With Galena tucked into the western part of Alaska, diesel oil that powers the electrical plant must be towed 350 miles by barge. Customers pay 30 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared with a national average of 8.71 cents, so they cook with propane, turn off lights and limit television time.

In need of relief, the community of 700 is turning to nuclear power. But Galena's plant would be far different from other U.S. commercial nuclear power plants — at 10 megawatts, it would be downright tiny.

City officials met recently with staff from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to discuss licensing a plant being developed by Toshiba Corp. that could be a test case for providing cheap power to rural communities. . . .

The smallest U.S. commercial nuclear power plants are the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant, 19 miles north of Omaha, Neb., and the Ginna Nuclear Plant, east of Rochester, N.Y. Both have electrical output of 470 megawatts, roughly 45 times larger than what Toshiba is contemplating, NRC spokesman Scott Burnell said. . . .

If you want a really detailed explanation of Toshiba's reactor, see the exceptional detailed description and analyis by Roland Piquepaille on his blog, Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends.

Imagine what such a small, relatively cheap source of power would do for developing, non-energy producing regions and countries around the world.