General Atomics Energy Multiplier Modular Nuclear Reactor

General Atomics has announced a 12-year program to develop a small, commercial nuclear reactor that could run on spent fuel from big reactors. It sounds like a smaller version that is similar to Bill Gates' promotion of the Terra Power Wave (liquid metal fast breeder) Reactor. But unlike Gates' liquid metal (sodium) design, General Atomics' reactor is helium-cooled. The Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR), which is being developed in China, is also helium cooled. The General Atomics reactors is small enough to be built in factories and hauled on trucks or trains.

The General Atomics reactor (EM2 -Energy Multiplier Module), would be about one-quarter the size of a conventional reactor and have unusual features, including the ability to burn used fuel, which still contains more than 90% of its original energy. Such reuse would reduce the volume and toxicity of the waste that remained. The EM2 would operate at temperatures as high as 850 degrees Centigrade, which is about twice as hot as a conventional water-cooled reactor. General Atomics expects the development effort to cost $1.7 billion, and it intends to seek financial assistance from the Energy Department. The reactor design will have to be certified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

General Atomics has built more than five dozen small reactors over the years, mostly for research purposes, including two gas-cooled units. Its Peach Bottom unit, in Pennsylvania, ran from 1967 to 1974, and its unit at Fort St. Vrain in Colorado produced electricity from 1976 to 1989. (WSJ, 2/22/10)