by Curt_Anderson on December 12, 2022 6:00 pm
Recently, at a Thanksgiving dinner, we were talking about what our now-grown kids are up to. One woman said her engineer son is designing "microreactors". In her telling they are somehow safer than conventional nuclear reactors and have many other benefits.

WHAT ARE MICROREACTORS?
A microreactor is a small nuclear reactor that can operate as part of the electric grid, independently from the electric grid, or as part of a microgrid to generate up to 20 megawatts thermal energy that can be used to generate electricity and provide heat for industrial applications. Most of these small reactors are designed to be portable – many could be hauled by a semitractor-trailer. Microreactors are 100 to 1,000 times smaller than conventional nuclear reactors, while small modular reactors (SMRs) range from 20 to 300 megawatts.

Microreactors offer a combination of reliability and operational flexibility that no other small generating system can match. They are expected to operate for years without refueling. Renewed interest in these very small reactors is driven by a number of factors, including the need to generate power on a small scale in remote locations, at deployed military installations, and in locations recovering from natural disasters.