The high costs associated with nuclear power are one of the reasons why the nuclear power industry has stagnated. But what could revitalise the industry is miniaturisation. For example, Oklo’s microreactors are designed with low cost in mind. They’re fast to construct (only 1 year) and have low operating costs; the reactors can run unmanned, needing to be refuelled once every five years. Even the fuel is cheap, running on nuclear waste from traditional reactors. Read full article here
Science
‘Ghostly’ neutrinos provide new path to study protons
In groundbreaking research, an international collaboration of scientists from the University of Rochester have used a beam of neutrinos to measure the size and shape of the protons that make up the nuclei of atoms. This feat, once thought impossible, provides scientists with a new way of looking at the small components of an atom’s nucleus and opens up a wealth of new information about the structure of an atom’s nucleus and the dynamics of the forces that affect neutrino interactions. The researchers solved the challenge of harnessing neutrinos in large numbers by using a neutrino detector containing a target of both hydrogen and carbon atoms, and over nine years of data collection at Fermilab’s accelerator. Read full article here
Merv
March 25, 2023
