Soon, floating n-plants that survive tsunami, quakes

In addition, at the end of a plant's lifetime, "decommissioning" could be accomplished by simply towing it away to a central facility.

That would rapidly restore the site to pristine conditions, Buongiorno added.

He sees a market for such plants in Asia which has a combination of high tsunami risks and a rapidly growing need for new power sources.

Buongiorno and his team presented their concept at the 'Small Modular Reactors Symposium' hosted by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers this week.