Nanotube Potential Future in Nuclear Power
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Nanotube Potential Future in Nuclear Power Liviu Popa-Simil R&D, LAVM LLC., Los Alamos, NM, 87544 Abstract The nanotubes present high potential of applications in nuclear power, integrating them in advanced fuels developments, nanobreeding and nanoshielding. The carbon nanotubes may be successfully employed to create fuel wires used in high temperature applications and near perfect burning generating new procedures in nuclear reactor waste management while reducing the waste by two orders of magnitude. The modified nanowire may hold various other materials as conductors and insulators being useful in direct conversion of the nuclear energy into electricity, by including in the center a sequence of high and low electron density conductors. As direct conversion structures they can handle all the required functions into a nuclear reactor or energy harvesting blanket to assure high power density, high efficiency and minimal waste. Another very challenging application is the usage of nanotube in channeling low energy nuclear radiation and guide it, similar to the GHz waveguides or to hundreds of THz optic fibers. The operation domain of the nanotubes is placed mainly in the domain of UV to X-rays, being the role of composite structures or nanowire channeling to cover the gamma ray domain. The carbon nanotubes may be used in cold neutrons transport devices with directive capabilities as short bending or focusing. The theoretical approaches and simulations predicted these new application capabilities of nanostructures for nuclear materials with exceptional properties. Introduction The last decade explosion of nanotechnologies its spread over all the domains has the potential of pushing towards new dimensions and performances in mature technologies as nuclear power. The nanostructure due to the control of its properties down to molecular level offers exceptional mechanic, electric, chemical and electronic properties valuable in nuclear power developments. Nanostructures Potential Applications in Nuclear Power Near perfect burning structures An old 1950th concept on dispersion nuclear fuels drove to the actual cermet fuels has been refined and developed as micro-hetero fuel generically called “cer-liq-mesh”. This new fuel is looking like a fabric made of micron thin wires that supports small fuel beads soaked into a liquid. The beads are made of various chemical combinations like oxide, nitrides, carbides of isotopic enriched fissile material as 233U, 235U, 239Pu, etc. with diameter smaller than the effective fission product range, supported on wires that form the mesh shown in Fig. 1. Due to their dimensions the fuel damage was reduced by more than 10 times, and the new sensitive part become the fuel’s support wire exposed to the final range of the fission products while the drain liquid is practically insensitive. Carbon MWNT bundle has high stability towards neutron irradiation, having a low absorption crosssection and good molecular binding energy being Fig. 1 – micro-hetero nuclear fuel
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