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ANEEL: Thorium-Based Reactor Fuel Could Support A New Wave Of Nuclear Power
by James Conca at forbes.com
For decades, nuclear engineers have dreamt up new formulas, shapes and sizes for the radioactive fuel that powers the reactors of the world’s nuclear power plants (our greatest source of zer0-carbon electric power). Today most of what’s used for reactor fuel is enriched uranium. In the future, fuel compositions could shift toward the very promising element thorium.
A potential breakthrough: The United States Department of Energy (DOE) Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the Nuclear Engineering & Science Center at Texas A&M have partnered with Clean Core Thorium Energy (CCTE) to fabricate a new type of nuclear fuel, called “Advanced Nuclear Energy for Enriched Life”, or ANEEL.
Letter to the National Academy from William Hannum, PhD
Gentlemen:
Various people have brought to my attention the National Academy's recently established Expert Panel on the Merits and Viability of Different Nuclear Fuel Cycles and Technology Options and the Waste Aspects of Advanced Nuclear Reactors. These are highly important topics, and deserving of an expert review. I have spent almost my entire career studying advanced nuclear fuel cycles and nuclear waste handling and disposal. There are several key points that I believe should be addressed by the panel:
1. The viability of different fuel cycles in the context of this study must include economic as well as technical viability.
2. It will be important to differentiate between technical and political considerations.
3. This topic can only be discussed in a world context, not a national context.
4. There is great uncertainty in the characterization of the risks of radiation.
5. Discussing the waste aspects of advanced nuclear reactors without addressing other nuclear wastes destined for disposal is meaningless.
I have attached a brief statement on the situation as I see it. I would appreciate your forwarding these comments and the attached paper to the Panel.
William H. Hannum, Ph.D., fellow of the American Nuclear Society
Nuclear industry leaders discuss game-changing issues
Leaders of World Nuclear Association working groups participated in a webinar yesterday to highlight some of the issues of key importance to the global nuclear industry. These include harmonisation in reactor licensing; energy market design; safety regulation; and, new applications of nuclear energy. The Industry Gamechangers webinar was a pre-event to the Association's Strategic eForum to be held next week.
Atomic Weapons Testing While Troops Looked On – Did It Increase Their Cancer Risks?
by James Conca at Forbes.com
It turns out it did not. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09553002.2020.1787543" aria-label="A new study">A new study, by John Boice, Jr. and colleagues, reports the results of 114,270 nuclear weapons test participants that were followed for up to 65 years. Contrary to decades of anecdotal reports, the study concluded that there were no statistically significant occurrence of cancers or adverse health effects from radiation among these soldiers.
The Energy Transformation to Come
How can humanity deal with the dual challenges of climate change and the soaring demand for energy in developing countries? Tom 
Russia's first floating nuclear power plant, the Akademik Lomonosov, being moved to its shoreside berthBlees, president of the Science Council for Global Initiatives, a member of the Global Energy Prize International Award Committee, has ThorCon Floating Nuclear Plantanswers to these questions. A very different energy transition is about to take place globally. Details are in his article.
The founders of a nuclear power startup company called ThorCon have abundant experience in designing and building some of the biggest ships in the world. They realized that molten salt nuclear reactor technology was compatible with the construction techniques used in state-of-the-art shipyards. So why not build complete floating power plants using the latest shipyard building methods and technologies? Such vessels could be self-contained and ready to connect to the power grid in any country. Quality control and cost control could be assured, as would the rapid construction time. The size of the ship necessary to house a fully-functional 500MW or 1,000MW power plant would be considerably smaller than ships they've previously built.
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