coal2nuclear.com             A Plan for Our Planet
 ►to  Section 4 Directory            >  HYPERION MICRONUKE REACTOR   Linkcheck        Back <> to NEXT page

Hyperion Micronuke Reactor

Hyperion's Current Version, 25 MWe, Fast Neutron, Lead-Bismuth Cooled, Factory Refuelable

Hyperion Power Module [update]

The Hyperion Power Module is a 70 MWt/25 MWe lead-bismuth cooled reactor using 20% enriched uranium nitride fuel. The reactor was originally conceived as a potassium-cooled self-regulating 'nuclear battery' fuelled by uranium hydride. However, in November 2009, Hyperion Power said it was changing the design to uranium nitride fuel and lead-bismuth cooling to expedite design certification.  [A well-proven Russian submarine design. - JPH]  This now classes it as a fast neutron reactor, without moderation.

The reactor is about 1.5 metres wide and 2 metres high, so easily portable, it is sealed and has no moving parts. It is designed to deliver electricity or process heat (or cogeneration) continuously for 7-10 years without refueling, after which time it would be left to cool for up to two years before being returned to the factory.
 

Update Jan 22, 2010.

(From Rod Adams' podcast 148, Jan, 2010.)  (The Hyperion hydride reactor is the most elegant reactor but the NRC isn't at all up to speed on it - we are many years behind some other countries - so certification for something that seems as if it came off the tailgate of a flying saucer appears to be many years away. -- JH).  The DOE can also license reactors - for the military. 

Determined to have a reactor in a cost and size range that would be in worldwide demand and worldwide affordable, Hyperion decided to come up with something interim that has about the same size and temperature characteristics as Dr. Otis Peterson's original patented uranium hydride reactor that they can make and sell much sooner.  In its basic essence, its a small version of the reactor the Russians have been using for decades to power their (very fast, but noisy,) Alpha-7 submarines. 

A million dollars a megawatt, the 20 ton, 25 MWe basic reactor is heavy-haul truck (won't fit in a F-350) or rail transportable in a standard shipping container.  The Lead - Bismuth coolants are frozen for shipping, melted at site with electrical trace heaters to get the reactor ready for running.  It is to be installed in a dual vault facility so a spent reactor would have some time (years?) to passively cool down before shipping back to the factory.  A fuel load is good for 10 years solid of full-power days before returning to factory for refueling.  It is a low pressure primary coolant, has 12  1.5 meter travel fuel depletion, and load followable control rods arranged in a circle, gravity droppable.  Gravity works everywhere.  Automatic boron balls and shut down rods to guarantee control in any situation.

Lead-bismuth primary coolant, hotter than light water reactor fuel.  Uranium nitride fuel (ceramic, no cracking problems like you might get by running conventional uranium oxide pellets hotter), passive cooling upon total power loss.  Unlike the Alpha-7 reactor direct immersion steam generators, Hyperion's reactor design has an L-B intermediate loop, its superheated steam generator is 500°C Primary, 480°C secondary, with the intermediate loop's steam generator being located above the reactor.  Earliest shipping dates could be 2012 or 2013 for non-USA shipping - islands?.

At 746 watts per horsepower, a 25 MWe reactor translates into a 33,000 shaft horsepower engine.  A good sized shipping vessel engine.  Some of the folks window-shopping at Hyperion's store are asking about that.  [Again, Hyperion is talking about 4,000 units for its first full production run. -- JH]

Currently Hyperion has about 50 full-time staff, 40 part time.  The initial unit will be heavily instrumented and run under a "compensatory measure" regime to assure full knowledge and confidence before full power operation. -30-

(This is a commercial product.)
Visit Hyperion's web site:  http://www.hyperionpowergeneration.com/   

                             Hyperion TRIGA-like MicroNuke
Part  1     You can simply bury the "tiny" Hyperion SELF-REGULATING reactor.
Part  2     How about a small HYPERION™ demonstration facility?
Part  3    Our Government is backing coal and refusing to fight Global Warming

NEWS ITEMS   for this subject.  COMMENTS  for this subject

(Right) Promotional image from Hyperion web site.    

