A new app for your iPhone? Well, maybe not just yet...
Researchers at the University of Utah are now using a
visualization app from Apple's App Store that displays simulations of a nuclear
reactor’s core on an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, according to a report
from Tech News Daily.
The reactor simulation allows researchers “to look at
existing nuclear power plants and predict the performance if we want to
increase the power or prolong their life,” said Tatjana Jevremovic, director of
the nuclear engineering program at the University of Utah. With these modern and more detailed
simulation tools, we can design new types of nuclear power plants in a faster
fashion than 15 or 20 years ago,” she added.
Due to the sensitive and proprietary nature of the nuclear
reaction data, this information is not yet publicly available. But "very
soon we will generate something for use in the public domain," said
Jevremovic, who added that the simulations and visualizations should be a great
educational tool.
The computer simulations can show the density of neutrons in
the reactor over space and time as well as display fission reaction rates.
Named AGENT (Arbitrary Geometry Neutron Transport), this reactor simulation
software has now been brought to life through a visualization app called
ImageVis3D Mobile. (17/5/10)
Images:
University of Utah / Wikimedia
Roach motel technology for cesium 137
Ted Gregory writing for
the McClatchy News Service (and found on the pages of the New
Hampshire Sentinel Source) dons his lab coat for this scientific discovery.
It
may be oversimplifying to suggest that the microscopic mechanism that Mercouri
Kanatzidis and Nan Ding have developed resembles a roach motel of nuclear
waste, where the ghastly undesirable checks in but doesn’t check out.
Kanatzidis prefers to call it a Venus flytrap.
Either way, the results are the same. The pinkish, powdery material the two
researchers created traps cesium-137,
a prevalent, stubborn radioactive contaminant. And trapping it could make
clearing it from toxic sites immensely easier.
Essentially, the sulfide framework acts as a “very tiny, tiny building with
rooms,” Kanatzidis said. The cesium enters the building then bonds to the
“sulfide walls” of the interior. In a more scientific context, the flexible
sulfide structure contains organic, positively charged ions that can change
positions with cesium in a watery solution. That reaction prompts the structure
of the framework to close only on the cesium ions, preventing them from
escaping. Other similar ions are not trapped.
Kanatzidis, a professor at Northwestern University and a senior scientist at
Argonne National Laboratory, and Ding, an assistant chemistry professor at
Claflin University in Orangeburg, S.C., made the discovery in 2007. Scientists
maintain that cesium-137 is among the most dangerous radioactive isotopes,
largely because the soft, silvery-white metal has a half-life of 30 years,
easily enters the body and can bring on cancer decades after exposure.
A remnant from nuclear weapons testing and nuclear power plants, cesium-137 is
believed to be the main source of radiation still present from the notorious
nuclear power plant explosion in 1986 in Chernobyl, Ukraine, pictured here. (14/4/10)
Worker exposed to Uranium Hexafluoride - don't worry, 'He' feels fine...
The
Earth Times brings us this. A worker has been accidentally exposed to a
radioactive substance, uranium
hexafluoride, at a uranium enrichment plant in Gronau in northern
Germany, officials said. Hospital doctors said there was no immediate evidence
his health had been damaged. An air-filtration machine cleaned the contaminated
air and none of it reached the outside world.
"There's
no radiation at all coming from him. He feels just fine," said Otmar
Schober, head of the nuclear medicine clinic at Muenster University Hospital.
Blood, saliva and urine samples are being sent to a laboratory to find if he
absorbed any of the substance.
Uranium
hexafluoride forms a corrosive acid when it comes in contact with moisture in
air and can be lethal from contact alone.
The
Urenco Company gave no details on how the substance escaped in the container
preparation unit at Germany's only enrichment plant on Thursday. Urenco said
there had been no threat to the public. A spokeswoman said an investigation
into the cause was under way. The plant enriches uranium for use in
nuclear-power reactors. Anti-nuclear groups have vainly called for it to be
closed.(29/1/10)
US power plants keep going - oh goody...
Paul
Voosen, reporting for Scientific American, has a look at
America’s power stations. Increasingly
dependable and emitting few greenhouse gases, the U.S. fleet of nuclear
power plants will likely run for another 50 or even 70 years before it
is retired (long past the 40-year life span planned decades ago) according to
industry executives, regulators and scientists.
