A subset of AI called reinforcement learning is helping scientists improve nuclear fuel technology, which they could use to power spacecraft and rockets.
Articles on Nuclear fission
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Uranium enrichment concentrates one specific type of the atom to create a substance that can generate massive amounts of energy.
Students explore nuclear facilities in virtual reality and learn about the ethical dimensions of nuclear technology in a University of Michigan course.
Fission and fusion are both nuclear reactions. But while one involves splitting atoms, the other involves fusing atoms together.
Sending a nuclear fission reactor into space means lots of technical questions. One research group is coming up with models that could improve how a nuclear rocket starts up and powers down.
Some processes that support fusion energy fuel climate change and may harm the environment.
A nuclear bomb is a bomb that makes explosions by changing the nucleus of an atom in a way that releases a lot of energy.
While the nuclear fusion scientific breakthrough is indeed historic, it’s important to pause and reflect on the way ahead for fusion energy.
As WallStreetBets traders begin to eye stocks linked to the radioactive metal, there could be a major bubble in the offing.
Scientists are working on ways to make lots of energy by converting matter into energy. The trick is keeping the process under control. One possibility is nuclear fusion – the Sun’s power source.
An update of 50-year-old regulations has kickstarted research into the next generation of rockets. Powered by nuclear fission, these new systems could be the key to faster, safer exploration of space.
How policy has shifted back and forth since 1945 over the fine line between nuclear energy and nuclear weapons.
Iran has announced it will breach the limits on uranium enrichment agreed under the 2015 nuclear deal, after the US turned its back on the agreement. What does that mean for Iran’s nuclear program?
Iran’s leaders are threatening to breach a 2015 agreement that froze their country’s nuclear program. What is uranium enrichment, and what would it mean for Iran’s ability to build nuclear weapons?
Left off publications due to Nazi prejudice, this Jewish woman lost her rightful place in the scientific pantheon as the discoverer of nuclear fission.
Commercial nuclear reactors provide roughly one-fifth of the electricity produced in the US. But they face grave threats to their continued operation.
As fusion becomes more technically viable, it’s time to assess whether it’s worth the money because breakthroughs in the lab don’t guarantee success in the marketplace.
In what came to be known as the Thule incident, an American bomber crashed in Greenland, spreading radioactive wreckage across 3 square miles of a frozen fjord. Denmark was not happy.
By figuring out fission, physicists were able to split uranium atoms and release massive amounts of energy. This Manhattan Project work paved the way both for atomic bombs and nuclear power reactors.
Want to know if a rogue state has performed a nuclear test? Sniffer planes can help.
Top contributors
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Timothy J. Jorgensen is a Friend of The Conversation.Director of the Health Physics and Radiation Protection Graduate Program and Professor of Radiation Medicine, Georgetown University
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DECRA Fellow, Department of Nuclear Physics and Accelerator Applications, Australian National University
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Professor of Physics, Michigan State University
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Associate Professor of International Relations, University of Reading
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Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Carleton University
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Senior Fellow, James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Middlebury College
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Reader in Nuclear Materials, Nuclear Futures Institute, Bangor University
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Lecturer in Finance, Bangor University
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Associate Professor of Physics, The University of Melbourne
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Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Carleton University
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Director of the Center for National Security Initiatives and Professor of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder
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Assistant Professor of Physics, Rutgers University - Newark
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Senior Lecturer in Economics / Director of the Institute of European Finance, Bangor University
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Lecturer in International Studies, University of Washington
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PhD Candidate in Politics and Environment, University of York