reactor

Here’s What You Need to Know About Power Cuts at Two Ukrainian Nuclear Plants

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The catastrophic disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986 was caused by an explosion at the Reactor 4 Unit. This expelled a sizeable quantity of radioactive material into the surroundings, alongside a partial meltdown of the reactor core. The last few decades have seen substantial international efforts to safely contain and decontaminate the … Read more

French nuclear regulator halts assembly of huge fusion reactor | Science

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France’s nuclear regulator has ordered ITER, an international fusion energy project, to hold off on assembling its gigantic reactor until officials address safety concerns. This month, the ITER Organization was expecting to get the green light to begin to weld together the 11-meter-tall steel sections that make up the doughnut-shaped reactor, called a tokamak. But … Read more

Chernobyl’s Radiation Spiked 20 Times Above Usual Levels as Russian Forces Arrive

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The Chernobyl nuclear power plant and its surrounding area are showing increased radiation levels after heavy fighting between Ukrainian and Russian troops in the region, Ukrainian officials said Friday (Feb. 25)   Online data from the Chernobyl exclusion zone’s automated radiation-monitoring system shows that gamma radiation has increased 20 times above usual levels at multiple observation points, which … Read more

Chernobyl attack: Risk of Russian forces triggering nuclear disaster is minimal

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Physicists say that the risk of nuclear material being released from the Chernobyl reactor as a result of Russian attack is minimal Technology 24 February 2022 By Matthew Sparkes Ukrainian soldiers in the abandoned city of Pripyat, near Chernobyl Volodymyr Tarasov/Ukrinform/Future Publishing/Getty Images Russian forces have gained control of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in Ukraine, … Read more

Physics Breakthrough as AI Successfully Controls Plasma in Nuclear Fusion Experiment

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Successfully achieving nuclear fusion holds the promise of delivering a limitless, sustainable source of clean energy, but we can only realize this incredible dream if we can master the complex physics taking place inside the reactor.   For decades, scientists have been taking incremental steps towards this goal, but many challenges remain. One of the … Read more

Fusion power: DeepMind uses AI to control plasma inside tokamak reactor

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For the first time, artificial intelligence has been used to control the super-hot plasma inside a fusion reactor, offering a new way to increase stability and efficiency Technology 16 February 2022 By Matthew Sparkes Plasma inside the TCV fusion reactor in Switzerland Curdin Wüthrich/SPC/EPFL Fusion reactors promise cheap, abundant and relatively clean energy – if … Read more

European fusion reactor sets record for sustained energy | Science

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In experiments culminating the 40-year run of the Joint European Torus (JET), the world’s largest fusion reactor, researchers announced today they have smashed the record for producing controlled fusion energy. On 21 December 2021, the U.K.-based JET heated a gas of hydrogen isotopes to 150 million degrees Celsius and held it steady for 5 seconds while … Read more

China’s $1 trillion ‘artificial sun’ fusion reactor just got five times hotter than the sun

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China’s “artificial sun” has set a new world record after superheating a loop of plasma to temperatures five times hotter than the sun for more than 17 minutes, state media reported.  The EAST (Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak) nuclear fusion reactor maintained a temperature of 158 million degrees Fahrenheit (70 million degrees Celsius) for 1,056 seconds, … Read more