VOL. 2 | ISSUE No. 17-18 | 2021
Compiled by Scientific Information Resource Division Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai Write to us for feedback E-mail: [email protected]
(For internal circulation only) 19th APRIL- 02nd, MAY, 2021 RRCAT, Tata Motors to develop refrigeration tech for vehicles
18 April, 2021 | by Laveena Francis | TNN
On Saturday, RRCAT and Tata Motors Limited (TML) signed an incubation agreement to jointly develop Shivay for vehicular applications.
“This is a significant step towards percolation of department of atomic energy (DAE) technologies in the country under the ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat’ mission,” RRCAT director Debashis Das told TOI.
He was confident that Shivay will find wider use in cold-chain transportation through this initiative of TML.
The incubation agreement was signed by Das and vice-president and head engineering commercial vehicles TML, Aniruddha Kulkarni during a virtual meeting.
INDORE: Sheetal Vahak Yantra (Shivay) – a new technology of liquid At present the diesel-powered and chlorofluorocarbons based nitrogenbased refrigerated system developed by Raja Ramanna refrigerated trucks (reefers) are dominantly used in cold chain for Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT) will now be incubated transportation. with Tata Motors Limited at incubation centre to transport fruits, These reefers are relatively expensive and not quite eco-friendly. vegetables, pharmaceuticals and other similar products. Moreover, as the source of Shivay will be incubated in three variants — small commercial refrigeration used in vehicle, intermediate light commercial vehicle and medium and Shivay is a by-product of heavy commercial vehicle. oxygen generation plants. Incubation centre at RRCAT has been set up recently at Indore as Large excess capacity part of the initiative by DAE under “Atma Nirbhar Bharat”. exists in the country for generation of liquid On the other hand, Kulkarni said, “Incubation for Shivay would nitrogen. catalyse development of future technologies in vehicular level refrigeration system and cold chain transportation which will be deployed across multiple platforms of Tata Motors Commercial Vehicle.”
Source website links: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/indore/madhya-pradesh-rrcat-tata-motors-to-develop-refrigeration-tech-for- vehicles/articleshow/82127897.cms?from=mdr
S Korea to invest $38M in illegal drone response tech by 2025
19 April, 2021 | by The Shillong Times
South Korea said on Sunday it will spend 42 billion won ($37.6 The ministry said current response systems against illegal drones million) by 2025 to develop a response system against illegal drones are ground-based technologies and that the consortium will develop amid growing security threats from the fast-developing technology. an aerial system by developing patrol drones that can detect illegal counterparts and neutralise them by either physical means, such as A consortium of 23 companies and research institutes — which firing a net, or by hijacking its control system, reports Yonhap news includes the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, the Korea agency. Aerospace Research Institute and aerospace and defence firm LIG Nex1 Co. — will develop a response system that spots and The ministry said it will work with the Ministry of Trade, Industry neutralises the illegal unmanned aircraft, according to the Ministry and Energy and the National Police Agency for the project, with 6.6 of Science and ICT. billion won set aside for this year.
The ministry said such drones pose security threats to major public Fears about potential unmanned attacks have lingered for years in infrastructure and facilities, such as airports and nuclear power South Korea since South Korean military authorities discovered plants, given recent advances in technologies, such as artificial crashed North Korean drones in border areas, including the front- intelligence and swarm robotics. line island of Baengnyeong in 2014. (IANS)
Source website links: https://theshillongtimes.com/2021/04/19/s-korea-to-invest-38m-in-illegal-drone-response-tech-by-2025/
Given the supply constraints of battery materials, hydrogen could play a key role in energy transition
19 April, 2021 | by Anumita Roychowdhury, Snigdha Das, Moushumi Mohanty, Shubham Srivastava
it was used as a fuel in Apollo I that landed on the moon in July 1969. Yet, the availability of cheap fossil fuel meant hydrogen energy never really picked up. The fact that hydrogen does not occur naturally as a gas on the Earth — it is always combined with other elements such as water (H2O) — added to the problem. This is because an external energy source is required to isolate hydrogen. At present coal or fossil fuels is used to isolate hydrogen almost every- where. This is called grey hydrogen and it is as polluting as fossil fuel. Countries are now waking up to the idea of replacing fossil fuels with renewable sources to isolate green hydrogen. This shift is happening because of two reasons. Firstly, there are clear Illustrations by RitikaBohra signs that fossil fuels can no longer be used to meet the world’s Hydrogen is the ultimate green fuel. It is the most abundant element energy needs. in the universe. It provides three times more energy than fossil fuels “Given the limited supply of rare metals to make EV batteries, and releases pure water as the only by product. It is also one of the hydrogen will soon play an indispensable role in delivering zero leading options for storing energy from renewables and looks emission transport,” wrote Michael Zhan and Michael Bunker of promising to be the lowest-cost option for storing electricity over KPMG in an article on March 21.Secondly, “natural abundance of days, weeks or even months. The element is also neither new nor hydrogen means it has the potential to level competition in the novel. The first experiments took place way back in the 1800s and automotive sector, whereas the supply of raw materials for EV hydrogen production to 25GW by 2026.Several countries have also batteries is controlled by a few large players”. The International published national hydrogen strategies, including Australia, Chile, Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) suggests the share of hydrogen Germany, EU, Japan, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain and South Korea. in the 2050s energy mix should reach to 12 per cent from almost EU in June 2020 laid out plans to install 40 gigawatts of renewable zero right now. It says 66 per cent of the hydrogen to be used in hydrogen electrolysers and produce as much as 10 million tonnes 2050 needs to be green — produced from water as compared to of renewable hydrogen by 2030.Saudi Arabia is setting up a $5 natural gas. Today, around 120 tonnes of hydrogen are produced billion solar and wind energy plant to produce green hydrogen. annually and less than one per cent is green hydrogen, says IRENA’s When the plant is completed in the planned megacity of Neom in World Energy Transitions Outlook report. To meet the 2050 levels, 2025, it will be one of largest producers of green hydrogen in the manufacturing and deployment of electrolysers, which are used to world. isolate the element, need to be scaled up at an unprecedented rate Late to the party — from the current capacity of 0.3 GW to almost 5,000 GW by 2050.The other challenge is that the current cost of green hydrogen India reiterated its commitment to green hydrogen this February, production is $5-6/kg, which is almost thrice the cost of grey when the Union finance minister announced the plan to launch the hydrogen, says Renjith G, research associate at Delhi-based research Hydrogen Energy Mission in her budget speech. It has earmarked Rs institute TERI. The investments, though, are underway. In December 1,500 crore for the mission and the Indian Renewable Energy 2020, a consortium of seven biggest global green hydrogen project Development Agency though details are awaited. Like the rest of the developers launched the Green Hydrogen Catapult Initiative to world, the country has been dabbling with grey hydrogen for a while increase the production of green hydrogen 50-fold in the next six now. Its experience with green hydrogen, though, is limited. The years. The initiative aims to cut the cost of green hydrogen to less focus so far has been in transportation and power generation than $2/kg, which is a potential tipping point that will make it sectors, says DMR Panda, general manager, hydrogen and renewable competitive in multiple sectors including steel and fertiliser, power energy, NTPC, which is part of the team giving shape to green generation and shipping. The project will ramp up the annual green hydrogen economy in the country. The public sector undertaking is working on pilot hydrogen buses between Delhi and Jaipur and in two inferior qualities that cannot store highly pressurised hydrogen Leh. It is also planning to set up a 100 MW floating solar plant at its and have safety concerns. “The other two types are entirely made of power plant in Ramagundam, Telangana to produce green hydrogen. composite alloys and have to be imported,” says Panda. The public The country is also exploring the possibility of adding hydrogen to sector undertaking is experimenting with metal hydrides for existing piped natural gas connections to reduce the carbon compressing hydrogen. “All I can say right now is that the hydrides footprint. The challenge, though, would be to scale up the pilot require 10 times less energy to compress hydrogen than any current projects. “There are only a handful of Indian companies that technology,” says Shaswattam. The company is also trying to tap produce electrolysers on a small scale. So, we are currently seawater for producing hydrogen. “We have set up a 0.12 million- importing electrolysers making the cost prohibitive,” says Panda. litres capacity flue gas-based desalination plant at its Simhadri plant Shaswattam, general manager of NTPC Energy Technology Research in Andhra Pradesh. Another desalination plant of the same capacity Alliance, says research is underway to improve the efficiency of is running at NTPC’s Vallur plant in Tamil Nadu, which is based on electrolysers. “Most of the present electrolysers are alkaline. We are solar thermal energy,” says Shaswattam. Though the country is late working with the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre to develop solid in the green hydrogen race, it is taking the right steps. “The country oxide steam electrolysers. This is the future and is 25 per cent more should focus on pilot projects that will demonstrate where the efficient than existing electrolysers,” he says. India has usage of hydrogen makes sense in the domestic context,” says technological disadvantages even when it comes to compressing Pawan Mulukutla, director, electric mobility-sustainable cities at and storing hydrogen for automobiles. The element has to be research organisation World Resources Institute-India. This article compressed and stored at high pressures as it is very light and was first published in the 1-15 April, 2021 print edition of Down To escapes easily. There are four types of hydrogen storage cylinders Earth. for automobiles in the market. The country currently manufactures Source website links: https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/energy/from-petro-to-electro-why-hydrogen-could-be-the-fuel-of-the-future- 76453 India closer to building world's biggest nuclear plant: EDF
23 April, 2021| by PTI
households. Construction is expected to take 15 years, but the site should be able to start generating electricity before its completion. Finalisation of the contract was expected "in the coming months", an EDF statement said. EDF, which is in exclusive talks with Indian officials, would not build the power plant itself, but would provide the nuclear reactors in a deal that includes US partner GE Steam Power. The state-owned PSU Nuclear controls the national nuclear energy sector, and the EDF offer was submitted to the country's nuclear operator NPCIL. Although no financial details have been released, the contract is estimated to be worth in the tens of billions of euros (dollars). It faced opposition however from local inhabitants since the idea was first floated around 20 years ago, and was delayed after the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan. The far-right Shiv Sena party, which is powerful in Maharashtra state French energy group EDF took Friday a key step towards helping to where Jaitapur is located, campaigned against the plan, though it build the world's biggest nuclear power plant in India, a project has become less vocal recently. EDF estimates the project will create blocked for years by nuclear events and local opposition. The around 25,000 local jobs during the construction phase, and around company said it had filed a binding offer to supply engineering 2,700 permanent jobs. Earthquake risks and the potential impact on studies and equipment to build six, third-generation EPR reactors in local shing have been cited as key issues. But Xavier Ursat, head of Jaitapur, western India. Once finished, the facility would provide 10 EDF's nuclear division, told AFP that the company estimates that the gigawatts (GW) of electricity, roughly enough for 70 million site's "geological conditions are excellent and fully comparable to traditional ally -- supplies nuclear fuel and has built reactors in the what we nd in a country such as France." India already has several country, for example. At present, there are 22 functioning nuclear agreements for exchange of nuclear technologies and expertise with reactors in India, most of them pressurized heavy water reactors, countries like US, France, Russia and Japan. Russia -- India's providing about three percent of the country's power.
