MIT Floating Nuclear Plant Eliminates Tsunami Risk

Following the Fukushima disaster back in 2011, MIT has developed a floating nuclear plant that would avoid several of the issues with present-day plants, including being essentially immune to tsunamis and being able to use sea water to cool down in the event of a catastrophe of some sort.

Each floating nuclear plant, after construction, would been towed out to sea to a distance of 5 to 7 miles, where it would then be moored to the ocean's floor and connected back to land using a transmission line. This would be akin to offshore oil drilling platforms.

As is pointed out in the video, this is not a new idea in and of itself. Rather, no current design allows the platform to be moored far enough away from shore to side-step the effects of a potential tsunami — something that is MIT's design's biggest bragging point.

The plants could range in size, able to be scaled to meet the needs of the region the plant would service. The concept, pictured above, will be showcased at the Small Modular Reactors Symposium later this week by MIT, the University of Wisconsin, and others.

SOURCE: MIT