Week 22 of 2024
Three nuclear energy innovation news!
🌝 ispace, inc. (JP) and the University of Leicester (UK) partner on radioisotope thermal generators (RTG) for future lunar landers and rovers. The lunar night lasts for 12 days, with temperatures plunging down to -133 °C, which requires robust heating solutions. These RTG will exploit the radioactive decay of americium-241, which is (alledgely) cheaper and poses less proliferation risks than the more commonly used plutonium-238. This is supported by the UK Space Agency's International Bilateral Funding.
🤖 Tokyo Electric Power Company demonstrates a remote-controlled robot meant to retrieve tiny bits of melted fuel debris from the Fukushima Daiichi N°2 primary containment vessel. The demonstration took place at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' shipyard in Kobe, where the robot has been developed. The extendable pipe robot will be tested in real conditions next October, with the objective to remove 3 grams.
🥖 Thorizon (NL) and EDF R&D sign a cooperation agreement to advance Thorizon One, a 250 MWth molten salt reactor eyeing a pilot system before 2035. Meanwhile, Blue Capsule Technology (FR) signs a partnership agreement with the CEA for its 150 Mwth sodium-cooled high-temperature reactor.
👨🎓 Paper of the week: "Experiment study on tritium release behavior of Li2TiO3 ceramic breeder irradiated by 14 MeV fusion neutron", International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2024)
👉 First experimental data points for tritium release with fusion neutrons.
👇 Did you spot anything else? Let me me know!
