• Day of using nuclear fusion to generate power from sea water nears

    New X-ray imaging capability developed at Sandia National Laboratory may help remove a major impediment in the worldwide, multi-decade, multibillion dollar effort to harness nuclear fusion to generate electrical power from sea water

  • Oil will run dry before substitutes roll out: study

    At the current pace of research and development, global oil will run out ninety years before replacement technologies; the authors of the new study say the findings are a warning that current renewable-fuel targets are not ambitious enough to prevent harm to society, economic development and natural ecosystems

  • Study to assess use of wave turbines along U.S. coastline

    A Scottish company will deploy its wave-power technology along the Oregon coast for a feasibility study of wave power; the state of Oregon has given the company a grant to measure and record the frequency, intensity and height of waves as they approach the Oregon shoreline

  • Oxford U researchers harness tidal energy

    U.K. waters are estimated to offer 10 percent of the global extractable tidal resource; an Oxford University spin-off has been set up to commercialize a tidal turbine concept developed by Oxford researchers

  • PG&E to improve pipelines safety

    Following the deadly natural gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno, California, on 9 September, PG&E said it would upgrade its California pipeline system to boost safety; a key element will be the installation of hundreds of automatic shutoff valves to replace the current manual valves; the company would also contribute $10 million to a nonprofit group to develop better diagnostic tools to determine the condition of underground pipelines

  • Goal of eliminating HEU reactors faces hurdles

    To lessen the risk of terrorists getting their hands on bomb-grade materials, the U.S. has led an effort to end the use of highly enriched uranium (HEU) in research reactors around the world; 72 HEU reactors have been modified or shuttered, but various government and academic facilities still operate around 130 HEU reactors — and these operators are reluctant to switch because of the complexities involved in changing to a new technology

  • Regulators: N.J. nuclear plant employee was an Islamic jihadist

    A 26-year old American, Sharif Mobley, now under arrest in Yemen for terrorist activities, became an Islamic militant while working for six years at several nuclear plants in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland; the man — who told fellow workers “We are brothers in the union, but if a holy war comes, look out” — had unescorted access to the interior of the plants; to have unescorted access to secure areas of a nuclear power plant, a person must undergo a background investigation, including a criminal record check and a psychological assessment — but the rules did not account for temporary workers who migrate from plant to plant, as Mobley did

  • Nuclear power making a come back

    If Germany, where most of the public is suspicious of nuclear power, plans to extend the life of its nuclear reactors, the world must have entered a new atomic age; indeed: around the world, more than 150 reactors with a total net capacity of almost 170,000 megawatts are planned and more than 340 more are proposed, according to the World Nuclear Association

  • India's ambitious thorium-based nuclear energy plans

    With 40 percent of its population not yet connected to the electricity grid and an economy growing by about 8 percent each year, India’s ambitious 3-stage energy security plan includes exploiting the country’s vast reserves of thorium; India could thus find itself a leading global exporter of an alternative nuclear technology that is more efficient than today’s uranium-plutonium fuel cycle

  • Livermore scientists to begin fusion quest before end of month

    Before the end of the month, scientists at Livermore’s National Ignition Facility will conduct an experiment backed by billions of dollars — and which promises to change the world’s energy supply; the scientists are preparing to meet an end-of-month deadline for the first set of experiments in the final stretch of a national effort to achieve the long-sought goal of fusion — a reaction in which more energy is released than put into it

  • MIT: No shortage of uranium for nuclear energy, more research needed

    New study challenges the assumption that the world is running out of uranium — and suggests that nuclear power using today’s reactor technology with a once-through fuel cycle can play a significant part in displacing the world’s carbon-emitting fossil-fuel plants, and thus help to reduce the potential for global climate change

  • South Africa shelves small nuclear plant scheme

    South Africa is shelving the development of a cutting-edge nuclear reactor — Pebble Bed Modular Reactor — after the program failed to find private investors or customers abroad; South Africa was one of the few countries in the world engaged in research on the technology, touted as much safer than earlier generations of nuclear plants

  • Governments begin to consider "peak oil" concept

    Oil is a fossil fuel, so by definition it is in limited supply; eventually we will reach a point at which oil production hits its maximum capability — or peak — and then begins to decline; the concept of “peak oil” means that because there are not endless supplies of oil, and because it is a finite resource, then at some point we will reach a tipping point at which it becomes impossible to continue increasing oil production; some even contend that we are already at that point

  • Germany to extend life of nuclear reactors

    Germany said on Monday that it would extend the life of the country’s 17 nuclear reactors by twelve years on average — the lives of older plants will be extended by eight years and those of newer ones by fourteen years; Chancellor Angela Merkel’s predecessor Gerhard Schroeder had decided to mothball the reactors by around 2020, but Merkel said the extension was necessary to allow more time for renewable energy to become cost effective

  • Small thorium reactors could lead to fossil-fuel-free world within five years

    An argument is made that nuclear reactors which use thorium as an accelerator (hence the technical name: Accelerator Driven Thorium Reactors, or ADTR) could lead to fossil-fuel-free world within five years; thorium is an abundant mineral deposit, with 3 to 5 times more thorium in the world than uranium; more importantly, virtually all of the thorium mined can be used as fuel compared to only 0.7 percent of the uranium recovered in its natural state, this means, in energy terms, that one ton of thorium mined is equivalent to 200 tons of uranium mined, which is equivalent to 3.5 million tons of mined coal; ADTRs also enjoy proliferation resistance advantages compared to other reactor systems