Nuclear power

This Is What Failing at Nuclear Power Looks Like

The only nuclear reactor under construction in the U.S. is already years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget. Now, public officials in Georgia are about to decide if it’s worth even finishing the project. On Thursday, the state’s five-member Public Service Commission (PSC) will vote on whether to approve the latest plan, which…

Earther Ari Phillips

The Fukushima Cleanup Is Progressing, But at a Painstaking Pace

Earlier this year, remotely piloted robots transmitted what officials believe was a direct view of melted radioactive fuel inside Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant’s destroyed reactors—a major discovery, but one that took a long and painful six years to achieve. In the meantime, the program to clean up the destroyed reactors has seen numerous setbacks…

Tech News Tom McKay

Scott Pruitt’s EPA Says Maybe More Radiation Exposure Wouldn’t Be So Harmful

Donald Trump’s appointment of former Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as chief of the Environmental Protection Agency this year drew eyebrows, because Pruitt had made his career as a longstanding legal opponent of the EPA and a prominent climate change skeptic. Since he’s been put in charge of the agency, Pruitt has allegedly made plans…

Health Tom McKay

A Robot Captured Photos of What Might Be Melted Nuclear Fuel Inside Fukushima’s Reactor No. 3

One of the several brave robots to make one-way trips into Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant’s severely damaged reactors has accomplished what its less fortunate compatriots did not, sending back photos of what appears to be melted nuclear fuel from the interior of the ruined facility. The remotely controlled Toshiba robot, which is similar in…

Sploid Tom McKay

What Makes a Nuclear Reactor ‘Fail-Safe?’

When things go wrong at a nuclear power plant, they can go very wrong. The reality is that outside of some high-profile disasters, nuclear power is extremely safe. But what does it mean when people say that a nuclear reactor is “fail-safe?” YouTuber Randy Dobson has put together a quick little video explanation that demystifies…

Tech News Rhett Jones

At the Last Minute, Trump Asks Nuclear Safety Administrator to Stick Around After All

After weeks of silence and uncertainty, the agency responsible for ensuring the safety of our nuclear arsenal finally has an answer to the question of who exactly is in charge under President Trump. Last night, just hours before Trump was to be sworn in, his transition team finally asked Under Secretary for Nuclear Security Frank…

Tech News Ashley Feinberg

Japan Just Scrapped a $9 Billion Nuclear Reactor That Never Really Worked

The government of Japan has decided to decommission the experimental Monju nuclear reactor, which worked for just 250 days out of its total 22-year lifespan. Located in Japan’s Fukui Prefecture, the sodium-cooled fast reactor has been mired in controversy since construction began in 1986. The reactor came online in April 1994, but a major fire…

Tech News George Dvorsky

Watch Chernobyl’s Huge Radiation Shield Slide in and Enclose the Damaged Nuclear Reactor

We already saw how the new $1.6 billion sarcophagus—the 843-foot wide, 354-foot tall steel shield that entombs the radioactive material leaking from the damaged nuclear reactor left over from the Chernobyl disaster—was going to be put in place to replace the old concrete structure that enclosed the damaged reactor in a picture but here’s a…

Sploid Casey Chan

China Is Going to Build a Solar Plant in Chernobyl’s Exclusion Zone

A pair of Chinese companies are planning to build a solar plant in one of the scariest places in the world—the exclusion zone around the damaged Chernobyl nuclear reactor. Radiation from the 1986 meltdown is spread unevenly throughout The Zone, leading to government calls for population resettlement and renewed agriculture in regions deemed safe. As…

Tech News George Dvorsky

Chernobyl’s Gigantic Radiation Shield Is Now Being Moved Into Place

A giant metal shield designed to contain radioactive waste at Chernobyl’s damaged nuclear reactor is being moved into place. Workers at the site of the world’s deadliest nuclear accident have started to move a shield, called the New Safe Confinement, that should prevent further radioactive material from leaking out of the damaged reactor over the…

Tech News George Dvorsky

The Outlook for Nuclear Power in the U.S. Really Sucks

As the Paris climate summit kicked off two weeks ago, venture capitalist Peter Thiel penned a scathing op-ed for the New York Times, decrying the plight of nuclear power in the U.S. He cited a stagnant regulatory environment unable to adapt to innovative new reactor designs, and continued public hysteria over safety and radioactive waste…

Physics & Chemistry Jennifer Ouellette

Russia’s Newest Data Center Will Be Nuclear Powered

Russia’s newest data center will also be its largest, with a capacity for 10,000 racks. With that much power draw, it of course makes sense for the facility to be built next door to an existing nuclear power station. It makes even more sense when you consider the company constructing the data center: Rosenergoatom, a…

