Nuclear – Impact Lab

Analysis, People Making a Difference, Science & Technology News

Hitachi developing a new reactor that burns nuclear waste

September 9, 2014

Hitachi’s nuclear-waste burning reactor system

Nuclear waste is a problem because it needs to be stored for thousands of years before it is safe. Hitatchi has partnered with MIT, the University of Michigan, and the University of California, Berkeley, to make this situation a little more manageable. They are working on a new reactor design that uses transuranic nuclear waste for fuel; leaving behind only short-lived radioactive elements.

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Analysis, Energy, Globalism, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

China and India race to fully harness thorium for nuclear power

July 24, 2014

Thorium is an alternative to uranium as a way of doing nuclear fission.

Although the chemical element thorium sounds like the kind of material used as a plot device in a comic book blockbuster, it could solve the fuel crisis in the real world.

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Analysis, Crazy Stuff, Historical Perspectives, Weapons

Top 7 military weapons most people have never heard of

June 6, 2014

Lun-class Ekranoplane

History of weapon design is full of examples of human ingenuity run amok. “What are some historical weapons that most people have never heard of,” a group of Quora users asked. The answers provide an amazing insight into the history of war, and offer examples of some of the most ingenious — yet impractical — weaponry ever created.

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Analysis, Energy, Science & Technology News, Solar Power, Wind Power

They sound like science fiction, but these 5 energy technologies are getting close to reality

May 8, 2014

Space-based solar

Some newer clean energy sources are becoming mainstream industries with low prices and established financing models like solar panels and wind turbines. But even in this era of emerging predictable clean energy, there are some pretty weird, experimental and ambitious energy projects under development. And they’re trying to move out of the lab and off of research papers, and into actual production.

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Analysis, Crazy Photos, Crazy Stuff, Education, Historical Perspectives, Latest News, New Viewpoints

1 Millisecond into a Nuclear Explosion

December 15, 2011

The very start of a very big bang.

Allegedly, this is a photograph of the beginning of a nuclear detonation. It was taken in 1952 during the Tumbler-Snapper tests in Nevada. At this point, the fireball is about sixty-six feet across. How was the photographer able to get a shutter speed fast enough to do it?

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Great Videos, Science & Technology News

U.S. and Britain join forces to produce clean energy from ‘laser fusion’

September 10, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yixhyPN0r3g[/youtube]

The United States has joined forces with Britain to investigate a hi-tech new way of producing ‘clean energy’ – not from wind or waves, but from firing huge arrays of high-powered lasers at pellets of hydrogen.

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Plant Life, Science & Technology News

Fukushima grows sunflowers to clean up radiation contamination

August 20, 2011

A geiger counter is placed in front of sunflowers in full bloom in Fukushima.

Burning strips of paper swirled into the hot summer sky as they carry the names of the dead above a temple in Fukushima where thousands of sunflowers have been planted to help fight the omnipresent radiation.

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Culture, Current Events, Green Friendly, Historical Perspectives

Renewable Energy consumption tops nuclear for first time

August 16, 2011

According to a new report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the consumption of engery from renewable sources recently topped both the current and the historical consumption levels for nuclear energy. The shift was immediately caused by nuclear outages that coincided with the high-water season for hydropower generation.

But there’s a long-term upward trend in renewables which can be seen here, too, thanks to the increased consumption of biofuels and wind capacity additions…

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Analysis, Big Problems, Globalism, Historical Perspectives, Science & Technology News

Tragedy in Japan May Be Most Globally Disruptive Natural Disaster in Modern Times

March 20, 2011

An elderly woman cries in the devastated town of Rikuzentakata in Iwate prefecture.

There are events in history that sear themselves into the world’s collective imagination, and enter the realm where myth meets heartbreaking reality.

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Analysis, Global Warming, Science & Technology News, Weapons

Regional Nuclear War Could Reverse Global Warming According to NASA

February 27, 2011

A nuclear bomb explodes in a test on the Mururoa atoll in French Polynesia in the early seventies.

NASA Scientists have tested the climate effect of what a small, regional nuclear war would do to the world and have come up with a few revealing (and quite scary) conclusions. For the purpose of the exercise, NASA termed a small, regional nuclear war as 100 Hiroshima-level bombs.

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Big Problems, Globalism, government, Latest Trend, Weapons

Pakistan’s Nuclear Arsenal Estimated at Over 100

January 31, 2011

A nuclear missile in Pakistan.

Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal now totals more than 100 deployed weapons, a doubling of its stockpile over the past several years in one of the world’s most unstable regions, according to estimates by nongovernment analysts.

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Breakthrough Thinking, Science & Technology News

China Reports Breakthrough in Nuclear Technology

January 3, 2011

Workers walk past a part of Qinshan No. 2 Nuclear Power Plant in China.

Chinese scientists have made a breakthrough in spent fuel reprocessing technology that could potentially solve China’s uranium supply problem, state television reported on Monday.

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