Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Mini-Nuclear Plants

Bring 'em on! You know that here at Right on the Left Coast we're all about safe, clean, pollutant-free nuclear energy.

Something's got to charge all those electric cars.

7 comments:

Ellen K said...

I remember hearing a couple of years back that Honda was working on a system where you had a generator at home to charge your car, and while you were gone, it would supply power to your home. I am sure the power companies would like to shut that idea down. I tried to search it online, but got no winner. Our local car guy had it featured on his show.

Darren said...

What powered the generator?

Ellen K said...

I am not sure. I know the buzz today is the mini-fusion generator. It was just mentioned in passing on a car show I listen to locally. The guys name is Ed Wallace and he has a website called Inside Automotive. But you may also really enjoy his takes on energy, politics and the economy. His website is an awesome source of information.

Anonymous said...

A nuclear reactor to charge your electric car? I rather doubt it. A gadget that produces hydrogen can be called a reactor with nothing nuclear going on; maybe there's some confusion there. But Ellen K's own nuclear power plant? Nah.

Toshibe proposed a small - 25 megawatt I think - reactor for Galena, Alaska:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galena_Nuclear_Power_Plant

David Foster said...

I think the Honda generator runs off natural gas & is a cogeneration system...that is, it produces heat/hot water in addition to electricity. There are good thermodynamic reasons to do this, since you really can't generate power without spinning off a lot of waste heat...which you might as well use so it isn't "waste" anymore.

Probably most effective in cold climates where the heating season lasts a long time.

David Foster said...

Okay, I found it...here's some information about the little guy. You can buy one here.

Anonymous said...

Neat idea. One thing I didn't see mentioned was producing your own electricity when the power grid's down.