Week 24 of 2023

Three nuclear energy innovation news!

💡 Three nuclear energy innovation news this week!

🤖 Rosatom (Russia) comissions an amphibious robot able to work in emergency zones. It consists out of a four-track chassis with a manipulator, able to perform visual reconnaissance and move objects weighing up to 25 kg and dive underwater down to 3.5 m. It was designed and manufactured by the Special Design & Technological Bureau of Applied Robotics.

🌞 Ultra Safe Nuclear (US) delivers uranium nitride coated particle TRIstructural ISOtropic (TRISO) fuel to NASA’s Space Nuclear Power & Propulsion programme. It is expected that this more robust fuel form will unlock higher performance at lower cost for future space nuclear efforts.

🕳️ Norsk Kjernekraft (Norway) signs a memorandum of understanding with the Deep Borehole Demonstration Center (US) to study a new disposal pilot. The centre, launched in February, is an independent, nonprofit, science-driven organization that aims to advance the maturity of deep borehole disposal. It has already begun demonstration work at a site in Cameron, Texas, with industry partners DEEP ISOLATION, Amentum and NAC International.

🎓 No paper this week, but a nice postcard! The Curiosity Mars rover used its black-and-white navigation cameras to capture morning and evening panoramas, which were then merged together. The "opened hatch" in the middle is its radioisotope thermal generanot. The white patch on the right is the Radiation Assessment Detector. Full resolution: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/pia25912-curiositys-postcard-of-marker-band-valley

👇 Did you spot anything else? Let me know!