Nuclear plants provide the large amounts of reliable and continuous electricity. Nuclear power reactors have a major environmental benefit – they do not emit the gases that contribute to global warming, acid rain, or urban smog.
But a nuclear catastrophe can overshadow the environmental advantages of nuclear plants. Any damage to a nuclear reactor can result in catastrophic results, as we’ve seen most recently with the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. To avoid this, the nuclear plants need to be situated at a safe place.
According to an MIT design, the safest place to construct a nuclear reactor is offshore. MIT has proposed a new concept for nuclear power plants built on floating platforms several miles off the coast like offshore oil and gas platforms. The plants would be linked to the electric grid with a transmission line.
The floating reactor will have several crucial advantages; it will be virtually immune to earthquakes, tsunamis and meltdowns. In the event of any nuclear crisis, it would also have access to the ocean as an infinite heat sink for easy and passive cooling to avoid a meltdown.
Check the YouTube link below to see how this design would revolutionize the nuclear power industry in terms of safety.
