Nuclear power plants smaller than a garden shed and able to power 20,000 homes will be on sale within five years, say scientists at Los Alamos, the US government laboratory which developed the first atomic bomb.
If this isn't an April Fool's joke (and April is a long ways off), we are talking about absolutely world-changing potential here. Nuclear fission is the safest, and vastly most efficient power technology we currently possess. This puts it in the hands of everyone, in a non-threatening format.
It doesn't produce radioactive waste, making environmentalists (honest ones, anyway) happy, and it's extremely low cost and plentiful energy for everyone. No more rolling black-outs in California, no more summer strains on the grid. Actually, the grid power can be freed up to be shifted around to wherever it's needed, with enough of these puppies planted in strategic spots.
In the longer term, it reduces a large part of our dependence on foreign oil and other forms of energy, and is a potential solution to our current economic woes. (imagine the economic boom that would roar forth if energy suddenly became practically free) It also provides a source of electricity for charging fuel cells for electric/hybrid vehicles.
All this, of course, means that it won't happen. At this point I have become totally convinced that the powers-that-be do not have the happiness, success or freedom of Americans at heart, rather the contrary. A populace worried by a looming energy crisis is a populace that is easier to control.
Something will happen to make this legally impossible, mark my words.
I can even see us banning it in this country, but selling it to another country, basically guaranteeing them economic prosperity and a firm foundation of global prominence.
But, it's nice to think that American ingenuity did indeed solve most of the major problems the country is facing in one fell swoop, a fact that won't be changed whether or not it ever gets implemented.
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