BYU engineers design a molten-salt reactor that will never melt down and fits on a flatbed truck.
Developed at Brigham Young University, the micro-reactor can fit on a flatbed truck and produce enough energy to power 1,000 homes.
Because the mineral changesite-(Y) contains the isotope helium-3, it could one day fuel nuclear fusion reactors.
The new system uses molten salts instead of traditional fuel rods.
The world is rethinking nuclear power plants in the face of climate change. Your average plant produces 8,000 times more power than fossil fuels and is environmentally friendly. There’s one massive caveat, though, in the form of nuclear disasters, such as the 1986 Chernobyl incident and the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
Now, professor Matthew Memmott and colleagues from Bingham Young University (BYU) announced that they designed a new molten salt micro-reactor system that allows for safer nuclear energy production. As per a press release, it may also solve a number of other key issues related to nuclear energy production.
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For airliners, cargo ships, nuclear power plants and other critical technologies, strength and durability are essential. This is why many contain a remarkably strong and corrosion-resistant alloy called 17–4 precipitation hardening (PH) stainless steel. Now, for the first time ever, 17–4 PH steel can be consistently 3D-printed while retaining its favorable characteristics.
A team of researchers.
Scientists managed to start the same chemical process that powers the Sun on August 8, 2021, by putting more electricity into a tiny gold capsule than the entire US electric system could handle.
It is extremely astonishing how the power of 192 laser beams sparked the same thermonuclear fire that fuels the Sun for a nanosecond.
The Sun produces energy by hurling hydrogen atoms together, generating helium in the process. We are now closer than ever to being able to harness chemical reactions with enough force to power the Sun. This is possible because fusion power technology has advanced.
The accident at reactor four of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986 generated the largest release of radioactive material into the environment in human history. The impact of the acute exposure to high doses of radiation was severe for the environment and the human population. But more than three decades after the accident, Chernobyl has become one of the largest nature reserves in Europe. A diverse range of endangered species finds refuge there today, including bears, wolves, and lynxes.
Radiation can damage the genetic material of living organisms and generate undesirable mutations. However, one of the most interesting research topics in Chernobyl is trying to detect if some species are actually adapting to live with radiation. As with other pollutants, radiation could be a very strong selective factor, favoring organisms with mechanisms that increase their survival in areas contaminated with radioactive substances.
A new study by Zap Energy will assess the feasibility of siting a Zap fusion energy pilot plant at Washington’s only remaining coal power station.
Zap Energy will study the potential benefits of transitioning a natural gas power plant to a first-of-a-kind fusion pilot plant.
The joint research team of Professor Choi Hongsoo at Robotics Engineering, DGIST, a senior researcher Jinyoung Kim from DGIST-ETH Microrobotics Research Center, and the research team of Professor Sung Won Kim at Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital of the Catholic University, made a breakthrough for the improvement of the therapeutic efficacy and safety in stem cell-based treatments.
The team developed a magnetically powered human nuclear transfer stem cells (hNTSC)-based microrobot and a method of minimally invasive delivery of therapeutic agents into the brain via the intranasal pathway. And they also accomplished transplanting the developed stem cell-based microrobot into brain tissue through the intranasal pathway that bypasses the blood-brain barrier. The proposed method is superior in efficacy and safety compared to the conventional surgical method and is expected to bring new possibilities of treating various intractable neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and brain tumors, in the future.
The limitation of stem cell therapy is the difficulty in delivering an exact amount of stem cells to an accurate targeted location deep in the body where the treatment is with high risk. Another limitation is that both efficacy and safety of the treatment are low owing to a large amount of the therapeutic agent loss during delivery, while the cost of the treatment is high. In particular, when delivering stem cells into the brain through blood, the efficiency of cell delivery may decrease owing to the “blood-brain barrier,” which is a unique and specific component of the cerebrovascular network.
