Week 41 of 2023

Three nuclear energy innovation news!

☀ Construction of the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility-Demo Oriented Neutron Source (IFMIF-DONES) starts in Grenada, Spain. The facility will use a particle accelerator targetted at a liquid lithium curtain. The interactions will generate a fusion-like neutron source for the qualification of the materials to be used in a fusion power plant. The facility is part of the EUROfusion initiative, in support of ITER Organization.

⚕ The University of Missouri-Columbia opens an addition to the University of Missouri Research Reactor - MURR® facility, expanding its research and medical isotope production space. The 10 MW MURR is the most powerful university research reactor in the US. Each year, 1.6m patients benefit from medical isotopes produced there.

🌊 A review published in Science provides comprehensive scientific insights into the planned release of Fukushima wastewater into the Pacific Ocean. Experts from the University of Portsmouth in England, Curtin University in Australia, and The Australian National University, assessed any potential effects based on the scientific evidence from past releases of radioactivity and radiation dose calculations from independent researchers and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The team concluded that the anticipated radiation doses to marine life and seafood consumers will be negligible, falling well below safety thresholds.

👨‍🎓 Paper of the week: "Magnetic Fusion Plasma Drive", by Florian Neukart, arXiv pre-print (2023). https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.11524

👉 Novel promising space propulsion concept combining fuel efficiency, thrust capabilities, and potential scalability.

👇 Did you spot anything else? Let me know!