Australian engineer Bobby Gallagher leads Deployable Energy, which has developed a 1-megawatt nuclear battery microreactor that can fit on the back of a truck or Ute.
It is helium-cooled and water-moderated, running for roughly five years before the module is simply swapped for a new one, like a gas bottle.
The microreactor achieved a self-sustaining chain reaction (criticality) at the Idaho USA National Laboratory on June 30, just 150 days after project commencement.
While gaining commercial interest in the USA and elsewhere, commercial deployment remains blocked in Australia due to federal and state legislative bans on nuclear power for civil use.
All we have at present is the well-established ANSTO medical and research facility in Sydney.
Deployable Energy CEO Bobby Gallagher believes his company’s nuclear battery microreactor would be “transformational” for the Australian economy and energy industry if it could be deployed in our country.
The Australian tech energy entrepreneur, who is based in the USA, says the nuclear industry in Australia is being held back by “misconceptions” based largely on ignorance and ideology.
Gallagher’s company recently achieved successful zero-power fuelled criticality for their Unity Nuclear Battery (UNB). This was celebrated in the Oval Office with US President Donald Trump in attendance.
Deployable Energy is planning a full-power demonstration next year, with ambitious plans to deploy over 1,000 reactors a year through factory mass manufacturing.
Our nuclear power ban means this incredibly successful innovation cannot be utilised in Australia under the current government.
In that interview, Gallagher indicated that if our nuclear power bans were lifted, Australia could potentially have a Unity Nuclear Battery operating in Australia by 2028.
The interview can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBBYUGGvoS0
This could be a game changer for our nuclear debate because opponents like PM Anthony Albanese and Climate Change & Energy Minister Chris Bowen have always claimed it would take too long to develop nuclear energy in Australia.
Multiple units of UNB are expected to be mass produced and delivered within just a few years and they will provide operational capability of five years without the need to be refuelled.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said his nation was seeing a “nuclear renaissance.”
“Advanced nuclear technologies like Unity will help power the next generation of American industry, strengthen our energy security, and ensure the United States remains the world’s nuclear innovation leader,” he said.
The U.S. Administration blames past federal overregulation for stifling the domestic development and deployment of advanced reactors.
“While the United States cultivated the effort to design and build the First-Generation IV reactor for commercial use, we have since ceded the initiative to foreign nations in building these advanced reactors,” a White House statement said.
“Advanced reactors have revolutionary potential, opening a range of new applications to support data centres, microchip manufacturing, petrochemical production, healthcare, desalination, hydrogen production, and other industries.”
According to the International Energy Agency, 31 countries use nuclear energy to generate electricity.
Of these, 14 produce at least 25% of their electricity from nuclear, while France gets up to 70% and Ukraine, Slovakia and Hungary get approximately 50%.
This chart shows the global usage of nuclear energy for electricity.
The development of Deployable Energy’s microreactors comes as debate around civil nuclear power continues in Australia.
The Liberal/National Coalition – together with One Nation – have undertaken to remove the ban on civil use of nuclear energy and leave it for the market to establish whether there is potential for private investment rather than taxpayer funding.
Given the success of nuclear in so many countries, there seems little likelihood that gaining investment funding would prove a problem in the development of a nuclear energy industry in Australia.
And that would lead to lower power bills as well as provide energy security and many more job opportunities.
It would also tie in with the obvious need for a nuclear capability to support the AUKUS nuclear submarines program that all major political parties support.
However, the Albanese Labor-Greens government seems likely to continue to oppose the removal of the moratorium on nuclear energy with Chris Bowen saying it is “far too expensive” and “would take too long to develop.”
Both of his objections have been proven totally wrong – just as his outrageous claims about so-called ‘Green Hydrogen’ have now been totally debunked.
The Albanese government now has the option of changing its position on the use of nuclear energy – or it will be left to the Liberal-National-One Nation parties to do the right thing for Australia following their win at the next election.
Albanese shouldn’t have any problem ‘changing his position’ on this issue as we all recall how easy it was for him to do so in relation to his negative gearing and CGT pre-election broken promises.
Thanks to Will Shakel at Nuclear for Australia andCrystal-Rose Jones writing for The Epoch Times together with Facebook, Instagram and Johannes Leak
