Yes, it takes a village to raise a child, we get it, we understand the "community" important to raising children and to successfully building society.  But how big is "community"?

Plato reckoned the polis (ancient Greek term for the city-State) should not exceed 10,000 persons (meaning 10k voters, in our parlance, so let's say <30k people counting children for our civilization), since no more than three degrees of separation would ensue.  We would know, for instance, who we vote for at least third-hand.

 

Clearly, politics has gotten whacky out of hand with respect to knowing who you vote for, or at least knowing someone who knows someone who knows the candidate personally.  Does the principle apply for other areas, like Energy Production and Distribution?  Well, the massive blackout of the northeast a few years ago, or that of Brazil last year (>8 million without power for days), suggests we ought to be thinking about localizing our energy production.

What can we do?  Solar panels are still too expensive and inefficient to actually power each home, but they can help a lot (30–50% of a home's energy needs) and are getting better.  Wind and water and geothermal are Big Projects, not the stuff for neighborhoods or homes.

But there are major advances in mini-nuclear plants, incredibly more efficient and non-wasteful than you might imagine.  Similarly, basement power-plants fueled by clean natural gas.  On the drawing board are vastly improved coal-fired plants that promise to rival nat. gas for environmental friendliness and at even lower cost.  And last, we'll look at one brought to these boards' attention by SenatorRusso, a contributor at RagingDebate:  Magnetism Power.

The title of this article is a link to a google search "mini nuclear plants" and contains a large number of articles.  Here's one.

 

Mini nuclear plant is safe, affordable and purifies water (but doesn't turn lead into gold)

By Joseph L. Flatley

This isn't the first time we've seen a micro nuclear reactor, and with the looming energy crisis it probably won't be the last. Designed by scientists at Los Alamos, the Hyperion Power Module will retail for $25 million, has no moving parts, is about the size of a hot tub (less than 5 feet wide) and should generate enough electricity for about 10,000 homes, running up to ten years before it needs refueled. And if all that isn't enough, the company claims that the module is meltdown proof (the small amount of enclosed fuel would immediately cool if ever exposed to open air), that the enclosed material is unsuitable for proliferation, and in addition to generating inexpensive power the HPM can be used to purify water. Are you sold? Be sure to hit that read link -- Hyperion is taking orders now!

 

Want more detail?

 

Mini nuclear plants to power 20000 homes

£13m shed-size reactors will be delivered by lorry

John Vidal and Nick Rosen

The Observer, Sunday 9 November 2008

 

Nuclear power plants smaller than a garden shed and able to power 20,000 homes will be on sale within five years, say scientists at Los Alamos, the US government laboratory which developed the first atomic bomb.

The miniature reactors will be factory-sealed, contain no weapons-grade material, have no moving parts and will be nearly impossible to steal because they will be encased in concrete and buried underground.

The US government has licensed the technology to Hyperion, a New Mexico-based company which said last week that it has taken its first firm orders and plans to start mass production within five years. 'Our goal is to generate electricity for 10 cents a kilowatt hour anywhere in the world,' said John Deal, chief executive of Hyperion. 'They will cost approximately $25m [£16m] each. For a community with 10,000 households, that is a very affordable $2,500 per home.'

Deal claims to have more than 100 firm orders, largely from the oil and electricity industries, but says the company is also targeting developing countries and isolated communities. 'It's leapfrog technology,' he said.

The company plans to set up three factories to produce 4,000 plants between 2013 and 2023. 'We already have a pipeline for 100 reactors, and we are taking our time to tool up to mass-produce this reactor.'

The first confirmed order came from TES, a Czech infrastructure company specialising in water plants and power plants. 'They ordered six units and optioned a further 12. We are very sure of their capability to purchase,' said Deal. The first one, he said, would be installed in Romania. 'We now have a six-year waiting list. We are in talks with developers in the Cayman Islands, Panama and the Bahamas.'

The reactors, only a few metres in diameter, will be delivered on the back of a lorry to be buried underground. They must be refuelled every 7 to 10 years. Because the reactor is based on a 50-year-old design that has proved safe for students to use, few countries are expected to object to plants on their territory. An application to build the plants will be submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission next year.

'You could never have a Chernobyl-type event - there are no moving parts,' said Deal. 'You would need nation-state resources in order to enrich our uranium. Temperature-wise it's too hot to handle. It would be like stealing a barbecue with your bare hands.'

Other companies are known to be designing micro-reactors. Toshiba has been testing 200KW reactors measuring roughly six metres by two metres. Designed to fuel smaller numbers of homes for longer, they could power a single building for up to 40 years.