Source website links: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/energy/power/ntpc-announces-contest-for-ideas-on-fly-ash- utilization/articleshow/82212971.cms
Dignitaries Highlight the Need to Firm up Future Technologies to Tackle
Upcoming Challenges
24 April, 2021| by India Education Diary Bureau
New Delhi: Prof Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science of country and to help common men reap the benefits of science, & Technology (DST), stressed that as the future throws challenges at technology and innovation, at the 35th foundation day of INAE.“ greater speed, the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) Some of the major challenges of the future are related to sustainable should play the role of think tank for the development and progress development, climate, energy, role of intelligent machines, internet of things, industry 4.0 and society 5.0 and man’s future competition construction of nuclear reactors, safe operation of nuclear reactors, with machines for which we have to look for future technologies,” spent fuel reprocessing, production of heavy water and specialty Professor Sharma said at the online celebration of the foundation materials, instrumentation and control of nuclear power plants day which also marked the inauguration of India’s Azadi Ka Amrit among many others. “Indian industries can make products that are Mahotsav by the institution on April 20, 2021. He added that as good as any other country in the world. Indian scientists and engineering is a tool to discover new science and a whole lot of engineers have the capability to do anything”, he said. Dr. G science and technology could be built on knowledge, could be inter- Satheesh Reddy, Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and disciplinary and problem-solving is the key for future. “The future Chairman, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is all about conversion of technologies. Leadership in engineering talked about the contribution of DRDO in the journey of self- must acquire a holistic vision. INAE should play the role of think reliance in defence system including their achievements in missiles, tank for the development and progress of the country,” DST fighter aircrafts, tanks and combat vehicles, radars and sonars, Secretary pointed out. Expressing concern at the limited number of electronic warfare systems, torpedoes, mines and decoys, artillery women in engineering and science, he hoped that the upcoming guns, arms and ammunition, cyber systems, LIC handling products, Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP) would encourage space systems, soldier support systems and communication more women in this field as it strongly advocates for diversity, systems. “We have got to develop any kind of technology in India inclusion and equity. “Science has to be democratised, including and we do not need to import in majority areas,” he stressed. Shri S engineering. INAE should think about how to encourage women to Somanath, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) talked take up engineering,” he emphasised. Several dignitaries highlighted about people-centric and application-driven space technologies that how the technological achievements of their organizations have include human spaceflight, space commerce, space applications, made “Atmanirbhar Bharat” a reality. Shri KN Vyas, Secretary, capacity building, space infrastructure and space transportation. Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) & Chairman, Atomic Energy “Our focus is on development of people-centric inventions and Commission (AEC); highlighted DAE’s work on exploration of atomic application-driven technology for the benefits of common man and minerals, mining and concentration of atomic minerals, design and country,” he pointed out. Dr. Shekhar C Mande, Secretary, Department of Scientific & Industrial Research (DSIR) and Director- science on one side and benefit to the society on other,” said Dr General, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) spoke Mande. Prof. Indranil Manna, President, INAE briefed about the about CSIR’s efforts and invention in the fight against pandemic recent activities being conducted at INAE and the importance of COVID-19. “Adoption of sound S&T policies is the reason we are engineers in the society. INAE was founded on April 20, 1987 to here today. Our primary aim is to generate next-generation human promote excellence in Engineering and technology in the country. resources. We have contributed significantly in social and industrial The Academy is an autonomous institution supported partly innovations for the benefit of society and country. Our S&T is closely through grant-in-aid by DST. connected with Indian industry and our motto is fundamental
Source website links: https://indiaeducationdiary.in/dignitaries-highlight-the-need-to-firm-up-future-technologies-to-tackle-upcoming- challenges/
France made final proposal to India to build 6 nuclear reactors in Maharashtra, seven crore houses to be illuminated
24 April, 2021 | by CHANDAN SEN
.French energy company EDF said on Friday that it has given a final EDF has submitted its final proposal to build six EPR reactors in proposal to the Atomic Energy Corporation of India (NPCIL) to build Maharashtra. Negotiations between NPCIL and EDF progressed after six nuclear reactors in Jaitapur, Maharashtra. The EDF has said that the two sides signed an ‘industrial forward path’ for the a forum is being set up to discuss the framework agreement. construction of six nuclear power reactors with a total capacity of Describing the development of the project as a major step, French 9900 MW at Jaitapur in Ratnagiri district. Each nuclear reactor will Ambassador Emmanuelle Lenin said that French energy company be of 1650 MW there. French Ambassador Emmanuel Lenin said it would be the largest nuclear power project in the world. He said, the with the techno-commercial offering, are currently underway. Apart world’s most powerful plant will power 70 million homes, stop from this, discussions are continuing between the two sides on ways emission of 80 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year and to increase localization through manufacturing in India. Jean create thousands of jobs locally. This milestone in the Jaitapur Bernard Levy, President and Chief Executive Officer of EDF Group, nuclear power plant project furthers the vision of President said, “This important milestone has been achieved due to the trust Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. France and built with our Indian partner and the cooperation and continued India together will secure access to safe, reliable, competitive and efforts of the teams of EDF and NPCIL.” India and France are moving sustainable energy. Negotiations on the funding of the project, along fast towards increasing nuclear partnership.
Source website links: https://news.newstree.co.in/news/france-made-final-proposal-to-india-to-build-6-nuclear-reactors-in-maharashtra- seven-crore-houses-to-be-illuminated-150257/
Partnership with India to achieve climate, energy goals core pillar of bilateral cooperation: Biden
24 April, 2021 | by PTI
Biden made the comments a day after India and the United States announced a "US-India Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030 Partnership" to create stronger bilateral cooperation on actions in the current decade to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.
New Delhi: US President Joe Biden on Friday said that he is looking chaired by Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, a joint forward to working with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a statement said. Addressing the final session of the virtual climate new partnership to achieve climate and energy goals, making this a summit on Friday, Biden said this is about the opportunity that core pillar of bilateral cooperation. Biden made the comments a day addressing climate change provides. It's an opportunity to create after India and the United States announced a "US-India Climate and millions of good-paying jobs around the world and innovate -- in Clean Energy Agenda 2030 Partnership" to create stronger bilateral innovative sectors -- jobs that bring greater quality of life, greater cooperation on actions in the current decade to meet the goals of dignity to the people performing those jobs in every nation, he said. the Paris Agreement. "I'm looking forward to working with India's "For a line-worker, electricians, utility workers -- laying transmission Prime Minister Modi in a new partnership to achieve our climate and lines, connecting battery storage, and making our electric grid more energy goals, making this a core pillar of our bilateral cooperation," modern. For automotive workers -- building electric cars, trucks, and Biden said in his address to the virtual summit on climate change. buses. Skilled workers installing and charging stations to This includes deploying 450 gigawatts of renewable power to meet accommodate them throughout our countries," he added. America the ambitious 2030 target for climate action and clean energy. The is once again stepping into the leadership role, Biden said. "We will partnership will proceed along two main tracks -- the Strategic Clean be joining and a partner -- for the nations and efforts to decarbonise Energy Partnership, co-chaired by Secretary of Energy Granholm, critical sectors across the board, including industrial sector, where and the Climate Action and Finance Mobilisation Dialogue, co- we'll join with Sweden and India, and in the Leadership Group for Industry Transition; the power sector, where we'll work alongside of yesterday for the world to collaborate and advanced carbon dioxide the United Kingdom to spread progress and speed it up toward a removal. And the United States looks forward to working with carbon-free power system both here and around the world; and in Russia and other countries in that endeavour. It has a great promise. the agricultural sector, where we'll launch the Agriculture This is a moment for all of us to build better economies for our Innovation Mission for Climate with the United Arab Emirates and children, our grandchildren, and all of us to thrive not just now, but other partners," he said. "I'm very heartened by President Putin's call beyond for the next generations," Biden said.
Source website links: https://energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/renewable/partnership-with-india-to-achieve-climate-energy-goals- core-pillar-of-bilateral-cooperation-biden/82226009
Linear accelerator machine for cancer patients in Ambala soon
20 April, 2021 | by Nitish Sharma
An inside view of the bunker constructed for the linear accelerator machine at the Tertiary Care Cancer Centre at the Civil Hospital n Ambala Cantonment. Tribune photo
A linear accelerator machine, which will be used to treat cancer has reached India recently, the process for customs clearance is on. patients, is all set to reach the Tertiary Care Cancer Centre, which is The machine is being brought at a cost of over Rs 18 crore. Dr Vikas being established on the premises of Civil Hospital, Ambala Gupta, a cancer specialist at the Civil Hospital, Ambala Cantonment, Cantonment. The machine which has been imported from the UK said, “The linear accelerator machine is used to provide radiotherapy to cancer patients and it will prove beneficial for the is expected to reach Ambala by the end of this month and we are in patents of this region. Currently, patients go to Chandigarh for touch with the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board as it requires the treatment. The machine has reached India and the process for permission of the board on various steps and its commissioning. customs clearance is on. It is a very high-end machine and it will be The accuracy of the machine is very high. Fire NOC for the building the first such machine at a government hospital in Haryana.” Abhay has also been received today.” An official said, “Patients not only Kumar, project manager for the Tertiary Care Cancer Center, said, from Haryana but from UP, Himachal, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand “The building for the cancer centre is ready. A specially designed are expected to reach Ambala for treatment and there will be bunker has been constructed for the linear accelerator machine as requirement for residential facilities too in the coming years as the per the guidelines from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board. The patients and their attendants need to stay for several days for thickness of the walls of the bunker is from 1.5 metre to 2.2 metre. radiotherapy treatment. State Home and Health Minister Anil Vij, A CT stimulator machine has been already installed. Dr. Vinay Goel, who had laid the foundation stone of the Tertiary Care Cancer nodal officer for construction of Tertiary Care Cancer Centre, said, Centre in July 2018, said, “All latest facilities are being brought here “There are different modalities to treat cancer, including for the treatment of cancer patients. All efforts are being made to chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy. The linear accelerator make the centre functional soon.” machine will provide radiotherapy to cancer patients. The machine
Source website links: https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/haryana/linear-accelerator-machine-for-cancer-patients-in-ambala-soon-241795
IGCAR scientists develop 'breakthrough' technology for paint, water and other industries
29 April, 2021 | by C. Shiva kumar
The technology could be used in identifying the quality of groundwater as well as seawater, thus benefiting water managers and environmentalists also, said Prabhakar Rao
CHENNAI: Scientists at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic hand when it comes to quality of products especially in paint, water Research (IGCAR) in Kalpakkam have come out with a and other industries," says Rao. He says the technology could be 'breakthrough' technology which could help the water-based used in identifying the quality of groundwater as well as seawater, solutions industry in the country to cut down on costs and enhance thus benefiting water managers and environmentalists also. He says quality by real time monitoring of electrical conductivity of aqueous that the performance of this device has been validated with many solutions in industrial plants and field applications, said Prabhakar applications in IGCAR and found to be robust even in demanding Rao, head of the Security, Innovation and Sensor division in IGCAR. environments. This technology was transferred by IGCAR to Serve Rao told The New Indian Express that this is the first time they have XL Enterprises, Bengaluru on April 29. In an online meeting with the developed such a technology which is digital in nature. "Earlier, the firm arranged by Incubation Centre-IGCAR, Dr. Arun Kumar monitoring of electronic conductivity was being done in an analog Bhaduri, Director, IGCAR, handed over the non-exclusive technology format and later converted into a digital one," he said. He said the license agreement and the technology documents to Vikram Padaki, pulsating sensor based conductivity meter was developed at the Proprietor of Serve XL Enterprises. Electronics and Instrumentation Group in IGCAR. Under this This technology is being developed after the incubation centre- technology, the water based solution plants or industries could IGCAR was set up recently by the Department of Atomic Energy to measure electrical conductivity, which is highly accurate when meet the “Atma Nirbhar Bharat” mission of the Government of India. compared to the analog ones and would give the industries an upper For more information on spin-off technologies from IGCAR available for transfer/incubation, the Incubation Centre can be contacted through email at “[email protected]”.
