Week 30 of 2023

Three nuclear energy innovation news!

💡 Three nuclear energy innovation news this week! Focus on nuclear-powered transporation.

🚢 Small modular reactor developer newcleo (Italy) signed a agreement with FINCANTIERI, one of the largest shipbuilding company, and RINA, and inspection, certification, ship classification and consulting engineering multinational. Together, they will perform a feasibility study for the implementation of newcleo's 300MWe lead-cooled fast reactor on vessels. In addition to decarbonisation, other advantages include infrequent refuelling, limited maintenance, increased cargo capacity and operational speed, and easy end-of-life disposal.

🛳 American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) and Herbert Engineering Corp. publish their assessment of the transformational effects of nuclear propulsion on the design, operation, and emissions of a 14k TEU container vessel and a 157k DWT Suezmax tanker. « The industry cannot afford to ignore the vast potential offered by nuclear propulsion both in terms of emissions reduction and operational efficiency. » said ABS Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Christopher J. Wiernicki.

🚀 Lockheed Martin is selected by DARPA and NASA to develop a nuclear-powered spacecraft. The Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) project aims for an in-space flight demonstration as early as 2027. The Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) will use a nuclear reactor to heat hydrogen propellant. BWX Technologies, Inc. will develop the reactor and produce the fuel.

🎓 Paper of the week: "Machine-learning approach for discovery of conventional superconductors", Physical Review Materials (2023). 10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.7.054805

👉 In short: demonstration of use of machine learning to predict the superconductivity of materials.

👇 Did you spot anything else? Let me know!