Tag Archives: Nuclear

Despite denials, study claims 2017's mysterious radioactive cloud did come from Russia

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Despite continued denials from Russia, a new study convincingly pins the source of a mysterious radioactive ...

A radioactive cloud spread over Europe in late 2017. Despite official denials, all the evidence pointed to Russia. A new study tracking over 1,000 atmospheric measurements suggests an unreported nuclear accident did likely occur at the Mayak facility in the Southern Ural mountains of Russia.

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Category: Environment

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NASA starts fueling up Mars 2020 rover's nuclear powerplant

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The angled unit on the rover is the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG)

NASA engineers have started loading nuclear fuel into the Mars 2020 rover. In anticipation of the unmanned explorer’s scheduled 2020 launch, the space agency’s Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, Thomas Zurbuchen has given the green light to begin placing the plutonium-238 dioxide fuel into the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) that will provide the rover with heat and electricity.

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Category: Space

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Hacking Shelters and Swimming Pools

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How would you survive in a war-torn country, where bombs could potentially fall from the sky with only very short notice? And what if the bomb in question were The Bomb — a nuclear weapon? This concern is thankfully distant for most of us, but it wasn’t always so. Only …read more

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Nuclear fusion plasma could be stabilized against large eruptions – by causing lots of small ones

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As the Sun and stars themselves can attest, nuclear fusion could be an essentially unlimited energy source, if we can only harness it. The problem is that the plasma used is inherently unstable, and large eruptions can damage the reactors con… Continue reading Nuclear fusion plasma could be stabilized against large eruptions – by causing lots of small ones→

Semi-autonomous robots to make decommissioning nuclear reactors faster and safer

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Nobody wants to get near nuclear waste, so a team of Lancaster University engineers is developing a new semi-autonomous robotic system to help dismantle decommissioned reactors. Using new imaging software and a Microsoft Kinect camera, the tw… Continue reading Semi-autonomous robots to make decommissioning nuclear reactors faster and safer→

How 20th century nuclear testing can help scientists detect art forgeries

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Researchers from ETH Zurich have refined a process that can detect modern fakes of paintings by measuring excessive levels of the isotope carbon-14 released into the atmosphere through nuclear testing in the 20th century. The new method requi… Continue reading How 20th century nuclear testing can help scientists detect art forgeries→

Atomic Power Gets Small

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There was a time when nuclear power plants were going to save the world. Barring accidents, the plants are clean and generate a lot of power. However, a few high-profile accidents and increased public awareness of some key issues have made nuclear power a hard sell, at least in the …read more

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The Nuclear Industry and Communication: Lessons from Three Mile Island

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It’s been forty years since the infamous Three Mile Island accident, an incident made famous bythe confusion and panic it spawned in its wake. But while the incident is remembered for the fear it stoked about nuclear energy, it also set the stage… Continue reading The Nuclear Industry and Communication: Lessons from Three Mile Island→