Week 25 of 2024

Three nuclear energy innovation news!

🍩 Researchers led by the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, investigate a 3 µm layer of impurities that formed on the surface of the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). Using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, they demonstrated that it came from the erosion of various materials, such as tungsten, molybdenum, and carbon used in EAST's walls and limiters. This indicates that these components experienced erosion due to high heat loads and energetic ions.

🥟 The Korean government announces plans to create a SMR industrial hub in the city of Gyeongju, which it will support with $216 million, in cooperation with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP). It will notably include a 1.5 million square meter site with specialized facilities for SMR manufacturing, production and verification. A "Hydrogen Economy Industrial Belt" will also be created in the same region, including the construction of hydrogen pipelines.

♨ Swedish project developer Kärnfull Next (KNXT) forms a strategic partnership with Finnish technology developer Steady Energy to introduce SMRs for district heating in Sweden. The LDR-50 district heating SMR has an output of 50 MWth, at an operating temperature of around 150°C and below 10 bar.

👨‍🎓 Paper of the week: "Tracing mechanistic pathways and reaction kinetics toward equilibrium in reactive molten salts", Chemical Science (2024)

👉 Critical insight into the connection between chemical speciation and ion exchange processes in molten salts.