched U-235. The critical mass of Pu-239 will be hundreds of grams, and it is precisely this ultra-compact reactor that fits on a table that was developed at Ecoatomconversion.

What's in the chest

The packaging of the set is modestly designed in black and white, and only the dim three-segment radioactivity icons stand out somewhat from the general background. “There’s really no danger,” says Andrey, pointing to the words “Completely safe!” written on the box. “But these are the requirements of official authorities.” The box is heavy, which is not surprising: it contains a sealed lead shipping container with a fuel assembly (FA) of six plutonium rods with a zirconium shell. In addition, the set includes an outer reactor vessel made of heat-resistant glass with chemical hardening, a housing cover with a glass window and sealed leads, a stainless steel core housing, a stand for the reactor, and a control absorber rod made of boron carbide. The electrical part of the reactor is represented by a free-piston Stirling engine with connecting polymer tubes, a small incandescent lamp and wires. The kit also includes a one-kilogram bag of boric acid powder, a pair of protective suits with respirators, and a gamma spectrometer with a built-in helium neutron detector.

Construction of a nuclear power plant

Assembling a working model of a nuclear power plant according to the accompanying manual in pictures is very simple and takes less than half an hour. Having put on a stylish protective suit (it is only needed during assembly), we open the sealed packaging with the fuel assembly. Then we insert the assembly inside the reactor vessel and cover it with the core body. Finally, we snap the lid with the sealed leads on top. You need to insert the absorber rod all the way into the central one, and through any of the other two, fill the active zone with distilled water to the line on the body. After filling, tubes for steam and condensate passing through the heat exchanger of the Stirling engine are connected to the pressure inlets. The nuclear power plant itself is now complete and ready for launch; all that remains is to place it on a special stand in an aquarium filled with a solution of boric acid, which perfectly absorbs neutrons and protects the young researcher from neutron radiation.

Three, two, one - start!

We bring a gamma spectrometer with a neutron sensor close to the wall of the aquarium: a small part of the neutrons, which do not pose a threat to health, still come out. Slowly raise the control rod until the neutron flux begins to rapidly increase, indicating the start of a self-sustaining nuclear reaction. All that remains is to wait until the required power is reached and push the rod back 1 cm along the marks so that the reaction speed stabilizes. As soon as boiling begins, a layer of steam will appear in the upper part of the core body (perforations in the body prevent this layer from exposing the plutonium rods, which could lead to their overheating). The steam goes up the tube to the Stirling engine, where it condenses and flows down the outlet tube into the reactor. The temperature difference between the two ends of the engine (one heated by steam, the other cooled by room air) is converted into oscillations of the piston-magnet, which, in turn, induces an alternating current in the winding surrounding the engine, igniting atomic light in the hands of the young researcher and, it is hoped, developers, atomic interest is at its heart.

Editor's note: This article was published in the April issue of the magazine and is an April Fool's joke.

Is it possible to assemble a reactor in the kitchen? Many asked this question in August 2011, when Handle's story made headlines. The answer depends on the experimenter's goals. It is difficult to create a full-fledged electricity-generating “stove” these days. While information about technology has become more accessible over the years, obtaining the necessary materials has become more and more difficult. But if an enthusiast simply wants to satisfy his curiosity by carrying out at least some kind of nuclear reaction, all paths are open to him.

The most famous owner of a home reactor is probably the "Radioactive Boy Scout" American David Hahn. In 1994, at the age of 17, he assembled the unit in a barn. There were seven years left before the advent of Wikipedia, so a schoolboy, in search of the information he needed, turned to scientists: he wrote letters to them, introducing himself as a teacher or student.

Khan's reactor never reached critical mass, but the boy scout managed to receive a sufficiently high dose of radiation and many years later he was unsuitable for the coveted job in the field of nuclear energy. But immediately after the police looked into his barn and the Environmental Protection Agency dismantled the installation, the Boy Scouts of America awarded Khan the title of Eagle.

In 2011, Swede Richard Handl attempted to build a breeder reactor. Such devices are used to produce nuclear fuel from more abundant radioactive isotopes that are not suitable for conventional reactors.

“I have always been interested in nuclear physics. “I bought all sorts of radioactive junk on the Internet: old clock hands, smoke detectors and even uranium and thorium,”

He told RP.

Is it even possible to buy uranium online? “Yes,” confirms Handl.. “At least that was the case two years ago. Now the place where I bought it has been removed.”

