Water Heater For Your Future - Nuclear Reactor

Talking a hot shower in the morning is something that most of us take for granted. Having natural gas or propane to heat of the water that is delivered to warm the water is taken as a given. Some even have electricity to heat the water instead. Which ever the method, it looks like that may be changing in the future based on an article that I came across talking about the idea of having a nuclear reactor in your home which could heat the water. While many are dead set against Nuclear Power, we have to consider alternatives as existing fossil fuels are not going to last forever.

Much of the current conversation which is taking place is based on an article from Forbes talking about how a Nuclear Reactor is going to replace your water heater. While the title is an attention grabber, it is a little misleading. But it does get your attention. The idea of having one in your home is a scary thought, but these are not the ones we all think of when the topic comes up. The idea of a nuclear meltdown is something that I want to be as far aware from as possible.

Instead, a low-energy nuclear reactor (LENR) uses common, stable elements like nickel, carbon, and hydrogen to produce stable products like copper or nitrogen, along with heat and electricity.

They are talking about the Low Energy Nuclear Reactor (LENR) which is not using nuclear material or splitting atoms. The LENR is using things for power that we are all familiar with. Items such as nickel, carbon and hydrogen would be used in this small nuclear reactor. And it is quite possible that the first application will be for heating the water in your home. As the picture shows, heating water is currently a byproduct of cooling the nuclear reactors.

They are referencing electricity as another product, but that is more than likely not going to be the first supplication. Just like solar in the home, the first application was to heat your water and years later it moved to providing power to your home. Given the general purpose of a nuclear reactor to provide power, using it for heating water would not necessarily be the best use of the LENR process. But it will probably be the first in getting it into the home.

All of this is coming out of NASA and their Langley Research Center, so there is legitimate research going on to move in this direction. But that research is a long ways from completion before it can become a safe and reliable method of provide heat for your water. How far off that will be is an unknown as this is still the early stages of the process.

There is going to be a lot of resistance to the idea of providing a nuclear reactor to hones. Much of that is going to be due to the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster of 2011. Studies are still going on from that and will continue to be in people's minds for many years to come. Nuclear continues to be a situation of changing people's minds as to its safety.