Nuclear
China has officially announced that it will launch a program to develop a thorium-fueled molten-salt nuclear reactor. If the reactor works as planned, China will lead the world in clean nuclear energy. Thorium has several advantages over uranium as a reactor fuel. Unlike a uranium reaction, a thorium fuel reaction does not produce weapons-usable plutonium. Thorium is much more abundant than uranium. The amount of thorium in the Earth’s crust is similar to the amount of lead – about four times as much as uranium. All of the mined thorium can be used as a nuclear fuel; whereas only about … Continue Reading
A research team from the US Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories has discovered a way to keep the fusion plasma from eroding divertor walls inside tokamak fusion machines. The researchers believe that this could enable them to achieve "scientific breakeven" (i.e. the amount of energy produced by the reactor is greater than the energy input) within two or three years – a "holy grail" of nuclear fusion development which has not yet been achieved.. The tokamak method is one of the most promising technologies for producing nuclear fusion. In a tokamak fusion machine, up to several million amps of … Continue Reading
Toshiba is in talks Terrapower, a company backed by Bill Gates, to jointly develop traveling wave nuclear reactors which are designed to use depleted uranium as fuel and could run for 60 years or more without refueling. (See http://www.greenbizcafe.com/?p=881 for a description of travelling wave reactors.) Toshiba owns the Westinghouse Electric Company whose technology is the basis for about half of the world’s commercial nuclear reactors. Toshiba is already developing its own mini nuclear reactors designed to operate continuously for 30 years and believes that 80 percent of the technologies used in the reactor under development can be applied to … Continue Reading
A traveling-wave reactor is a kind of nuclear reactor that can convert fertile material into nuclear fuel as it runs. Travelling wave reactors differ from other kinds of reactors in their ability to use little or no enriched uranium; instead they burn fuel made from depleted uranium, spent fuel removed from light-water reactors, natural uranium, thorium, or some combination of these materials. They are called "travelling wave" because fission does not take place in the entire reactor core but in a localized zone that advances through the core over time. Unlike other reactors, travelling wave reactors can be fueled at … Continue Reading
Scientists have been working on developing nuclear fusion power generation since the early 1950s. The main problem has always been that more energy has been required to produce the reaction than is produced. Scientists at the National Ignition Facility in California believe that their latest experiments will overcome the problem. Their technique uses lasers to concentrate isotopes of hydrogen. The pressures and densities achieved are close to what occurs in the sun. At these densities. mass becomes energy in the form of heat which can be used to drive a turbine. A demonstration reactor is expected to begin testing later … Continue Reading
A Canadian company, General Fusion, claims that it can build a relatively low-tech prototype nuclear fusion power plant within the next decade for less than a billion dollars. For decades, billions of dollars have been spent on research into ways of building a practical fusion reactor for electricity production. The major problem is creating a controllable fusion reaction that gives off more energy than is needed to trigger it and most scientists believe that achieving this will take several more decades and cost tens billions of dollars. General Fusion’s approach involves building a metal sphere about three metres in diameter … Continue Reading
The first generation of nuclear power plants were the experimental plants ot the 1950s and early 60s, which were also used to power nuclear submarines. The second generation were the commercial plants from the later 1960s to the 1990s. After the Three-mile Island and Chernobyl accidents, a third generation of nuclear plants was developed. These emphasise improved fuel technology, superior thermal efficiency, passive safety systems and standardized design for reduced maintenance and capital costs and longer life (60 years compared to 40 years for Generation 11 reactors). However, the technology is basically the same as in older reactors. Most of … Continue Reading
The Italian senate has voted 154-1 to overturn a 22-year-old prohibition on new nuclear power stations. Their decision is line with those taken recently in several other European countries as a means of reducing their carbon dioxide emissions. Sweden has lifed its 29-year ban on new nuclear plants, Spain has begun to reverse its 25-year old policy of phasing out nuclear power. The Netherlands abandoned its policy of phasing out nuclear power in 2005. Germany’s coalition government is continuing the policy, introduced in 2001, of phasing out nuclear power by 2020 but Chancellor Angela Merkel has promised to abandon the … Continue Reading
John Wellinghoff, the Chairman of the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has told a U.S. Energy Association forum.that no new nuclear or coal plants may ever be needed in the United States, "We may not need any, ever," Mr Wellinghoff said. Renewables like wind, solar and biomass will provide enough energy to meet baseload capacity and future energy demands. Nuclear and coal plants are too expensive, he added. "I think baseload capacity is going to become an anachronism," he said. "Baseload capacity really used to only mean in an economic dispatch, which you dispatch first, what would be the cheapest … Continue Reading
In 1989, Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons anounced that they had demonstrated the production of excess heat during electrolysis with palladium cathodes in heavy water. The phenomenon was dubbed "cold fusion" and their claims were quickly dismissed. However, many laboratories have since repeated their expeiments. Although most have failed, a few have reported success. A 2007 review determined that more than 10 groups world wide reported measurements of excess heat in a third of their experiments. Most of the research groups reported occasionally seeing 50-200% excess heat for periods lasting hours or days. If the production of excess heat is … Continue Reading
Videos
Renewables News- New Aussie Technology to Clean Polluted WaterScientists from Deakin University, together with French colleagues, say that they have manufactured a lightweight and reusable material that can absorb up to 33 times its weight in a wide range of spilt oils, chemical solvents and dyes, while repelling … Continue Reading → […]
- Aussie Researchers Make Efficient Solar Cells from Low-grade SiliconResearchers at the University of New South Wales have found a way to make very high efficiency solar cells out of cheap, low-grade silicon. It has been known for several decades that hydrogen atoms can be introduced into the atomic … Continue Reading → […]
- First Aussie “Hot Rocks” Power Plant Begins ProducingThe first power plant in Australia to produce electricity using an enhanced geothermal ("hot rocks") system has begun producing electricity in the far north-east of South Australia. The one-megawatt Habanero pilot plant near outback Innamincka is operated by Geodynamics. Geodynamics … Continue Reading → […]
- New Aussie Technology to Clean Polluted Water
