A tabletop prototype of a new kind of nuclear reactor was demonstrated recently at the University of Bologna. This note addresses conceptual difficulties associated with the reported features of the device.

Nonlinear state space modeling of a nuclear reactor has been done for the purpose of controlling its global power in load following mode. The nonlinear state space model has been linearized at different percentage of reactor powers and a novel fractional order (FO) fuzzy proportional integral derivative (PID) controller is designed using real coded Genetic Algorithm (GA) to control the reactor ...

CdZnTe has previously been shown to operate as an electro-optic radiation detector by utilizing the Pockels effect to measure steady-state nuclear reactor power levels. In the present work, the detector response to reactor power excursion experiments was investigated. Peak power levels during an excursion were predicted to be between 965 MW and 1009 MW using the Fuchs–Nordheim and Fuchs– Hansen...