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As the United States and other nations consider their next steps in nuclear energy, a new movement to support small modular reactors is coming to the forefront. But how are we to envision these technologies and their role in a post-Fukushima era?
A week before Halloween 2009, John R. Deal, an entrepreneur who goes almost exclusively by "Grizz," took the stage at the Denver Art Museum to deliver the headline talk at an evening seminar titled "The Truth About Nuclear Energy' Though slightly less bearded, barrelchested, and commanding than his nickname suggests, Deals style was exceedingly casual. A long-sleeved, amply pocketed khaki shirt included a shoulder patch with his company's logo, eliciting an association somewhere between park ranger and scoutmaster - both of which match his cheerful, disarming demeanor. Before launching into the benefits of his company s miniature nuclear reactor, he began with a joke.
"It turns out that most of the . . . mishaps [in nuclear plants] actually involve humans. So we were thinking today, what do we do to create a power plant control system to minimize that kind of impact? We came up with the following. The power plant of the future will have three control devices: a computer, a dog, and a guy. The computer runs the power plant because, as I said, most power plant mishaps happen because of human interaction. The dog keeps people away from the computer. And the guy is just there to feed the dog."
After lingering on the title slide a moment longer - "New. Clear. Energy." in yellow letters - he advanced the screen and gave his opening line, a message he would revisit throughout his talk. "It's more of a battery metaphor."
As the co-founder and president of Hyperion Power Generation, Deal was referring to his company's starring product, which he believes will represent a radical revolution for nuclear power. He has also described the Hyperion Power Module (HPM), which is only a few feet wide and not much taller, as the iPhone of nuclear power: a compact, technologically elegant device that will be a worldwide sensation for its portability, ease of use, and applications. These first moments of a normal overview presentation contain two of Hyperion's prominent talking points: a...