(Right) Promotional image from Hyperion web site.

To:  Hyperion reveals design details of its 25 MW reactor

Initial "Launch" Design for Hyperion Power Module announced today at the Winter Conference of American Nuclear Society in Washington, D.C. and London's "Powering Toward 2020" Conference 

WASHINGTON, D.C. and LONDON, ENGLAND, November 18, 2009 - At the Annual Winter Conference of the American Nuclear Society in Washington today, and simultaneously at the "Powering Toward 2020" conference in London, England, Hyperion Power Generation Inc. revealed the design for the first version of the Hyperion Power Module (HPM) that it intends to have licensed and manufactured at facilities in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

The HPM is a safe, self-contained, simple-to-operate nuclear power reactor, which is small enough to be manufactured en masse and transported in its entirety via ship, truck, or rail. Euphemistically referred to as a "fission battery," the HPM will deliver 70 megawatts of thermal energy, or approximately 25 megawatts of electricity. This amount of energy is enough to supply electricity to 20,000+ average American-style homes or the industrial/commercial equivalent.

 "In response to market demand for the HPM, we have decided on a uranium nitride-fueled, lead bismuth-cooled, fast reactor for our 'launch' design," said John R. Grizz Deal, Hyperion Power's CEO. "For those who like to categorize nuclear technologies, we suppose this advanced reactor could be called a Gen IV++ design." 

The design that Hyperion Power intends to have licensed and manufactured first will include all of the company's original design criteria, but is expected to take less time for regulators to review and certify than the initial concept created by Dr. Otis "Pete" Peterson during his tenure at Los Alamos National Laboratory. "We have every intention of producing Dr. Peterson's uranium hydride-fueled reactor; it is an important breakthrough technology for the nuclear power industry," noted Deal. "However, in our research of the global market for small, modular nuclear power reactors - aka SMRs - we have found a great need for the technology. Our clients do not want to wait for regulatory systems around the globe, to learn about and be able to approve a uranium hydride system. A true SMR design, that delivers a safe, simple and small source of clean, emission-free, robust and reliable power is needed today - not years from now. As we construct and deploy this launch design, we will continue to work towards licensing Dr. Peterson's design."

Kept quiet until today, this initial design for the company's small, modular, nuclear power reactor (SMR) is the first of several that have been under co-development with staff from Los Alamos National Laboratory. Hyperion Power's market goals include the distribution of at least 4,000 of its transportable, sealed, self-contained, simple-to-operate fission-generated power units.

Offering a cost-efficient source of clean, emission-free, baseload energy, the HPM will provide crucial independent power for military installations; heat, steam and electricity for mining operations; and electricity for local infrastructure and clean water processes in communities around the globe.

More information can be found at the company's web site: http://www.HyperionPowerGeneration.com

Hyperion to build small reactor assembly facility in the UK.pdf

Hyperion about Hyperion:
Conceived at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the HPM intellectual property portfolio was licensed to Hyperion Power Generation for commercialization under the laboratory's technology transfer program. Inherently safe, and self-moderating, the HPM utilizes the energy of low-enriched uranium fuel and meets all the non-proliferation criteria of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP). Each unit produces 70 MWt or 27 MWe- enough to provide electricity for 20,000 average American-size homes or the industrial equivalent. Approximately 1.5 meters wide by 2 meters tall, the units can be transported by ship, rail or truck and produce power for five to seven years depending on usage.

Eastern European launch in 2013
The company says that it will have a prototype of its reactor fully designed next year and that it has already secured an order for six units from a group of investors in Eastern Europe, including the Czech engineering company TES, who have an option to buy a further 44. It also claims to have other commitments from various parties – mostly energy utilities that currently use diesel generators in remote locations – for a further 100 units.
The company expects to deliver its first reactor in June 2013.

