RE: APARTMENT-STYLE NUCLEAR REACTORS

["Strickert, Rick" <rstrickert@signaturescience.com>]

More details about a 'micro-reactor for an apartment or office building

can be found at

http://english.hk.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/technology/afp/article.h

tml?s=hke/headlines/010823/technology/afp/Japan_developing_micro_nuclear

_reactor_for_apartment_blocks.html



The kickers are the use of molten lithium-6 for in place of control rods

and liquid sodium for cooling.



Some excerpts: 



   PARIS, Aug 22 (AFP) - Japan is developing a tiny nuclear reactor

   designed to generate power in the basement of an apartment block,

   despite widespread public concern over the country's nuclear safety

   record, New Scientist says.



   The 200-kilowatt micro-reactor, Rapid-L, measures just six metres 

   (20 feet) high and two metres (6.5 feet) wide and was initially 

   conceived as a plug-and-play source of power for lunar colonies.



   Although colonisation schemes have long been shelved, scientists at

   Japan's Central Research Institute of Electrical Power Industry 

   (CRIEPI) have revived plans for the Rapid-L, believing it could be a

   handy source of power for an office building or apartment block, the

   report says.



   It would be located in the building's basement, surrounded by a solid



   containment structure for safety reasons...



   Unlike conventional reactors, the Rapid-L would have no control rods

   to regulate the nuclear reaction, the goal being to remove a

   mechanical source of potential malfunction.



   Instead, it would use reservoirs of molten lithium-6, an isotope that

   is effective at absorbing neutrons. The reservoirs are connected to a

   vertical tube that runs through the reactor core.



   During normal operation the tube contains an inert gas. But as the 

   temperature of the reactor rises, the liquid lithium expands,

   compressing the inert gas and entering the core to absorb neutrons

and

   slow down the reaction.



   The reactor would run at about 530 C (986 F), cooled by liquid

sodium.





Don't look for it at Radio Shack any time soon.



Rick



Richard G. Strickert, Ph.D.

Signature Science LLC 

8329 North Mopac Blvd.

Austin, TX 78759

(512) 533-2009 (Phone)

(512) 533-9563 (Fax)

rstrickert@signaturescience.com

http://www.signaturescience.com



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