With
nuclear providing always-on electricity that will become more cost-effective if
a price is placed on heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions, utilities have
found it is now viable to replace turbines or lids that have been worn down by
radiation exposure or wear. Many engineers are convinced that nearly any plant
parts, most of which were not designed to be replaced, can be swapped out.
"We
think we can replace almost every component in a nuclear power plant,"
said Jan van der Lee, director of the Materials Ageing Institute (MAI), a
nuclear research facility inaugurated this week in France and run by the
state-owned nuclear giant EDF.
"We
don't want to wait until something breaks. By identifying components that are
wearing down and replacing them, suddenly nuclear plants will find that,
technically, there is no age limit" he said.
Is
it illegal to expose people to any level of radiation without medical
justification?
The
following report, which goes quite well with the previous item on this page,
was found courtesy of the Daily
Mail’s web pages. A human X-ray
machine which produces 'naked' images of passengers has been introduced at
Manchester airport, enabling staff to instantly spot any hidden weapons or
explosives.
Fears
have been raised that the Rapiscan Secure 1000, which resembles a large filing
cabinet, may not be safe for women in the early stages of pregnancy or
children. Other travellers might not want to be scanned because of the graphic
nature of the images, bosses admit.
The
X-Rays penetrate one-tenth of an inch into the body, enough to detect any
devices or drugs hidden just under the skin. Dr Sarah Burnett, who works as an
independent radiologist, raised concerns about the safety of the device two years
ago, when she was asked to undergo a full body scan at Luton Airport.
She
said: 'It is illegal to expose people to any level of radiation without medical
justification. So how is it that the Government is allowed to irradiate us
willy-nilly at airports? 'I am particularly concerned about the potential
effects on women in their first trimester of pregnancy.’ Here’s a handy link
for you to look at: Justification of Practices
Involving Ionising Radiation Regulations 2004[11].
'The
machines are referred to as 'low-dose', but there is a school of thought that
there is no 'safe' radiation dose," said Dr Burnett, who has had 15 years'
experience working in the NHS. "It is true that passengers are exposed to
'cosmic' radiation within the aircraft, but there's nothing they can do about
that - it can't be avoided. We can, however, avoid deliberately exposing people
to radiation.'
Sarah
Barrett, head of customer experience at Manchester Airport, played down the
fears, claiming that even frequent fliers did not need to worry about radiation
from the low-level x-ray. She said a dental X-ray transmits 20,000 times more
radiation and that the Rapiscan would make the check-in process much quicker
for passengers, who will not have to remove their coats, shoes or belts.
So, dear reader, what do you
prefer: a full pat-down if you make the arch ‘beep’ or a low-level dose of
radiation?
Having radiation treatment? Best read this, then (we are not scaremongering, just reporting)
We
haven’t had many science-based stories lately, so here’s one, courtesy of the IAEA
that will make you sit up and listen (or run for the hills!) Radiation
is being widely used inappropriately in medical diagnosis and an international
response is required because of the magnitude of the problem say participants
of a joint IAEA/European Community workshop that concluded last week. The event
was held in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO).
Experts
from 40 countries attending the workshop agreed that reliance on technology in medicine
is increasing, radiation doses are becoming higher and there are serious
"knowledge deficits" among health professionals. The rate at which
radiation is used unnecessarily is in the range of 30 percent the workshop
participants were told.
During
the event, it also emerged that the traditional approach to communication of
radiation dose and risk among referring physicians and radiological
practitioners has been ineffective and a new initiative to standardise a new
simple approach should be undertaken. But experts also said that radiological
diagnosis is a vital tool that has saved countless lives allowing doctors to
detect hidden diseases and make ever more accurate diagnoses
The
workshop was part of a collaborative global initiative the IAEA is taking with
other international organizations to developing a series of measures aimed at
strengthening radiation protection of patient.
Lab coats on - again - this time we're off to Sweden
Dan and Michelle,
writing for the Hogan Science Daily News, don white coats for this
science news.
Material that is 100,000 times
heavier than water and more dense than the core of the sun is being produced at
the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and is aimed at an energy process that
is both more sustainable and less damaging to the environment than current nuclear
power.
Atmospheric
scientists at the University of Gothenburg's department of chemistry have
produced a material so heavy that a 10 cm cube would weigh 130 tons. So far,
only microscopic amounts of the new material have been produced. New
measurements that have been published in two scientific journals, however, have
shown that the distance between atoms in the material is much smaller than in
normal matter.
