Posts Tagged Nuclear Power

Cheap and Safe Fission Reactor Designed by Teenager

Posted by Mila Luleva in Nuclear Power on May 18, 2013

A teenager designed a cheap and safe modular fission reactor at the impressive age of only nineteen. The reactor is an invention of Taylor Wilson, who worked on it for the past one year. He claims that his design has 30-year fuel life and very low usage cost, making it perfect for developing nations. Instead of [...]

Cleaning Up Fukushima May Take up to 40 Years, IAEA Panel Says

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Nuclear Power on April 25, 2013

It may take 40 more years to decommission the Fukushima power plant, said a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency recently. The damage, they say, is so complex, that it’s not possible to predict how long the cleanup may last, but in either scenario it won’t take less than 30 to 40 years. The [...]

Nuclear Waste Recycled by New Method Developed at OSU

Posted by Mila Luleva in Nuclear Power, Recycling on April 5, 2013

New method to reduce cost of nuclear waste disposal while irradiating medical supplies and food, was developed by a researcher at Oregon State University. Russell Goff, a masters student in the OSU Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics, estimated that the new technique could produce an annual revenue of as much as $10 million [...]

NASA Says Nuclear Power Saved Millions of Lives

Posted by Mila Luleva in Nuclear Power on April 3, 2013

Nuclear power has been found to have saved millions of lives by being an alternative source of energy to fossil fuels, according to a recent study by scientists at the NASA Goddard Institute. Quantifying health damage caused by burning of fossil fuels has always been a challenge to researchers. Nuclear power is often considered as [...]

Small Nuclear Reactors Could Reduce Carbon Emissions In The U.S.

Posted by Mila Luleva in Nuclear Power on March 28, 2013

Small nuclear reactors could lower carbon dioxide emissions in the US, as they are much cheaper, safer and easier to build and operate than their regular-sized ancestors. These small reactors have gained quite a support from the government and the corporate sector, as the US Department of Energy (DoE) launched their program to provide $452 million [...]

TransAtomic Molten-Salt Nuclear Reactor, Cheaper and Safer?

Posted by Benji Jerew in Nuclear Power on March 13, 2013

Concerns over nuclear energy are at an all-time high, but the TransAtomic molten-salt nuclear reactor design could be safer, as well as cheaper. In the 1960′s Oak Ridge National Laboratory [ORNL] tested molten-salt nuclear reactors, but the technology was never commercialized. TransAtomic is reopening the books on the technology. Since the nuclear disaster at Fukushima [...]

Some of Japan’s Nuclear Power Plants to be Back Online

Posted by Mila Luleva in Nuclear Power on March 1, 2013

Nuclear power plants in Japan are about to resume operation as new guidelines will be implemented later this year. According to Prime Minister Shizo Abe, Nuclear Regulation Authority, a new independent watchdog agency, will make sure that the tougher restrictions are implemented and the stable energy supply will not be a threat to public safety. [...]

Taylor Wilson Designs 15% More Efficient Nuclear Fission Reactor

Posted by Leigh Kim in Nuclear Power on March 1, 2013

At age 14, teenage nuclear scientist Taylor Wilson was the youngest person in history to design and build a working fusion reactor. Now 18, Wilson is planning to construct a modular nuclear power plant. The teenager, who graduates from high school in May, has big plans. After designing the nuclear fusion reactor, Taylor Wilson began [...]

China Wind Power Generation Bigger Than Nuclear

Posted by Leigh Kim in Nuclear Power, Wind Power on February 21, 2013

Nuclear power is no longer the top energy source in China. Wind power has overtaken nuclear power, and in 2012, wind farms generated 2% more electricity than nuclear power plants. This gap will only widen in the years to come. China was in the throes of growing its nuclear energy program when the Fukushima disaster [...]

How Many Billions France Would Lose in Case of a Nuclear Accident

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Nuclear Power on February 7, 2013

France’s own nuclear safety institute (IRSN) has published a study in which they assess the financial losses in case of a nuclear power plant accident. The paper says it would cost them about 430 bln euros, or $580 bln. That is 20 percent of their economic output. 100,000 people would be displaced in such circumstances [...]

Teenager Builds Homemade Nuclear Fusion Reactor

Posted by Mila Luleva in Experiments, Nuclear Power on February 5, 2013

If somebody told you that a teenager built a nuclear fusion reactor in his garage, it would take quite some convincing until you believe them. Well, it has happened. And it was not only this. Conrad Farnsworth of Newcastle, Wyom, built the reactor when he was only 16, but now, at the age of 18, [...]

South Korea Builds Nuclear Fusion Power Plant

Posted by Mila Luleva in Nuclear Power on January 23, 2013

South Korea has initiated the development of a design for a fusion power demonstration reactor. The provisionally named Korean Demonstration Fusion Power Plant, K-DEMO, will be build in collaboration with the US Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) in New Jersey. The project is planned to be fully completed by year 2030, with [...]

New Clean Nuclear Fusion Reactor Prototype Reduces Risks and Optimizes Energy Production

Posted by Mila Luleva in Nuclear Power on January 15, 2013

Professor José Luis González Díez from the Higher Technical School of Naval Engineering of the UPM has recently patented a prototype of a new clean fusion reactor. The invention has a laser ignition of 1000 MWe and uses hydrogen isotopes extracted from water as fuel. It is a well known fact that nuclear fission holds [...]

South Korea Planning to Increase Nuclear Capacity in Spite of Fears

Posted by Benji Jerew in Nuclear Power on January 8, 2013

Twenty two months ago, March 11, 2011, Japan was rocked by a massive earthquake and tsunami, leading to a cascade of failures at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Since then, Japan has only restarted two of a total of 50 nuclear reactors, in spite of growing public dissension, and is moving very cautiously regarding [...]

Japan’s Nuclear Program Still on Hold

Posted by Benji Jerew in Nuclear Power on December 28, 2012

On March 11, 2011, an earthquake in Northeastern Japan sparked a cascade of failures at the Fukishima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Three of the four reactors there suffered catastrophic meltdown and subsequent explosions, littering the landscape with radioactive fallout. Amid public outcry against nuclear power, all fifty of Japan’s nuclear plants were shut down. Eventually, [...]