Nuclear Energy
DOE, NASA demonstrate simple, robust fission reactor
November 27, 2012 11:18 am | News | Comments
A team of researchers have built a new type of nuclear reactor that is reliable enough to be used on space flights. The prototype, which has been used to generate 24 W of electricity, relies on heat pipe technology developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1983. The fluid-based cooling system requires no moving parts and the reactor itself is based on a simply closed-loop Stirling engine.
IAEA: Japan nuke cleanup may take more than 40 yrs
April 22, 2013 11:59 am | by Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press | News | Comments
A U.N. nuclear watchdog team said Japan may need longer than...
U.S. officials concerned about Japan's plan to reprocess nuclear fuel
April 22, 2013 11:56 am | News | Comments
Some U.S. government officials and experts have strong concerns about Japan's plan to...
Nuclear chief: U.S. plants safer after Japan crisis
March 11, 2013 9:10 am | by Matthew Daly, Associated Press | News | Comments
Two years after the nuclear crisis in Japan, the top U.S. regulator says American nuclear power...
Japan formally OKs new nuke safety requirements
June 19, 2013 7:48 am | by MARI YAMAGUCHI - Associated Press - Associated Press | News | CommentsJapan's nuclear watchdog formally approved a set of new safety requirements for atomic power plants Wednesday, paving the way for the reopening of facilities shut down since the Fukushima disaster. The new requirements approved by the Nuclear Regulation Authority will take effect on July 8, when operators will be able to apply for inspections.
Lockheed Martin, SNPAS of China sign agreement for nuclear plant safety systems work
June 12, 2013 3:03 pm | News | CommentsLockheed Martin and State Nuclear Power Automation System Engineering Co. (SNPAS) have signed an agreement to prototype, manufacture and qualify nuclear power plant reactor protection systems for China’s Generation III reactors. Lockheed Martin and SNPAS will develop a nuclear safety instrumentation and control platform based on field-programmable gate array technology.
Fukushima plant steps closer to fuel-rod removal
June 12, 2013 7:34 am | by MALCOLM FOSTER - Associated Press - Associated Press | News | CommentsMore than two years after Japan's nuclear disaster, debris remains strewn about the Fukushima plant. Scores of pipes and hoses cover the ground in some places, part of the company's makeshift system to pump water into the damaged reactors to keep them from overheating. Plant chief Takeshi Takahashi said Wednesday that workers have cleaned up much of the debris, but priorities are keeping the plant stable and working toward shutting it down
Japan nuke plant investigates leak from new tank
June 6, 2013 3:31 am | by MARI YAMAGUCHI - Associated Press - Associated Press | News | CommentsWorkers at a tsunami-crippled Japanese nuclear plant are scrambling to find the cause of a highly radioactive water leak from a brand-new storage tank amid concerns that the problem is hampering cleanup efforts. The Fukushima Dai-ichi plant suffered multiple meltdowns after the March 2011 tsunami knocked out power and is still on a fragile makeshift cooling system.
U.S. opens inspection into shuttered nuke plant
May 22, 2013 10:06 am | by EMERY P. DALESIO - AP Business Writer - Associated Press | News | CommentsFederal regulators are launching a special inspection of a nuclear power plant outside North Carolina's capital city that was forced to shut down last week. A Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman said Wednesday that two specialists will study what led up to the shutdown after a problem was uncovered using year-old data.
DOE: Breach at Tenn. nuclear plant 'unacceptable'
May 8, 2013 6:46 pm | by MATTHEW DALY - Associated Press - Associated Press | News | CommentsA breach in which an 82-year-old nun and two other protesters sneaked into a Tennessee nuclear weapons plant last year is "completely unacceptable" and an "important wake-up call" for the government, the head of an agency charged with safeguarding the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile said Wednesday.
Softening steel problem expands computer model applications
April 16, 2013 8:11 am | News | CommentsSandia National Laboratories researchers Lisa Deibler and Arthur Brown had a ready-made problem for their computer modeling work when they partnered with the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Kansas City Plant to improve stainless steel tubing that was too hard to meet nuclear weapon requirements.
Nuclear fusion-powered rocket could send humans to Mars
April 5, 2013 7:32 am | News | CommentsHuman travel to Mars has long been the unachievable dangling carrot for space programs. Now, astronauts could be a step closer to our nearest planetary neighbor through a unique manipulation of nuclear fusion, the same energy that powers the sun and stars. University of Washington researchers and scientists at a Redmond-based space-propulsion company are building components of a fusion-powered rocket aimed to clear many of the hurdles that block deep space travel, including long times in transit, exorbitant costs, and health risks.
Fukushima nuclear plant's cooling system fails
April 5, 2013 3:51 am | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsThe cooling system for a storage pool for fuel at one of the reactors at the tsunami-damaged nuclear plant in Japan failed on Friday for the second in a month, although there was no immediate danger from the breakdown. Nuclear Regulation Authority spokesman Takahiro Sakuma said an alarm went off in the afternoon about the problem at reactor No. 3. The cause was still under investigation.
U.S. may face inevitable nuclear power exit
March 1, 2013 10:13 am | News | CommentsIn a 2012 report, the Obama administration announced that it was "jumpstarting" the nuclear industry and injected significant funding into two new nuclear reactor projects in Georgia. But this investment—the first of its kind in three decades—belies an overall dismal U.S. nuclear power landscape, according to a recently published report. Where Japan and many European countries responded to the Fukushima disaster with public debate and significant policy shifts in the nuclear arena, the U.S. has scarcely broached the subject.
WHO: Small cancer risk after Fukushima accident
February 28, 2013 10:22 am | by MARIA CHENG - AP Medical Writer - Associated Press | News | CommentsPeople exposed to the highest doses of radiation during Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in 2011 may have a slightly higher risk of cancer but one so small it probably won't be detectable, the World Health Organization said in a report released Thursday.
