Nuclear power plants generate 22% of
the electricity in the U.S. To enhance the safety of these plants,
nuclear physicists are studying stress in reactor pressure vessels
by a technique known as neutron diffraction. Their results are
helping plant manufacturers to refine the analytical models that
predict plant performance.
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 Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant Pacific Gas & Electric |
Other nuclear physicists are developing a process for treating radioactive waste from power plants. By bombarding waste with neutrons, they hope to transmute certain radioactive nuclei into either stable nuclei or nuclei with a shorter half life that would require relatively brief storage.
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Nuclear Powered Pacemaker |
Subcritical power
plants, designed for maximum safety and now under development, may
someday be essential to replace our dwindling oil reserves.
On a much smaller scale, nuclear
"batteries" have served as the power sources of heart
pacemakers. Similar nuclear sources are found in other common
devices such as home smoke detectors. |
On-Line Analysis of Coal
The coal and electric utility industries have installed 600 on-line analyzers which determine the chemical composition of coal by nuclear techniques. On-line analyzers monitor the quality of coal at the mine, sort and blend coal, and streamline the operation of power plants. They are helping the coal and utility industries to reduce air pollution.
Nuclear Fusion
The U.S. and several other countries have established long-range plans to generate electricity with commercial nuclear fusion reactors. These reactors fuse hydrogen nuclei to create helium, thereby liberating energy in a process similar to nuclear reactions in the sun.
Information provided by: http://www.phy.anl.gov