Leif
Holmlid, a professor in the chemistry department, said he believes it's an
important step on the road to commercial use of the material. The material is
produced from "heavy hydrogen," also known as deuterium, and is
therefore known as "ultra-dense deuterium."
Deuterium
is an isotope of hydrogen that is found in large quantities in water; more than
one atom per 10,000 hydrogen atoms has a deuterium nucleus. The isotope is
denoted "2H" or "D." Deuterium is used in a number of
conventional nuclear reactors in the form of heavy water (DO).
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D’youthinkhesaurus? Nope, it’s
Reactorsaurus: Dounreay’s newest recruit.
Our thanks to the
people at World Nuclear News for this gem. Engineers have designed a
robotic system for hazardous work on the Dounreay Prototype Fast Reactor. The
two-armed machine - which also has ten eyes and four ears - has been named
'Reactorsaurus'.
The 75 tonne robot takes the form of a traversing
carriage with two 16 metre arms. Operators in a remote control room will use
binocular cameras on each arm to take apart the highly radioactive internal
structures of the 254 MWe reactor.
The
arms will be able to cut up and reduce the size of reactor components using
diamond wire, hydraulic shears, oxy/propane and plasma cutting. Operators will
also be able to listen in on the action using two microphones on each of
the arms.
Jared
Fraser, head of the Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd's design team, said:
"Completion of the design phase of a complex and unique piece of equipment
like this is a credit to the entire team.”
Psst: you live near North Anna? You want some pills..? I got some..
Rusty
Dennen, reporting for the Free Lance-Star brings us this
medical tale that may be of some interest to you, should the need arise...
Pills
to protect against a specific type of radiation
poisoning will continue to be provided to those who live near North
Anna Power Station in Virginia (pictured).
The
Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced this week that it will keep supplying
states with potassium iodide. Residents around Dominion power's other Virginia
nuclear plant - Surry Power Station on the James River in Surry County - also
would be included. The medicine is intended for anyone who lives or works
within each plant's 10-mile emergency planning zone.
Potassium
iodide is a non-prescription medication routinely added to table salt to make
it "iodized." It can protect against poisoning by radioactive iodine,
one of the contaminants that could be released during a severe reactor
accident. It also helps reduce the risk of thyroid cancer and other diseases by
blocking the thyroid gland's absorption of radioactive iodine.
New fusion reactor possible from boffins at Texas University
Right
– lab coats on for this report found on the Physics World web site and
written by Michael Banks.
Physicists
at the University of Texas have proposed a new type of fusion reactor
that could destroy the most biologically hazardous nuclear waste. It would consist
of a spherical tokamak containing a deuterium-tritium plasma, which would
produce streams of neutrons that would be fired into the waste held in a
"blanket" around the reactor. If built, the reactor could be
operational in 15-20 years’ time and could even be used to generate
electricity.
High-level
nuclear waste contains not only uranium and plutonium but also other
"transuranic" elements that are heavier than uranium and are the
principal source of longer-lived radiation. Most such waste is put into stainless-steel
flasks and stored in vaults, although it is possible to reprocess spent fuel
and separate uranium and plutonium from the fission products.
The
new reactor would destroy the transuranic waste in a two-step process both
involving the process of "transmutation". The idea of transmutation
has been around for some time and involves converting radioactive material,
with a half-life on a geological timescale, into something with a much shorter
half-life. Waste would still need to be stored, but its long-term hazard would
be reduced.
Meet me in St Louis, toothy....?
Thanks to the Baltimore Sun
for the kind of story that we can really get our teeth into.
Questionnaires will soon be sent
to thousands of men who donated their baby teeth half a century ago to
scientists seeking to learn whether radioactive
fallout in milk the donors drank as children affected their health
later in life.
It's the latest step in a study that began in the 1950s and 1960s at Washington
University, but then stalled for decades.
Fifty years ago, concern about atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons spurred a
group of local scientists and other area residents to begin the project, then
called the St. Louis Baby Tooth Survey.
An early apparent link between fallout and health problems was established by
the study. But now, more than 40 years later, the study is resuming.
Researchers now hope to find links between fallout and instances of cancer in
children born in the 1950s and early 1960s.
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I was going to say it's a load of balls - but it's not: meet the Radball...
Jorn Madslien brings us this little scientific gem, found on the BBC’s online
news service.