• This article was amended on Monday November 11 2008. $25m divided by 10,000 is $2,500 not $250. This has been changed.

• This article was amended on Sunday November 16 2008. Editing errors above resulted in our reporting that 'scientists at Los Alamos' say that nuclear power plants smaller than a garden shed and able to power 20,000 homes will be on sale by 2013. This was actually announced by Hyperion Power Generation, the company that will make the reactors. They licensed the technology from Los Alamos. Editing errors also led us to claim that the $25m [£13m] reactors cost a community with 10,000 households, 'a very affordable $250 per home'. That's actually £16m, not £13m, and $2,500, not $250. Hyperion CEO John Deal told us that he hoped to produce electricity for '10 cents per watt anywhere in the world,' but has since amended that to '10 cents per kilowatt hour'. The numerical errors have been corrected.

 

More on this:  (Update)

Hyperion&acutes miniature nuclear modules could be easily transported and buried underground, with the ability to power up to 20,000 homes.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Underground nuclear power plants no bigger than a hot tub may soon provide electricity for communities around the world. Measuring about 1.5 meters across, the mini reactors can each power about 20,000 homes.

The small energy modules were originally designed by Otis "Pete" Peterson and other scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Now, the technology is being commercially developed by Hyperion Power Generation, which recently announced that it has taken its first orders and plans to start mass production within five years.

"Our goal is to generate electricity for 10 cents a watt anywhere in the world," said John Deal, CEO of Hyperion. "[The nuclear plants] will cost approximately $25 million each. For a community with 10,000 households, that is a very affordable $2,500 per home."

Because of their small size, the mini power plants can be assembled relatively quickly and transported by truck, rail or ship to remote locations, even places that currently do not have electricity. The power plants provide an alternative to current nuclear plants, which are large, expensive, and take about 10 years to build. Also, large-scale power plants don´t fit the needs of small populations or areas without available land. Hyperion´s modules can be connected together to provide energy for larger populations, as well.

In addition, the Hyperion modules have no moving parts to wear down, and never need to be opened on site. Even if opened, the small amount of enclosed fuel would immediately cool, alleviating safety concerns. "It is impossible for the module to go supercritical, ´melt down,´ or create any type of emergency situation," the company states on its Web site. Because the Hyperion plants would be buried underground and guarded by a security detail, the company explains that they´ll be out of sight and safe from illegitimate uses. Further, the material inside wouldn´t be appropriate for proliferation purposes.

"You would need nation-state resources in order to enrich our uranium," Deal said. "Temperature-wise it´s too hot to handle. It would be like stealing a barbecue with your bare hands."

The reactors need to be refueled about every seven to ten years. After five years of generating power, Hyperion says that the module produces a total waste of about the size of a softball, which could be a candidate for fuel recycling.

 

Hyperion now has more than 100 orders for its modules, mostly from the oil and electricity industries. The first order came from a Czech infrastructure company called TES, which specializes in water plants and power plants. TES ordered six modules and optioned another 12, with the first planned to be located in Romania.

Hyperion plans to build three manufacturing plants, with the goal of producing 4,000 mini nuclear modules between 2013 and 2023. Next year, the company will submit an application to build the modules to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

While acknowledging that the commercial development of mini nuclear plants is a lofty goal, Hyperion believes that the potential benefits of the technology make the effort well worthwhile. Along with bringing electricity to remote locations, the Hyperion modules could also be used to provide clean water for the 25% of the world´s population that currently does not have access to clean water. The modules can provide power to pump, clean, and process water, which in turn can help decrease disease, poverty, and social unrest.

Update (November 12, 2008): The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) contacted PhysOrg.com to state that the NRC has no plans to review the Hyperion design in the near future, although the NRC and Hyperion have had preliminary talks. Because the Hyperion design is unique, the NRC expects that it will take significant time to ensure safety requirements. In a response to a letter from October 2008, the NRC stated:

“Hyperion Power Generation is in the early stages of development of this design, and very little testing information is available for this design concept. Hyperion Power Generation has indicated that it will submit technical reports to support a pre-application review in late FY 2009. The NRC cannot engage in any meaningful, formal technical interaction with the potential applicant until we receive those reports. Because of the very limited amount of test data and lack of operating experience available for a uranium hydride reactor, the NRC staff anticipates that a licensing review would involve significant technical, safety, and licensing policy issues.”

More information: www.hyperionpowergeneration.com

 

 

DANG!  I haven't found anything further yet, so your basement nuclear plant seems a bit further in the future.  So how about those natural gas-fired power plants?

