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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – U.S. Energy Department officials Tuesday recommended building smaller nuclear reactors that avoid hazards from large reactors like Japan’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant that was destroyed by a March 11 tsunami.

Reactors only about one-third as big as the ones commonly used by power companies produce less electricity but also are safer, said John Kelly, a deputy assistant energy secretary.

They “require less cooling after shutdown,” Kelly said.

The Japanese government revealed in a report Tuesday that three reactors at the Fukushima plant experienced a full meltdown, which doubled estimates of dangerous radiation released into the air.

The meltdown was blamed partially on inadequate safety systems for cooling the radioactive core after the plant shut down during an earthquake that registered 9.0 on the Richter scale. The earthquake was followed by a tsunami that devastated the seaside plant and surrounding communities.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is seeking new ways to avoid similar disasters for the United States.

“The [Obama] Administration continues to view nuclear power as an important clean energy option,” Kelly said.

President Barack Obama has asked Congress to approve $67 million for the Energy Department to develop small reactors along with corporations such as Westinghouse Electric Co. and Babcock & Wilcox Co.

About 20 percent of the nation’s electricity is generated by nuclear plants.

“Small modular reactors, specifically reactors that have an electrical output of less than 300 megawatts, are a promising and innovative technology,” Kelly said.

Large reactors can produce four times as much as electricity, or about 1,200 megawatts.

Small modular reactors are about the same size as the generators for nuclear submarines. Their smaller size avoids the need for elaborate safety systems, Kelly said.

The small modular reactors can get by with fewer coolant pumps and pipes because their nuclear core does not get as hot as large reactors, he said.

“Lastly, most [small moduler reactors] can be sited underground, which should improve their security profile and may enhance seismic safety,” he said.

Government approval for the smaller reactors could come from a bill, S.512, the Senate is considering.

The bill would order the Energy Department to prepare small reactor designs that could begin operating by 2021.

It was introduced by the Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s chairman, Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.). Conventional two-reactor nuclear plants can cost more than $14 billion, Bingaman said.

Small reactors “hold the promise of reducing the cost of nuclear-plant construction,” he said.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said small reactors could boost the nuclear energy industry.

“Not every utility or operating site needs, or even can handle, a thousand-plus megawatts of nuclear capacity,” said Murkowski, who co-sponsored S.512.

However, a spokesman for the Union of Concerned Scientists said small modular reactors could spread radiation risks over a wider area.

“For small modular reactors, we might have as many as 12 modules on one site,” said Edwin Lyman, a senior scientist for the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Sabotage or an accident that penetrates one module could cause damage that spreads to other modules, thereby releasing large amounts of radiation, he said.

“We’ll have to substantially increase the safety of the current generation” of nuclear reactors before small modular reactors can be considered safe, Lyman said.

The next step in Congress deciding how to proceed with nuclear energy could come next month, when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is scheduled to announce results of its most recent review of reactor safety.

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