Source website links: https://www.newindianexpress.com/business/2021/apr/29/igcar-scientists-develop-breakthrough-technology-for- paint-water-and-other-industries-2296394.html
KSB Limited- The first to develop Indigenous pumps for NPCIL's 700 MW power plant
30 April, 2021 | by United News of India (UNI)
MUMBAI, India, April 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- KSB Ltd, a leader in imported components from KSB Germany. NPCIL is poised for major pump manufacturing, delivered the indigenously developed Main growth in installed capacity of NPPs with launch of fleet mode 700 Boiler Feed Water Pump-BFP (RHD-350) & Booster Pump-BP (YNK MWe PHWRs, in addition to existing PHWR plants of 220 MWe, 540 350-620) for Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL). It MWe and 700 MWe capacity. The need to develop indigenous pumps marked a milestone for KSB Ltd. in developing the pump for 700 for 700 MWe power plants was always on priority for NPCIL & the MW Indian Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) & adding a development proposal was initiated in year 2015 for the same. new product to its product line which already boast of a range of Commenting on this achievement, Mr. Rajeev Jain, Regional pumps for nuclear application, including Primary Pressurising Executive Officer, KSB West Asia and Managing Director KSB Pump, Shutdown Cooling Pump, Aux. Boiler Feed Pump etc. It has Limited, India said, "KSB's core strength in design, supported with established KSB Ltd. as undisputed leader in nuclear application modern manufacturing capability has made it possible to develop a pumps. On 13th Mar 2021, these pumps moved out from KSB, key product for India's premier power generation organisation Shirwal, a state of art new facility for pump assembly & testing. KSB NPCIL. KSB's strong leadership qualities, decision making, technical Ltd. turned out to be the first company in India to manufacture fully expertise & great team work were witnessed during the various indigenously developed BFP & BP for 700 MW Nuclear Power Plant phases of the development. Riding high on this success of BFP & BP, (NPP). KSB Ltd. has always been a renowned Supplier for critical KSB Ltd is now set to replicate this success in indigenizing the application pumps and has been associated with NPCIL for supply Primary Coolant Pumps (PCP), for the first time for NPCIL, further of pumps for various applications, including indigenous Boiler Feed enhancing its commitment to the nation's 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' water Pumps for 220 MW at Kaiga nuclear power plants. KSB has program.' Acknowledging the significant achievement by M/s. KSB been supplying some more critical Pumps to NPCIL with certain Limited, India, Shri S.K. Sharma, CMD, NPCIL said, "It is a tribute to the joint efforts of NPCIL and Indian industry towards the developing and ensuring timely deliveries of equipment for the realisation of our cherished goal of 'Atmanirbhar Bharat'. He added planned nuclear power expansion programme." that Indian Industry has a vital role to play in coming years in
Source website links: http://www.uniindia.com/ksb-limited-the-first-to-develop-indigenous-pumps-for-npcil-s-700-mw-power-plant/business- economy/news/2383472.html
Physicists have created a new and extremely rare kind of uranium
16 April, 2021 | by Leah Crane
found in more than 99 per cent of the world’s naturally occurring uranium, which is known as uranium-238.
Isotopes of an element always have the same number of protons – in uranium’s case, 92 – but differing numbers of neutrons. Isotopes are labelled by the total number of protons and neutrons that their nuclei contain, and the new isotope has the lowest number of those particles ever at 214, making it uranium-214.
Zhiyuan Zhang at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and his colleagues produced the new isotope through a time-consuming process involving blasting samples of tungsten with powerful beams of argon and calcium until the atoms fused together. They then picked the uranium-214 atoms out of the sample using a magnetic device called a separator.
“The production of these atoms is very difficult, because not every DR MITSUO OHTSUKI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY collision can produce what we want,” says Zhang. “About 1018 beam particles were delivered to collide with the target, but only two Researchers have produced the lightest version of a uranium atom nuclei of uranium-214 were produced successfully and separated.” ever. It has only 122 neutrons compared with the 146 neutrons The researchers watched those nuclei decay and determined that atom loses two protons and two neutrons, unexpectedly easily the half-life of uranium-214 – the length of time until half of a given compared with other uranium isotopes. This probably means that sample of particles has decayed radioactively – is about 0.52 the interactions between protons and neutrons in these atoms are milliseconds. They performed similar experiments on two more powerful than in others, they say. previously discovered isotopes, uranium-216 and uranium-218, and “Our finding might be the first experimental evidence that the found that their half-lives are about 2.25 milliseconds and 0.65 strong proton-neutron interaction can play an important role in milliseconds respectively. alpha decay in [heavy nuclei],” Zhang says. They also measured how these isotopes decay and found that Journal reference: Physical Review Letters, DOI: uranium-214 and uranium-216 undergo alpha decay, in which an 10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.152502
Source website links: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2274847-physicists-have-created-a-new-and-extremely-rare-kind-of-uranium/
High Background Radiation Ups Life Expectancy, Cuts Cancer Risk
17 April, 2021 | by zenger.news
The data they crunched came from the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s radiation dose calculator from all 3,129 U.S. counties; U.S. cancer statistics; and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington Medical Center.
Background radiation is ionizing radiation present in the environment from natural sources. This is the first large-scale study taking into account the two major sources of background radiation — terrestrial radiation and cosmic radiation — covering the U.S. population.
Across the U.S., background radiation fluctuates between 92 to 227 millirem per year. (A millirem is a measure of the health effect of low-level ionizing radiation on the human body.
Higher background radiation levels lead to lower levels of lung, Since the 1960s, hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent pancreatic and colon cancers in both American men and women, as globally to reduce background radiation levels under the 227 well as lower rates of brain and bladder cancers in men, according threshold. to a new study in Biogerontology by Ben-Gurion University of the However, BGU Profs. Vadim Fraifeld and Marina Wolfson and Elroei Negev and Nuclear Research Center Negev scientists. David of the Nuclear Research Center Negev found lower levels of In fact, the study found life expectancy increased with exposure to several types of cancers — although no decrease in cervix, breast, higher natural radiation levels. prostate cancers or leukemia — when background radiation levels “Exposure to a high background radiation displays clear beneficial were on the higher end of the spectrum. health effects in humans,” they concluded.
The scientists then speculated that the upper “radiation threshold” (Edited by Fern Siegel and David Martosko) is higher than long assumed and should be reevaluated.
Source website links: https://tntribune.com/high-background-radiation-ups-life-expectancy-cuts-cancer-risk/
AEC plans warning system on Fukushima radioactive water release
17 April, 2021 | by Su Szu-yun and Frances Huang
Taipei, April 17 (CNA) Taiwan's Atomic Energy Council (AEC) said AEC wrote a report in response to a request from lawmakers on on Saturday that it is planning to set up a warning system to closely assessing the possible impact of Japan's plan. In the report, the AEC monitor the waters around the country in the wake of a Japanese said it plans to work with the Ocean Affairs Council (OAC) to spend plan to release treated radioactive water from the disabled one-and-a-half years to establish the warning system. Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean in two years. The The AEC said the system is expected to monitor changes in ocean United States has voiced support for Japan's decision, saying that flow, adding that after Japan unveils more details about its water Japan "appears to have adopted an approach in accordance with release plan, the warning system will be able to forecast the quantity globally accepted nuclear safety standards." of tritium, which will be the only radioactive substance remaining The AEC report showed that the released radioactive wastewater once the nuclear waste water has been treated. could bring pollutants into the waters around Taiwan as the On Tuesday, the Japanese government announced, following a wastewater flows along with the ocean current to Taiwan's waters. Cabinet meeting, that it had decided to release the treated However, the AEC said the impact will depend on how the wastewater into the ocean, but that the actual discharge will not wastewater will be released, the density and frequency of the begin for another two years. The wastewater was used to cool release, the distance between the release devices and the ocean, as melted fuel rods in three nuclear reactors that were damaged during well as seasonal factors. In addition to the planned advanced a major earthquake in 2011 and as such, is contaminated with warning system, the AEC said the council has teamed up with the radioactive materials. The announcement sparked an outcry among Council of Agriculture to lay out a program to monitor tritium levels neighboring countries such as China and South Korea, which fear and take fishery samples to analyze fish harvests in the waters that the radioactive wastewater will damage the marine around Taiwan. environment and harm the fishing industry. In Taiwan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it has lodged a "solemn representation" The AEC said it will exchange information with Japan and conduct concerning Japan's recent decision, and has conveyed the concerns an assessment to ensure that the tritium levels will be capped based of different groups in Taiwan to the Japanese side. However, the on global nuclear safety standards.
Source website links: https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202104170018 Nuclear Fusion: Building a Star on Earth Is Hard – We Need Better Materials
18 April, 2021 | by Aneeqa Khan, University of Manchester
Nuclear fusion is the process that powers the Sun and all other stars. Replicating this process on Earth has the potential to deliver almost During fusion, the nuclei of two atoms are brought close enough limitless electricity with virtually zero carbon emissions and greater together that they fuse together, releasing huge amounts of energy. safety, and without the same level of nuclear waste as fission. But building what is essentially a mini star on Earth and holding it together inside a reactor is not an easy task. It requires immense temperatures and pressures and extremely strong magnetic fields.
Right now we don’t quite have materials capable of withstanding these extremes. But researchers like me are working to develop them, and we’ve found some exciting things along the way.
Tokamaks
There are many ways to contain nuclear fusion reactions on Earth, but the most common uses a doughnut-shaped device called a tokamak. Inside the tokamak, the fuels for the reaction – isotopes of hydrogen called deuterium and tritium – are heated until they become a plasma. A plasma is when the electrons in the atoms have the Sun. It has to be much hotter because the Sun has a much higher enough energy to escape the nuclei and start to float around. density of particles. Because it’s made up of electrically charged particles, unlike a normal gas, it can be contained in a magnetic field. This means it Although it’s mostly contained within a magnetic field, the reactor doesn’t touch the reactor sides – instead, it floats in the middle in a still has to withstand huge temperatures. At Iter, the world’s biggest doughnut shape. fusion experiment, expected to be built by 2035, the hottest part of the machine would reach around 1,300℃. When deuterium and tritium have enough energy they fuse together, creating helium, neutrons and releasing energy. The plasma has to While the plasma will mostly be contained in a magnetic field, there reach temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius for large are times when the plasma might collide with the walls of the amounts of fusion to happen – ten times hotter than the center of reactor. This can result in erosion, fuel being implanted in the walls and modifications to the material properties. On top of the extreme temperatures, we also have to consider the by-products of the fusion reaction of deuterium and tritium, like extremely high energy neutrons. Neutrons have no charge so can’t be contained by the magnetic field. This means they hit against the walls of the reactor, causing damage.
The breakthroughs
All these incredibly complex challenges have contributed to huge advances in materials over the years. One of the most notable has been high temperature superconducting magnets, which are being used by various different fusion projects. These behave as superconductors at temperatures below the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. While this sounds cold, it’s high compared to the much colder temperatures other superconductors need.
