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MIT researchers and colleagues have demonstrated a way to precisely control the size, composition, and other properties of nanoparticles key to the reactions involved in a variety of clean energy and environmental technologies. They did so by leveraging ion irradiation, a technique in which beams of charged particles bombard a material.

They went on to show that nanoparticles created this way have superior performance over their conventionally made counterparts.

“The materials we have worked on could advance several technologies, from fuel cells to generate CO₂-free electricity to the production of clean hydrogen feedstocks for the chemical industry [through electrolysis cells],” says Bilge Yildiz, leader of the work and a professor in MIT’s Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering and Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

A year ago, scientists generated net energy with a fusion reactor. This is what’s happened since then.

Now that’s cool but you will probably only see rich people flying in it for a while, if it comes to be.

The supersonic, nuclear-powered plane concept flies nearly twice the speed of Concorde and could get from London to New York in less time than a soccer game.

The nuclear fusion industry witnessed tremendous developments in 2023. The year 2022 drew its curtains with the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Lab producing a fusion reaction in the laboratory that yielded more energy than was absorbed by the fuel to initiate it. The reaction yielded 1.3 megajoules of energy, about five times the 250 kilojoules that were absorbed by the capsule. This scientific breakthrough sparked an increase in investments in 2023 with new companies joining the race.

The Fusion Industry Association, or FIA, compiled the “Global Fusion Industry Report” of 2023. Pressing for fusion energy to take over as a cleaner source of energy, FIA presented a comprehensive overview of the advancements made in the second quarter of the year in this report. It highlights the effect of a successful ignition or net energy gain in nuclear fusion and its economic consequences.

FIA observed a net increase in investments in the fusion power industry. With $1.4 billion more than the previous year, 27 companies in fusion were able to draw $46 billion in investment. The ignition inspired the emergence of newer and smaller companies which contributed the majority share of the surge in investments. There are two reported big chequeholders securing funding over $100 million in the 2nd quarter—TAE Technologies in California and ENN in China.

“There is a whole new discussion at least posing the question of the carbon footprint of particle physics.”

A particle collider, sometimes referred to as an atom smasher, is a type of high-energy physics apparatus used to investigate the fundamental particles and forces that exist in the cosmos. Subatomic particles, such as protons, electrons, or other charged particles, are accelerated to extremely high speeds and collide at extremely high energies in particle colliders.

Scientists use them to study the core components of matter and the fundamental forces of existence such as the nature of dark matter, the properties of quarks and leptons as well as the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear… More.

Continue reading “Energy efficient particle collider concept could revolutionize physics” »

Scientists showcased the application of machine learning in the sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR).

Machine learning technology has the potential to transform nuclear reactor operations, according to a team of experts from the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, who demonstrated how it may improve security and efficiency.

They showcased the application of machine learning in the sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR), a specialized cutting-edge nuclear reactor.

Japan’s JT-60SA tokamak will test technologies put to use in ITER.

Cinefootage Visuals.

Nuclear fusion offers a non-polluting and less risky method to meet the world’s energy demands. While the process has been ongoing on the Sun for billions of years, humanity is still trying to perfect how it can replicated on Earth.

Nuclear fusion holds the promise to generate energy in a clean, safe, and nearly inexhaustible way. The physical idea of fusion involves confining fuels at unearthly temperatures of approximately 150,000,000 degree Celsius which fusion reactions between atomic nuclei can happen. The fuels of interest, deuterium and tritium (isotopes of hydrogen), exist in the state of plasma. Clearly, containing these extremely hot plasmas with solid walls is unfeasible.

A plasma is an ionised gas comprising charged particles, both ions and electrons. Fortunately, the dynamics of charge particles are subject to constraints along magnetic field lines. This insight forms the basis of our current approach: constructing a magnetic bottle using powerful magnetic fields that effectively trap the plasma along these intangible field lines.

One of the most iconic magnetic confinement machine designs is the tokamak — a toroidally-shaped device, often likened to a doughnut. The name ‘tokamak’ is derived from the Russian acronym for ‘to roidal cha mber with ma gnetic c oils.’