Providing clean, safe, and affordable energy to serve the growing power requirements of our country and the world, Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), appear to be a reasonable solution. They are about a third of the size of a conventional nuclear power plant. The vision is to have these deployed around the country in single or multiple units, generating from a couple of megawatts to hundreds of megawatts.
The vision includes not just use as power generators but to process heat, desalination, or other industrial uses. The modular construction provides a great benefit in the ability to be manufactured in a facility and then be shipped for assembly at the approved power site.
This portability allows rural communities access to nuclear power, an issue currently as conventional power plant's location and service are to more densely populated areas.
The current basic design is fission, using uranium fuel rods to heat water in an internal, pressurized loop, producing steam to turn a turbine and produce energy. A more practical long-term solution would be to use fusion power in Small Modular Reactors. Fusion power is derived from hydrogen molecules in water and produces not just clean energy but no radioactive dangerous waste.
Only one such design is currently approved. The process of developing small nuclear reactors to serve our power needs is proceeding carefully.
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