As to which other energy production receives government “largesse”, the answer is all of them. Solar and Wind cannot compete without tax credits. That’s why those industries are screaming that Congress is dragging their feet on renewing tax credits for renewables. And haven’t you read about the current national brouhaha about Big Oil losing their subsidies? Its a major plank of Obama’s platform! Why do you think we have had the cheapest gas on the planet for decades? Government subsidies that make it cheaper to produce.

I hate it that the so-called “Green Community” is exactly as honest about the science of nuclear energy as the Bush administration has been about stem cells, EPA reports and global warming.

Nuclear energy is the ONLY way to power the modern world without GHGs.

The two major forms of uranium, U-235 and U-238, are nearly identical. The two forms react to chemicals the same way. They melt at the same temperature. They are in fact nearly impossible to separate.

The only difference is that molecules with U-238 are very, very slightly heavier than those with U-235. So to concentrate the U-235, you react the uranium with fluorine to make a gas (yes, a gas), then spin it in a centrifuge for about 2 years to bring the lighter stuff to the top, skim it off, then repeat.

You repeat many dozens of times, with an array of thousands of centrifuges. Each centrifuge is an ultra-high precision instrument costing many, many thousands of dollars.

Difficult, expensive, time-consuming.

According to the CEO of this company, the units are still in the R&D phase, so this is hype. They have not developed a way of refueling them, and they will still have to dispose of the used fuel. Nuclear Power is given huge subsidies, liability caps and loan guarantees, including in the R&D phase. The government just handed out huge grants to a number of universities to halp train “the next generation of nuclear engineers.” What other energy production method gets this kind of largesse? So yes, they have solid financial backing – from the taxpayers.

Though there are still some details lacking, for logical reasons, Hyperion seems to be on a path with amazing potential. They are building on some excellent science and engineering done by one of the premier centers of atomic knowledge in the country. More information is available about the design than you imply. I found some very interesting documents using “Otis Peterson uranium hydride” as a Google search term. One that I need to find via a library is
Los Alamos Report No. LA-UR-04-1087 Author Peterson, O. G. Otis G.
Title ComStar Compact Self regulating Transportable Reactor CONCEPT
This document is listed on a publication list, but is not freely available because of library policies and copyright restrictions.

I have spoken with John (Grizz) Deal on The Atomic Show Podcast; he convinced me that he knows what he is doing in leading a company full of talented atomic geeks with a great idea and some solid financial backing.

Rod Adams
Editor, Atomic Insights
Host, The Atomic Show Podcast