Lifeboat Foundation

This sounds very promising! The researchers are investigating the use of nuclear microreactors to power faster and more efficient electric propulsion systems.☢️🚀

To develop spacecraft that can “maneuver without regret,” the U.S. Space Force is providing $35 million to a national research team led by the University of Michigan. It will be the first to bring fast chemical rockets together with efficient electric propulsion powered by a nuclear microreactor.

The newly formed Space Power and Propulsion for Agility, Responsiveness and Resilience Institute involves eight universities, and 14 industry partners and advisers in one of the nation’s largest efforts to advance space power and propulsion, a critical need for national defense and space exploration.

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In the future, there could be a spacecraft capable of maneuvering with unprecedented speed and agility, without the constraints of limited fuel.

The U.S. Space Force has provided funding of $35 million to create a new spacecraft that can “maneuver without regret.”

Continue reading “US Space Force backs nuclear microreactor-powered rocket breakthrough” »

At the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, a major advancement has been achieved with the successful acceleration of a high-power uranium beam, achieving an unprecedented 10.4 kilowatts of continuous beam power.

This achievement not only highlights the difficulty in handling uranium but underscores its importance in generating a diverse range of isotopes for scientific study. The high-power beam led to the discovery of three new isotopes within the first eight hours of its operation, marking a significant breakthrough in nuclear science and expanding our understanding of the nuclear landscape.

Breakthrough in Isotope Research.

Since pioneering the first corporate purchase agreements for renewable electricity over a decade ago, Google has played a pivotal role in accelerating clean energy solutions, including the next generation of advanced clean technologies.

Google’s first nuclear energy deal is a step toward helping the world decarbonize through investments in advanced clean energy technologies.

“The grid needs new electricity sources to support AI technologies that are powering major scientific advances, improving services for businesses and customers, and driving national competitiveness and economic growth,” Google Senior Director for Energy and Climate Michael Terrell, said in a statement.

“This agreement helps accelerate a new technology to meet energy needs cleanly and reliably, and unlock the full potential of AI for everyone,” Terrell added.

Future fusion power plants will require good plasma confinement to sustain reactions and generate energy. One way to contain plasma for fusion reactions is to use a tokamak, a device that applies magnetic fields to “bottle” plasma. However, magnetic islands, a type of instability in the plasma, can destroy the confining magnetic field if they grow large enough.

Scientists achieved a record-breaking 10 quadrillion-watt energy burst using 192 giant lasers.

Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California have achieved a groundbreaking result in nuclear fusion by generating an energy burst of more than 10 quadrillion watts. This was accomplished by using 192 giant lasers to target a tiny hydrogen pellet, releasing 1.3 megajoules of energy in a fraction of a second. The experiment, carried out at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), marks a significant step forward in fusion research and brings scientists closer to achieving “ignition,” where a fusion reaction generates more energy than it consumes.

In this latest experiment, conducted at the NIF, researchers focused intense beams of light from the world’s largest lasers onto a pea-sized pellet of hydrogen. The lasers delivered an immense amount of energy to the pellet, causing it to emit 1.3 megajoules of energy in just 100 trillionths of a second. This amount of energy is equivalent to about 10% of the sunlight that hits Earth at any moment and is significantly higher than the previous record of 170 kilojoules.

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In fusion experiments, understanding the behavior of the plasma, especially the ion temperature and rotation velocity, is essential. These two parameters play a critical role in the stability and performance of the plasma, making them vital for advancing fusion technology. However, quickly and accurately measuring these values has been a major technical challenge in operating fusion reactors at optimal levels.

Fusion researchers are increasingly turning to the element tungsten when looking for an ideal material for components that will directly face the plasma inside fusion reactors known as tokamaks and stellarators. But under the intense heat of fusion plasma, tungsten atoms from the wall can sputter off and enter the plasma. Too much tungsten in the plasma would substantially cool it, which would make sustaining fusion reactions very challenging.