In fusion, these magnets are only meters away from the high composition to traditional steels so the levels of activation from temperatures inside the tokamak, creating an enormously large neutron damage is reduced, and tungsten. temperature gradient. These magnets have the potential to generate much stronger magnetic fields than conventional superconductors, One of the coolest things in science is something initially seen as a which can dramatically reduce the size of a fusion reactor and may potential issue can turn into something positive. Fusion is no speed up the development of commercial fusion. exception to this, and one very niche but noteworthy example is the case of tungsten fuzz. Fuzz is a nanostructure that forms on We do have some materials designed to cope with the various tungsten when exposed to helium plasma during fusion challenges we throw at them in a fusion reactor. The front-runners experiments. Initially considered a potential issue due to fears of at the moment are reduced activation steels, which have an altered erosion, there’s now research into non fusion applications, including models to predict material performance. This can be combined with solar water splitting – breaking it down into hydrogen and oxygen. advances in machine learning, to identify the key experiments we need to focus on and identify the best materials for the job in future However, no material is perfect, and there are several remaining reactors. issues. These include the manufacture of reduced activation materials at a large scale and the intrinsic brittleness of tungsten, The manufacturing of new materials has typically been in small which makes it a challenge to work with. We need to improve and batches, focusing only on producing enough materials for refine on the existing materials we have. experiments. Going forward, more companies will continue to work on fusion and there will be more programs working on experimental The challenges reactors or prototypes. Despite the huge advances in the field of materials for fusion, Because of this, we are getting to the stage where we need to think there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done. The main issue is more about industrialization and development of supply chains. As we rely on several proxy experiments to recreate potential reactor we edge closer to prototype reactors and hopefully power plants in conditions, and have to try and stitch this data together, often using the future, developing robust large scale supply chains will be a very small samples. Detailed modeling work helps to extrapolate huge challenge. predictions of material performance. It would be much better if we could test our materials in real situations. Written by Aneeqa Khan, Research Fellow in Fusion, University of Manchester. Originally published on The Conversation.The The pandemic has had a major impact on materials research Conversation because it’s been more difficult to carry out real life experiments. It’s really important that we continue to develop and use advanced
Source website links: https://scitechdaily.com/nuclear-fusion-building-a-star-on-earth-is-hard-we-need-better-materials/
UK's NDA launches new nuclear transport division
19 April, 2021 | by World Nuclear News
A new specialist nuclear transport organisation has officially launched today in the UK. Nuclear Transport Solutions (NTS), part of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), operates Direct Rail Services (DRS) and Pacific Nuclear Transport Limited (PNTL), which offer rail and shipping services, respectively. The NDA is also in the process of integrating its radioactive waste management businesses.
In February 2020, the NDA announced its decision to create a single nuclear transport division, bringing together its transport expertise and capabilities across the NDA group to support its mission to clean up the UK's earliest nuclear sites. Nuclear Transport Solutions started operating as a single organisation on 1 February.
NTS has today officially been fully launched. With a workforce of over 700, it specialises in the operational, commercial, engineering, legal, and regulatory expertise that underpin nuclear transport and logistics operations. It also provides consultancy services offering bespoke solutions to customers' complex nuclear transport challenges, and transport services for customers outside of the nuclear sector. customers overseas, and packaging and licensing support to the NDA group. NTS's primary objective will be to support the NDA mission through a range of activities including transporting used advanced gas- DRS operates a fleet of over 100 locomotives. Since DRS was cooled reactor fuel from UK power plants to Sellafield, moving established in 1995, it has transported nuclear material over 5 irradiated fuels from Dounreay, returning reprocessing products to million miles by rail in the UK. PNTL operates three specialist nuclear transport ships. So far it has In November 2020, the NDA launched its integrated waste shipped over 2000 nuclear casks some 5 million miles to countries management programme to act as a focal point for managing the including: Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, UK's radioactive waste and to deliver its integrated waste the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA. management strategy. The programme operates across the waste lifecycle, including the treatment, packaging, storage, transport and "We have created NTS to become the leading global provider of safe, disposal of waste. secure and reliable nuclear transport solutions - building on the experience and capabilities of DRS, International Nuclear Services The NDA said it intends to create a single waste division to bring and PNTL to deliver great value for our UK and international together its group-wide waste management expertise enabling it to customers," said NTS CEO Seth Kybird. grow capability, simplify how it operates and deliver greater value for the taxpayer. The new waste division will include its waste "We're proud of how we use our expertise to make the world safer disposal companies LLW Repository Limited and Radioactive Waste and more sustainable. Whether that's by supporting the clean-up of Management. the UK's nuclear legacy, using our high security shipping capabilities to support global security goals, or providing low-carbon rail freight Researched and written by World Nuclear News solutions that takes more lorries off our roads."
Source website links: https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/UKs-NDA-launches-new-nuclear-transport-division
2 underground nuclear waste structures stabilized at Hanford
20 April, 2021|by Associated Press
HANFORD NUCLEAR RESERVATION, Wash. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Energy has confirmed that two underground structures at the decommissioned Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state have been stabilized after they were deemed at risk of collapsing and spreading radioactive contamination into the air. The Tri-City Herald reported Tuesday that a federal study in 2020 found that three underground structures where plutonium-contaminated liquids were stored posed a high risk of collapse and contamination. Central Plateau Clean up Co. President Scott Sax told employees that the structures were filled with concrete-like grout to prevent them from collapsing. The work was done by White Shield Inc. of Pasco under a contract originally valued at about $4 million.
Source website links: https://komonews.com/news/local/2-underground-nuclear-waste-structures-stabilized-at-hanford
New Publication Highlights Advances in Use of Nuclear Technique to Fight
Insect Pests
19 April, 2021| by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
travel, including mosquitoes that spread diseases such as dengue and Zika.In over 1200 pages, the Sterile Insect Technique - Principles and Practice in Area-Wide Integrated Pest Management updates information from a first edition in 2005 and covers advances made since then in the use of the technique. The Sterile Insect Technique, or SIT, is a type of birth control for insects. Male insects are bred in large quantities, sterilized using radiation and released to mate with wild females, resulting in no offspring and a decline in the target insect population. The SIT has been used for over 60 years to tackle agricultural pests such as the Mediterranean fruit fly, the screwworm and tsetse fly and, more recently, to combat Aedesaegypti and Aedesalbopictus mosquitoes responsible for
epidemics around the world. “This key textbook responds to a growing interest in the use of the SIT as insects spread to new The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Food and territories due to global transport, a warmer climate and increased Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have released resistance to insecticides,” said Rui Cardoso Pereira, head of the a book reviewing major progress in the use of a nuclear technique Insect Pest Control Section at the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear to suppress agricultural pests and insect outbreaks that have Techniques in Food and Agriculture. “Countries are seeking become more frequent due to climate change and global trade and alternative environment-friendly suppression methods, such as the SIT, and the book includes all aspects for its application – from development of a genetic means to separate male and female preparatory feasibility studies to the implementation and mosquitoes for release – an important aspect, as female mosquitos monitoring of an SIT programme and latest research.” The second bite and transmit diseases. “These tools can be used to develop edition also reviews strategic options for using the method – such insect strains that improve the efficiency of existing pest control as prevention, pest suppression or eradication – and discusses programmes or to develop new SIT-based control systems,” said environmental considerations and socio-economic impact. Six new Marc Schetelig from the Department of Insect Biotechnology in Plant chapters highlight latest developments in the use of the SIT, Protection at the Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany. An including molecular, microbial and information technology tools updated chapter highlights the use of geographic information that have made the method more applicable and cost effective. systems (GIS) technology, which has made a crucial step in the “There has been a significant expansion to target insects that harm application of the SIT – the release of a large number of sterile animals, plants, and humans, in particular moths, greenhouse pests, insects over one area – more economical. GIS is used to map and beetles and disease-transmitting mosquitoes,” entomologist and detail insect populations so that releases can be made according to lead editor Arnold Dyck said. Changes in climate have pushed the the number of insects on the ground. “If you are releasing fruit flies spread of mosquitoes to new territories, prompting a renewed over a 200 000 hectare citrus growing area, for example, the system interest since the early 2000s in applying the SIT to suppress the will read the field data and release just enough sterile flies to vectors of diseases such as dengue and malaria. The Zika virus compete with and suppress the wild fruit fly population,” Cardoso outbreaks in 2015–2016 increased the urgency to advance such Pereira said. alternative methods, and the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre and its partners The book also covers the use of the SIT to tackle new invasive pests, stepped up work to develop the mosquito SIT package. This is now like the spotted wing drosophila (Drosophila suzukii), a small fly under trial in pilot projects in Brazil, China, Cuba, Germany, Greece, that destroys soft fruits such as berries and cherries. Originally Italy, Mauritius, Mexico, Singapore, Spain, Thailand and the United from Southeast Asia, the fly has become a growing problem in recent States, with encouraging results.The book reviews promising years in open field and greenhouses across Europe and the approaches to refine the mosquito SIT even further, including the Americas. The Joint FAO/IAEA Centre has developed an SIT package against the spotted wing drosophila, now under trial in Argentina developed for new species. “The trend is to use the SIT for routine and Chile. pest suppression, particularly to protect commercially important commodities,” Cardoso Pereira said. “This attracts the involvement While advances have contributed to greater use of the method, of the private sector, which can accelerate technology development additional refinements in insect mass-rearing, sex-separation even further.” procedures and release systems are expected as SIT packages are
Source website links: https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/pressreleases/new-publication-highlights-advances-in-use-of-nuclear-technique-to- fight-insect-pests
DOE Pushes for Aggressive U.S. Investment in Fusion Energy
19 April, 2021| by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
NIF’s high-energy laser beams converge on a target at the center of the target chamber. Success in achieving fusion ignition would be a major step forward in the pursuit of safe, carbon-free fusion energy. Credit: DOE
An influential Department of Energy (DOE) advisory committee has Energy Science Advisory Committee (FESAC). It was quickly followed recommended that the nation move aggressively toward the by a February National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and deployment of fusion energy, including investments in technology Medicine (NASEM) report calling for aggressive action to build a U.S. and equipment to support one of the core missions of LLNL’s pilot fusion power plant as soon as 2035. National Ignition Facility (NIF) — laying the groundwork for the The FESAC report, two years in the making, provides a decade-long development of inertial fusion energy (IFE).The report, Powering the vision for U.S. fusion energy and plasma science under the DOE Future: Fusion & Plasmas, was issued in December by the Fusion Office of Science’s Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) program. NIF&PS physicist Tammy Ma, a member of FESAC and the report and coordinated plan for fusion energy and plasma science for the subcommittee, said LLNL was a major participant in the plasma next 10 years in the U.S., and LLNL has an important role to play,” physics community planning process that laid the foundation for she said. The FESAC report includes recommendations to FES and the report’s 10-year strategic plan. Both the FESAC and NASEM prioritizations for a research and technology development portfolio reports focus on the development of magnetic fusion energy (MFE) under three budget scenarios: constant, modest (2 percent) growth technology, exemplified by the ITER experiment in France; the and unconstrained. Points and recommendations in the report United States is one of 35 nations participating in ITER, which is relevant to LLNL’s work include: more than 70 percent complete and aiming for first plasma . Restart an IFE program, even under the no-growth budget operations in 2025.The reports, however, acknowledge the need for scenario. simultaneous pursuit of other government and private fusion . Continue robust funding of the high energy density technologies, including IFE, and the FESAC report notes the laboratory plasmas (HEDLP) program that is co-sponsored “enormous progress” NIF has made toward ignition. Both reports with NNSA. call for partnerships with federal, international and private . Complete the design and construction of the Matter in investors and outline opportunities for growth in fusion and plasma Extreme Conditions research, which NIF is intently pursuing (see “10-Year Report . (MEC) upgrade at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Highlights NIF’s Contributions to Plasma Science”). “FES historically which LLNL is supporting. has funded the MFE research in the U.S., previously funded IFE, and . Coordinate a High-Intensity Laser Research Initiative (FES in supported the academic high energy density physics research in the collaboration with other federal agencies). U.S.,” Ma said. “While the total funds LLNL receives each year from . Pursue the development of a multi-petawatt (quadrillion- FES is small compared to what we receive from NNSA (the National watt) laser facility and a U.S. high-repetition-rate high- Nuclear Security Administration), the path that FES charts has intensity laser facility similar to the High-Repetition-Rate always had a significant influence on the trajectory of fusion and Advanced Petawatt Laser System (HAPLS), designed and plasma research at the Lab. “This report now establishes a strong developed by the NIF&PS Advanced Photon Technologies Program; HAPLS was delivered to the Extreme Light “Even under the constant budget scenario,” Ma said, “provisions are Infrastructure Beamlines Facility in the Czech Republic in made to ensure that these activities are supported somehow. New June 2017. facilities cannot be built, but it is recommended to pursue . Strongly support LaserNetUS, with aggressive upgrades if preconceptual design activities and technology development. ”The budgets allow; LLNL’s Jupiter Laser Facility is a member of DOE-sponsored NASEM report, Bringing Fusion to the U.S. Grid, LaserNetUS, an effort to restore high-intensity laser research describes the scientific and technical innovations required if fusion in the U.S. is to play a role in the timely transition to a low-carbon economy by . Pursue a fusion pilot plant in the U.S. by 2040. 2050. The NASEM plan calls for production of a pilot plant design . Strongly pursue alternate and innovative fusion concepts. by 2028 and the addition of fusion energy to the electric grid in the . Construct and design a mid-scale Z-pinch pulsed-power 2035 to 2040 timeframe. Virtually inexhaustible fusion energy could facility, preferably in partnership with other agencies; LLNL provide a source of clean, carbon-free baseline electricity for the U.S. is currently developing a number of advanced diagnostics for grid, the report said, playing a key role as the nation decarbonizes the Z Machine at Sandia National Laboratories. its electricity-generation infrastructure. Fusion uses abundant . Provide support for a robust public-private-partnership hydrogen fuels and creates no long-lived or high-level radioactive program. waste. It is inherently safe and ideally complements other renewable sources of energy.
