nuclear energy

A new study reveals an efficient method for extracting uranium ions from seawater using a specially designed electrode material. This approach offers a sustainable alternative to traditional uranium mining, potentially turning the oceans into vast sources of nuclear fuel.Most of the Earth’s surface is covered by oceans, which are teeming with a wide variety of life. Interestingly, these vast bodies of water also contain a dilute distribution of uranium ions. Extracting these ions could potentially offer a renewable source…

When Marijane Sisson looks out the kitchen window of her home outside Cañon City, she is greeted with views of rolling hills and a grassy meadow. Some days, when she’s lucky, a herd of elk appears in the meadow. Sisson and her husband purchased the property in June and moved from Louisiana to live in the South T Bar Ranch development. In the neighborhood of more than 100 properties, located a 45-minute drive northwest of Cañon City, they found a peaceful home nestled in a remote community. Then the couple received a…

A recent study has revealed the inadequacies in the computer simulations used to shape energy policy, particularly highlighting their unreliable assumptions and lack of transparency. The study, assessing a pivotal 1980s model, underscores the need for more effective simulation methods like ‘sensitivity auditing’ to improve accuracy and decision-making. Dr. Samuele Lo Piano emphasizes the importance of acknowledging these limitations to enhance democratic debate and decision-making in energy policy.The widespread adoption…

CLIMATEWIRE | The power sector is key to U.S. efforts to cut planet-warming pollution this decade.Technologies for generating wind and solar energy are expected to green the economy faster than electric cars and heat pumps, according to deep decarbonization studies. That was evident in 2023 as large solar projects catapulted toward levels never seen before in the U.S.But there were also indications that the transition to clean energy had not gone as smoothly as some analysts predicted. Wind projects stumbled, for…

After travelling across the Atlantic Ocean and taking an elevator hundreds of metres underground, it's hard for Jodie Defeo to put into words what it was like to be among a handful of people in Finland to take in the world's first long-term geological repository for spent nuclear fuel."It was large. It was very cavernous. There was room for large-scale trucks to manoeuvre in these tunnels," Defeo, one of four councillors in the small northwestern Ontario township of Ignace, said about the facility.Defeo was among a…

A startup led by OpenAI boss Sam Altman that is working on developing small nuclear fission reactors is going public with a valuation of $850 million.One of Silicon Valley's leading figures since OpenAI released ChatGPT, Altman became an early backer of nuclear startup Oklo in 2015, and is also its chairman. Altman has explained that his investment in nuclear power is closely linked to the artificial intelligence revolution he champions, which will require massive amounts of energy. "I'm all-in on energy. I think there's…

Despite concerns from several nations and international groups, Japan is pressing ahead with plans to release water contaminated by the 2011 meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean. Starting sometime this year and continuing for the next 30 years, Japan will slowly release treated water stored in tanks at the site into the ocean through a pipeline extending one kilometre from the coast. But just how safe is the water to the marine environment and humans across the Pacific region? How…

Last month, the US National Ignition Facility (NIF) fired its lasers up to full power for the first time since December, when it achieved its decades-long goal of ‘ignition’ by producing more energy during a nuclear reaction than it consumed. The latest run didn’t come close to matching up: NIF achieved only 4% of the output it did late last year. But scientists didn’t expect it to. Building on NIF’s success, they are now flexing the programme’s experimental muscles, trying to better understand the nuclear-fusion…

It was branded the most expensive way to boil water. Not so long ago, many dismissed nuclear power as…

Scientists at the world’s largest nuclear-fusion facility have achieved the phenomenon known as ignition—creating a nuclear reaction that generates more energy than it consumes. Results of the breakthrough at the US National Ignition Facility (NIF), conducted on 5 December and announced today by US President Joe Biden’s administration, has excited the global fusion-research community. That research aims to harness nuclear fusion—the phenomenon that powers the Sun—to provide a source of near-limitless clean energy on…