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
The political climate concerning energy here is actually rather scary. Our state is full of environmental groups, that as far as I can tell, have both jumped on the renewable bandwagon and are anti-nuclear. Some may say they are neutral, but publish anti-nuke propaganda nonetheless.
We now have a renewable mandate of 25% by 2025. I was talking with a spokesperson for Great River Energy about this and we both felt this was dangerous policy. Keep in mind Minnesota also has a moratorium on new nuclear builds. Now we're taxing carbon? All we're going to get is more expensive energy.
But one thing I also wonder about. Doesn't all that renewable energy require back-up generation? So, doesn't the 25% renewable mandate translate into a 25% natural gas mandate? Or do people not understand how these things work?