Source website links: https://scitechdaily.com/doe-pushes-for-aggressive-u-s-investment-in-fusion-energy/
American Honey Still Contains Radioactive Fallout from Nuclear Tests Decades
Ago
21 April, 2021 | by PETER DOCKRILL
(Fascinadora/Getty Images)
Traces of radioactive fallout from nuclear tests in the 1950s and Williamsburg, Virginia, explained last year in comments about the 1960s can still be found in American honey, new research reveals. research. "What that did was put a blanket of these isotopes into the The radioactive isotope identified, cesium-137, falls below levels environment during a very narrow time window. "One of those considered to be harmful – but the amounts measured nonetheless isotopes was cesium-137, a by-product of nuclear fission involving emphasize the lingering persistence of environmental contaminants the reaction of uranium and plutonium, which can often be found in the nuclear age, even a half-century after international bomb tests in trace amounts in food sources due to such nuclear contamination ended. "There was a period in which we tested hundreds of nuclear of the environment. Some of these traces are much fainter than weapons in the atmosphere," lead researcher Jim Kaste, an others, Kaste found out – but only by chance, as it happened, after environmental geochemist at William & Mary university in assigning his students a Spring Break assignment in 2017.To demonstrate to his class how radioactive contaminants from mid- more ionizing radiation to the atmosphere than any other event in 20th century nuclear testing still persisted in the environment human history – not that all the blasts were equal in scope."We know today, Kaste asked his students to bring back locally sourced foods that the cesium-137 production from the Pacific and Russian sites from wherever they spent the holidays. As expected, various was more than 400 times the production of the New Mexico and samples of fruits, nuts, and other foods revealed very faint traces of Nevada explosions," Kaste says. "A single Russian bomb, the Tsar cesium-137 when measured with a gamma detector, but even Kaste Bomb, was more than 50 times more powerful than all the Nevada wasn't prepared for what happened when he ran the same test with and New Mexico tests combined." While there's no way of knowing a jar of honey from a North Carolina farmer's market. "I measured which of these explosions produced the fallout that can still be it again because I thought something happened to the container or found in American foods today, we can at least explain how the my detector was bonkers," Kaste says. "I reproduced the isotope could disperse so far and wide. "Many of the air detonations measurement. And it was, again, 100 times hotter than any of these were so powerful that dozens of radioactive fission products were other foods. "To find out why honey registered such high levels of injected into the stratosphere and distributed globally with a cesium-137, Kaste and his team (including one of his students, Paul residence time of [approximately] one year before deposition Volante) began testing samples of locally made raw, pure, and primarily by rainfall," Kaste and fellow researchers explain in a new unfiltered honey from markets and beekeepers located across the study. "The presence of radioactive pollution from nuclear testing is eastern US. Of the 122 honey samples tested, 68 showed detectable globally ubiquitous, and detectable on every continent and even in traces of the radioactive isotope – a legacy of atmospheric nuclear deep ocean trenches." tests conducted by the US, the USSR, and other nations during the Not just rainfall Cold War era. The majority of detonations occurred above the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean and Novaya Zemlya, an Arctic While the pollution may be globally ubiquitous, honey's high levels archipelago in northern Russia, with other tests being conducted in of cesium-137 compared to other food sources show that the fallout New Mexico and Nevada. According to the researchers, the appears to concentrate in unexpected ways – but we can now explain cumulative effect of over 500 of these test detonations released that mystery too. Rainfall might be the predominant force taking cesium-137 out of the atmosphere and depositing in on Earth's discovery, it's that none of the cesium-137 levels detected in honey surface, but the honey samples registering the highest amounts of today are considered to be harmful to humans, falling below the 50- the radioactive isotope weren't produced in regions of the US that 100 Becquerel’s per kilogram threshold of radioactivity. However, receive the most precipitation. Rather, the honeys with the highest decades ago, the same toxic fallout would have been fresher, and levels turned out to come from places in the US where the soil has potentially more hazardous to human health, not to mention other low levels of potassium, which plants absorb as a nutrient source to organisms too. "What we see today is a small fraction of the fuel a range of metabolic processes. Potassium and cesium share a radiation that was present during the 1960s and 1970s," Kaste says. number of atomic similarities, and when plants in potassium-poor "And we can't say for sure if cesium-137 has anything to do with bee soil can't get a hold of sufficient levels of their preferred nutrient, colony collapse or the decline of population. "In recent years, the they'll absorb cesium instead – even if it's of the unstable, ongoing disappearance of bees and other insect pollinators has radioactive variety. As a result, the isotope finds its way into plant sparked much concern in scientific circles, and while Cold War nectar, which then gets passed to bees, who in turn magnify the nuclear tests aren't often considered a primary driver of the concentration of cesium-137 when they make honey. Which then problem, we can't afford to ignore that they too could be a makes its way into your home. The phenomenon has been contributor. "Given that pollinating insects provide vital services to previously observed in the wake of events such as the Chernobyl the world's ecosystem and are essential in maintaining global food disaster, but such is the enduring half-life of radioactive particles, it security, more research is needed to help us better understand how can still be observed even several decades later, and in places ionizing pollution threatens their health and survival," the located thousands of kilometres away from the site of the original researchers write.The findings are reported in Nature nuclear tests in question. If there's a silver lining to this unsettling Communications.
Source website links: https://www.sciencealert.com/american-honey-still-contains-radioactive-fallout-from-nuclear-tests-decades-ago
Developing the Next Generation of Safe, Cost-effective Nuclear Energy
19 April, 2021| by Stony Brook University
Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering Team Receives $2.4 Million ARPA-E Award
The team in the Engineered Microstructures and Radiation Effects Laboratory (EMREL), led by Professor Lance Snead as the Principal Investigator (PI) and co-PI’s, Professor Jason Trelewicz and Professor David Sprouster, has been awarded $2.4 million from the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) program, an agency tasked with promoting and funding research and development of advanced energy technologies. All three investigators are part of the Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, and Professor Trelewicz is also a core faculty member of the Institute for Advanced Computational Science.
Pictured left to right: Dr. Jonathan Gentile, Dr. Bin Cheng, Prof. Lance Snead, Mary Botha, Dr. Dave Sprouster, Elinor Coats, Streit Cunningham and Prof. Jason Trelewicz The award is part of a grant program focused on the development work at cryogenic temperatures, are typically shielded by common of fusion energy science and technologies that would lead to a safe, engineering materials such as water and steel, perhaps with a bit of carbon-free, and abundant energy source for developed and other materials layered in. The water, like any material with emerging economies, specifically the joint Office of Fusion Energy hydrogen, is good at shielding neutrons, while steel or heavy and ARPA-E initiative Galvanizing Advances in Market-aligned materials like lead are what you would use for X-rays or gamma rays. Fusion for an Overabundance of Watts (GAMOW).“The ARPA-E “It’s all pretty low-tech but works just fine for the larger machines. award process is extremely competitive and requires demonstrating The problem comes in when you don’t have a lot of real estate to leading-edge research and solutions,” said Fotis Sotiropoulos, Dean, work with and water is not a coolant option,” he says. The solution College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. “I’m incredibly proud being proposed by the EMREL for compact fusion devices is to of Lance and the EMREL team’s work in this important area of fabricate composited structures which simultaneously shield research for our College and the University.” The project, neutrons and gamma-rays. The proposed innovation will pursue ENHANCED Shield: A Critical Materials Technology Enabling two classes of engineered composite materials, one with a metal Compact Superconducting Tokamaks, addresses a key issue facing matrix and one with a ceramic matrix. The metal matrix is the next generation of small, high-field fusion reactors. Specifically, considered a more mature technology and will be applied in lower with the significant progress made in the development of High temperature application while the ceramic matrix composite is Temperature Superconductor (HTS), the magnetic field strength targeting higher temperature application. Of note is that the ceramic required to drive a fusion plasma has been greatly enhanced matrix composite owes its base technology to a breakthrough made allowing for much smaller, more economic systems. However, as the by the Stony Brook team under an ongoing ARPA-E grant work which system becomes smaller, damage to magnets becomes a serious demonstrated fabrication of dense magnesia materials at concern. This Stony Brook project aims to solve that problem temperatures hundreds of degrees lower than previously seen. This through development of a new class of shield materials to protect has allowed, as taken advantage of here, the inclusion of high the magnets, thus enabling compact fusion systems. According to neutron absorbing metal hydride materials within a magnesia Snead, the current superconducting magnets we know, the ones that composite structure. The team includes Professor Steve Zinkle in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of commercial fusion ventures: Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Tennessee Knoxville and Dr Ethan Peterson of the Massachusetts of Tokamak Energy. Technology. The project is also joined by two privately funded
Source website links: https://news.stonybrook.edu/homespotlight/developing-the-next-generation-of-safe-cost-effective-nuclear-energy/
Professor Brian Cox: We need a ‘CERN-type model for the environment’
21 April, 2021 | by Alastair Reid
The leading British physicist called for greater international collaboration in the Earth Day special edition of The Big Issue magazine, guest- edited by Chris Packham.
