Nuclear energy ​

Nuclear energy gets a bad reputation but its the future of renewable energy. High chance fusion is likely and will be achieved by 2040.

Liked overview of Helion's Nuclear Fusion process together with great overview of latest innovations of fusion.

Notes ​

• If elemental power aka nuclear was discovered last week we would be going insane with joy we just solved the climate crisis.
• Energy can be converted to mass, and vice-versa. This is how nuclear power works: when a heavy nucleus breaks up into smaller parts, the sum of the parts is less massive than the original nucleus. That lost mass is actually contained in the kinetic energy of the particles, or in photons depending on the type of decay.
• The more I study nuclear technology the more I think that every problem of today's nuclear tech has a potential solution that has already been identified. They just haven't been brought to market, because the market is sclerotic.
• I’m optimistic fusion projects like Commonwealth, Helion, and whoever is working on stellerators.

Links ​

• The Next Nuclear Plants Will Be Small, Svelte, and Safer (2019) (HN)
• Introductory nuclear physics by Kenneth S. Krane
• Commonwealth Fusion Systems
• ITER: World's largest nuclear fusion project begins assembly (2020) (HN)
• Ian Hutchinson: Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics, and Religion (2020)
• Ian Hutchinson's research
• We Need a Nuclear New Deal, Not a Green New Deal (2020) (HN)
• New nuclear engine concept could help realize 3-month trips to Mars (2020) (HN)
• Ask HN: Why can't nuclear waste be launched into the sun? (2020)
• The world needs nuclear power and we shouldn’t be afraid of it (2020) (HN)
• Advanced Reactor Modeling Interface - Open-source tool that streamlines your nuclear reactor design/analysis needs by providing a software reactor at your fingertips. (Docs)
• Awesome Nuclear - Curated list of open source projects used in nuclear science and engineering.
• TerraPower - Nuclear Innovation Company. (GitHub)
• MOCC - Method of characteristics-based nuclear reactor physics simulator.
• The lessons of Fukushima – Nuclear power must be well regulated, not ditched (2021) (HN)
• Nuclear technology’s role in the world’s energy supply is shrinking (2021) (HN)
• HN: Nuclear should be considered part of clean energy standard, White House says (2021)
• Why is nuclear fusion so hard? (2018)
• Why has nuclear power been a flop? (2021)
• Born secret – the heavy burden of bomb physics (2021) (HN)
• What Does a Nuclear Bomb Explosion Feel Like?
• What Is a Nuclear Microreactor? (2021) (HN)
• "Advanced" Isn't Always Better (2021)
• Transmutex - From Nuclear Waste to Clean Energy. (Article)
• Chernobyl — How It Happened (2016)
• MIT Introduction to Nuclear Engineering and Ionizing Radiation (2016)
• MIT-designed project achieves major advance toward fusion energy (2021) (HN)
• Nuclear Weapon Archive (1994-2020) (HN)
• China prepares to test thorium-fuelled nuclear reactor (2021) (HN)
• Lost nuclear weapons history
• Major nuclear fusion milestone reached as ‘ignition’ triggered in a lab (2021) (HN)
• Nuclear Power in France (2021) (HN)
• Europe categorize nuclear power as sustainable (2021)
• How Chernobyl has become an unexpected haven for wildlife (2020)
• Global Power Plant Database
• Helion - Building the world’s first fusion power plant, enabling a future with unlimited clean electricity. (HN)
• Nuclear power is the best climate-change solution (2021) (HN)
• Why nuclear fusion yields more energy than fission (HN)
• Nuclear energy is long-term sustainable (2021) (HN)
• The Energy of Tomorrow: The Promise, Failure, and Possible Rebirth of Nuclear Power (2021)
• Revisiting the “Tsar Bomba” nuclear test (2021) (HN)
• Book Review: The Future of Fusion Energy (2022) (HN)
• Why is the Nuclear Power Industry Stagnant? (2022) (Tweet)
• Major breakthrough on nuclear fusion energy (2022) (HN)
• HN: France to Build Six New Nuclear Reactors (2022) (Reddit)
• Greatest source of value & wealth creation in the 22nd century could be driven by terrestrial nucleosynthesis
• Magnetic control of tokamak plasmas through deep reinforcement learning (2022) (Tweet)
• Controlling the nuclear fusion plasma in a tokamak with reinforcement learning (2022) (HN)
• Nuclear War Survival Skills (1987) (HN)
• Developers of small modular reactors hope their time has come (2022) (HN)
• How to Keep 600 Kilograms of Kazakh Highly Enriched Uranium Safe (2022) (HN)
• First Light (Oxford University spinout) achieves nuclear fusion (HN)
• The Quest for Fusion Energy (2022) (HN)
• Your Book Review: The Future Of Fusion Energy (2022) - Primer on fusion and why it's likely we achieve it by 2040.
• Is nuclear fusion for energy generation capable of the things its advocates claim? (2022)
• Ask HN: Can you both take climate change seriously and against nuclear energy? (2022)
• HN: Nuclear turn green as EU parliament approves new taxonomy (2022)
• Helion Needs You (2022) (HN)
• Nuclear waste isn't a problem
• Nuclear energy is clean (2022) (HN)
• The First Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Was Just Approved by US Regulators (2022) (HN)
• Korean nuclear fusion reactor achieves 100M°C for 30 seconds (2022) (HN)
• We Solved Nuclear Waste Decades Ago (2022)
• Why are nuclear power construction costs so high? (2022) (HN)
• Many scientists see fusion as the future of energy (2022) (HN)
• BYU profs create new nuclear reactor to produce nuclear energy more safely (2022) (HN)
• France looks into increasing uranium enrichment capacity (2022) (HN)
• A primer to nuclear fusion and First Light Fusion (2022) (HN)
• Thoughts on nuclear fusion advances (2022)
• Fusion energy breakthrough by Livermore Lab (2022)
• Expert reaction to reports of advance in nuclear fusion from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (2022)
• US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved (2022)
• Nuclear-fusion lab achieves ‘ignition’: what does it mean? (2022)
• Nuclear power is too slow (2022) (HN)
• A New Way to Achieve Nuclear Fusion: Helion (2022)
• Why fusion will never happen (2012) (HN)
• Nuclear physicist explains why fusion ignition is hailed as a major breakthrough (2022) (HN)
• Everything I believed about nuclear waste was wrong (2023) (HN)
• The Radical Promise of Nuclear Fusion (2023)
• Georgia nuclear plant begins splitting atoms (2023)
• Why Oppenheimer Deserves His Own Movie (2023)
• Fusion Foolery (2023) (HN)