Tech News Chris Mills

Your Fake Diamond Ring Might Be Resistant to Radiation

Zirconium is best known to the public as the ring you get your fiancée if you don’t love her enough to invest in a blood diamond. Popular as it is in “fake” jewelry, zirconium is more often used in power plants and space shuttles, because it has a remarkable resistance to damage by radiation. Cubic…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

America’s First New Nuclear Plant in 30 Years Is Well Under Way

Maybe renewable energy sources like solar power are not enough to cover our increasing energy demand right now. In the panoramic photo above you can see the housing of a new 1,100 megawatt Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear reactor that will help bridge the gap. The reactor housing–the so called CA04 module–is being placed into the containment…

Tech News Attila Nagy

Here are 3 smart reasons why nuclear energy is really bad for us

This video explainer by Kurz Gesagt focuses on why nuclear energy is actually terrible and something we should stop using because it’s so bad. The reasons are pretty obvious: nuclear energy leads to nuclear bombs, nuclear waste is really dangerous and nuclear accidents and disasters are catastrophic. To see why three reasons why nuclear energy…

Sploid Casey Chan

Video explainer: 3 reasons why nuclear energy is actually awesome

Nuclear energy is great! Nuclear energy is terrible! There are two sides to the argument and Kurz Gesagt is breaking down both perspectives with point/counterpoint video explainers. The three reasons why nuclear energy is awesome and why we need more? It saves lives. It helps the environment. And that using it could develop new tech…

Sploid Casey Chan

Video explainer: What is nuclear energy and why we don’t have more of it

Our ability to harness nuclear energy has existed for quite a while now and yet nuclear energy is only responsible for providing 10% of the world’s energy. There are 439 nuclear reactors spread across 31 countries with 160 more reactors planned for the future and yet nuclear energy has stagnated since the 80’s. What gives?…

Sploid Casey Chan

Hackers Uploaded a Worm to South Korean Nuclear Plants

Here’s a scary thing that happened: South Korean authorities found evidence that a worm was recently removed from devices connected to nuclear power facilities. The news comes a little over a week after the country’s nuclear plant operator received warnings on Twitter that its network had been compromised. Thankfully, the reactor controls were not infected.…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes

We’re Running Out of the Nuclear Fuel That Powers Space Travel

Rosetta’s lander lasted just 60 hours on a comet after it bounced into the dark shadows of a cliff, where its solar panels couldn’t power the vehicle. Why didn’t it carry a more reliable power source, say a nuclear battery like one that’s unfailingly fueled Voyager for decades? It’s a simple question with a fascinating…

Space & Spaceflight Sarah Zhang

Mystery Drones Have Been Flying Over France’s Nuclear Power Plants

Le Monde reports that quadrotors of various shapes and sizes have been flying over some of France’s (numerous) nuclear power plants over the course of the past few weeks, causing mild alarm, embarrassment for the Air Force that’s supposed to police the air space, and a judicial enquiry. Greenpeace — which appears to be France’s…

Tech News Chris Mills

This Is What Failing at Nuclear Power Looks Like

The Fukushima Cleanup Is Progressing, But at a Painstaking Pace

Scott Pruitt’s EPA Says Maybe More Radiation Exposure Wouldn’t Be So Harmful

A Robot Captured Photos of What Might Be Melted Nuclear Fuel Inside Fukushima’s Reactor No. 3

What Makes a Nuclear Reactor ‘Fail-Safe?’

At the Last Minute, Trump Asks Nuclear Safety Administrator to Stick Around After All

Japan Just Scrapped a $9 Billion Nuclear Reactor That Never Really Worked

Watch Chernobyl’s Huge Radiation Shield Slide in and Enclose the Damaged Nuclear Reactor

China Is Going to Build a Solar Plant in Chernobyl’s Exclusion Zone

Chernobyl’s Gigantic Radiation Shield Is Now Being Moved Into Place

The Outlook for Nuclear Power in the U.S. Really Sucks

Russia’s Newest Data Center Will Be Nuclear Powered

Your Fake Diamond Ring Might Be Resistant to Radiation

America’s First New Nuclear Plant in 30 Years Is Well Under Way

Here are 3 smart reasons why nuclear energy is really bad for us

Video explainer: 3 reasons why nuclear energy is actually awesome

Video explainer: What is nuclear energy and why we don’t have more of it

Hackers Uploaded a Worm to South Korean Nuclear Plants

We’re Running Out of the Nuclear Fuel That Powers Space Travel

Mystery Drones Have Been Flying Over France’s Nuclear Power Plants

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