Matt Clough is a member of a team of
scientists at the recently-established National Nuclear Laboratory, a
nuclear technology services provider owned by the state, but run as a private
enterprise.
Mr
Clough and his team are behind the RadBall, or
radiation ball, made from a polymer material that becomes opaque when exposed
to radiation. The basic idea is that it's transparent when it's new," he
grins, holding it up against the light. The darker it is, the more radiation
it's absorbed."
To
nuclear de-commissioners, who are working to clean up the mess left behind from
half a century of nuclear weapons and energy production, the RadBall could soon
become a vital tool.
The
RadBall's main advantage is that it is very portable. "You can use it in
hard-to-reach areas in the plant and in areas where electric devices struggle
with high radiation levels," Mr Clough explains.
"It
tells us where the hazards are and how severe they are."
Every home should have one of these - whatever it is...
Once again, anythingradioactive is
at the cutting edge of interesting technology, following hard on the heels of John
Vidal reporting for the Guardian. Our thanks to him for the
following.
Scientists at Los
Alamos have said that nuclear power plants smaller than a garden shed
and able to power 20,000 homes will be on sale within five years. The miniature
reactors will be factory-sealed, contain no weapons-grade material, have no
moving parts and will be nearly impossible to steal because they will be
encased in concrete and buried underground.
Hyperion, a New Mexico-based
company that has been given the go-ahead by the US government, said last week
that it has taken its first firm orders and plans to start mass production
within five years. 'Our goal is to generate electricity for 10 cents a watt
anywhere in the world,' said John Deal, chief executive of Hyperion. 'They will
cost approximately $25m [£13m] each. For a community with 10,000 households,
that is a very affordable $250 per home.'
Deal claims to have more than 100
firm orders, largely from the oil and electricity industries, but says the
company is also targeting developing countries and isolated communities. 'It's
leapfrog technology,' he said.
Sticky tape X-Rays - new discovery from UCLA
This
rather odd report comes with thanks to Jessica Griggs, reporting for
The New Scientist this week.
Peeling
ordinary sticky tape can generate bursts of X-rays
intense enough to produce an image of the bones in your fingers. Seth Putterman
and colleagues from the University of California, Los Angeles used a motor to
unwind a roll of sticky tape and recorded the electromagnetic emissions.
Ripping the tape from its roll at 3 centimetres per second generated X-ray
bursts of 15 kiloelectronvolts – each lasting one-billionth of a second, and
containing over a million photons.
Putterman
admits he is not sure exactly what is going on. "My attitude is to marvel
at the phenomenon – all we are doing is peeling tape, and nature sets up a
process that gives you nanosecond X-ray bursts."
Exactly
what drives this process is still a mystery, but it is well known that if two
surfaces rub over one another, one becomes positively charged and one
negatively charged.
In
this case, the sticky adhesive becomes positive, and the polyethylene roll
negative. This charge difference builds up until an electron jumps from the
adhesive to the roll, with enough energy to produce X-rays when it hits the
tape.
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Moonbase living gets one step nearer thanks to NASA
This
came to us via a fairly circular route, so we thought we’d run it as it’s not
one that would normally come our way. So our thanks goes to Katherine Martin
who works at the Glenn Research Centre in Cleveland for this report.
NASA
astronauts will need power sources when they return to the moon and
establish a lunar outpost and engineers are exploring the possibility of
nuclear fission to provide the necessary power.
A
fission surface power system on the moon has the potential to generate a steady
40 kilowatts of electric power, enough for about eight houses on Earth. It
works by splitting uranium atoms in a reactor to generate heat that then is
converted into electric power.
"Our goal is to build a technology demonstration unit with all the major
components of a fission surface power system and conduct non-nuclear,
integrated system testing in a ground-based space simulation facility,"
said Lee Mason, principal investigator for the test. Testing of the non-nuclear
system is expected to take place at Glenn in 2012 or 2013.
For more Space nuggets, please go to the Lost In Space pages
Granite worktops - are they a health hazard in your home?
We thought we’d be useful today
(just for a change!) and do a bit of ‘public information service’ stuff for
you, so here goes.
There has been a lot of chatter
on-line recently about the safety of granite
worktops as many people now choose them to put in their kitchens. So, on your behalf, we have been searching
around for an answer and have come across this on the pages of The
Independent’s web site.
Question: Are granite worktops a
health hazard in the home?