Part  1: 

You can simply bury and forget the "tiny" Hyperion SELF-REGULATING reactor.

(Shown here in a Hyperion Co. drawing doing water purification duty in a low-tech environment).

Part  2: 

How about a small HYPERION™ demonstration facility?
The World's First Coal-To-Nuclear Conversion To End Global Warming

The hot-tub size HYPERION reactor (™ Hyperion Power Generation, Inc. (HPG) )  might provide a demonstration substitute for a much more powerful TRISO pebble bed reactor.    http://www.hyperionpowergeneration.com/    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_Power_Generation     http://www.altiragroup.com/   Hyperion's Patent 
                                                                                                         (Below: Promotional image from Hyperion web site.)

Rated at 27 MWe, 1,000°F Steam, and $25 million, the HYPERION™ reactor is 1/6 as powerful as the 160 MWe South African PBMR pebble bed reactor. 

By replacing a coal-burning boiler, a single Hyperion reactor can eliminate about 250,000 tons of CO2 - that's a quarter million tons, folks - every year.

Hyperion reactors are rated at 70 MW thermal at 1,000°F.  That's not hot enough to make the supercritical hot water needed for the TRISO Nuclear Repowering idea but is plenty hot enough to make the 1,000°F superheated some small typical 3-stage steam power generating stations must have.  And certainly hot enough and powerful enough to replace the coal burning boilers in the nation's thousands of building complex power plants. Capitol Power Plant 

The basic design doesn't appear to be limited to 25 MWe.  That size may be Hyperion's choice for its initial product offering and reflect their judgment as to where for the greatest number of unit sales lie.  I think its an excellent choice.  There is a big market for IC electricity sources in the 2 to 50 MWe range for rural co-op villages and towns.

It appears they built and tested at least a 5 MW (thermal) prototype in 2004 or earlier.  (Below: Standing on it!  Impulse response test.  From patent application.)  5 MWt translates to perhaps 2,200 horsepower.  We're looking at a vapor chemical reaction cycling around an equilibrium point.  Be nice to see the climb up from zero power.  Since it is always cycling around a set temperature when running, hitting its empty hot boiler with cold water would be a real test.  Would that cause it to go out of oscillation and stall?  I wonder what a liquid LFTR reactor impulse response looks like?  Gotta keep in mind that, pound for pound, nuclear fuel has three million times as much energy in it as fossil gasoline and a Hyperion naturally carries a 5+ year load of fuel between pit stops.  Easy on that throttle, Scotty.

While my area isn't thermodynamics, I do wonder about the heat pipes (filled with either liquid metal or other heat conveying substances) and how they transfer their heat to the boiler.  This arrangement seems to provide the isolation of both a primary and secondary cooling loop.  70 MWt is a lot of heat from a sand-like heat source in a volume that's way small compared to some of the classic tube boilers I've seen in that same BTU range.  The heat pipes may also be providing a gathering of heat from the sand-like heat source to the surfaces of the boiler tubing to provide an action resembling that of a steam generator as opposed to a classic boiler tube.  We'll see.

Do they deal with fission products somewhat along the same lines as a TRISO particle?  Can't have a neutron poison like Xenon-135 floating around in that closed and dry particle filled space.

From a practical standpoint, a single Hyperion could drive one of White Pine Electric's 20 MWe steam turbines or four Hyperions connected in parallel could easily drive one of the J. R. Whiting plant's two 102 MWe steam turbines.  According to CARMA, this coal-burning generating plant emits about 850,000 tons of CO2 each year.  (Whiting has two 102 MWe units and one 124 MWe unit.)

Using the very generous American Wind Energy Association capacity [baseload] factor of 33%, it would take about 300 1 MWe wind turbines - about $450 million dollars worth - to equal one 102 MWe steam turbine.

