Nuclear

Evolution occurs as species adapt to environmental pressures, and few environments exert pressures like the Chernobyl exclusion zone. A new study shows evolution in action as frogs within the radioactive region are turning blacker than those outside.

Some fusion projects aim to create hundred-million degree working temperatures in magnetically confined plasma. The CEO of TAE Technologies tells us his team's aiming for 10 times that temperature, targeting cheaper, easier and safer boron fuel.

The first generation-IV nuclear reactor design has been approved for certification by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. NuScale's small modular reactor design promises safe, clean energy at radically reduced cost, land use and installation time.

Nuclear fusion is an incredibly complex scientific problem that researchers are coming at from all sorts of angles, and company Zap Energy is starting to make waves through one of the lesser-known approaches.

NASA is turning to nuclear power will keep the lights on in tomorrow's Moon bases. The space agency has awarded US$15 million in contracts to three preliminary designs for 40-kW nuclear fission reactors to be tested on the lunar surface by 2030.

Arkenlight and Axorus have teamed up to prototype the first artificial neuron powered by a diamond betavoltaic battery made from nuclear waste. The goal is to develop medical-grade implants with energy sources that will last decades without charging.

Norway-based marine group Ulstein has introduced Thor, its concept design for a 149-m (489-ft) replenishment, research and rescue (3R) ship powered by a thorium Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) that can be used to recharge battery-driven cruise ships at sea.

While stellarator fusion reactors have conventionally featured irregularly shaped magnetic coils, scientists have now developed simpler and straighter versions they say can offer some important benefits.

The US Department of Defense has announced that its Strategic Capabilities Office will go ahead with its plan to build and test a small nuclear reactor capable of being moved, and delivering between 1 - 5 MW of power for a minimum of three years.

Although nuclear power remains controversial, new reactors are being built in surprising numbers and these will provide the second largest share of the world’s carbon-free energy. It's also an industry undergoing rapid change as new technology comes on line. So, what will nuclear power look like in the decades to come?

A UK company says it's demonstrated fusion in record time, on a shoestring US$59 million budget, using an innovative new approach that embeds fuel pellets in tiny, falling cube targets, then shoots projectiles at them at 19 times the speed of sound.

A new technology representing a "revolutionary change" in how magnets are made for tokamak reactors could form a key piece of the nuclear fusion power puzzle, by facilitating the type of sustained streams of plasma needed for it to become a reality.