Week 37 of 2023

Three nuclear energy innovation news!

🌬 The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (UK) awards GBP6.1 million to further develop plans to use heat and electricity from EDF's Heysham 2 to create hydrogen for use in the production of asphalt and cement. The process, based on solid oxide electrolysis, could improve hydrogen production efficiency by 20% when compared with conventional electrolysis. Other project partners include Hanson UK, the National Nuclear Laboratory and Vulcan Burners.

🛡 The United States Department of Defense awards a contract option to X-energy under the Project Pele initiative. Launched in 2019, its objective is to design, build, and demonstrate a prototype mobile nuclear reactor for commercial and defence use within five years. The main contract is being executed by BWX Technologies, Inc., building a 5 MWe reactor transportable in commercially available shipping containers.

🌊 Dual Fluid enters into an agreement with the government of Rwanda to construct a prototype reactor on a nuclear research campus in Nyamata, south of the capital city of Kigali. The 1 MWe reactor is expected to be operational by 2026, with testing completed by 2028. Serial production of a 300 MWe model should begin by 2033,

👨‍🎓 Paper of the week: "Integrating Commercial-Off-The-Shelf Components into Radiation-Hardened Drone Designs for Nuclear-Contaminated Search and Rescue Missions", Drones (2023). https://doi.org/10.3390/drones7080528

👉 How reliable is it to fly commercial off-the-shelf drones in areas with diverse radiation levels following a nuclear accident?

👇 Did you spot anything else? Let me know!