Professor Brian Cox at the Science Foo Camp in 2008. Image credit: Bob Lee/FlickrApril 20, 2021
Leading British scientist Professor Brian Cox has called for renewed presenter Chris Packham as part of a special edition of The Big Issue international co-operation similar to the European Organisation for m agazine, Cox said a solution which locks countries into Nuclear Research, known as Cern, to address global warming and committing longer-term “funding and effort” is the only way to side- escalating environmental crises. Speaking to naturalist and TV step domestic politics which have so far failed to address the climate crisis. Cern is funded by dozens of countries in the pursuit emissions and slow the speed of global warming in 2016, but then- of science for peaceful purposes. It has been responsible for US President Donald Trump pulled out of the treaty within a year. It successive breakthrough discoveries about the nature of the followed the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, in which 192 signatories universe since its foundation in 1954. “There’s democratic promised to reduce emissions. The solution is continuity of funding oversight, each country funds it, but Cern was set up by and effort. [The question is] how to achieve that. Professor Brian Cox international treaty in a way that makes it difficult for individual Both treaties had the stated aim of preventing global temperatures countries on short timescales to pull out or change their budgets,” from rising 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, which scientists say is Cox said. “So it was very smart. I think that sort of thing is the way key to minimising soaring temperatures, rising sea levels and forward. “My personal view is that the answer is some kind of Cern- extreme weather. Both have been criticised for a lack of any binding type model for the environment, set up by international agreements enforcement for countries to fulfil their promises. “One sort of between countries.” The UK will host the Cop26 environmental idealism is that we might take environmental care out of our current summit in Glasgow in November 2021, bringing political leaders political system, which is run to terms of office,” said Packham. from around the world together to find collective solutions to “And we’ve got party politics which are constantly in sometimes environmental problems such as air and water pollution, rather trivial conflict as well. “Basically that mechanism of deforestation, and rising global temperatures. More than 190 governance can’t deal with the longer term and investment countries signed up to the Paris Agreement to limit carbon dioxide required.”
Source website links: https://www.bigissue.com/latest/environment/professor-brian-cox-we-need-a-cern-type-model-for-the-environment/
How to make sense of recent CERN finding that challenges the Standard Model of particle physics: Don’t throw away your textbooks just yet
23 April, 2021 | by Adam Fortais
contradicts the Standard Model, which is physicists’ best description of the universe’s fundamental building blocks. If this finding is confirmed, it would be evidence that leptons cannot be treated equal, but it would still fall short of an observation. The difference is statistical: the term “evidence” implies researchers have identified a piece of information that would be contradicted once in 1000 experiments. In other words, they have a 0.001 chance of coming to the wrong conclusion. An “observation” is a higher bar. It implies something closer to one contradictory result once every three million experiments. This evidence strengthens the case for missing fundamental particles or interactions that do not exist within the Standard Model, but confirming the result wouldn’t kill the Standard Model. On the contrary, when viewed through the lens of Thomas Last month, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) Kuhn’s 1962 book, “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions,” this announced preliminary evidence from the Large Hadron Collider result looks a little like finding grey hairs on your pillow. It’s either beauty experiment that, if verified, would violate “lepton a sign of a mature scientific theory, or of one under some extra universality.” Lepton universality is a principle that says three stress. According to Kuhn, there are four broad stages of research charged elementary particles — electrons, muons, and taus — can within a field: Normal science, extraordinary research, adoption of be treated identically, aside from their different masses. This result a new paradigm, and aftermath of a scientific revolution. In some ways, normal science is akin to stamp collecting — new results are mechanics. How many incompatible results a paradigm can consistent within the framework of a field and serves to fill withstand varies from field to field, and the Standard Model is a knowledge gaps. This stage is generally where research is applied to particularly resilient one. In fact, many critics of the Standard Model new technologies. But as a field ages, more and more results come cite this as a weakness of the model. For some, there are a few too out that don’t fit into the currently accepted framework. This leads many moveable pieces and details of the model that can be shifted some members of the field to engage in “extraordinary” research. to account for new results. On the other hand, the Standard Model Extraordinary research ends one of two ways — finding a way to has been very successful at predicting a range of strange, exotic, or make anomalous discoveries fit the existing framework or an elusive results that ended up being borne out experimentally. So upheaval of the field. In the case of the results from CERN, it is still how wrong could it really be? Of course, this is probably what every possible that with additional experiments the lepton violation is generation of scientists believe about the era they’re brought up in. found to be a statistical anomaly. The more exciting endpoint of And this is what makes the preliminary results announced by CERN extraordinary research, though, is what Kuhn termed a paradigm so exciting. Maybe with a few more experiments, these results will shift, which is often used to describe events like the transition to a be found to be nothing more than a fluke. But maybe, just maybe, heliocentric model of the solar system or the advent of quantum this is one more step towards a paradigm shift in particle physics.
Source website links: https://massivesci.com/notes/cern-lepton-universality-physics-large-hadron/
Atkins to design world-first fusion energy research centre
21 April, 2021 | by Rob O’Connor
the fuels that will supply fusion power stations. Atkins – supported by supply chain partners including Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, Ansaldo Nuclear, and FlexProcess – will deliver the preliminary and detailed design of the H3AT tritium recycling loop, comprising storage beds, a distribution system, impurity processing system, and systems to detritiate water and air. Designed to facilitate the handling, testing and validation of tritium, the loop will allow a range of tests and experiments to be carried out safely and efficiently. Lee Patrick, UKAEA client manager, nuclear and power, at Atkins said: “Fusion has the potential to provide the world with a low-carbon, limitless and environmentally responsible energy source in the future. Recognising the complexity and scale of this Atkins has been appointed by the UK Atomic Energy Authority project, we’ve put together a world-class team that is fully focused (UKAEA) to help design the world’s first centre for researching on playing its part in helping to recreate and harness energy based tritium for use in fusion energy. The Hydrogen-3 Advanced on the same principle that powers our Sun and stars.” The H3AT Technology (H3AT) facility, to be built at Culham Science Centre in facility will provide access to scientists and researchers to inform Oxfordshire, will support ongoing work at ITER, the world’s largest tritium processes for future fusion programmes including: ITER; its fusion experiment which is currently under construction in the successor, the DEMOnstration Power Plant, which will move fusion south of France. This activity will also allow academic and industrial energy a step closer to production on an industrial scale; and users to research how to process, store and recycle tritium, one of UKAEA’s Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) – an ambitious programme to design and build a prototype fusion power of their supply chain partners.” Atkins supports UKAEA across its plant, targeting operations around 2040. Steve Wheeler, director of major programmes through its position as an Engineering Design UKAEA’s fusion technology business unit, said: “H3AT is a truly Services (EDS) framework supplier and has recently won two unique facility to support UK science and the development of fusion contracts on the STEP programme. It is also architect engineer for fuel cycle technology. Atkins will bring proven engineering design ITER as part of the engage consortium and is involved in numerous capability to the delivery group, in addition to the valuable expertise nuclear new build projects around the world.
Source website links: http://www.infrastructure-intelligence.com/article/apr-2021/atkins-design-world-first-fusion-energy-research-centre
UK awards £3m nuclear energy robotics contracts
21 April, 2021
Britain’s Atomic Energy Authority has awarded robotics contracts worth a total of £3 million ($3.6 million U.S.) to Veolia Nuclear Solutions (UK) and Wälischmiller Engineering. The two companies will supply robotic arms for use in research into fusion energy and nuclear decommissioning. This research project, called “LongOps,” was launched by the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) in January as a collaboration with Japan. It is intended to support the delivery of faster and safer decommissioning at the TEPCO’s Fukushima Dai-ichi site in Japan and at the Sellafield nuclear site in England. Veolia Nuclear Solutions (UK) and Wälischmiller Engineering GmbH will each provide a twin-arm haptic manipulator – a form of kinaesthetic communications technology, complete with electrical and control systems.
Source website links: https://www.power-eng.com/nuclear/uk-awards-3m-nuclear-energy-robotics-contracts/#gref
World Book and Copyright Day 2021: Handbook for Medical Physicists Tops
IAEA's List of Most Popular Publications
23 April, 2021 | by Andrea Galind
Over 4000 scientific and technical publications are available from IAEA’s webpages offering publications were accessed more than 1.5 the IAEA, covering a spectrum of topics in the peaceful uses of million times. nuclear science and technology. To mark World Book and Copyright Day 2021 and to celebrate the Technical experts, scientists and students all over the world read role of books as drivers of scientific, technical and cultural progress, these publications, which are available for free online. In 2020, the here are the three most accessed IAEA publications from last year: Diagnostic Radiology Physics: A Handbook for Teachers and people and the environment and contribute to a harmonized, high Students level of safety worldwide. It is supported by six IAEA Safety Guides, which provide explanation and guidance for the requirements to Training and education in the application of radiation and medicine facilitate implementation. is one way the IAEA addresses needs worldwide in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of health conditions. This handbook for These regulations apply to the transport of radioactive material by students and teachers serves as a basis for the education of medical all modes – land, water or air – including transport that is incidental physicists initiating their university studies in the field of diagnostic to the use of the radioactive material. All of the IAEA’s scientific and radiology. technical publications, including international safety standards, technical guides, conference proceedings and scientific reports, can IAEA Safety Glossary: 2018 Edition be found here. The IAEA Safety Glossary, originally issued in 2007, has been revised Other bibliographic and scientific resources by the IAEA and updated to take into account new terminology and usage in safety standards issued between 2007 and 2018. The IAEA has a physical library with over 1.3 million items in its collection that specializes in information resources related to It defines, explains and provides information on how to use nuclear energy and other nuclear applications. While a big part of technical terms cited in the IAEA Safety Standards and other safety the collection remains on paper, access to electronic resources is related IAEA publications. The revisions and updates reflect becoming more prevalent. developments in the technical areas of safety standards application, as well as changes in regulatory approaches worldwide. Already a trend in the last years, remote access to reliable resources increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, the IAEA Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material Library provides online access to subscription databases and to This publication is the latest edition of the IAEA Safety thousands of journals. Requirements series for the safe transport of radioactive material, a series of publications that serve as a global reference for protecting It promotes open source resources, such as the International million bibliographic records and access to more than 2 million full- Nuclear Information System (INIS), one of the world’s largest text documents. Each year, over 1.7 million users perform around repositories of published research on the peaceful uses of nuclear 2.5 million searches. science and technology. With free global access, INIS boasts over 4.4
Source website links: https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/world-book-and-copyright-day-2021-handbook-for-medical-physicists-tops- iaeas-list-of-most-popular-publications
Heavy water, light uranium: One sweet contrast
26 April, 2021 | by American Nuclear Society
Artist’s view of heavy water eliciting sweet taste in humans. Graphic design: Tomáš Bello/IOCB Prague
Is isotope science all sweetness and light? Recent headlines on and an atomic weight of 214, is still over 10 times more massive research confirming the sweet taste of heavy water and the creation than a molecule of heavy water, with an atomic weight of 20. of the lightest isotope of uranium yet may give that impression. But Sweetness in moderation: Heavy water (D2O) is stable and naturally the serious science behind these separate research findings has occurring. implications for human health and for the understanding of the It differs from ordinary water (H2O) through the substitution of process of alpha decay. Before going any further, it’s worth deuterium (so-called heavy hydrogen) for hydrogen. Because it is acknowledging that the terms “heavy” and “light” are relative, and less likely to absorb neutrons than H2O, purified heavy water is an atom of the new ultralight isotope of uranium, with 122 neutrons used as a moderator and coolant in some nuclear power reactor designs, most notably in Canada’s fleet of CANDU pressurized IOCB Prague. “Our study thus resolves an old controversy heavy-water reactors. Deuterium was discovered in 1931 by Harold concerning the sweet taste of heavy water using state-of-the-art Urey, who received a Nobel Prize for his work. Soon after, scientists experimental and computer modelling approaches, demonstrating began to compare anecdotal reports after tasting heavy water. In that a small nuclear quantum effect can have a pronounced 1935, Science published a short letter by Urey stating unequivocally influence on such a basic biological function as taste recognition.” after a blind taste test by two subjects (one of which was Urey The researchers also found that heavy water can make chemical himself) that “pure deuterium oxide has the same taste as ordinary sweeteners taste even sweeter, but it has no future in the beverage distilled water.” industry because in large concentrations, heavy water is toxic to Recent research, however, has proven otherwise. Pavel Jungwirth animals and plants. The sweet taste receptor responsible for the and Phil Mason, of the Institute of Organic Chemistry and perceived sweetness is located not only in the human tongue but Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IOCB Prague), led a also in other tissues, and since heavy water is used in some medical research team that used molecular dynamics simulations, cell-based procedures, the researchers believe that their findings could have experiments, mouse models, and human subjects to show clinical applications. conclusively that heavy water tastes sweet to humans (but not, Ultralight uranium: A research team led by Zai-Guo Gan at the incidentally, to mice). Chinese Academy of Sciences has created a new uranium isotope in In their research, published in Communications Biology, they a “fusion-evaporation” reaction by firing a beam of argon at a concluded that the effect was mediated by the human sweet taste tungsten target and monitoring the output. The research was receptor TAS1R2/TAS1R3. “Despite the fact that the two isotopes carried out at the Heavy Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou and are nominally chemically identical, we have shown conclusively that published in the journal Physical Review Letters on April 14. humans can distinguish by taste (which is based on chemical Naturally occurring uranium typically contains either 143 neutrons sensing) between H2O and D2O, with the latter having a distinct (fissile uranium-235) or 146 neutrons (uranium-238). The newly sweet taste,” said Jungwirth, in an article published on April 7 by confirmed isotope has just 122 neutrons, one fewer than the previous record for the element. The researchers identified two observed that uranium-214 and uranium-216 decay more easily previously discovered light uranium isotopes—uranium-216 and than do light isotopes of other elements. According to a summary uranium-218—as well as the novel uranium-214, which has a half- published in Physics on April 14, “Measurements from the three life of 0.5 millisecond. Their findings could reportedly contribute to observed uranium isotopes suggest that they experience an an understanding of alpha decay—the emission of an alpha particle enhanced proton-neutron interaction compared with isotopes of consisting of two protons and two neutrons. The researchers other elements.”
