The prototype, unveiled today, includes wire-controlled hands with tiny CCD cameras in the palms, capable of opening a refrigerator or operating a microwave. The robot is one meter tall, but can grow a third taller to work in high places. Image by YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images.

The 4-S can run for 30 years without any refueling, and doesn't need "control rods" to initiate the nuclear reaction like today's reactors. Instead, it just uses reservoirs of liquid lithium-6, an isotope that can absorb neutrons. When the reactor's fuel source is finally used up in a few decades, you can just call Toshiba and they'll come and take your reactor away in a truck. Just more proof that nuclear power is our future. Image by AP/Koji Sasahara.