Nuclear reactor factory possible in NM

LEA COUNTY, N.M. (KRQE) - New Mexico is a finalist for a new factory that would build portable nuclear reactors.

A company called Hyperion said that Lea County is one of two finalists thanks to a new uranium enrichment plant already nearing completion.

Officials for the county are enthusiastically trying to win the new facility.

America's new national uranium facility is nestled in the middle of southeastern New Mexico's sprawling oil and gas fields south of Hobbs.

After construction of phase one is completed next year, thousands of centrifuges inside the buildings will begin to concentrate or enrich uranium to fuel the country's nuclear reactors.

Usually reactors are large, but Hyperion wants to build and sell thousands of portable, tamper proof and safe nuclear reactors.

"There's no water integrated. There's no steam cycle integrate with our reactor. There's no control rods, no moving parts," John Deal with Hyperion Power Generation said.

The reactors would be used where electricity is hard to come by like remote military bases, island communities and third world countries.

Deal, some of his staff and the technology all came from Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Each reactor could power as many as 20,000 homes for more than five years. When they are spent, they are returned to the factory for refueling.

Hyperion said that it already has more than $1 billion worth of confirmed orders for the portable reactors.