Source website links: https://www.ans.org/news/article-2838/heavy-water-light-uranium-one-sweet-contrast/
Japan utility gets OK to restart 3 old nuclear reactors
April, 2021 | by MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press
A Japanese utility has received local consent to restart three aging nuclear reactors, clearing the final hurdle needed to put them back online and help meet the country’s ambitious carbon emissions reduction target
TOKYO -- A Japanese utility received local consent on Wednesday to installing anti-terrorism measures. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, restart three aging nuclear reactors, clearing the final hurdle needed who pledged last October that Japan will achieve carbon neutrality to put them back online and help meet the country’s ambitious by 2050, recently raised a 2030 carbon emissions reduction target carbon emissions reduction target. Kansai Electric Power Co. said it to 46% from 2013 levels, from a previous 26% reduction. Japan is received approval from Fukui prefecture, home to the three one of the world's top carbon emitters. reactors, Takahama No. 1 and No. 2 and Mihama No. 3, which have Japan’s current energy plan, set in 2018, calls for 22-24% of its all operated more than 40 years. energy to come from renewables, 20-22% from nuclear power and The approval from Fukui Gov. Tatsuji Sugimoto is the first for aging 56% from fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas. Energy experts are reactors to operate beyond their 40-year intended life. The Nuclear discussing revisions to the plan, expected around July. The 2050 Regulation Authority has granted each reactor a 20-year extension carbon emissions-neutral target would require drastic changes and under toughened safety standards set after the 2011 Fukushima likely prompt calls for more nuclear plant restarts and possible nuclear disaster. Economy and industry minister Hiroshi Kajiyama construction of new reactors. welcomed the decision, saying it will contribute to a reduction in Costly safety upgrades required to meet the post-Fukushima safety carbon emissions, since power from the reactors will allow a standards have prompted utilities to scrap 24 of the 54 workable reduction in the use of fossil fuel-fired plants. Kansai Electric said reactors. The lengthy approval process has also slowed Japan’s it plans to restart the reactors as soon as they are ready, but the rector restarts, and only nine reactors have restarted since the timing is uncertain for the Takahama reactors because of delays in tougher standards were introduced. Environment Ministry officials say the government is not considering building new reactors or achieve a significant cut in carbon emissions without bolstering replacing old ones, but would not say how it would be possible to nuclear power generation.
Source website links: https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/japan-utility-restart-nuclear-reactors-77365378
Nuclear Reactors Could Provide Plentiful Zero-Carbon Hydrogen, If Only We
Let Them
April, 2021 | by Robert Rapier
Indian Point nuclear power plant north of New York City could have been a cheap source of zero-carbon hydrogen, but it's being closed down. CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES
Hydrogen was thrust into the spotlight as a promising clean energy the atmosphere. Since then, billions of dollars have been invested in source by President George W. Bush in his 2003 State of the Union an attempt to realize this vision.Hydrogen’s appeal is obvious. When address. President Bush touted the potential for a “hydrogen hydrogen is combusted in an engine or consumed in a fuel cell, it economy” that would greatly slow the release of carbon dioxide into combines with oxygen to form water. Thus, a car running on 50 Shades of Hydrogen hydrogen is primarily emitting water vapor as a waste product. Some have attempted to classify hydrogen production using a color Hydrogen’s Dirty Secret scheme. Grey hydrogen denotes hydrogen produced from fossil fuels, such as via the SMR process. Thus, most of the world’s However, whether hydrogen truly has a low carbon footprint hinges hydrogen production is grey. However, it is possible to capture the on how the hydrogen is produced. Although hydrogen is the most carbon dioxide produced in this process. The carbon can then be abundant element in the universe, it is almost exclusively tied up in sequestered or otherwise used for other purposes. This lowers the various compounds. Hydrogen gas is reactive, and thus there do not carbon footprint, and can result in the subsequent hydrogen being exist deposits of hydrogen that can be exploited. The vast majority classified as “blue hydrogen.” of the world’s commercial hydrogen — over 95% by most estimates — is produced using the steam methane reforming process (SMR). Blue hydrogen is produced using non-renewable resources, but it In this process, natural gas is reacted with steam at an elevated meets the threshold of a low carbon footprint. Depending on the temperature to produce carbon monoxide and hydrogen (which is process, blue hydrogen can be produced from fossil fuels, but it can synthesis gas, or simply syngas). A subsequent reaction — the water also be produced from nuclear power. Green hydrogen meets the gas shift reaction — then reacts additional steam with the carbon low-carbon threshold, but it is produced using renewable resources. monoxide to produce additional hydrogen and carbon dioxide. As I For example, electricity from solar power can be used to electrolyze explained in last year’s article estimating the Carbon Footprint of water into its constituents, hydrogen and water. Renewable Hydrogen Production, the carbon footprint of hydrogen production production of hydrogen is the idealized vision of the hydrogen via SMR is high. In fact, more carbon is generated in the production economy, but there are some obstacles that have thus far kept this of hydrogen via SMR than if you simply burned the methane used vision from being realized. The biggest issue with green hydrogen to make the hydrogen. So, why do we make hydrogen using this is the cost. It simply isn’t yet cost effective enough to produce method? It has historically been the cheapest method of large scale hydrogen using intermittent renewables. It could become cost hydrogen production. effective if the renewable supply is overbuilt, and hydrogen production only takes place when there is excess electricity being methods, and concluded that hydrogen production via nuclear produced. However, that means that all of the associated hydrogen electricity has a comparable carbon footprint to hydrogen produced production equipment is only being utilized a small fraction of the by renewables. However, the cost via this route is still high. It has time. Because of the low capacity factor of renewables, the been estimated to be comparable in cost to the renewables route. subsequent capital costs of the hydrogen equipment drive the price The primary reason is that electrolysis isn’t especially efficient. quite high per unit of mass of hydrogen produced. Current Generally about 20% of the power used to produce hydrogen from estimates put green hydrogen production at roughly twice the cost electrolysis is utilized in the process. Or, to put it another way, for of hydrogen production via SMR, but with a carbon footprint that is a given input of electricity you only get 0.8 equivalent units of about 80% lower. Costs are expected to come down, but it will be hydrogen back out. Although that’s not terrible, there is an even challenging because of the intermittency. cheaper way to produce hydrogen from nuclear power. Instead of using electricity, methane — with its four hydrogen atoms — can be The Nuclear Option thermally decomposed to carbon and hydrogen. This is a high- This is where nuclear power can make a huge impact. A hydrogen temperature process called thermal decomposition of methane economy will require a massive increase in hydrogen production. (TDM) or simply methane pyrolysis. In the non-catalytic process, That means scalable options. Hydrogen can be produced from methane pyrolysis occurs only at temperatures above 1100–1200 °C. nuclear power in a scalable fashion in two different ways. First is That implies a steep energy requirement. However, catalysts can simply using nuclear power to produce electricity, which is then reduce the temperature requirement. Nickel catalysts have been used to electrolyze water. This would be the same process as that shown to work effectively in a temperature range of 500–700 °C, used to produce green hydrogen, except in this case, it would utilize while iron catalysts have shown good success at 700–900 °C. There nuclear power at a capacity factor of 90% instead of renewables at are two primary factors here that can give hydrogen production 20% to 40% capacity factor. That, in turn, drives down the cost of costs that are competitive with SMR. The first is that even though hydrogen production. A 2020 paper in Applied Energy estimated the carbon is produced in this process, it is pure solid carbon, or so- carbon footprint of hydrogen production via a number of different called black carbon. Solid carbon is used in all sorts of applications, hence capturing and utilizing this stream would be significantly provide much of the energy required in the form of lower cost heat,” simpler than capturing and sequestering carbon dioxide. One of the said Dr. David LeBlanc, Chief Technology Officer of nuclear promising emerging applications is for carbon black to be technology developer, Terrestrial Energy. “A key advantage of potentially used to produce carbon-fiber, a valuable alternative to methane pyrolysis is that it requires the lowest energy input to the strongest industrial materials available today, essentially as a create hydrogen, almost 8 times lower than by electrolysis of water. free by-product. The second factor is that these temperatures are With methane pyrolysis powered by high-temperature nuclear, the available in nuclear power plants, and to an even greater degree, in energy output of the hydrogen produced is several times higher advanced nuclear reactor technologies. So-called Generation-IV than for the low temperature electrolysis process. This is how a nuclear technologies provide much higher temperature operation – hydrogen economy can possibly be enabled at a global scale.” If the ranging from 500 to 1,000o C – and hence can provide heat directly world is serious about developing a massive clean hydrogen to an industrial process, rather than converting heat to electricity economy, hydrogen from nuclear power has to be given serious and suffering thermal efficiency losses in the bargain. “Advanced consideration. It is the only low-carbon option that is deployable at high-temperature nuclear systems like Terrestrial Energy’s IMSR can large scale, and that operates with a high capacity factor.
