I n response to energy security and environmental concerns, the U.S. is collaborating with nine other countries to develop fourth-generation nuclear reactor technology, which is intended to be safer than current reactors, be available at lower total cost, and incur financial risks no greater than those for other energy technologies. In this article, we discuss the financial risks for new nuclea...

Fusion research has focused on the goal of a fusion power source that utilizes deuterium and tritium (D-T) because the reaction rate is relatively large. Fusion reactors based on the deuterium-deuterium (D-D) reaction however, might be superior to D-T based reactors in so far as they minimize the power produced in neutrons and do not requires the breeding of tritium. We explore an alternative D...

The effect of sonochemical reactors (SCR) technology upon the degradation of reactive yellow dye has been studied and reported here. Sonochemical reactors (ultrasound irradiation) produce strong cavitation in aqueous solution causing shock wave and reactive free radicals by the violent collapse of the cavitation bubble. These effects should contribute to destruction as well as the decomposition...

MIT has been developing a conceptual design for pebble bed reactors since approximately 1998, when a student design project concluded that in order to resurrect the nuclear power industry a new, innovative approach was needed, not only in reactor design but also in construction and operation. In their quest to identify the appropriate technology several key conclusions were reached. First was t...

Six advanced reactor concepts have been selected for Generation-IV reactors and are being investigated worldwide to meet the challenging goals of effective resource utilization and waste minimization (sustainability), improved safety, enhanced proliferation resistance, and reduced system cost. [1] The six systems are very high temperature reactor (VHTR), sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR), superc...

Several Member States of the Agency are considering introducing nuclear power to their energy mix for the first time. Although various technology options are available to these countries, selecting the most suitable nuclear reactor design requires not only a careful understanding of existing designs but also in-depth knowledge of country-specific needs, conditions and other considerations. To m...

In order to search for economically and environmentally optimized fusion reactors, physics properties, engineering designs and the cost of electricity (COE) are evaluated by the PEC (Physics-Engineering-Cost) system code for several magnetic confinement fusion reactors including tokamak (TR), helical (HR) and spherical tokamak (ST) reactors. The life-cycle CO2 emission amounts are also evaluate...