How it Works – the Micro Modular Nuclear Reactor

MMR is an advanced nuclear reactor made by Ultra Safe Nuclear to produce reliable energy anywhere. MMR uses TRISO particle Uranium fuel in our proprietary FCM Fuel pellets.

[cahoonm]

That is one of the most impressive and least advertised technologies i have ever seen in my 72 years on this planet. Bravo!!

[Subgunman]

I saw this in a paper years ago. It was developed by a German university years ago but then nothing heard about it until now! They had developed a micro nuclear reactor that theoretically could be placed in an individuals home or scaled up to produce power for a factory. The ceramic coating of the fuel allows it to be self regulating preventing it from entering a runaway reaction.

[KeeganPurscelley]

I'll be honest- It would be pretty cool to have a nuclear reactor underneath a substation and have localized nuclear energy.

[JoelGrant-iely]

It seems almost too good to be true. Excellent sales pitch. I'd buy one.

[waynesworldofsci-tech]

Silicon Carbide is really neat stuff used in many advanced applications in other industries. I’ve worked with it, and while it was more costly than the alternatives it was a beautiful fit for a lot of applications.

[saladamista]

I am a enthusiast of nuclear energy and it is a pity that this wonderful technology is so bad understood by the population in general, considering it unsafe and dangerous, while today there is a really mature and safe technology.

[bobsmoot]

These types of reactors is the future and can be installed closer to the end user thus minimizing adverse impacts on the various grids and other consumers of this power of heat and electricity

[bornfren]

Every small town needs one of these babies

[twolford]

I used to work at a nuclear power plant that used helium as a coolant, thorium rods, and graphite blocks to contain the rods. It was closed years ago and was turned into a natural gas powered plant. Was an expensive experiment that did not pan out due to the technology was beyond the machinery capabilities.

[alexeyhomzab]

an ethusiast of Nuclear Energy here, this is a clear explanation of your reactors, good work!

[alexsnell]

Nuclear energy is making a big comeback, uranium is at an all time high; great for commodity traders.

[eriklondon]

There is also Molten Salt Reactors, which can be used in replacement of the Helium in this situation. I personally would love to see a Small Modular Reactor (where you could have up to say 10 of them) next to each other all using a Molten Salt Reactor, so they could build up energy for large power draws from 2pm-9pm, especially during summer heat. I think it is the best and most efficient way.

[dano]

This is what we need. I have a strong feeling oil companies will do whatever they can to stop it though.

[EnderG]

Congrats on the design. I'm looking forward to hearing about a success in the news, and safe Nuclear energy for all!

[i-love-space]

Sounds like they have fixed the jamming problem that a pebble bed reactor reactor had by instead making the pebbles tinier and encasing them in fixed graphite fuel elements. It has key good features of the pebble bed reactor like thermal safety, but only lacks the ability to refuel while running. That was neat, but eliminating it made the reactor safer. Making the waste be self storing is also great. Seems to me they should be able to harvest the waste heat of waste fuel on a lower power level to power the reactor station. Why didn't Fukashima do that?

[i-love-space]

These are the kind of nuclear power units we were "sold" back in the 1950s and 60s when I was a kid. We thought everything, including cars and aircraft would be nuclear back then. But all the implementation mistakes in the ensuing decades almost screwed it out of existence. Maybe this will get nuclear back into the game. It would be PERFECT for a Lunar or Mars base!

[nibiruresearch]

This sounds very promising. I wish you success with the development.

[hatsthedoggo]

Very informative I went ahead and purchased one for my home.

[Timbucktoothed]

I retired from Bechtel last year. I never seen the A1B reactor but S6Gs, I worked on them. Worked at Hanford as my fiat gig at Bechtel and learned how not to expose myself. It is incredible the how concentrated these balls of U238. Probably critical enough to blow up if the size is a little bigger. Anyway all the details are highly classified so there. But my friend who actually installed A1B in Gerald Ford told me how much power they can generate. It blew my mind. Probably power entire city of Des Moines. Like Jack Kerouac said, The prettiest girls in the world live in Des Moines.

[blingbling]

Miniaturizing it even further to power a small city block or just a few houses with a fully self-sustained system within a couple dozen square feet built two or three levels underground could be quite interesting. Main challenge is ofc the cost of installation and the issue with the fuel itself being mishandled or sabotaged by third parties, and to counter that one might need a sort of monitoring system with an oversight. Like imagine a sort of lock on the container similar to ankle locks that felons have to wear during house arrest etc.