Week 29 of 2023

Three nuclear energy innovation news!

💡 Three nuclear energy innovation news this week!

🍟 The Belgian federal government approves the work program for the €100m budget it had allocated for small modular reactor research. This effort will be led by the Belgian nuclear research centre SCK CEN, in cooperation with a range of partners. The centre aims to build by 2035-2040 a demonstration model of a lead-cooled fast reactor.

⏩ Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Japan) is selected for the conceptual design of a sodium-cooled fast reactor demonstrator. This effort is part of the government's strategic roadmap for fast reactor development, adopted in December 2018. The design effort is expected to start in 2024, with the objective for the demonstrator to be operational in the 2040s.

⛵ The Malakhit Marine Engineering Bureau (Russia) is working on a submersible underwater nuclear power plant. It features two units with a total capacity of 20 MWe, able to operate at a depth of 400 meters, which reduces the risk of collision with icebergs in Artic regions. It is meant to operate autonomously, with periodic maintenance every three months by a small crew of up to six specialists.

🎓 Paper of the week: "Cyclobenzil hydrazones with high iodine capture capacities in solutions and on interfaces", Cell Reports Physical Science (2023). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2023.101509

👉 In short: molecular crystals capable of capturing (and releasing) iodine, one of the most common radioactive fission products.

👇 Did you spot anything else? Let me know!