So, it would take perhaps $150 million using HYPERION™ nuclear to do the same job as it would take $450 million to do using wind.
Who says nuclear is more expensive than wind?

A couple of really great launch platforms for the Nuclear Repowering idea: 

White Pine Electric Power Plant, at White Pine, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.  Three 1956 20 MWe (megawatt, electrical) coal burning units.  Much of the plant's output goes to power a copper production facility. A perfect place to try out a 25 MWe Hyperion TRIGA-like micronuke on a single coal burning unit.  A small unit would have small steam and feedwater piping which would make it easy to install the Hyperion in parallel with the existing coal burning boiler.  This would enable the turbine operator to select from either the nuclear or coal steam source simply by operating a couple of valves.  In 2005, the facility burned a total of 74,910 tons of coal producing 215,000 tons of CO2.  White Pine Electric

White Pine is located near the highly respected Michigan Technological University school of engineering at Houghton, Michigan.  http://www.mtu.edu/engineering/

J. R. Whiting plant near Erie, Michigan.  On the western shore of Lake Erie, just north of Toledo and south of Fermi II near Monroe, Michigan.  Three 1952 100+ MWe coal burning units.  IF 4 Hyperions and their shielding could be crammed onto the same footprint as one of J. R. Whiting's 1950s 300 MW thermal boilers, we should be able to repower one of the 102 MW electrical units from coal to nuclear.  In 2005 the facility burned about 1,000,000 tons of coal producing 2,810,000 tons of CO2.   J.R. Whiting

J. R. Whiting is not far from the University of Michigan and its School of Nuclear Engineering  http://www-ners.engin.umich.edu/  The author recalls seeing a pool-type TRIGA reactor at the U of M during the 1950s.

Either plant could also become the launch platform for the State of Michigan's new clean energy technology initiative to develop CO2 mitigation technologies for heavy industry.

Others have said about Hyperion:

I think that thousands of these reactors could be used to displace coal power. They could be buried on the property of existing coal plants (shut down the coal plants and use these devices) and at existing nuclear power sites. Later after there has been more operating experience with them, they could be positioned inside cities and towns.

"The Hyperion Power Module (HPM) is a 15-ton, small self-regulating hydrogen-moderated and potassium-cooled reactor producing 70 MWt /25 MWe fuelled by powdered uranium hydride. It is designed to operate for 5 - 10 years before being returned to the factory for refueling. It is about 1.5 meters wide and 2 meters high, so easily portable, and has no moving parts. Hyperion Power Generation has had preliminary discussions with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and a US design certification application is possible in 2012, when the company plans to begin manufacturing the plants in New Mexico. The design is licensed from the DOE Los Alamos laboratory there. The company reported sales interest from Eastern Europe in August 2008, at $27 million per unit."  http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf33.html 

"The UK Guardian newspaper reports, Hyperion Power Generation CRO 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.

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 specializing 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.'

Economics

$25 million for each of the initial 25-30MWe reactors. 
For getting oil from oil shale this system can supply heat instead of natural gas. Hyperion also offers a 70% reduction in operating costs (based on costs for field-generation of steam in oil-shale recovery operations), from $11 per million BTU for natural gas to $3 per million BTU for Hyperion. Over five years, a single Hyperion reactor can save $2 billion in operating costs in a heavy oil field. A lot of the initial one hundred orders are from oil and gas companies. 

Here is a comparison to help put the system's potential into perspective. 

A single truck can deliver the HPM heat source to a site. The device is supposed to be able to produce 70 MW of thermal energy for 5 years. That means that the truck will be delivering about 10.5 trillion BTU's to the site. Natural gas costs about $7 per million BTU which would would cost $73 million. 

That is about 3 times as much as the announced selling price for an HPM, but the advantage does not stop there - the HPM is targeted for places where there are no gas pipelines to deliver gas, so natural gas is not available at any price. 

