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Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Power, Electricity, Environment, Energy, Technology, Politics
Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Power, Electricity, Environment, Energy, Technology, Politics
The following is a guest post from Matt Wald, senior communications advisor at NEI. Follow Matt on Twitter at @MattLWald.
From the batteries in our cell phones to the clothes on our backs, "nanomaterials" that are designed molecule by molecule are working their way into our economy and our lives. Now there’s some promising work on new materials for nuclear reactors.
Reactors are a tough environment. The sub atomic particles that sustain the chain reaction, neutrons, are great for splitting additional uranium atoms, but not all of them hit a uranium atom; some of them end up in various metal components of the reactor. The metal is usually a crystalline structure, meaning it is as orderly as a ladder or a sheet of graph paper, but the neutrons rearrange the atoms, leaving some infinitesimal voids in the structure and some areas of extra density. The components literally grow, getting longer and thicker. The phenomenon is well understood and designers compensate for it with a …
From the batteries in our cell phones to the clothes on our backs, "nanomaterials" that are designed molecule by molecule are working their way into our economy and our lives. Now there’s some promising work on new materials for nuclear reactors.
Reactors are a tough environment. The sub atomic particles that sustain the chain reaction, neutrons, are great for splitting additional uranium atoms, but not all of them hit a uranium atom; some of them end up in various metal components of the reactor. The metal is usually a crystalline structure, meaning it is as orderly as a ladder or a sheet of graph paper, but the neutrons rearrange the atoms, leaving some infinitesimal voids in the structure and some areas of extra density. The components literally grow, getting longer and thicker. The phenomenon is well understood and designers compensate for it with a …
Comments
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2006/09/05/nbeach.xml
I ran into the link over at http://www.grinzo.com/energy/blog_entry_archive/2006/09/2006x09x07_3.html
Is this the kind of future we want to leave to our grandkids?
The company was fined and are doing the best they can to clean it up. Of course this should never happen in the first place. But we are getting better and better and better at managing nuclear technology safely and effectively.
If we couldn't do it safely we wouldn't be running nuclear plants.
"I have not found any reports of anyone getting sick or dying"
"If we couldn't do it safely we wouldn't be running nuclear plants."
Phew...I was about to get worried...until you set me straight.