Author: Fission Today

Powering a resilient energy future From the scale of the atom to the globe, Michigan Engineering is a leader in nuclear energy innovation and impact. Our faculty, students and alumni are advancing the state of the art in fission reactor systems and pushing the boundaries of high-energy-density physics that could lead to future fusion solutions.  […] Source link

Longitudinal dynamics (1D, unmagnetized): excitation of solitary micro-cavity waves (Fig. 4)A sufficiently violent collapse of the cavity in the unmagnetized (x) direction may trigger the formation of solitary structures that, albeit microscopic, could be long-lived and arise in large numbers. This is demonstrated in Fig. 4, where we present results of 1D PIC simulations of such a collapse, starting from a small vacuum cavity. Recall from Fig. 3 that the laser-induced vacuum cavity can easily have a length L on the order of \(100\,\textrm{mm}\) or more. In the present case, however, we use only a very short seed cavity with \(L_{\textrm{seed}} = 0.5\,\textrm{mm}\).…

Deep Fission, which aims to place small modular reactors in boreholes a mile underground, says it has identified three initial potential project sites – in Texas, Utah and Kansas.  California-based nuclear startup company Deep Fission announced its emergence from stealth mode in August 2024. It aims to locate 15 MWe pressurised water reactors about one mile (1.6 km) underground in a 30-inch borehole. The heat is transferred to a steam generator at depth to boil water, and the non-radioactive steam rises rapidly to the surface where a standard steam turbine converts the energy to electricity. It says its reactors are…

Sample materialsMaterials used for the preparation of metallic samples in this work were purchased from Goodfellow (UK) or the Joint Research Centre (JRC, Geel, Belgium), Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM). Wherever possible, samples in disk/foil form were made, which was the case for Mg, Ce, Zr, Ni, Al. For samples of Se, Ge, Te it was not possible to create samples in disk form on account of the brittleness of the materials, and material fragments were used instead. In the case of Na, the sample material used was NaF powder, purchased from Sigma Aldrich, which was encapsulated in…

15-MW nuclear plant scheduled to go critical by 4 July 2026 Photo courtesy Deep Fission. Deep Fission, the nuclear energy company placing small modular pressurised water reactors in boreholes one mile underground, has selected the Great Plains Industrial Park in Kansas as the site of its advanced reactor pilot project. What we offer Independent news and information for and about the global nuclear industry For nuclear incidents, NucNet operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week Daily, weekly and monthly newsletters Access to infographics for subscribers to use in their own editorial and marketing material Exclusive analysis and…

In this experiment, rows of components were cut using various cutting parameters, followed by photographing and observing the resulting damage. The observed damage primarily includes cutting marks and the condition of the cross-section on both the fuel rod components and the stainless steel wire wraps. Table 3 details the specific parameters used for each experiment, such as cutting speed, focal position, power, type of assist gas, and gas pressure.Table 3 Experiment numbers and parameters for this experiment.Fig. 5Cutting results under different gaseous medium (a) air (b) nitrogen.Figure 5 shows the cross-sectional views of laser cuts using two different assist gases: (a) air…

Photo credit: Ihor Ciritelli / Shutterstock When the microreactor startup Oklo merged with a blank-check company last year to debut on the New York Stock Exchange, the company said it hoped to raise $300 million on the public market to fund construction of its first power plants and radioactive waste recycling efforts.  While so-called SPAC deals were, at that point, widely criticized as a shortcut to going public that demonstrated that a company’s books couldn’t withstand the scrutiny of a traditional entry to the stock market, the move paid off handsomely for the California-based company. Oklo today is worth nearly…

National Institute for Fusion Science, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Toki, 509-5292, JapanHao Wang, Yasushi Todo, Hanzheng Li, Malik Idouakass & Jialei WangMax-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik, 85748, Garching, GermanyPhilipp Lauber, H. Zohm, C. Angioni, N. Arden, V. Artigues, M. Astrain, M. Balden, V. Bandaru, A. Banon Navarro, M. Bauer, A. Bergmann, M. Bergmann, M. Bernert, R. Bilato, G. Birkenmeier, V. Bobkov, A. Bock, L. Bock, T. Body, N. Bonanomi, B. Böswirth, A. Bottino, D. Brida, A. Buhler, A. Burckhart, P. Cano Megías, D. Carlton, A. Castillo Castillo, A. Cathey, A. Chankin, G. Conway, D. Coster, P. David, P. de Marné, A. Di Siena, M. Dibon, M. Dunne, R. Dux, T. Eich, S. Elgeti, E. Fable, M. Faitsch, D. Fajardo Jimenez, U. Fantz, H. Faugel, R. Fischer, M. Fröschle, J. C. Fuchs, H. Fünfgelder, L. Giannone, I. Girka, O. Girka, T. Gleiter, S. Glöggler, J. C. Gonzalez, T. Görler, A. Gräter, G. Grenfell, H. Greuner, M. Griener, O. Grover, A. Gude, S. Günter, T. Happel, N. den Harder, T. Hayward-Schneider, B. Heinemann, P. Heinrich, M.…

By dropping a nuclear reactor 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) underground, Deep Fission aims to use the weight of a billion tons of rock and water as a natural containment system comparable to concrete domes and cooling towers. With the fission reaction occurring far below the surface, steam can safely circulate in a closed loop to generate power. The California-based startup announced in October that prospective customers had signed non-binding letters of intent for 12.5 gigawatts of power involving data center developers, industrial parks, and other (mostly undisclosed) strategic partners, with initial sites under consideration in Kansas, Texas, and Utah. Individual…

Alpha particle detectors are crucial for the operation and decommissioning of nuclear power plants. In these environments they are exposed to large doses of high energy alphas, neutrons and other forms of radiation1. Robust, high resolution, high sensitivity and low background detectors are an absolute necessity.Diamond solid-state detectors are excellent alternatives to conventional scintillation and gas filled detectors. Diamond’s wide band-gap and large carrier mobility results in reduced leakage currents, fast signal collection2 and its radiation tolerance is unmatched by other semiconductors3. Furthermore, its low atomic number leads to a low capture cross section for gamma radiation, which reduces background…