Toshiba may have a decent answer for nuclear power, as described by one of the writers who investigated Three Mile Island, and whose friends helped battle Chern

Toshiba may have a decent answer for nuclear power, as described by one of the writers who investigated Three Mile Island, and whose friends helped battle Chernobyl many moons ago. A writer who just happens to not write under the name Mark Stephens ... namely, Robert X Cringely. Here's what he wrote about Toshiba [0], ~ 2.5 years ago when Fukushima lit up: But the new plants also have to show they can survive an 8.9 earthquake and reduce the number of critical failure points. Toshiba's 4S reactors, which have been around for several years now, though not yet commercially successful, do all that quite easily. 4S reactor cores are like nuclear building blocks, built on a factory production line and transported by truck to be installed 30 meters under the ground. Each 4S puts out 10 megawatts of electricity or enough for 2000 Japanese homes. Following this path means the lost 1000 megawatt reactors will need 100 4S's each to replace them or a total of 1200 4S reactors. 4S's are fueled at the factory, put in place to run for 20 years then returned to the factory for refueling. They are sodium-cooled and pretty darned impossible to melt down. If the cooling system is compromised they automatically shut down and just sit there in a block of sodium. I admit I haven't followed the Toshiba 4S model's progress in the intervening time, but was fascinated at the idea when I read about it before. Cringely isn't a nuclear engineer, but he's no slouch, either. It's all worth a read. ---------- [0] http://www.cringely.com/2011/03/13/is-anything-nuclear-ever-really-super-safe-small-and-simple/ http://www.cringely.com/2011/03/13/is-anything-nuclear-ever-... ... and here's more of RXC's writing on the topic. Fascinating stuff: http://www.cringely.com/2011/03/11/flea-powder-may-be-saving-lives-in-japan/ http://www.cringely.com/2011/03/11/flea-powder-may-be-saving... http://www.cringely.com/2011/03/16/who-ya-gonna-call-supertanker/ http://www.cringely.com/2011/03/16/who-ya-gonna-call-superta... http://www.cringely.com/2011/03/30/plutonium-is-forever/ http://www.cringely.com/2011/03/30/plutonium-is-forever/ http://www.cringely.com/2011/09/20/truth-about-fukushima-daiichi/ http://www.cringely.com/2011/09/20/truth-about-fukushima-dai... http://www.cringely.com/2012/05/24/the-next-japanese-nuclear-accident-its-inevitable-will-be-even-worse/ http://www.cringely.com/2012/05/24/the-next-japanese-nuclear...