Instead, it would be better to compare the HPM to diesel fuel, which currently costs about 2 times as much per unit of useful heat as natural gas and still requires some form of delivery for remote locations. In some places, fuel transportation costs are two or three times as much as the cost of the fuel from the central supply points. 

In certain very difficult terrains, or in places where there are people who like to shoot at tankers, delivery costs can be 100 times as much as the basic cost of the fuel.

About the Hyperion's ancestor reactor:

General Atomics' well known TRIGA® nuclear reactor program is completing fifty years of success in the design and operation of its reactors. TRIGA, the most widely used research reactor in the world, has an installed base of over sixty-five facilities in twenty-four countries on five continents. Now the only remaining supplier of research reactors in the United States, General Atomics continues to design and install TRIGA reactors around the world, and has built TRIGA reactors in a variety of configurations and capabilities, with steady state power levels ranging from 20 kilowatts to 16 megawatts. The TRIGA reactor is the only nuclear reactor in this category that offers true "inherent safety," rather than relying on "engineered safety."   http://triga.ga.com/50years.html 
 

Below: Dissociation pressures of uranium tritide, deuteride, and hydride vs. temperature.

The reactor takes advantage of the physical properties of a fissile metal hydride, such as uranium hydride, which serves as a combination fuel and moderator. The invention is self-stabilizing and requires no moving mechanical components to control nuclear criticality. In contrast with customary designs, the control of the nuclear activity is achieved through the temperature driven mobility of the hydrogen isotope contained in the hydride.

If the core temperature increases above a set point, the hydrogen isotope dissociates from the hydride and escapes out of the core and into the surrounding storage volumes, the moderation drops and the power production decreases. If the temperature drops, the hydrogen isotope is again associated by the fissile metal hydride and the process is reversed. The chemical isotope splits chemically when it gets too hot. Again, just as when the extra pressure in your car's radiator keeps water from boiling and turning into steam, you can design the hydride system to have different boiling temperatures by adjusting its pressure. 

There is some heat due to fast background neutrons when the reactor is in the transport/standby mode.

They use 4.9% enriched uranium. Fissile fuel burnup of at least 50% should be achievable with adequate design. This produces about 450 gigawatt days per ton of uranium or thorium. This is about ten times more efficient than current nuclear reactors. There would half as much left over uranium (unburned fuel) 

It's fuel lasts for about 5 years. Other reactors also have re-fueling. In this case, refueling is done by digging up the reactor if needed and then having the manufacturer perform the refueling. In between there are no people operating the reactor because it is self-regulating.

The manufacturer separates about a football size amount of material when taking the used fuel out. 


Helpful readers have provided us with some additional information about the chemistry involved.

"They don't show it here, but this is basic chemistry; there is a critical temperature above which no amount of pressure can stop the complete dissociation of UH3,, but it is off this plot.  I think the patent mentioned 700C, and that looks like a reasonable extrapolation here.  In any event, the patent points out that the operating temperature can be regulated by the pressure, and that's explicit on this plot too." 

"This also demonstrates how the reactor is shipped and started.  The reactor is shipped assembled with uranium metal sand in the reactor core and uranium hydride in the storage trays, and an inert gas atmosphere.  To start, the inert gas is sucked out and hydrogen (Or deuterium, or a mix, depending on other things like the reactor life) is bled into the casing while the reactor core and storage trays are heated by external power.  With the storage trays at 400-500C, and most of the hydride there dissociated, when the reactor core goes a bit above 200C, the metal in the reactor starts to form the hydride, the hydrogen density shoots up, moderation occurs, and you're off!.  More hydrogen is added until you get the operating temperature you want, and the system is sealed.  In operation, the storage trays are hot enough that most of the uranium hydride has been dissociated to metal and hydrogen gas."

Self-Regulating Nuclear Power Reactor November 15, 2008

Posted by gaussling

Hyperion Power Generation (HPG) company has announced the commercial development of their Hyperion Power Module.  While there are numerous reports on the internet, it is more useful for curious and tech savvy folk to read the patent application (US 20040062340) for a detailed description of the device. While the idea has been knocking around for 50 years, it took the inventor, Dr. Otis G. Peterson, to work out the control issues for a safe, self regulating system.

