Nuclear Battery Buried in Your Backyard - Coming Soon?

While environmentalists and assorted green nail-biters have been making loud about alleged Peak Oil and a climate they say can't handle one more oz. of carbon dioxide, over in New Mexico a little company called Hyperion Power Generation have been quietly laboring to commercialize a safe, clean, sustainable, and cost-efficient small modular nuclear reactor designed by Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists leveraging forty years of technological advancement.
 
Hyperion nuclear power modules are about the size of a hot tub. Each produces enough to power for about 25,000 homes (25-30 megawatts). No water is needed for cooling but it is impossible for the module to go supercritical, “melt down” or create any type of emergency situation. The radioactive material inside is unsuitable for use in proliferation.
 
According to Doug Hoffman, co-author of the book, The Energy Gap, -
 

...(t)he reactor has a uranium hydride core, surrounded by hydrogen gas. The hydrogen acts as the moderator for the reactor, slowing down neutrons to promote a sustained chain reaction. As the reactor heats up the hydrogen gas expands and vents into a holding area, causing the nuclear reaction to diminish. This allows the reactor vessel, including its hydrogen, to cool, drawing hydrogen back into the reactor and increasing the nuclear reaction. The balance between heat generation and gas temperature makes the whole unit self-regulating—no need for computers or human operators to control things. Think of it as a nuclear battery [1].

Because of its small size the power plant's applications are limitless and could fuel a huge variety of important facilities including: hospitals, desalinization plants, emergency facilities, industrial parks, factories, military bases, and even small towns for many years. Moreover,  Hyperion’s module's has the ability to bring heat for industrial uses and electricity for infrastructure and homes to remote locations with no reasonable access to reliable energy. For example: over 25% of the world’s population does not have access to clean water. Hyperion can solve this problem by providing the power to pump, clean, and process water, possibly helping turn the tide on disease, poverty and social unrest.

Meanwhile President Obama, who waxes enthusiastic in speeches about making America energy independent, seems unconcerned that his own Nuclear Regulatory Commission has has stated that it has no plans to review the Hyperion design in the near future.

[1] "America's Atomic Folly", Doug L. Hoffman, The Resilient Earth