Nuclear

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.

DeepMind has lent its AI know-how to the quest for nuclear fusion. Through a partnership with scientists at EPFL, the company has developed an AI algorithm that can generate control strategies to create and maintain different plasma configurations.

Scientists at the Joint European Torus (JET) tokamak reactor have smashed the world record for fusion plasma energy output, using the experimental device to generate 59 megajoules of energy in a landmark moment in the quest for nuclear fusion.

For the prospect of limitless, clean energy produced through nuclear fusion to become a reality, scientists need the reactions at the heart of the technology to become self-sustaining, and newly published research has edged them closer to that goal.

Unless you're really into trivia about gas lanterns and the mantles that make their light so bright, you've probably never heard of thorium, but you may hear a lot more about it in the future. This unassuming metal could one day rival uranium as the nuclear fuel of choice.

A UK company with lofty aspirations around sustainable space travel has test-fired a rocket engine powered in part by plastic waste. Pulsar Fusion's ambitious plans also involve the development of nuclear fusion technology for high-speed propulsion.

A popular design in the pursuit of fusion power is the tokamak and an exciting example of these donut-shaped reactors can be found at the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy, where a new record for maintaining super-hot plasma has reportedly been set.