The short answer is no. Radon is a
natural radioactive gas that is present at low levels in all homes and even in
outdoor air. Higher levels can occur in some parts of the country, such as the
limestone areas of Derbyshire and the North-west and the granite areas of the
South-west. Exposure to high levels of radon over a long period significantly
increases the risk of lung cancer. The main source of radon in homes is the
ground beneath the building. Granite worktops and fireplaces do not emit much
radon and will not increase the radon level inside a home by a significant
amount. Further information about radon is available on the website of the National
Radiological Protection Board, or a free information pack
can be obtained by ringing them on 0800 614529.
Want to own one of these?
We
were sent this press release today, and thought we’d share it with you, just in
case you felt the need to own one…
Launched
by Lab Impex Systems, the SmartCAM is the next generation Continuous Air
Monitor (CAM) that will give users unparalleled performance in terms of
detectable limit, sensitivity and speed to alarm. The SmartCAM utilises
state-of-the-art Spectral Measurement Analysis in Real Time (SMART)
technology. This provides real advances in alpha particulate detection
techniques.
In
operation the SmartCAM continually monitors alpha and beta particulates
deposited on a static card mounted filter (optional moving filter will also be
available) with a high efficiency solid - state detector.
The
SmartCAM utilises proven features of LIS's previous generation CAM, the
CMS-2000, such as the highly efficient head design. Where the SmartCAM
sets itself apart from other systems is in its ability to accurately determine
background (Radon and Gamma) ensuring the limitation of costly false alarms.
More information can be found at www.lab-impex-systems.com
Anglo-French nuclear plan to be unveiled
With grateful thanks to Susan Bell and Tim
Shipman, writing for the Daily Telegraph. An Anglo-French plan for a
new generation of nuclear
power stations will be unveiled by Nicolas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown
this week as part of a series of measures designed to forge a
"fraternal" relationship between the two countries.
Mr Sarkozy, who arrives today, is to offer French expertise
to help Britain build replacement nuclear reactors for its ageing plants,
responsible for 20 % of the UK’s electricity production.
Whilst this joint effort will be hailed as a drive to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions by reducing Britain's reliance on fossil fuels,
anti-nuclear campaigners are expected to react with dismay to the notion that
Britain may follow the lead of France, which generates 80 % cent of its
electricity from nuclear energy.
Well, you know where to get your Geiger counters, don't you?
Israel purchases Logol pills
We
have a medical story for you today filed by Shahar Ilan, for the Haaretz
web pages.
Defence establishment officials reported on Sunday that
Israel has recently purchased a new supply of Logol pills used
against nuclear radiation.
The pills, originally distributed in 2004 to residents of Arad
and Yavneh in southern Israel, were met with strong opposition from the mayors
of these Negev towns.
The initiative to repurchase the pills was reported by
officials on Sunday as part of a visiting delegation to the Soreq Nuclear Research Centre (pictured) located southeast of
Dimona. The defence establishment is, however, still deciding whether to
distribute these or put them in storage.
This
debate has arisen as Israel was planning to bring an electrical particle
accelerator on line by March 10th which is supposed to take over the functions
currently being done by the Soreq reactor.
US worker inhales Strontium 90
What
is it with America and Strontium 90? If they are not digging up a desert
(as mentioned below ) they are inhaling the stuff!! Here is a tale of woe found
on the Idaho Press web pages. A
worker at an eastern Idaho company recently inhaled an unknown amount of Strontium 90 whilst
extracting radioactive material from a nuclear gauge. He sought medical advice
from the local hospital and was later released.
The incident occurred in a private facility in Bonneville County near Idaho
Falls. State agencies reported no "assessed threat" to the public.
Emergency management officials said that Sabia Corp. closed and secured the
building and have been assessing the best method of re-entering it in order to
conduct cleanup operations. Local federal and government agencies discussed the
best courses of action to recover from this incident.
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Oz patients await medical tests
With
thanks to Richard Macey, writing for the Sydney Morning Herald’s
web pages. Patients in Australia
face having medical tests postponed because of another delay in restarting
the new Lucas Heights nuclear reactor.
The
$400 million OPAL reactor was shut down in July, just three months after being
opened by the then prime minister, John Howard, when uranium fuel plates
started coming loose. Without the
reactor, Australia has had to import radioactive ingredients, needed to make
the 500,000 doses of nuclear medicine used every year, from South Africa and
Canada.