 

Home power plants project unveiled in Germany

September 9, 2009 by Aurelia End

 

[RIGHT: A technician of German automaker Volkswagen's adjusts a mini gas-fired power plant at the VW plant in the northern German city of Salzgitter. An ambitious project was unveiled in Germany on Wednesday to install mini gas-fired power plants in people's basements and produce as much electricity as two nuclear reactors within a year.]

 

An ambitious project was unveiled in Germany on Wednesday to install mini gas-fired power plants in people's basements and produce as much electricity as two nuclear reactors within a year.

 

The Hamburg-based renewable energy group Lichtblick and its automaker partner Volkswagen say the plants would produce not only heating and hot water but also electricity, with any excess power fed into the local grid.

The two firms said the concept of "SchwarmStrom" (literally, "swarm power") would allow Germany to abandon nuclear and coal power stations sooner and help compensate for the volatility of renewables like wind and solar power.

The plants also reduce harmful carbon dioxide emissions by up to 60 percent compared to conventional heat and electricity generation, they added in a joint statement.

In the coming year the programme will install 100,000 of the mini plants, producing between them 2,000 megawatts of electricity, the same as two nuclear plants, Lichtblick and VW said.

"SchwarmStrom is revolutionising power production in Germany. It clears the way for more renewable energy and an exit from power from nuclear and coal," the statement added.

"The home power plants together form a huge, invisible power station that doesn't make the countryside ugly or require additional infrastructure."

The project "is thoroughly feasible if the project reaches the forecast size," Claudia Kemfert of the DIW research institute told AFP.

She added by way of comparison that "just getting rid of incandescent light bulbs would be the same as shutting down one nuclear reactor."

Gas plants have an advantage over nuclear power stations in that the heat produced by the latter is wasted, the DIW energy expert said.

But "the most ecological would be to feed these mini-plants with biogas" rather than natural gas, Kemfert noted.

Lichtblick said another advantage of its plan was that tens of thousands of generators could be mobilised to meet a surge in demand or if drought made it hard to cool nuclear plants or a calm spell idled wind turbines.

VW will contribute to the project by providing a gas-powered engine similar to one used in its popular Golf model.

But LBBW auto analyst Stefan Sigrist told AFP: "This is mainly a marketing offensive. It is chic for VW to bask in a greener light."

Although the generators are not a new concept, the project is novel in that Lichtblick would retain control over the plants after their installation.

Households would pay around 5,000 euros (7,250 dollars) to have the generators set up along with an appropriate heating system.

But individuals would then pay a lower price for heating and receive a modest "rent" for hosting the generator, as well as a bonus at the end of the year calculated on electricity revenues that resulted from Lichtblick's sales.

 

 

Cool!  or should I say Hot!  But definitely not "smokin'"!  These babies are as clean as fossil-fueled power can get.  But not as clean as...

         ORBO                  

 

That video is Part 1: for all of them, see Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.

 

What is Orbo technology?

Orbo is a technology that creates energy from magnetic interactions. Orbo provides free, clean and constant energy at the point of use.

Orbo is a platform technology that can be engineered to power anything from a phone, to a fridge to a car.

Orbo technology is controversial - science tells us that energy can not be created - yet Orbo does this. Orbo is an over unity technology - it provides more energy out than is put in.

Orbo is a result of many man years of technological development using a "Victorian Science" approach. It is a technology that has been derived phenomologically, through test, implementation and retest.

On 1st February 2010, Steorn will make Orbo technology available under license to developers through Steorn's online learning, collaboration and development platform, the SKDB.

Commercial development licenses will be available in the 2nd quarter 2010 allowing product developers to supply Orbo technology powered products to the public.

How Orbo Technology Works

Orbo is based upon time variant magnetic interactions, i.e. magnetic interactions whose efficiency varies as a function of transaction timeframes.

It is this variation of energy exchanged as a function of transaction time frame that lies at the heart of Orbo technology, and its ability to contravene the principle of the conservation of energy. Why? Conservation of energy requires that the total energy exchanged using interactions are invariant in time. This principle of time invariance is enshrined in Noether’s Theorem.

The time variant nature of Orbo interactions can be engineered using two basic techniques. The first technique utilizes a method of controlling the response time of magnetic materials to make them time variant. This is achieved by controlling the MH position of materials during permanent magnetic interactions.

The second technique decouples the Counter Electromotive Force (CEMF) from torque for electromagnetic interactions. This decoupling of CEMF allows time variant magnetic interactions in electromagnetic systems.

Pretty Wild stuff.  Obviously, the ORBO gets its power from somewhere.  They're not saying, but my guess is the Earth's magnetic field.  If so, this is better than science fiction, whoa daddy!