French Nuclear Plant Spills Radioactive Material
	On July 7, eighteen tons of uranium solution containing natural uranium have been accidentally released in the surrounding environment from one of the containment tanks of the Tricastin nuclear power plant, southern France, leading to the contamination of the ground with about 75 kilograms of unenriched nuclear material. Initial estimations placed the total amount of uranium contained in the solution that leaked into the ground to about 38 ... [read more >>]
	19 July 2008, 03:26GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Antineutrinos to Pose as Alarm Against Plutonium Theft
	During nuclear fission reactions nuclear power plants produce a by-product element known as plutonium, which accumulates on the uranium fuel rods. Plutonium cannot occur naturally on Earth and is extremely important for the fabrication of nuclear bombs because it is used in the detonation mechanism initiating the nuclear fission reaction. Plutonium accumulation of the fuel rods is also extremely hard to track. International Atomic Energ ... [read more >>]
	09 May 2008, 10:10GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

World's Heaviest Element May Have Been Found
	The heaviest chemical element known to occur naturally in Earth's crust is uranium 92 while the heaviest chemical element known to exist, a synthetic element, bears the atomic number 118. All elements heavier than uranium are highly unstable and quickly disintegrate into other stable chemical elements – this is why they cannot occur naturally. Nevertheless, physicists have predicted that chemical elements much heavier than uranium can ... [read more >>]
	05 May 2008, 06:14GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Good Bye Uranium, Good Bye Nuclear Power
	Not long ago, the world was dreaming of clean electric energy generated with the nuclear power plants, but you can't have nuclear power plants without nuclear fuel, can you? We're in the 21st century and we're pumping more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than ever, despite of all the international agreements signed over the years, stating that carbon dioxide emissions are to fall. As more and more carbon dioxide ... [read more >>]
	22 April 2008, 10:49GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Isomer Explosives, not Different from Nuclear Ones
	Nuclear weapons generate high explosive energies by either fusing or splitting certain chemical elements. A new type of nuclear explosive developed by the US Department of Defense, on the other hand, uses nuclear reactions in order to determine gamma-ray emissions carrying energies about one thousand times larger than that obtained with the help of chemical explosives. The problem is that some researchers believe that this exotic new weapo ... [read more >>]
	14 April 2008, 05:58GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Ultra-efficient Nuclear Fuels, too Unstable for Use
	Nuclear fission reactors produce high amounts of relatively clean electric energy by burning nuclear fuels, such as uranium. Higher-efficiency nuclear fuel is required for the next generation of nuclear reactors, which will burn longer and stronger to produce even higher amounts of energy. However, researchers say that this may prove to be a big problem in case of a critical situation, since this type of fuels could prove to be m ... [read more >>]
	10 April 2008, 05:42GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Say Good Bye to Nuclear Waste!
	Uranium dioxide is the world's most common radioactive substance, alongside the natural uranium molecule. Most of this nuclear waste results in the nuclear reactors of the nuclear power plants, during the process of nuclear fission, or nuclear fuel 'burning', which involves splitting the uranium atom through causing instability in the atomic nucleus, by bombarding it with a fast neutron particle. As the atom splits ... [read more >>]
	17 January 2008, 05:15GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Nuclear Fusion Gets $1.4 Billion Boost
	There is only one word on everyone's lips today: energy. And how to produce it more efficiently, without polluting the planet. The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER for short, has recently received a contribution of 1.4 billion dollars from the Republic of China, which covers about 10 percent of the total cost of the experimental nuclear fusion reactor. Unlike traditional nuclear fission reactors that use ... [read more >>]
	08 January 2008, 10:16GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Strange: Traditional Power Plants Emit More Radiation than Nuclear Ones
	There is a general misconception that nuclear power plants produce dangerous levels of radiation during their electric energy production activity, or that they are just another disaster waiting to happen. The truth is that aside the fact that they produce energy in an extremely efficient manner, without emitting any kind of greenhouse gases or any other pollutants, the amount of radiation created during the nuclear fission reaction is most ... [read more >>]
	15 December 2007, 04:58GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Nuclear Waste Threats to Pollute Columbia River
	Nuclear waste is remnant radioactive material resulted from the nuclear weapons program, or from processing in the nuclear power plants, which cannot be further used for other industrial activities. It is usually extremely radioactive, and has half life time in the range of millions of years, thus a solution must be found for the further conversion of these materials as they pose great security threats related to polluting the areas around ... [read more >>]
	28 November 2007, 08:45GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Uranium Responsable for Precious Opal
	Opal is one of the most precious gemstones people prefer. Scientists believe that the beautiful display of color this precious stone shows is mainly due to tiny amounts of uranium present in the composition of the stone. This discovery could prove to be valuable information for the artificial opal industry. The discovery of the presence of uranium traces in the opal gemstones was made by studying the amount of gamma-ray radia ... [read more >>]
	23 November 2007, 05:02GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

New Uranium Molecule Created
	The new molecule designed at the University of Virginia is the first uranium methylidyne ever reported, containing an uranium-carbon triple-bond. A methylidyne or methine as it is also known is a tri-valent functional group CH, derived from methane. The methine group consists of a carbon atom with two single bounds and a double bound, where one of the single bounds is to a hydrogen atom. This experiment opens new ways to under ... [read more >>]
	14 November 2007, 06:13GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Better Computers are Needed to Run the Nuclear Reactors
	The U.S Department of Energy has started a three-year project which will research the creation of a new generation of computers for a new kind of nuclear reactor, proposed by physics professor Michael Podowski. The reactor is called a sodium-cooled fast reactor, of SFR for short. Nuclear reactors are mainly used in nuclear power plants to produce electrical energy, by 'burning' uranium into its core, through a reaction called ... [read more >>]
	02 November 2007, 07:14GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

High Flux Isotope Uranium Reactor Back on Line
	A high flux isotope reactor went online after more than a year of repairs, systems checks and improvements that cost more that $70 million. It's a research reactor at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory internationally recognized as a neutron source for materials studies and isotope production. New and improved, it now has a set of modern experiment instruments, like beam lines to channel neutrons, a new beryl ... [read more >>]
	18 May 2007, 15:36GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia