These nuclear reactors fit on a flatbed truck. How safe are they?

By Evan Halper

The Golden Chest Mine in the far northern reaches of Idaho seems an unlikely staging ground for clean power innovation. It is a throwback to an earlier era, the last hard rock gold mine in Idaho, where heavy machinery bores deep into the earth.

But mine owner Idaho Strategic Resources plans to make the operation a showcase for a new energy source: miniaturized nuclear power.

The company wants to power its mining machines with a nuclear reactor small enough to be packed in a shipping container and loaded on a truck. The project would put the company in the vanguard of microreactor development, which backers say could spur wider use of nuclear energy.

At least a half dozen companies are racing to develop tiny reactors, which bear no resemblance to the hulking power project