US Embassy in Ukraine
Pentagon or the United States Department of Defense is in the works to develop mobile nuclear microreactors to meet the energy demand of the U.S. military.
The U.S. Department of Defense is reportedly taking public comment on their plans to develop this technology in order to use it as an alternative to fuel and energy that the growing military of the States requires. The microreactor that the U.S. government plans to develop will assemble at the Idaho National Laboratory, as mentioned in a report by Business Insider and first noted by the Associated Press.
As per the reports, the energy consumption of the department comes out to an average of a 30-terawatt hour of electricity every year, and over 10 million gallons of fuel on an everyday basis. These numbers are massive! Not just this, these numbers are never static and are potentially going to increase rapidly over the next few years with regards to the department’s growing projects.
As mentioned in a report by Business Insider, the Defense’s Science Board recommended that that the Pentagon should deploy small modular nuclear reactors to meet these increasing energy demands of the U.S. military. According to the statement issued by the environmental impact, the Idaho National Laboratory defines micro nuclear reactors as portable nuclear reactors that produce approximately 1-50 megawatts of energy, operating independently from the United States electric grids.
Anyhow, the question remains, is it safe to play with nuclear reactors, especially making them portable? Well, the department thinks it’s safe but there are more doubts than certainty to be counted. The project will soon undergo environmental analysis, after which the teams responsible will be asked to deliver a prototype.
The energy demand of the growing U.S. military is expected to be resolved by small, safe, and transportable nuclear reactors that would become a carbon-free source of energy and do not add to the Department of Defense’s quota of energy consumption.
There is still fear in the minds of people and honestly, this is expected. As mentioned in a report by the Associated Press, the microreactors could be targeted by the United States adversaries and it is not safe to transport such important and dangerous technology. There is a possibility that the microreactors could become more of a problem to the United States and humanity, if we think about the extent of danger involved than it could solve problems. Edwin Lyman, director of the non-profit Nuclear Safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists agrees to this above-mentioned statement.
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Source:
Associated Press
Business Insider
