Lifeboat Foundation

The future of nuclear power might look very different than we thought, with a US-based company presenting plans for miniature, modular nuclear power plants that are so small, they can fit on the back of a truck.

NuScale Power, the company behind the power plants, says each modular device is completely self-contained, and capable of producing 50-megawatts of electricity — enough to power thousands of homes.

The power plants stand 29.7 metres tall, so aren’t really that ‘miniature’, except relative to an acutal nuclear power plant. They also haven’t been tested as yet, so we need to reserve our excitment for when we can actually see these things in action.

Continue reading “‘Miniature’, Modular Nuclear Power Plants Could Be Rolled Out in the US” »

Researchers have discovered that tantalum carbide and hafnium carbide materials can withstand scorching temperatures of nearly 4000 degrees Celsius.

Being able to withstand temperatures of nearly 4000°C could pave the way for both materials to be used in ever more extreme environments, such as in heat resistant shielding for the next generation of hypersonic space vehicles.

Tantalum carbide (TaC) and hafnium carbide (HfC) are refractory ceramics, meaning they are extraordinarily resistant to heat. Their ability to withstand extremely harsh environments means that refractory ceramics could be used in thermal protection systems on high-speed vehicles and as fuel cladding in the super-heated environments of nuclear reactors. However, there hasn’t been the technology available to test the melting point of TaC and HfC in the lab to determine how truly extreme an environment they could function in.

Continue reading “Imperial College of London makes world’s most heat resistant material at 4232 kelvin” »

Transatomic believes they’ve figured out a safe, scalable, cost-effective way to power the world with nuclear.

The Wendelstein 7-X reactor, which uses a complex design called a stellerator, is performing just like it was predicted to.

Last year, scientists started up a new type of massive nuclear fusion reactor for the first time, known as a stellarator.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Greifswald, Germany, injected a tiny amount of hydrogen and heated it until it became plasma, effectively mimicking conditions inside the sun.

Continue reading “Tests confirm Germany’s massive nuclear fusion machine really works” »

The report highlighted key programs and policies in the state including the state Legislature authorizing $1.25 million in bonds to design the refueling infrastructure for the Department of Transportation airport shuttle bus project.

A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that uses hydrogen and oxygen from the air to produce electricity, with water and heat as its by-products. Hydrogen can come from fossil fuels such as natural gas or propane or renewable fuels including gas from an anaerobic digester or landfill. Hydrogen can also be produced by water electrolysis, which can be powered by electricity from renewables such as solar or wind or from nuclear energy and the grid.

Other top states for hydrogen and fuel cells include California, Connecticut and New York.

Continue reading “Hawaii among top states in U.S. for hydrogen fuel cell projects” »

In Brief

• Scientist have developed an ingenious means of converting nuclear power plant waste (76,430 metric tons in the US alone) into sustainable diamond batteries.
• These long-lasting batteries could be a clean and safe way to power spacecraft, satellites, and even medical devices.

The field, now called low-energy nuclear reactions, may have legit results—or be stubborn junk science.

• By Stephen K. Ritter, Chemical & Engineering News on November 28, 2016

New technology has been developed that uses nuclear waste to generate electricity in a nuclear-powered battery. A team of physicists and chemists from the University of Bristol have grown a man-made diamond that, when placed in a radioactive field, is able to generate a small electrical current.