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Category: nuclear energy

Cells have a secret power line: How the nucleus gets its own private energy supply from mitochondria

For decades, biologists assumed a cell’s energy simply diffused to wherever it was needed. It turns out the most important destination of all has a private delivery line.

An international team of scientists led by Dr. Ivan Menendez-Montes, assistant professor at the University of Arizona, and Dr. Hesham A. Sadek, director of the Sarver Heart Center at the University of Arizona and group leader at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC), has uncovered a previously unknown mechanism through which mitochondria directly supply energy to the cell nucleus.

Published in Nature, their study demonstrates that mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell, physically dock at the control center of the cell—the nucleus—through its main gate—the nuclear pore complexes. This creates a highly efficient system for delivering energy and metabolites directly into the nucleus.

Neutron star merger simulations gain new precision with AI-driven r-process heating

Using a novel simulation model based on machine learning, an international research team at GSI/FAIR has succeeded in gaining a deeper understanding of element formation in stellar events such as neutron star mergers. For the first time, the scientists used deep learning with a neural network to model the energy release during r-process nucleosynthesis in hydrodynamic simulations. The results are published in the journal Physical Review D.

Many of the chemical elements we know are created in massive stellar events such as exploding stars or neutron star mergers. These events release incredible amounts of energy, allowing for the production of heavy nuclides. One key nuclear production process is the so-called rapid neutron-capture process, or r-process, in which free neutrons are captured by existing nuclei and converted into protons—thus creating larger, heavier atomic nuclei.

“Researchers around the world strive to make these complex reactions understandable through theoretical simulations. However, modeling all parameters requires incredible computing power, which is why the models often have to be simplified,” said Dr. Oliver Just, first author of the publication and a researcher in the Nuclear Astrophysics & Structure Department at GSI/FAIR. “Our new model, RHINE, which uses artificial intelligence, offers an efficient alternative.”

China’s Thorium Reactors

Every commercial nuclear reactor in the world runs on uranium. Uranium brings three undeniable problems. It creates weapons-grade plutonium. It melts down under pressure. Its radioactive waste lasts for tens of thousands of years.

Thorium solves all three.
Physicists have known this since the 1960s. The United States actually built a working thorium reactor. They proved the technology was viable. Then they deliberately abandoned it.

Detectability of covert fissile material production in nuclear fusion reactors via antineutrino emissions

Research and development of fusion energy has recently gained a strong impetus from private investment. While less of a proliferation risk than conventional fission systems, modified fusion systems could produce material usable in nuclear weapons. This paper examines an innovative use of antineutrino detectors to find misuse of fusion systems. Since antineutrinos are so penetrating, this technique carries near-zero interference with fusion energy system operation.

Engineered for the Future

Buildings account for 30–40 percent of global energy expenditure and more than half of global electricity consumption. But the most advanced smart buildings—those with full automation, AI controls, and on-site generation—can achieve energy reductions of 50–70 percent. Scaled across the built environment, that translates to 60–110 exajoules of energy saved per year—that’s more than the entire current energy consumption of the United States, or the total output of all the world’s nuclear power plants combined.

Transforming the buildings we already live and work in to become a part of the system itself that generates, stores, and manages energy efficiently could be the blueprint for the future of energy use, creation, and management.

Nanomagnets control diamond qubits, pointing to more scalable quantum hardware

Quantum computing, once only a theoretical possibility, promises to deliver faster, more energy-efficient computers—but only if scientists can build and scale the hardware needed to run the machines. New research from Virginia Commonwealth University brings scientists one small step closer to quantum computing at a practical scale, which could help dramatically reduce energy usage and computing times in some industries.

In the study, recently published in Nature Communications, the researchers used minuscule magnets—twice as small as the wavelength of light—to create the building blocks of quantum computing, pioneering a technique that could decrease the physical space needed to create a viable quantum computer.

“This work has the potential to advance quantum computing,” said Jayasimha Atulasimha, Ph.D., a professor of mechanical and nuclear engineering in VCU’s College of Engineering and the study’s principal investigator. “We’re solving a specific problem for spin-based quantum computing, which has the potential for scaling.”

Researchers capture inception of hydrogen-uranium reaction for the first time

When hydrogen gas interacts with uranium metal, the combination creates a chemically reactive powder and a runaway reaction that is difficult to stop. The result can impact the safety and lifespan of technology critical for fusion energy, hydrogen storage and nuclear fuels.

In a recent study published in npj Materials Degradation, researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) observed and characterized the beginning stages of hydrogen-uranium corrosion for the first time. The result will lead to more predictive and physically grounded models for how uranium components degrade.

Imagine the hydrogen-uranium interaction like a geyser. Much like surface water seeping through cracks to make its way underground, hydrogen dissolves and diffuses into the uranium metal. This happens silently and invisibly until it becomes too much hydrogen for the uranium to hold. The two materials combine to form a new compound called uranium hydride, which takes up significantly more volume than the original uranium metal.

Imaginary-time technique speeds X-ray scattering simulations by 50-fold for extreme matter

Researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) have developed a new procedure, enabling them to speed up elaborate computer simulations that analyze matter under extreme conditions. In particular, this work improves the evaluation of experiments at large-scale research facilities like the European XFEL—and should facilitate substantial progress, among others, in fusion research and laboratory astrophysics.

The team presented the results in the journal npj Computational Materials.

Sometimes, matter is present in extreme states—such as in stars or in the interior of gas giants where enormous pressures and temperatures prevail. Such conditions can also be produced in the lab, in laser fusion experiments, for instance. In order to understand precisely what happens, researchers use X-ray scattering—as at the European XFEL near Hamburg.

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