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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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Scientists in Italy Claim to Have Demonstrated Cold Fusion

January 23, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-Ru1eAymvE&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Few areas of science are more controversial than cold fusion, the hypothetical near-room-temperature reaction in which two smaller nuclei join together to form a single larger nucleus while releasing large amounts of energy. In the 1980s, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleishmann claimed to have demonstrated cold fusion – which could potentially provide the world with a cheap, clean energy source – but their experiment could not be reproduced. Since then, all other claims of cold fusion have been illegitimate, and studies have shown that cold fusion is theoretically implausible, causing mainstream science to become highly speculative of the field in general.

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Canadian Startup Believes They Can Deliver Cheap Nuclear Fusion

August 2, 2009

fusion_x220

General Fusion’s reactor is a metal sphere with 220 pneumatic pistons designed to ram its surface simultaneously.

General Fusion, a startup in Vancouver, Canada, says it can build a prototype fusion power plant within the next decade and do it for less than a billion dollars. So far, it has raised $13.5 million from public and private investors to help kick-start its ambitious effort.

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Handheld Nuclear Fusion Reactor

July 7, 2009

Last year, Pentagon mad science arm Darpa was working on one of its wildest projects yet: a microchip-sized nuclear reactor. The program is now officially done, the agency says. But these sorts of far-out projects have a habit of being reemerging under new managers and new names.

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New Design Makes Nuclear Reactors Cheaper and Faster To Build

June 20, 2009

New Design Makes Nuclear Reactors Cheaper and Faster To Build

A 4.5-meter-wide, 23-meter-long nuclear reactor designed to fit on a railcar for shipping to the site of a power plant.

A new type of nuclear reactor that is designed to be manufactured in a factory rather than built at a power plant could cut construction times for nuclear power plants almost in half and make them cheaper to build. That, in turn, could make it possible for more utilities to build nuclear power plants, especially those in poor countries. The design comes from Babcock and Wilcox, a company based in Lynchburg, VA, that has made nuclear reactors for the United States Navy ships for about 50 years.

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Miniature Nuclear Plants Able to Power 20,000 Homes

November 11, 2008

Miniature Nuclear Plants Able to Power 20,000 Homes

The cost to install a mini-nuke plant is $2,500 per home

Nuclear power plants smaller than a garden shed and able to power 20,000 homes will be on sale within five years, say scientists at Los Alamos, the US government laboratory which developed the first atomic bomb.

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Portable Nuclear Power In Your Backyard

September 29, 2008

Portable Nuclear Power In Your Backyard

A radically different mindset than the “nuclear is too dangerous for anybody” of the 1980s

Nuclear reactors don’t produce ‘bombs’ alone. Fast forward to the year 2013 and you can have an endless power supply by just installing a portable nuclear power unit in your backyard. Before eyebrows are raised about the security aspect, we must tell you that only “highly enriched” Uranium fuel is something you need to worry about. This nuclear reactor concept would make use of Uranium Hydride, which doesn’t invite sanctions, is super-safe and renewable, and generates waste only the size of a watermelon (if used for 10 years). Hyperion’s home nuclear reactor concept promises a lot – most of which is centered on providing people with an alternate source of energy that doesn’t exhaust itself.

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