Nuclear Fusion-Fission Hybrid Designed to Destroy Nuclear Waste
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This composition of two repeated hierarchies (stacks and bundles) provides great strength—the ability to withstand mechanical pressure without giving way—and at the same time great robustness—the ability to perform mechanically,
Figure 1. Illustration of different arrangements of alpha-helical protein filaments and their schematic representation in their model. (Image: Prof. Markus Buehler, MIT)
Nuclear Fusion-Fission Hybrid Designed to Destroy Nuclear Waste Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have designed a fusion-fission hybrid system that, when fully developed, would use fusion to burn most of the transuranic waste produced by nuclear power plants. Furthermore, the system would produce energy during the process. The invention would reduce nuclear waste, making nuclear energy more broadly acceptable and thus could be used to help combat global warming. “We have created a way to use fusion to relatively inexpensively destroy the waste from nuclear fission,” said Mike Kotschenreuther with the Institute for Fusion Studies (IFS) and Department of Physics. “Our waste destruction system, we believe, will allow nuclear power— a low carbon source of energy—to take its place in helping us combat global warming.” As reported in the January issue of Fusion Engineering and Design (DOI: 10.1016/j.fusengdes.2008.11.019; p. 83), Kotschenreuther, Swadesh Mahajan, and Prashant Valanju of the IFS, and E.A. Schneider of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin propose destroying the waste using a fusion-fission hybrid reactor, the centerpiece of which is a high-power compact fusion neutron source (CFNS) made possible by their invention of the Super-X
even if faults are present, the researchers said. Alpha-helices are a common protein building block of cellular filaments, hair and hoof, stabilized through weak intramolecular hydrogen bonds. As reported in the February 18 issue of Nanotechnology (DOI: 10.1088/09574484/20/7/075103), the researchers used modeling based on molecular dynamics simulations to test the strength and robustness of four different combinations of eight alpha-helical proteins: a single stack of eight proteins, two stacks of four bundled proteins, four stacks of two bundled proteins, and double stacks of twobundled proteins. Their molecular models replicate realistic molecular behavior, including hydrogen bond formation in the coiled springlike alpha-helical proteins (see Figure 1). In a follow-up study that will appear in the inaugural issue of the International Journal of Applied Mechanics, Buehler and his graduate students Zhao Qin and Steve Cranford ran similar tests using more than 16,000 elements instead of
eight. The most successful of those again utilized the bundles of four alpha-helical proteins. That analysis shows that random arrangements of elements typically led to inferior performance, and may explain why many engineered materials are not yet capable of combining disparate properties such as robustness and strength. Only a few specific nanostru
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