The
fault, requiring the redesign of fuel plates used to power the reactor, has
already forced a rationing of radiopharmaceuticals, with doctors and Lucas
Heights specialists having to choose who should miss out when imports are held
up. The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation originally
expected the Argentine-designed reactor would be out of service for only eight
weeks while repairs were made.
Isotope problems in Canada
With
thanks to those nice people writing for the Toronto Star web pages for
this one. The supplier of medical isotopes,
based in Ottawa, Canada, is contradicting the federal government's version of
when Ottawa first knew there was a problem with the isotope supply in November
2007.
Officials
of MDS Nordion told a recent hearing that they were blunt when they met with
officials from the Department of Natural Resources on Nov. 22. "We were
very clear. This was a crisis situation. We had a global supply issue that was
going to impact nuclear medicine and physicians around the world," said
Grant Malkoske, vice-president of Strategic Technologies at MDS.
The
company reprocesses isotopes produced by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. in Chalk
River, Ont., and sells them to pharmaceutical companies around the world.
It's science, Jim, but not as we know it
With thanks to Eric Berger, writing for the Houston
Chronicle and with no apologies for starting off this nugget by saying ‘It’s
science, Jim…’ In Star Trek II Mr Spock dies after saving the Enterprise
and succumbing to a lethal dose of radiation.
Even though the writers’ decided there was no cure that ‘Bones’ could
give him, scientists in Texas may be on the verge of proving them wrong.
Rice University's Jim Tour and his colleagues at two
Houston health institutions have found a drug that, when given to mice before
radiation exposure, is 5,000 times more effective than the best-available
therapy for radiation injuries.
Officials at the US Department of Defence, seeking
remedies for the radiation sickness that would follow a nuclear strike, were so
taken by the research that they recently gave Tour a $540,000 (around £271,000)
grant and asked him to compress the next phase of testing into an almost
unheard-of nine months.
"They originally asked for something in six
months, but I told them that was impossible," said Tour, a chemist who
directs Rice's Carbon Nanotechnology Laboratory.
Get your particle accelerator here
With
thanks to Andrew Pollack, writing for the International Herald
Tribune.
Medical
centres in the US are rushing to turn nuclear particle accelerators, formerly
used only for exotic physics research, into the latest weapons against cancer.
"I'm
fascinated and horrified by the way it's developing," said Anthony L.
Zietman, a radiation oncologist at Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital,
which operates a proton centre "This is the dark side of American
medicine." It costs around $50,000 to treat prostrate cancer with protons,
which is around twice the price of X-ray treatment.
Once
hospitals have made such a huge investment, experts like Dr. Zietman say,
doctors will be under pressure to guide patients toward proton therapy when a
less costly alternative might suffice.
A look inside Australia's Opal Reactor
Australia's new research reactor has reached its full operating power of 20 MWt during
commissioning. The reactor will supply radioisotopes for medical and industrial
use. The Open Pool Australian Light-water Reactor (Opal) is owned and operated
by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (Ansto) at
Lucas Heights about 30 km outside of Sydney
Engineers
at
the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, using an emerging
sensing technology, have developed a suite of sensors for national security
applications that can quickly and effectively detect chemical, biological,
nuclear and explosive materials. This technology can also be used to detect if
a country is using its nuclear reactors to produce material for nuclear
weapons.
Canadian nuclear plant reopens after shutdown
Found on a recent trawl through the BBC’s
web pages. A Canadian nuclear reactor producing two-thirds of the world's medical isotopes resumed
operations recently after being shut down for a month.
The
country's Atomic Energy Agency says that new supplies will be ready within days
to meet a worldwide shortage.
The
Chalk River nuclear plant in the province of Ontario, in Eastern Canada,
produces isotopes used all over the world for medical imaging and diagnostic
scans for fractures, cancer and heart conditions.
The
50-year old reactor was originally shut down for a week of routine maintenance
but the country's nuclear regulator refused to allow it to resume production
until a number of safety issues were resolved.
New Trinitite theory emerges
For 60 years, how Trinitite
formed has been an unchanging part of Trinity Site lore. After the test, the ground-zero crater was
coated with Trinitite, green due to the presence of iron in the sand.
The White Sands public-affairs staff had been telling it the same way until Los
Alamos National Lab Scientists Robert Hermes and William Strickfaden published
the results of their recent investigation.