The reactor uses the hydride of a fissile actinide like U-235 (as UH3 powder) at ~5% enrichment in U-238 to serve as a self-moderating nuclear pile. The marvels of chemistry, namely chemical equilibrium, play a large role here because the hydrogen content (as hydride) varies as a function of temperature. An increase in temperature of the UH3 leads to loss of hydrogen from the U to another hydrogen storing metal. Loss of hydrogen moderator leads to loss of reactivity and a downturn in heat generation. But the downturn in heat generation favors the return of hydrogen (as H2) to the uranium to make hydride. This causes the reactivity of the system to increase, so the rate of fission and heat generation rises as a result.

The system eventually reaches a steady state temperature where the rates of hydrogen gain and loss from uranium become equal and the rate of heat evolution reaches a steady output.

According to Table 1 of the application, at 5 MW thermal the U-235 critical mass is 30 kg and at 50 MW thermal it is 215 kg. The table also discloses that at a loading of 30 kg U-235 the energy content is 78 MW years and at a loading of 215 kg U-235 the energy content is 540 MW years.

Of course, this is a patent and not a peer reviewed publication. But it was developed at Los Alamos so one would suppose it should have some credibility. The patent suggests that the reactor would be buried underground while in service. It is unclear if that is for shielding or security, or both.

HYPERION™ Has a patent:  Self-regulating nuclear power module   Pdf of the patent.

United States Patent Application 20040062340

Abstract:

The present invention includes a nuclear fission reactor apparatus and a method for operation of same, comprising: a core comprising a fissile metal hydride; an atmosphere comprising hydrogen or hydrogen isotopes to which the core is exposed; a non-fissile hydrogen absorbing and desorbing material; a means for controlling the absorption and desorption of the non-fissile hydrogen absorbing and desorbing material, and a means for extracting the energy produced in the core.

Representative Image:

Inventors:

Peterson, Otis G. (Los Alamos, NM, US)

Discussion Paragraph [0051] The invention is preferably limited in operation to the temperature range from approximately 350° C. [660°F] to 800° C. [1,500°F] for UH ₃ based fuel, where the dissociation pressure, shown in FIG. 5 , of the hydride is in the range that permits efficient gas transport. The data comes from “The H-U System,” Bulletin of Alloy Phase Diagrams , 1, No. 2 (1980), pp. 99-106. This temperature range is fortuitous because it includes the near optimum temperature for operation of steam boilers, i.e., the mid-500° C. [930°F] range. Samuel Glasstone, Principles of Nuclear Reactor Engineering , D. Van Nostrand Co. (1955), §1.24.

Beyond Hyperion™

Designing, building, and running a successful parallel powering of the 102 MWe unit using the author's supercritical water interface idea would demonstrate that a small-reactor-to-large-steam-turbine interface is not only available, but practical, and could be scaled up to drive the world's largest coal-burners - some coal-burning plant units are nearly 1,000 MWe - using the more powerful TRISO pebble and prism [compacts] reactors. 

This technological development is essential to take on the world's 5,000 worst coal-burning power plants that are causing a major part of Global Warming's CO2.

Later, J. R. Whiting's 124 MWe unit could be converted from coal-burning to a single 160 MWe PBMR TRISO pebble bed reactor boiler.  According to CARMA, this single coal-burning generating unit emits slightly over 1 million tons of CO2 each year. 

Or, both the remaining 102 MWe and the 124 MWe units could be driven by a single General Atomics 300 MWe GT-MHR TRISO prism [compacts] reactor to eliminate the entire remaining 1.93 million tons of annual CO2, thereby creating the world's first zero-emissions repowered coal plant - equal to the output capacity factor of 1,000 1 MWe wind turbines.