Sanctions relief offered in Iranian nuclear talks
February 26, 2013 2:22 am | by LARA JAKES - AP National Security Writer - Associated Press | News | CommentsWorld powers, fearful of scuttling negotiations beginning this week with Iran, are offering the Islamic republic some small new sanctions relief in return for curbing its nuclear program. But officials warned Monday that it's unlikely that any compromise will be reached soon.
Sandia Labs revitalizes nuclear security infrastructure
February 22, 2013 8:54 am | News | CommentsSandia National Laboratories has completed $199 million in facilities construction and repair as part of an 11-year national effort to revitalize the physical infrastructure of nuclear security enterprise sites.
After test, intelligence community scrambles for insights into North Korea's nuclear progress
February 13, 2013 9:42 am | by Eric Talmadge, The Associated PressAssociated Press | News | CommentsNorth Korea's underground nuclear test shows it is making big strides toward becoming a true nuclear power. But the test may also reveal key clues the secretive nation might have hoped to hide about how close, or how far away, it is from fielding a nuclear weapon capable of striking the United States or its allies.
Chernobyl radiation unaffected after roof collapse
February 13, 2013 9:12 am | by MARIA DANILOVA - Associated Press - Associated Press | News | CommentsUkrainian officials on Wednesday sought to reassure the public that radiation levels were unaffected at Chernobyl and there was no safety threat after a partial roof collapse at the exploded nuclear power plant. A 600-square-meter (6,500-square-foot) section of the roof over the turbine hall at the fourth power block collapsed Tuesday, Chernobyl plant spokeswoman Maya Rudenko told The Associated Press.
New concept enables high plutonium breeding in light water cooled reactors
January 16, 2013 7:48 am | News | CommentsA research team at Waseda University in Japan have succeeded in developing the world's first conceptual nuclear reactor design of high plutonium breeding by light water cooling. Achieved using computational analysis, the design incorporates a new fuel assembly where fuel rods are closely packed for reducing the reactor coolant to fuel volume fraction for high breeding.
Graphene oxide soaks up radioactive waste
January 8, 2013 10:57 am | News | CommentsGraphene oxide has a remarkable ability to quickly remove radioactive material from contaminated water, researchers at Rice University and Lomonosov Moscow State University have found. A collaborative effort by the Rice laboratory of chemist James Tour and the Moscow laboratory of chemist Stepan Kalmykov determined that microscopic, atom-thick flakes of graphene oxide bind quickly to natural and human-made radionuclides and condense them into solids.
Toshiba shows off robot meant to help at nuke site
November 26, 2012 11:00 am | by Yuri Kageyama, AP Business Writer | News | CommentsEngineers at Toshiba Corp. have developed a robot it says can withstand high radiation to work in nuclear disasters. The four-legged robot can climb over debris and venture into radiated areas off-limits to humans while keeping in wireless communication despite high radiation. But it's not yet clear what exactly the robot is capable of doing if and when it gets the go-ahead to enter Japan's crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.
Official backs studying quake risks at nuke plants
November 9, 2012 4:51 pm | by Ray Henry, Associated Press | News | CommentsIn March, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission instructed power companies to re-evaluate the seismic and flooding hazards that their power plants face. Recent earthquakes in the eastern U.S., coupled with evidence of the results of the 2011 earthquake in Japan, have highlighted the importance of this effort in order to implement new design measures.
Mug handles could help hot plasma give controllable fusion energy
October 11, 2012 4:20 pm | News | CommentsResearchers around the world are working on an efficient, reliable way to contain the plasma used in fusion reactors, potentially bringing down the cost of this promising but technically elusive energy source. A new finding from the University of Washington could help contain and stabilize the plasma using as little as 1% of the energy required by current methods.
Paper explores new regimes in fast ignition
October 5, 2012 2:36 pm | News | CommentsNearly 20 year ago, a group of researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory proposed a hole boring process that would serve as the original scheme for fast ignition. Today, researchers are pushing this research ahead into new regimes.
Restricting nuclear power has little effect on the cost of climate policies
October 2, 2012 9:03 am | News | CommentsApplying a global energy-economy computer simulation that fully captures the competition between alternative power supply technologies, a team of scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the University of Dayton, Ohio, analyzed trade-offs between nuclear and climate policies. They found that incremental costs due to policy options restricting the use of nuclear power do not significantly increase the cost of even stringent greenhouse-gas emissions reductions.
Georgia Tech awarded $6 million to improve safety of nuclear reactors
October 1, 2012 10:39 am | News | CommentsThe Georgia Institute of Technology has won a $6 million federal grant to design improvements that strengthen the performance and safety of nuclear systems beyond today's capabilities. The three-year project will engage universities, industry partners, and international organizations to develop a novel concept of a light water reactor with inherent safety features.
100th shot for LLNL's 'gun in the desert'
September 27, 2012 3:50 am | News | CommentsLawrence Livermore National Laboratory's JASPER gas gun has fired its 100th shot. JASPER (the Joint Actinide Shock Physics Experimental Research) is a key scientific tool for the National Nuclear Security Administrations Stockpile Stewardship Program and its experiments have enabled scientists to understand important properties and behaviors of plutonium and other special nuclear materials without conducting underground nuclear tests.
Dry-run experiments verify key aspect of Sandia nuclear fusion concept
September 17, 2012 4:18 am | News | CommentsMagnetically imploded tubes called liners, intended to help produce controlled nuclear fusion at scientific "break-even" energies or better within the next few years, have functioned successfully in preliminary tests, according to a Sandia National Laboratories research paper accepted for publication by Physical Review Letters .
