Like a battery, the HPM is a compact, transportable unit with no moving internal parts. It’s not to be opened once distributed from the factory.
Once sited safely in its underground containment vessel, an HPM is monitored but does not require a battery of operational personnel.. It just quietly delivers safe, reliable power – 70 MW thermal or 25 MW electric via steam turbine – for a period of seven to 10 years.
The core of the HPM produces energy via a safe, natural heat-producing process that occurs with the oscillation of hydrogen in uranium hydride. HPMs cannot go “supercritical,” melt down, or get “too hot.” It maintains its safe, operating temperature without the introduction and removal of “cooling rods” – an operation that has the potential for mechanical failure.
A good bit bigger than the typical consumer battery, HPMs are, however, just a fraction of the size of conventional nuclear power plants. About 1.5 meters across, the units’ size can be compared to a deep residential hot tub. It’s the size, along with the transportability and ease of operation, that make the self-contained HPM such a desirable choice for providing consistent, reliable, affordable power in remote locations.
Large conventional nuclear power plants are a necessary component of the global solution to the climate change problem. Nuclear power, including that provided by the HPM, emits no greenhouse gases. And, pound for pound its fuel component – uranium – delivers more actual energy than any other fuel available to today. Because its fuel packs more power, less is required. Therefore the mining of uranium is more efficient and causes less damage to the environment than traditional hydrocarbon fuels such as coal and natural gas. Nuclear power is also the safest, most regulated and protected form of energy on the planet today. No other industry is as closely monitored and today’s nuclear technology is constantly evolving as researchers strive on a daily basis to make it even safer.
Nuclear power will continue to play an important role in the global solution to the climate change problem. Now, because of Hyperion’s unique technology, the benefits of affordable energy from big power plants are available even when and where large, conventional nuclear power plants are not appropriate.
Think battery, with the benefits of nuclear power. Think Hyperion.