Strickfaden said he
ran the appropriate numbers through the appropriate formulas and could not get
the atomic fireball to form glass in the thickness found on site. He said
the fireball did not hover over the site long enough to account for glass that
thick. After further research, they suggested that the desert sand was scooped
up into the fireball instead of being baked on the ground underneath it.
Thorium Oxide - better in reactors than uranium
Thorium Oxide
could be the answer to many concerns about nuclear power. Reactors that use
thorium, rather than uranium, produce radioactive waste that needs to be stored
for only 500 years. They can also incinerate the much longer-lived radioactive
products from conventional nuclear plants, making a Chernobyl-type meltdown
virtually impossible: Okay…
Treaty launches £7bn fusion project
The
drive to
harness the nuclear power that makes the Sun shine passed a milestone
recently with the signing of an international treaty launching a £7 billion
fusion energy research project. This
latest step has been inspired by the thought that fusion could solve the
world’s energy needs.
MIT developes power output technology
Researchers at MIT
have developed technology they say will boost the power output of nuclear power plants by 50 per cent, and make them safer to run. Well, that’s okay then…
You can't make a bomb in a bathtub
Making an atomic
bomb isn’t for dummies - or for sissies. "It's not done in your
basement or bathtub," said Robert Norris, a nuclear weapons expert at the
Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group in Washington. Okay…
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Vermont Yankee off-line
Found
this on the CNN web pages, via the Dow Jones news wire. The Vermont
Yankee nuclear power plant, situated in Vernon, went off-line last
Thursday after an automatic shutdown.
Plant
officials said the shutdown occurred during routine testing of steam valves.
Plant technicians are trying to determine the cause of the automatic shutdown.
Officials
said the plant remains in a safe and stable condition and will be restarted after
engineers complete a thorough evaluation of the shutdown.
Prior to the
shutdown, the plant had been operating at a 62% power level to allow repairs on
one of the plants two cooling towers.
1kg uranium produces 4,000kwh electricity
Hands
up if you knew this: One kilogram (2.2 pounds) of natural
uranium can produce more than 4,000 kilowatt hours of electricity -
equivalent to burning 38 tons of coal or 150 barrels of oil
N Korea claims successful test
SEOUL,
South Korea (CNN) --
North Korea claimed it conducted a successful underground nuclear test
Monday (Oct 9) according to the country's official Korean Central News Agency.
A U.S. military official told CNN that "something clearly has
happened," but the Pentagon was working to fully confirm the report.
Uranium 238 has 4.5bn year half-life
Here’s
a statistic to make you think: Uranium
238, the most prevalent isotope in uranium concentrates, has a half-life of
about 4.5 billion years.
Plutonium 'valuable energy source'
Plutonium routinely made in power reactors and that from
dismantled nuclear weapons, is a valuable energy source when integrated into
the nuclear fuel cycle.
Plutonium not now in Earth's crust
Here’s something to ponder over your cornflakes, again from the World-Nuclear
Association web site: Plutonium has occurred naturally, but except for trace quantities
it is not now found in the earth's crust.

Japanese town wants to host new plant
A
Japanese
town has put itself forward to possibly host the country's high-level
radioactive waste storage facility. Toyocho, in Kochi prefecture, was the first
to respond to a government invitation
1 tonne of fuel same as 120,000 tonnes of coal
According to the World Nuclear Transport
Institute
1 tonne of nuclear fuel is the equivalent of burning 120,000 tonnes of
coal…
85% radiation comes from natural sources
Another gem from the people at the
World Nuclear Transport Institute : 85% of the world’s
radiation comes from naturally radioactive sources
We're all bathed on radiation
Here’s something to make you
think: every plant, animal and human that has ever lived on Earth has been bathed in radiation for every second of its life.

Seawater plant due for Pakistan
A
thermal seawater desalination plant will be coupled to the Karachi
nuclear power plant as a "first step" towards the employment of large
scale production of potable water which has "socio-economic
significance" for Pakistan.
The country's Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) has teamed up with the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to undertake a Coordinated Research
Project The
result of the work will be the Nuclear Desalination Demonstration Plant (NDDP),
which will use extraction steam from one of the Karachi nuclear plant's
(Kanupp's) feed heaters to desalinate seawater.
Nuts to you - Brazils are radioactive
Brazil nuts are often said to be one of the most radioactive foodstuffs in the
world. The Brazil nut tree tends to accumulate high amounts of calcium. In the
process, the nut also accumulates high levels of other elements such as barium
and radium.
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