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S-PRISM
PRISM (Power Reactor Innovative Small Module, sometimes S-PRISM from SuperPRISM) is a nuclear power plant design by GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH). Design The S-PRISM represents GEH's Generation IV reactor solution to closing the nuclear fuel cycle and is also part of its Advanced Recycling Center (ARC) proposition to U.S. Congress to deal with nuclear waste. S-PRISM is a commercial implementation of the Integral Fast Reactor developed by Argonne National Laboratory between 1984 and 1994. It is a sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor, based on the Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II) design, scaled up by a factor of ten. The design utilizes reactor modules, each having a power output of 311 MWe, to enable factory fabrication at low cost. In an identical fashion to the EBR-II that it is based on, the reactor would transition to a much lower power level whenever temperatures rise significantly, moreover the reactor vessel modules are pool type, as opposed to loop t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Integral Fast Reactor
The integral fast reactor (IFR, originally Liquid metal cooled reactor, advanced liquid-metal reactor) is a design for a nuclear reactor using fast neutrons and no neutron moderator (a Fast-neutron reactor, "fast" reactor). IFR would breed more fuel and is distinguished by a nuclear fuel cycle that uses nuclear reprocessing#Pyroprocessing, reprocessing via electrorefining at the reactor site. The U.S. Department of Energy began designing an IFR in 1984 and built a prototype, the Experimental Breeder Reactor II. On April 3, 1986, two tests demonstrated the safety of the IFR concept. These tests simulated accidents involving loss of coolant flow. Even with its normal shutdown devices disabled, the reactor shut itself down safely without overheating anywhere in the system. The IFR project was canceled by the united States Congress, US Congress in 1994, three years before completion. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Experimental Breeder Reactor II
Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) is a sodium-cooled fast reactor designed, built and operated by Argonne National Laboratory at the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho.Experimental Breeder Reactor II Argonne National Laboratory It was shut down in 1994. Custody of the reactor was transferred to Idaho National Laboratory after its founding in 2005. Initial operations began in July 1964 and it achieved criticality in 1965 at a total cost of more than US$32 million ($ in dollars). The original emphasis in the design and operation of EBR-II was to demonstrate a complete breeder-reactor power plant with on-site reprocessing of solid metallic fuel. Fuel elements enriched to about 67% |
Fast Breeder Reactor
A breeder reactor is a nuclear reactor that generates more fissile material than it consumes. Breeder reactors achieve this because their neutron economy is high enough to create more fissile fuel than they use, by irradiation of a fertile material, such as uranium-238 or thorium-232, that is loaded into the reactor along with fissile fuel. Breeders were at first found attractive because they made more complete use of uranium fuel than light water reactors, but interest declined after the 1960s as more uranium reserves were found,Helmreich, J.E. ''Gathering Rare Ores: The Diplomacy of Uranium Acquisition, 1943–1954'', Princeton UP, 1986: ch. 10 and new methods of uranium enrichment reduced fuel costs. Fuel efficiency and types of nuclear waste Breeder reactors could, in principle, extract almost all of the energy contained in uranium or thorium, decreasing fuel requirements by a factor of 100 compared to widely used once-through light water reactors, which extract less tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Generation IV Reactor
Generation IV reactors (Gen IV) are six nuclear reactor designs recognized by the Generation IV International Forum. The designs target improved safety, sustainability, efficiency, and cost. The most developed Gen IV reactor design is the sodium fast reactor. It has received the greatest share of funding that supports demonstration facilities, as well as two commercial reactors in Russia. One of these has been in commercial operation since 1981. Its principal Gen IV features relates its sustainable closed fuel cycle. Moir and Teller consider the molten-salt reactor, a less developed technology, as potentially having the greatest inherent safety of the six models. The very-high-temperature reactor designs operate at much higher temperatures than prior generations. This allows for high temperature electrolysis or for sulfur–iodine cycle for the efficient production of hydrogen and the synthesis of carbon-neutral fuels. The first commercial plants are not expected before 2040 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Versatile Test Reactor
The Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) was a project by the U.S. Department of Energy to build a fast-neutron test reactor by 2026. Funding for the project was scrapped in 2022 History After the Fast Flux Test Facility and the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) were decommissioned in 1992 and 1994, respectively, the United States was left with no fast-neutron reactor in its fleet. Fast-neutron research was limited to a few restricted reactors located in Russia, including the Bor-60. To address this problem Nuclear Energy Innovation Capabilities Act of 2017 included a provision directing the Department of Energy to begin planning for a fast-neutron source. Congress included $35 million in 2018 and $65 million in 2019 in the budget in support of this. In February 2019, VTR cleared Critical Decision 0, demonstrating a mission need requiring investment, the first in a series of project approvals. At that time, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry announced the start of the Versatile ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust Limited, Scott Trust. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of ''The Guardian'' in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of ''The Guardian'' free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for ''The Guardian'' the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The editor-in-chief Katharine Viner succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. Since 2018, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was published on Saturday 26 March 2016, leaving only the online edition. The newspaper was controlled by Tony O'Reilly's Irish Independent News & Media from 1997 until it was sold to the Russian oligarch and former KGB Officer Alexander Lebedev in 2010. In 2017, Sultan Muhammad Abuljadayel bought a 30% stake in it. The daily edition was named National Newspaper of the Year at the 2004 British Press Awards. The website and mobile app had a combined monthly reach of 19,826,000 in 2021. History 1986 to 1990 Launched in 1986, the first issue of ''The Independent'' was published on 7 October in broadsheet format.Dennis Griffiths (ed.) ''The Encyclopedia of the British Press, 1422–1992'', London & Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992, p. 330 It was pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nuclear Decommissioning Authority
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, formed by the Energy Act 2004. It evolved from the Coal and Nuclear Liabilities Unit of the Department of Trade and Industry. It came into existence during late 2004, and took on its main functions on 1 April 2005. Its purpose is to deliver the decommissioning and clean-up of the UK's civil nuclear legacy in a safe and cost-effective manner, and where possible to accelerate programmes of work that reduce hazard. The NDA does not directly manage the UK's nuclear sites. It oversees the work through contracts with specially designed companies known as site licence companies. The NDA determines the overall strategy and priorities for managing decommissioning. Although the NDA itself employs about 250 staff, its subsidiaries employ about 15,000 staff across the NDA estate. Its annual budget is £3.2billion, the vast majority of which is spent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Department Of Energy And Climate Change
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom created on 3 October 2008, by Prime Minister Gordon Brown to take over some of the functions related to energy of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, and those relating to climate change of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It was led at time of closure by the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Amber Rudd MP. Following Theresa May's appointment as Prime Minister in July 2016, the department was disbanded and merged with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, to form the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy under Greg Clark MP. The department released a major White Paper in July 2009, setting out its purpose and plans. The majority of DECC's budget was spent on managing the historic nuclear sites in the United Kingdom, in 2012/13 this being 69% of its budget spent through the Nuc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plutonium
Plutonium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation states. It reacts with carbon, halogens, nitrogen, silicon, and hydrogen. When exposed to moist air, it forms oxides and hydrides that can expand the sample up to 70% in volume, which in turn flake off as a powder that is pyrophoric. It is radioactive and can accumulate in bones, which makes the handling of plutonium dangerous. Plutonium was first synthetically produced and isolated in late 1940 and early 1941, by a deuteron bombardment of uranium-238 in the cyclotron at the University of California, Berkeley. First, neptunium-238 ( half-life 2.1 days) was synthesized, which subsequently beta-decayed to form the new element with atomic number 94 and atomic weight 238 (half-life 88 years). Since ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nuclear Proliferation
Nuclear proliferation is the spread of nuclear weapons, fissionable material, and weapons-applicable nuclear technology and information to nations not recognized as " Nuclear Weapon States" by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the ''Non-Proliferation Treaty'' or ''NPT''. Proliferation has been opposed by many nations with and without nuclear weapons, as governments fear that more countries with nuclear weapons will increase the possibility of nuclear warfare (up to and including the so-called countervalue targeting of civilians with nuclear weapons), de-stabilize international or regional relations, or infringe upon the national sovereignty of nation states. Four countries besides the five recognized Nuclear Weapons States have acquired, or are presumed to have acquired, nuclear weapons: India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel. None of these four is a party to the NPT, although North Korea acceded to the NPT in 1985, then withdrew in 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
