• How long will the world's uranium deposits last?

    At current consumption rates, the planet’s economically accessible uranium resources could fuel reactors for more than 200 years; further exploration and improvements in extraction technology are likely to at least double this estimate over time; if we extract uranium from seawater, and build breeder reactors, then supplies will last 30,000 to 60,000 years

  • Japan to restart controversial fast-breeder reactor

    Japan, an economic giant with no natural energy resources, is to restart its controversial fast-breeder nuclear reactor this year after a series of safety scares caused the closing of the plant for more than 13 years

  • Top 7 alternative technologies to fossil fuel

    Energy expert says that an “all of the above” approach to the world’s energy problem is wrong; study shows wind and solar to be the most promising alternative technologies to fossil fuel; biofuel, clean coal, and nuclear power are do not hold such promise

  • Alps laboratory tests methods of storing nuclear waste

    Two test tunnels in Switzerland are used to study methods of storing nuclear waste; many scientists from around the world take part in the research

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  • "Small is beautiful" comes to the nuclear power industry

    The main problem facing nuclear power is not the fear of accidents or terrorism, or anxiety about nuclear waste disposal; it is cost (it takes about $4,000/kilowatt to build a nuclear power station); there is a growing interest in small, tub-size nuclear power units

  • Energy industry likely prime cyber attack target

    Critical infrastructure insiders say the energy industry is also the most vulnerable to cyber attacks and would have the most detrimental breach

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  • Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository too small

    Congress has placed a 77,000-ton limit on the amount of nuclear waste that can be buried in Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository (the repository will open in 2020 at the earliest); trouble is, the 104 active U.S. nuclear reactors, together with the Pentagon, produce that amount of waste in two years

  • U.K. project examines the idea of a nuclear-powered passenger aircraft

    As worries about the rising price of oil and climate change grow, so grows the interest in nuclear power — but not only for ground-based power generation; a U.K. government-funded project examines the idea of nuclear-powered passenger plane

  • Energy companies targeted by Web-borne malware

    New report says the energy companies experienced more Web-based malware attacks than any other vertical market in the third quarter of this year, with an increased rate of exposure of 189 percent

  • New reactor design lessens risk of weapon proliferation

    Nuclear materials for power reactors cannot be stolen by those interested in using it for nuclear weapons while the material is in the reactor — it is too hot to handle; the risks of diversion are during the enrichment process, and while the material is being transported; to lessen the risk, researchers offer innovative reactor design

  • Russia to build IAEA-supervised nuclear fuel bank

    The nuclear fueled bank would allow countries, including Iran, to develop civilian nuclear power without having to enrich their own uranium, thus allaying fears over nuclear weapons proliferation

  • DSRL in £13 million Dounreay decommissioning contract

    Britain’s Dounreay fast reactor was proclaimed as “the system of the next century”; this was in the 1960s; the last 15 years have seen the site develop into a nuclear reactor decommissioning project

  • Breakthrough: Radioactive waste may no longer be dangerous to store

    Aussie researchers have created a material which has the potential to filter and safely lock away radioactive ions from waste water; nanofibers which are millionths of a millimeter in size could permanently lock away radioactive cations by displacing the existing sodium ions in the fiber

  • Nuclear fuel cycle echnology R&D, $15 million awarded

    U.S. Department of Energy awards funding ranging in value from $200,000 to $2,000,000 to 34 organizations to do reasearch into spent fuel separations technology, advanced nuclear fuel development, fast burner reactors, and advanced transmutation systems, advanced fuel cycle systems analysis, advanced computing and simulation, safeguards, and advanced waste forms

  • Using kites to generate electricity

    The amount of power available from wind is related to the cube of its speed; blades at higher altitudes could thus generate up to five times the amount of electricity as at lower altitudes; why, then, not place blades at higher altitudes?