Lifeboat Foundation

Larsen & Toubro has finished the construction of 3,800-tonne ITER cryostat — the world’s largest steel vacuum chamber and a critical part of the ITER machine — for world’s first fusion reactor as a source of endless clean energy. The company says that the final components are ready to ship to the project site in France and here is what it means for the future of humanity.

In this article, Jonathan Tennenbaum constructs – conceptually – a hydrogen-boron fusion reactor similar to one proposed by Australian plasma physicist Heinrich Hora.

Hora’s approach is one of many – in various stages of development – proposed for achieving nuclear fusion power. I don’t intend to endorse one idea over another but writing about Hora’s extremely promising concept is an excellent way to acquaint readers with some of today’s most exciting areas of science and technology.

Ideally, readers should be familiar with the preceding articles in this series and the following pieces of the puzzle:

Neutron stars are an end state of stellar evolution, says astrophysicist Paul Lasky, at Australia’s Monash University and OzGrav. “They consist of the densest observable matter in the universe, under conditions that are impossible to produce in the laboratory, and theoretical modeling of the matter requires extrapolation by many orders of magnitude beyond the point where nuclear physics is well understood.”

“Gravitational-wave astronomy is reshaping our understanding of the universe,” said Lasky, about a new study co-authored by the ARC Center of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) that makes a compelling case for the development of “NEMO” —a new observatory in Australia that could deliver on some of the most exciting gravitational-wave science next-generation detectors have to offer, but at a fraction of the cost.

The study today presents the design concept and science case for a Neutron Star Extreme Matter Observatory (NEMO): a gravitational-wave interferometer optimized to study nuclear physics with merging neutron stars, using high circulating laser power, quantum squeezing and a detector topology specially designed to achieve the high frequency sensitivity necessary to probe nuclear matter using gravitational waves.

Move aside, boy-sized submarines. Now we have boy-sized reactors.

The DOE says that radioactive leakage from Runit Dome, a respository for U.S. atomic waste, is insignificant. Marshall Islands leaders are skeptical.

Dr. Charles Forsberg observes technological overlap between Molten-Salt Reactor (fission) development and Fusion Reactors due to manufacturing breakthrough of Rare-Earth Barium Copper Oxide (REBCO) Superconducting Magnets onto steel tape.

REBCO superconducting tape enables doubling magnetic fields.

Continue reading “Molten-Salt Fusion Reactors and Molten-Salt Fission Reactors — Dr. Charles Forsberg @ ORNL MSRW 2019” »

Staging Area

The engineers say four reactors could give enough energy for a six-person crew to live on Mars, and they’re hoping to use the Moon as a testing ground.

“On the moon, you’re close to home,” NASA engineer Michelle Rucker told C&EN, “so if something fails, it’s a fairly close trip to get back home, whereas on Mars, your system better be working.”

The National Weather Service in Melbourne has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for southeastern St. Lucie County and northeastern Martin County until 10 p.m.

At 9:18 p.m., a severe thunderstorm was located 7 miles north of Indiantown, moving northeast at 15 mph.

Locations impacted include Port Saint Lucie, Walton, Stuart, Palm City and Saint Lucie Nuclear Power Plant.

The waste will reportedly be moved by sea and rail to a plant in the Urals.

Urenco told the BBC its uranium would be further enriched in Russia and the process met environmental standards.

But environmental activists have long been concerned that Russia may become a “dumping ground” for radioactive waste from power plants.