Could A Floating Nuclear Power Plant Prevent Another Fukushima?

MIT scientists argue that nukes can be tsunami-proofed by towing them out to to sea.

A group of MIT scientists want to revive the nuclear industry in the post-Fukushima era by moving it offshore. Literally. In a paper to be presented at a conference this week, the MIT researchers argue that the way to make nuclear power plants impervious to earthquakes and tsunamis is to build them in shipyards and then tow the structures five to nine miles out to sea to the deep ocean.

These Offshore Small Modular Reactors (OSMR) would just generate 300 megawatts of electricity or less but would eliminate “the possibility of land contamination and public exposure from severe accidents, and reducing the risk from terrorist threats,” wrote the paper’s lead author Jacopo Buongiorno, an associate professor of nuclear science and engineering at MIT...