Author: Fission Today

Most people take boiling water for granted. For Associate Professor Matteo Bucci, uncovering the physics behind boiling has been a decade-long journey filled with unexpected challenges and new insights.The seemingly simple phenomenon is extremely hard to study in complex systems like nuclear reactors, and yet it sits at the core of a wide range of important industrial processes. Unlocking its secrets could thus enable advances in efficient energy production, electronics cooling, water desalination, medical diagnostics, and more.“Boiling is important for applications way beyond nuclear,” says Bucci, who earned tenure at MIT in July. “Boiling is used in 80 percent of…

The electricity sector faces a timing problem that’s becoming impossible to ignore. Data centers, artificial intelligence (AI) deployment, industrial reshoring, and broader electrification are driving load growth at rates not seen in decades—and much of that new demand wants carbon-free, firm power. Nuclear checks those boxes. But can the industry deliver capacity fast enough? POWER spoke with two EPRI vice presidents to get a clearer picture: Steve Swilley, vice president of Nuclear and Chief Nuclear Officer, and Steve Chengelis, vice president of Energy Supply, Nuclear Development, and Fusion. Their message was direct: optionality is not an option. Meeting demand will…

This blog was drafted by Allie Maggart, a 2024 J.D./M.A. joint degree candidate at the University of San Diego School of Law and Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, with minimal edits. As the legislative calendars move towards the end of the 2022 term with the next major deadline being whether bills reach the governor’s desk, the following provides an update on climate and energy legislative trends from the 2021-2022 sessions based on several interrelated topics: housing, wildfire, greenhouse gas emissions, transportation, energy demand response, and utilities regulation. The Legislature will reconvene on August 1, 2022, with August 31st…

Back in the old days — the really old days — the task of designing materials was laborious. Investigators, over the course of 1,000-plus years, tried to make gold by combining things like lead, mercury, and sulfur, mixed in what they hoped would be just the right proportions. Even famous scientists like Tycho Brahe, Robert Boyle, and Isaac Newton tried their hands at the fruitless endeavor we call alchemy.Materials science has, of course, come a long way. For the past 150 years, researchers have had the benefit of the periodic table of elements to draw upon, which tells them that…

Paris, France – New documents obtained by investigative outlet Disclose suggests that France spent €90,000 to discredit research into the impacts of its nuclear testing in the Pacific. In response:  Shiva Gounden, Head of Pacific at Greenpeace Australia Pacific said: “This act by France is not just a denial of truth — it is an insult to generations who continue to live with the radioactive legacy of these experiments. From the scarred atolls of the Marshall Islands to the irradiated lands of Maohi Nui (French Polynesia), our people carry the enduring fallout of nuclear colonialism – cancers, displacement, environmental devastation,…

Statehouse Happenings This Week: It’s a busy week for energy issues in the Kansas Capitol.  Tuesday morning kicks off two BIG hearings in the House Energy committee. The Climate + Energy Project’s Clean Energy Business Council members will appear before the committee on HB 2228 and HB 2227. HB 2228 creates a uniform net-metering policy across investor-owned utility, municipal, and cooperative territories and increases system size limits. This has been an initiative of the CEBC’s since our inception and we’re excited to see it gaining momentum.  The CEBC has also long-advocated for 3rd-Party Power Purchase Agreements. Members are eager to present the concept to the committee and…

Ammonia is the most widely produced chemical in the world today, used primarily as a source for nitrogen fertilizer. Its production is also a major source of greenhouse gas emissions — the highest in the whole chemical industry.Now, a team of researchers at MIT has developed an innovative way of making ammonia without the usual fossil-fuel-powered chemical plants that require high heat and pressure. Instead, they have found a way to use the Earth itself as a geochemical reactor, producing ammonia underground. The processes uses Earth’s naturally occurring heat and pressure, provided free of charge and free of emissions, as…

Gov Hochul Adds 4GW to New York Nuclear Plan DOE Establishes Center for Used Fuel Research at Idaho National Laboratory LIS Plans $1.38 billion Laser Enrichment Plant at Oak Ridge, TN DOE And NASA Commit To Put a Nuclear Reactor on the Moon By 2030 Type One Fusion Raises $87 Million Thea Energy Completes Fusion Power Plant Design Review Gov Hochul Adds 4GW to New York Nuclear Plan  (NucNet contributed to this report) New York State Governor Kathy Hochul has unveiled an ambitious new nuclear power initiative that would add 4 GW of new nuclear energy to existing capacity in…

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When Youyeon Choi was in high school, she discovered she really liked “thinking in geometry.” The shapes, the dimensions … she was into all of it. Today, geometry plays a prominent role in her doctoral work under the guidance of Professor Koroush Shirvan, as she explores ways to increase the competitiveness of small modular reactors (SMRs).Central to the thesis is metallic nuclear fuel in a helical cruciform shape, which improves surface area and lowers heat flux as compared to the traditional cylindrical equivalent.A childhood in a prominent nuclear energy countryHer passion for geometry notwithstanding, Choi admits she was not “really…