A team of researchersÌýfrom NASA and Los Alamos National LaboratoryÌýhave demonstrated a new reactor conceptÌýthat combines a Stirling engine with modern heat pipe cooling technologyÌýto provideÌýa powerÌýsource for future space missions.
Ìý
A new robot is set to join the Fukushima Daiichi cleanup effort. Hitachi's newly unveiled ASTACO-SoRa compact heavy-duty robot will start work removing rubble at the site from 2013.
A team of researchersÌýfrom NASA and Los Alamos National LaboratoryÌýhave demonstrated a new reactor conceptÌýthat combines a Stirling engine with modern heat pipe cooling technologyÌýto provideÌýa powerÌýsource for future space missions.
Nasa's Curiosity Mars rover has carried out the first ever measurements of radiation on another planet. Its findings suggest that astronauts would be able to live on the surface of Mars for long enough to carry out extended missions.
Russian leaders have affirmed the strategic and economic importance of nuclear technology to the country, announcing that spending will rise and a major development program will be accelerated._48x66.jpg "Tetrapod robot (Toshiba) 48x66")
Robots have been useful in surveying dangerous areas of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, but a walking robot revealed by Toshiba promises to undertake more complex tasks in future.
The installation of the new Titan supercomputer at the US Department of ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) marks the start of a new era of scientific supercomputing, including in nuclear energy research._72x48.jpg "Kiriyenko and Zhvachkin, September 2012 (Rosatom) 72x48")
An experimental lead-cooled nuclear reactor will be built at the Siberian Chemical Combine (SCC). If successful, the small BREST-300 unit could be the first of a new wave of Russian fast reactors.
Areva is boosting its US capabilities by building a new technical centre and by forming an alliance with Northrop Grumman to provide cybersecurity support for nuclear facilities.