Self-Healing Ceramics for Nuclear Safety

Roland Piquepaille writes "Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) researchers have used supercomputers to simulate how common ceramics could repair themselves after radiation-induced damages. This is an important discovery because 'materials that can resist radiation damage are needed to expand the use of nuclear energy.' These ceramics, which are able to handle high radiation doses, could improve the durability of nuclear power plants. They also might help to solve the problem of nuclear waste storage. But read more for additional references about how this research could improve nuclear safety."

Comments

Re:Gas Cooled Fast reactor

[BlueParrot]

a) They are likely to be cheaper than existing reactors due to a simpler plant layout.
b) Nuclear is profitable many places where it isn't subsidized, in Sweden it is even taxed and still runs at a profit.
c) Solar/Wind are subsidized more than nuclear ( in terms of money per kwh ) in virtually every country that use them to any large extent.

To put it in terms of another poster, if Solar / Wind is so cheaper than nuclear (which is itself competitive with coal ), why isn't your house exclusively powered by them? Why do you wait for the government to do it for you when you could just go out and buy solar cells yourself? Given that both wind turbines and solar cells are heavily subsidized in many countries, and since they are allegedly cheaper than using other energy sources, one would think that it would be the deal of a lifetime , yet at best people use them to supplement their energy supply, and close to nobody actually use them exclusively. Care to tell me why ?

Re:Gas Cooled Fast reactor

[polar red]

As for insurance, how many accidents have there been in the western world that resulted in a payout from this insurance? and what will happen when a serious nuclear meltdown occurs? who will pay for the damages and lives lost? I can bet it won't be the companies (see: chernobyl), but the government. Note : a serious meltdown WILL occur, cuts will always be made by managements, and NOTHING has ever been build that is 100% safe, 99,999% is NOT 100%.