Source website links: https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2021/04/29/clean-hydrogen-from-nuclear-power/?sh=2645f4f555f6
Mapping the electronic states in an exotic superconductor
28 April, 2021 | by Brookhaven National Laboratory
(Left) Through neutron scattering experiments, scientists observed superconducting state (NSC), and topological superconducting state distinct patterns of magnetic correlations in superconducting (SC + TSS) appear as a function of Fe and Te concentrations. The ("single-stripe magnetism") and non-superconducting ("double- starred A refers to the non-superconducting sample and the starred stripe magnetism") samples of a compound containing iron (Fe), B to the superconducting sample. Overlaid on the phase diagram are tellurium (Te), and selenium (Se). (Right) A material phase diagram photoemission spectra showing the emergence (left) and absence showing where the superconducting state (SC), non- (right) of the topological state. Topological superconductivity is an electronic state that could be harnessed for more robust quantum trapped ions or solid-state qubits such as point defects in diamond, computing. Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory Scientists topological superconducting qubits are intrinsically protected from characterized how the electronic states in a compound containing part of the noise. Therefore, they could support computation less iron, tellurium, and selenium depend on local chemical prone to errors. The question is, where can we find topological concentrations. superconductivity? In this study, the scientists narrowed the search in one compound known to host topological surface states and part They discovered that superconductivity (conducting electricity of the family of iron-based superconductors. In this compound, without resistance), along with distinct magnetic correlations, topological and superconducting states are not distributed appears when the local concentration of iron is sufficiently low; a uniformly across the surface. coexisting electronic state existing only at the surface (topological surface state) arises when the concentration of tellurium is Understanding what's behind these variations in electronic states sufficiently high. Reported in Nature Materials, their findings point and how to control them is key to enabling practical applications to the composition range necessary for topological like topologically protected quantum computing. From previous superconductivity. Topological superconductivity could enable research, the team knew modifying the amount of iron could switch more robust quantum computing, which promises to deliver the material from a superconducting to non-superconducting state. exponential increases in processing power. "Quantum computing is For this study, physicist Gendu Gu of the CMPMS Division grew two still in its infancy, and one of the key challenges is reducing the types of large single crystals, one with slightly more iron relative to error rate of the computations," said first author Yangmu Li, a the other. postdoc in the Neutron Scattering Group of the Condensed Matter The sample with the higher iron content is non-superconducting; Physics and Materials Science the other sample is superconducting. To understand whether the (CMPMS) Division at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) arrangement of electrons in the bulk of the material varied between Brookhaven National Laboratory. "Errors arise as qubits, or quantum the superconducting and non-superconducting samples, the team information bits, interact with their environment. However, unlike turned to spin-polarized neutron scattering. The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), located at DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is resistance—which indicates how coherently electrons can transport home to a one-of-a-kind instrument for performing this technique. charge—with microscale electrical probes. For each crystal, Li "Neutron scattering can tell us the magnetic moments, or spins, of defined a small square grid (100 by 100 microns). In total, the team electrons and the atomic structure of a material," explained mapped the local composition and resistance at more than 2,000 corresponding author, Igor Zaliznyak, a physicist in the CMPMS different locations. Division Neutron Scattering Group who led the Brookhaven team "Through the experiments at the CFN, we characterized the that helped design and install the instrument with collaborators at chemistry and overall conduction properties of the electrons," said Oak Ridge. Zaliznyak. "But we also need to characterize the microscopic "In order to single out the magnetic properties of electrons, we electronic properties, or how electrons propagate in the material, polarize the neutrons using a mirror that reflects only one specific whether in the bulk or on the surface. Superconductivity induced in spin direction." To their surprise, the scientists observed drastically electrons propagating on the surface can host topological objects different patterns of electron magnetic moments in the two called Majorana modes, which are in theory one of the best ways to samples. Therefore, the slight alteration in the amount of iron perform quantum computations. Information on bulk and surface caused a change in electronic state. "After seeing this dramatic electronic properties can be obtained through photoemission change, we figured we should look at the distribution of electronic spectroscopy." For the photoemission spectroscopy experiments, states as a function of local chemical composition," said Zaliznyak. Zaliznyak and Li reached out to Peter Johnson, leader of the CMPMS At Brookhaven's Center for Functional Nanomaterial’s (CFN), Li, with Division Electron Spectroscopy Group, and Nader Zaki, a scientific support from CFN staff members Fernando Camino and Gwen associate in Johnson's group. Wright, determined the chemical composition across representative By measuring the energy and momentum of electrons ejected from smaller pieces of both sample types through energy-dispersive X- the samples (using the same spatial grid) in response to light, they ray spectroscopy. In this technique, a sample is bombarded with quantified the strengths of the electronic states propagating on the electrons, and the emitted x-rays characteristic of different surface, in the bulk, and forming the superconducting state. They elements are detected. They also measured the local electrical quantitatively fit the photoemission spectra to a model that "When the material is close to the transition between the topological characterizes the strengths of these states. Then, the team mapped and non-topological state, you can expect fluctuations," added the electronic state strengths as a function of local composition, Zaliznyak. "For topology to arise, the electronic states need to be essentially building a phase diagram. well-developed and coherent.
"This phase diagram includes the superconducting and topological So, from a technological perspective, we need to synthesize phase transitions and points to where we could find a useful materials away from the transition line." Next, the scientists will chemical composition for quantum computation materials," said Li. expand the phase diagram to explore the compositional range in the "For certain compositions, no coherent electronic states exist to topological direction, focusing on samples with less selenium and develop topological superconductivity. In previous studies, people more tellurium. They are also considering applying neutron thought instrument failure or measurement error were why they scattering to understand an unexpected energy gap (an energy range weren't seeing features of topological superconductivity. Here we where no electrons are allowed) opening in the topological surface show that it's due to the electronic states themselves." state of the same compound. Johnson's group recently discovered this gap and hypothesized it was caused by surface magnetism.
Source website links: https://phys.org/news/2021-04-electronic-states-exotic-superconductor.html
Proposed uranium mine resumes permit process
1 May, 2021 |By Abby Wargo
of Azarga Uranium based in British Columbia, Canada, first began applying for permits and licensing for its Dewey Burdock Project in 2013. The project is the company’s initial development priority. The project will use “in situ leach” mining, a process similar to fracking in which injection wells are used to pump groundwater fortified with oxygen and carbon dioxide into the ore deposits to dissolve uranium.
The production wells are then used to pump the uranium-laden fluids to the surface for recovery. For the Dewey Burdock Project, fluids from the production wells will be processed at two separate facilities at the mine site to extract and concentrate the uranium, according to a project description on the DANR website. In situ
Uranium was mined decades ago in the southern hills but ceased mining requires large amounts of water, which Powertech needs when the mill was closed in the 1970s. Powertech Uranium Corp. permission from the state to use. now plans to resume uranium mining in Fall River and Custer The company plans to appropriate 9,051 total gallons per minute of counties. A Canadian corporation spearheading a controversial water from two underground aquifers which also supply water to uranium mining project near Edgemont is re-initiating the permit communities in Fall River and Custer counties, including Edgemont process with South Dakota so it can progress with the project, which and Hot Springs. In comparison, the entire city of Rapid City uses will be the company’s first. Powertech Industries Inc., a subsidiary around 6,500 gallons of water per minute — 2,551 gallons per minute less than Powertech wants. Over the 16 years the project is dump the slag containing lixiviates back into the water. The next proposed to last, the company will use over 52 million gallons of thing you know, they’ve contaminated the aquifers. We’ll never get water. The project is anticipated to produce over 14 million pounds back out of this,” Henderson told the Journal. of uranium. “The acids stay there and keep dissolving stuff. [These chemicals] According to Powertech and Azarga, in situ uranium mining is move once you inject [them] into the ground. It doesn’t stop.” “You environmentally friendly and has less impacts than other kinds of can’t put [water quality] back together; this is not Humpty Dumpty,” mining like open pit mining — there’s minimal surface disturbance, she said. “This isn’t ever going to be workable, and it’s going to reduced water usage, aquifers’ water quality is restored, and there happen quickly – the minute they start drilling it will affect the water is no additional solid waste generated from the process. Interveners and we won’t recover from that.” Powertech and Azarga currently in the project’s permit applications, however, oppose the mining have control over the mineral and surface rights for 12,613 surface project on the basis that it will destroy the water supply for the acres and 16,962 net mineral acres, and now they are seeking a southwestern portion of the state, where water scarcity is already water rights permit from the state Water Management Board — the an issue. next step in the permitting process. The WMB can grant water rights for available water in an area. Fall River County’s biggest economic draw is agriculture, so having an ample water supply is important for community members who The water itself belongs to the state, but other parties can be depend on farming or ranching. Susan Henderson, a rancher from granted rights if they meet the criteria. The three permits Powertech Edgemont and an intervener in the Powertech case, said the project has left to obtain before they can begin operations are all from the won’t have any benefit to anyone in South Dakota and will “probably state Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources: the Ground destroy” Fall River County. Henderson said no mining company has Water Discharge Plan, the Water Rights Permit, and the Large Scale ever sufficiently restored an aquifer’s water quality after Mine Plan Permit. The first license Powertech received, the source contaminating it and she does not have faith that Powertech would and by-product materials license, was issued by the Nuclear be the first. “Once they extract the uranium they turn around and Regulatory Commission in April 2014, despite a lawsuit brought by the Oglala Sioux Tribe relating to the identification and preservation the company first submitted the applications to the then- of historic and cultural resources. The U.S. Atomic Safety and Department of Environment and Natural Resources in 2013, the two Licensing Board granted them the license despite the company’s federal permits had not yet been issued. Now that the federal failure to complete a cultural resources survey of the mining area. regulatory approvals have been completed, the company’s focus is The three judges on the board sided with Powertech, but the Oglala on resuming hearings related to the three state permits. The Journal Sioux Tribe has appealed the decision. Powertech was also issued reached out to Powertech/Azarga for comment but did not receive two permits by the Environmental Protection Agency in November a response. The WMB hearing for Powertech will take place during 2020, which were then appealed to the Environmental Appeals the Board’s regular meeting on May 5, beginning at 8:30 a.m. Board. However, the company does not expect either appeal to be Mountain time. successful, so they are moving ahead with the other permits. When
Source website links: https://rapidcityjournal.com/news/local/state-and-regional/proposed-uranium-mine-resumes-permit- process/article_e7f82665-6c1b-5e90-bc61-be647ed19a95.html
FAIR USE & CONTENT DISCLAIMER
All News articles compiled in “Nuclear News Web Digest” are for research and academic purpose only.
Articles are collected, compiled from different websites with due credit to article author/s & source website.
Information compiled in the digest are provided in good faith however, we make no representation regarding the
accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability or completeness of any information published in it.