Thorium oxide was found in parts of old kerosene lamps and welding electrodes, and uranium was found in decorative glass beads. In breeder reactors, the fuel most often is thorium-232 or uranium-238. When bombarded with neutrons, the first turns into uranium-233, and the second into plutonium-239. These isotopes are already suitable for fission reactions, but, apparently, the experimenter was going to stop there.

In addition to fuel, the reaction needed a source of free neutrons.

“There is a small amount of americium in smoke detectors. I had about 10–15 of them, and I got them from them,”

Handl explains.

Americium-241 emits alpha particles - groups of two protons and two neutrons - but there was too little of it in old sensors bought on the Internet. An alternative source was radium-226 - until the 1950s, it was used to coat clock hands to make them glow. They are still sold on eBay, although the substance is extremely toxic.

To produce free neutrons, a source of alpha radiation is mixed with a metal - aluminum or beryllium. This is where Handl's problems began: he tried to mix radium, americium and beryllium in sulfuric acid. Later, a photo from his blog of an electric stove covered in chemicals was circulated in local newspapers. But at that time, there were still two months left before the police showed up on the experimenter’s doorstep.

Richard Handle's failed attempt to obtain free neutrons. Source: richardsreactor.blogspot.se Richard Handle's failed attempt to obtain free neutrons. Source: richardsreactor.blogspot.se

“The police came for me before I even started building the reactor. But from the moment I started collecting materials and blogging about my project, about six months passed,” explains Handl. He was noticed only when he himself tried to find out from the authorities whether his experiment was legal, despite the fact that the Swede documented his every step in a public blog. “I don’t think anything would have happened. I was only planning a short nuclear reaction,” he added.

Handle was arrested on July 27, three weeks after the letter to the Radiation Safety Authority. “I only spent a few hours in jail, then there was a hearing and I was released. Initially, I was accused of two counts of violating the radiation safety law, and one count of violating the laws on chemical weapons, weapons materials (I had some poisons) and the environment,” said the experimenter.

External circumstances may have played a role in Handl's case. On July 22, 2011, Anders Breivik carried out terrorist attacks in Norway. It is not surprising that the Swedish authorities reacted harshly to the desire of a middle-aged man with oriental features to build a nuclear reactor. In addition, the police found ricin and a police uniform in his house, and at first he was even suspected of terrorism.

In addition, on Facebook, the experimenter calls himself “Mullah Richard Handle.” “It's just an inside joke between us. My father worked in Norway, there is a very famous and controversial mullah Krekar, in fact, this is what the joke is about,” explains the physicist. (The founder of the Islamist group Ansar al-Islam is recognized by the Norwegian Supreme Court as a threat to national security and is on the UN terrorist list, but cannot be deported because he received refugee status in 1991 - he faces the death penalty in his homeland of Iraq. - RP) .

Handle, while under investigation, was not very careful. This also ended with him being charged with threatening to kill. “This is a completely different story, the case is already closed. I simply wrote on the Internet that I have a murder plan that I will carry out. Then the police arrived, interrogated me and after the hearing released me again. Two months later the case was closed. I don’t want to go into depth about who I wrote about, but there are simply people I don’t like. I think I was drunk. Most likely, the police paid attention to this only because I was involved in that case with the reactor,” he explains.

Handle's trial ended in July 2014. Three of the five original charges were dropped.

“I was sentenced only to fines: I was found guilty of one violation of the radiation safety law and one violation of the environmental law,”

He explains. For the incident with chemicals on the stove, he owes the state approximately €1.5 thousand.

During the process, Handl had to undergo a psychiatric examination, but it did not reveal anything new. “I'm not feeling too well. I didn’t do anything for 16 years. I was given a disability due to mental disorders. Once I tried to start studying and reading again, but after two days I had to quit,” he says.

Richard Handle is 34 years old. At school he loved chemistry and physics. Already at the age of 13 he was making explosives and was planning to follow in his father’s footsteps by becoming a pharmacist. But at the age of 16, something happened to him: Handl began to behave aggressively. First he was diagnosed with depression, then with paranoid disorder. In his blog, he mentions paranoid schizophrenia, but stipulates that over 18 years he was given about 30 different diagnoses.

I had to forget about my scientific career. For most of his life, Handle has been forced to take medications - haloperidol, clonazepam, alimemazine, zopiclone. He has difficulty accepting new information and avoids people. He worked at the plant for four years, but also had to leave due to disability.

After the reactor incident, Handl has not yet figured out what to do. There will be no more posts about poisons and atomic bombs on the blog - he is going to post his paintings there. “I don’t have any special plans, but I’m still interested in nuclear physics and will continue to read,” he promises.