Week 9 of 2023

Three nuclear energy innovation news!

🍩 First-ever experiments on magnetically confined hydrogen-boron fusion in the Large Helical Device at the National Institute for Fusion Sciences (NIFS), National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) (Japan). These were performed in cooperation with TAE Technologies, Inc (US). Hydrogen and boron are attractive fuel sources - abundant and non-radioactive. However, they require plasma temperatures 30x higher than the more popular deuterium–tritium fusion.

⛽ Joint development agreement signed between materials science company Dow and X-energy (US). Its entails the development of a four unit Xe-100 high-temperature gas reactor facility at one of Dow's US Gulf Coast sites. The plant will deliver 320 MWe of baseload power, or 800 W thermal output. This initiative is part of Dow's effort to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and transition its sites and operations globally to cleaner power.

⚡ Tomsk Polytechnic University and Fuel Company TVEL (Russia) launch a project to speed up decontamination of radioactive concrete using electric discharges. The objective is to pass on the concrete's surface, moistened with water, with >10kW pulsed electric discharges to remove its top layer. The remaining clean concrete can be removed from radiation control and reused. Testing is scheduled for 2024.