Emma Woollacott is a writer.
Business reporter with technology.
The image is from Seaborg.
The image caption is.
A range of nuclear power barges is planned by Seaborg.
"We'll likely have more accidents than existing reactor because it's a new technology, but these will be accidents and not disasters," says Troels Schonfeldt, co- founder of Seaborg Technologies.
A new generation of smaller nuclear power plants is being developed by his company.
Mr Schonfeldt wants to address safety fears.
Seaborg's reactor will be housed on floating barges and use molten salt for moderate reactions.
Large-scale disasters, possibly caused by a terrorist attack, simply aren't possible because of the set-up and location.
If a terrorist bombs the reactor, the salt will stay and solidify. He says to clean it up.
It's very different from bombing an existing reactor, where you'd have a gas cloud that wouldn't be contained on your own continent and would cause an international disaster.
The image is from Seaborg.
The image caption is.
Troels Schonfeldt says his reactor is disaster proof.
The power barges can generate between 200 and 800 watt hours, enough to power up to 1.6 million homes.
The makers of the smaller reactor claim that they will be less expensive than their larger cousins.
Building a large nuclear power station usually involves taking components to a huge building site and assembling the reactor there. The new modular designs can fit together like jigsaws and be assembled in factories, making it much simpler to build a project.
Rolls-Royce received a grant from the UK government and a cash injection from a group of investors to develop a small modular reactor.
This means that most of the power plant could be built in a factory.
In our case, you build probably three factories. You assemble components in these factories. The modules are put on the trucks.
What is the largest component that can go on the back of a truck?
The cost of the UK's newest nuclear power station at Hinkley Point is more than double that of the Rolls Royce SMR.
Each Rolls-Royce SMR will have enough power to power a million homes.
There are as many as 16 SMRs in the UK, with the first to come online in 10 years' time.
"We're the size of two football pitches and we're more akin to an Amazon warehouse in terms of disruption than a Hinkley Point, so that should open up a broader range of siting opportunities," says Mr.
Rolls-Royce hopes that their reactor will not only supply the National Grid. Other customers, like data centres and firms that produce hydrogen and synthetic aviation fuel, will be interested as well.
It is hoping to sell its reactor abroad with its smaller size advantage.
"SMRs are different in that financing will be simpler - putting together financing for £2 billion is a lot simpler than 10 times that," says Mr.
The image is from Radiant.
The image caption is.
The reactor will fit into a shipping container.
The California based company wants to shrink nuclear power plants even further.
The reactor is the size of a shipping container and could be easily transported by truck.
The project is still in the very early stages, with the company planning a demonstration in 2026 and units in production by the year 2028.
The big power plants that connect to the energy grid do not compete for market share with Radiant's reactor.
Doug Bernauer, the company's chief executive, says that it's in competition with diesel generators that you'd use for back-up power or one you'd use in a remote off-grid location.
"That's anywhere you need back-up power, such as data centres, hospitals or military bases."
The image is from CND.
The image caption is.
Kate Hudson of CND said that small nuclear reactor are not as good as large ones.
New entrants to the nuclear power market have safety claims, but anti-nuclear activists are not reassured by them.
The director general of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament says that plutonium can be produced more quickly than conventional reactor waste.
The process for dealing with nuclear waste is well established and will be the same as a standard PWR reactor, says Mr. Blake from Rolls-Royce.
He says that it will be held at the site and eventually transferred to a geological disposal facility deep underground.
The proponents of small nuclear plants say their technology will be needed to meet an expected doubling of demand for electricity in the UK from consumers by 2050.
Ms Hudson is still skeptical that the technology will cost the taxpayer a lot of money.
She says that even with the most ambitious timescale. When renewable alternatives and energy efficiency programmes are available, we will have to wait 10 years for an SMR to produce energy.
The country of Denmark.
Nuclear power.
The environment.
There is renewable energy.
