'Mini-Nukes’ Could Supply Power to Nations within the Next 5 Years

Anuska Ghosh

According to the Danish Start-up Company, Seaborg Technologies, floating ‘Mini-Nukes’ could begin powering the developing nations before 2025. The chief executive of Seaborg, Mr. Troels Schönfeldt said that the company’s 100-MegaWatt compact molten salt reactor would take two years to build and would generate electricity, which would be a cheaper and viable alternative to fossil fuels.

Seaborg’s design would be one of the first attempts at a commercially available nuclear barge used to provide electricity to a nation.

Seaborg has raised about €20m from private investors, and received the first of the necessary regulatory approvals within a four-phase process from the American Bureau of Shipping this week.

However, the four-year timeline for design and the construction of a new untested nuclear power plant seem difficult targets to achieve. Furthermore, the inherent risk associated with nuclear reactor technologies and floating power plants might be a sign of worry for the investors and the Governments.

Seaborg technologies however assure that the reactor is well equipped to deal with even the worst accidents.

[Anuska Ghosh is a first-year law student at the National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata.]