Lifeboat Foundation

The reactor uses tiny balls of fuel and heats gas to generate electricity.

In what can be termed a significant achievement in the development of next-generation nuclear reactor technology, China claims to have successfully commissioned the world’s first Generation IV commercial nuclear reactor.

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University of Wisconsin–Madison engineers have used a spray coating technology to produce a new workhorse material that can withstand the harsh conditions inside a fusion reactor.

The advance, detailed in a paper published recently in the journal Physica Scripta, could enable more efficient compact fusion reactors that are easier to repair and maintain.

“The fusion community is urgently looking for new manufacturing approaches to economically produce large plasma-facing components in fusion reactors,” says Mykola Ialovega, a postdoctoral researcher in nuclear engineering and engineering physics at UW–Madison and lead author on the paper. “Our technology shows considerable improvements over current approaches. With this research, we are the first to demonstrate the benefits of using cold spray coating technology for fusion applications.”

Microsoft is looking to accelerate the regulatory approval process for setting up new nuclear power plants using AI.

Fusion-powered engines might drastically reduce travel time to the Moon and Mars.

California-based startup Helicity Space has successfully raised $5 million in a recent seed funding round.

Prominent space companies Airbus Ventures, TRE Ventures, Voyager Space Holdings, E2MC Space, Urania Ventures, and Gaingels have all invested in Helicity, according to a press release.

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“The only plausible way this can arise among different stars is if there is a consistent process operating during the formation of the heavy elements,” Mumpower said. “This is incredibly profound and is the first evidence of fission operating in the cosmos, confirming a theory we proposed several years ago.”

“As we’ve acquired more observations, the cosmos is saying, ‘hey, there’s a signature here, and it can only come from fission.’”

Neutron stars are created when massive stars reach the end of their fuel supplies necessary for intrinsic nuclear fusion processes, which means the energy that has been supporting them against the inward push of their own gravity ceases. As the outer layers of these dying stars are blown away, the stellar cores with masses between one and two times that of the sun collapse into a width of around 12 miles (20 kilometers).

Federal funding brings together experts to chart a viable path to realizing fusion energy as a clean power source.

The University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) has received a four-year, $10 million award from the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fusion Energy Science (FES) to lead a national research hub dedicated to advancing inertial fusion energy (IFE) science and technology.

The LLE-led inertial fusion energy hub—named IFE-COLoR, which stands for Inertial Fusion Energy-Consortium on LPI (laser-plasma interaction) Research—is one of only three such hubs in the nation selected by the DOE through competitive peer review. The award is part of a recent DOE initiative to stimulate IFE research and development by building on the momentum of scientists’ breakthrough in achieving ignition, or a fusion reaction that creates a net energy gain, last year.

Rolls-Royce displayed a conceptual model design of a nuclear Space Micro-Reactor at the UK Space Conference that may one day power Moon settlers.

Akademik Lomonosov — is the world’s only floating nuclear power plant, located at the Russian port of Pevek, Chukotka. A nuclear FPU is equipped with two KLT-…

NASA is currently investigating the feasibility of a “cryobot” probe that would drill through the ice crusts of moons such as Europa and Enceladus to directly detect liquid water and discover the possibility of life beyond Earth.

Apart from Mars, scientists are focusing their efforts on two other candidates: Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus.

Compelling evidence indicates the potential existence of subsurface oceans beneath thick layers of water ice on these icy moons.

Continue reading “NASA unveils nuclear-powered Cryobot mission concept to hunt alien life” »