The Carnival of Nuclear Energy 179 is up at ANS Nuclear Cafe.
Rod Adams found two first hand reports from nuclear trained US Navy sailors stationed in Yokosuka, Japan on the USS George Washington in March 2011. They describe their efforts to monitor their ship and shipmates for radioactive material fallout and explain why high level Navy decision makers made politically correct decisions to overreact when low levels of radiation were detected.
Nextbigfuture – Babcock and Wilcox Nuclear Energy is to work with nuclear technology company Lightbridge in developing a pilot plant for manufacturing metal fuel for light water reactors.
Lightbridge has developed an advanced metallic fuel, made from a zirconium-uranium (Zr-U) alloy, which uses a unique composition and fuel rod geometry enabling it to operate at a higher power density than uranium oxide fuels in use today.
Lightbridge is developing innovative, proprietary nuclear fuel technologies designed to significantly enhance the nuclear power industry’s economics and increase power output by:
Extending the fuel cycle length to 24 months or longer while simultaneously increasing the power output by up to 17% in existing pressurized water reactors (PWRs), including Westinghouse 4-loop reactors, which are currently limited to an 18-month fuel cycle; Enabling increased reactor power output (up to 30% increase) without changing the core size in new-build PWRs.
They have a detailed pricing study of providing such upgrades to 16 pressure water reactors.
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Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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