http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- University of Utah researchers developed a new concept in water treatment: an electrobiochemical reactor in which a low electrical voltage is applied to microbes to help them quickly and efficiently remove pollutants from mining, industrial and agricultural wastewater. http://phys.org/news213558885.html Technology Thu, 06 Jan 2011 17:55:13 EST news213558885 (PhysOrg.com) -- Sophisticated radiation techniques are being used to better understand ancient trade patterns and the development of modern society. http://phys.org/news211021588.html Other Sciences Wed, 08 Dec 2010 09:07:11 EST news211021588 Fusion plasmas in the laboratory typically reach 100 million degrees. These high temperatures are required to ignite the hydrogen plasma and maintain the fusion burn by the production of high-energy alpha particles. One challenge for a fusion reactor is how to contain the alpha particles in the vessel long enough for the particles to efficiently heat the hydrogen plasma. One way that these alpha particles can escape the fusion chamber prematurely is by exciting high frequency Alfven waves and riding these waves to the vessel walls, like a surfer rides a wave to the beach. http://phys.org/news208424014.html Physics Mon, 08 Nov 2010 07:50:01 EST news208424014 Whenever two pieces of metal at different voltages are brought near each other, as when an appliance is plugged into a live socket, there is a chance there will be an arc between them. Most of the arcs people see are a breakdown of the gas between the metal surfaces, but this type of breakdown can also occur in a vacuum. This vacuum breakdown, which until recently has not been well understood, has implications for applications from particle accelerators to fusion reactors. http://phys.org/news208417595.html Physics Mon, 08 Nov 2010 06:10:01 EST news208417595 The Cold Triple Axis spectrometer, a new addition to Oak Ridge National Laboratory's High Flux Isotope Reactor and a complementary tool to other neutron scattering instruments at ORNL, has entered its commissioning phase. http://phys.org/news206726996.html Physics Tue, 19 Oct 2010 18:40:02 EST news206726996 South Africa is shelving the development of a cutting-edge nuclear reactor after the programme failed to find private investors or customers abroad, the government said Friday. http://phys.org/news203921720.html Technology Fri, 17 Sep 2010 05:55:34 EST news203921720 (PhysOrg.com) -- By analyzing data from experiments performed earlier this decade at the Oak Ridge Electron Linear Accelerator (ORELA), physicists have made observations that seem to conflict with the widely accepted theory of the nucleus. http://phys.org/news202020721.html Physics Thu, 26 Aug 2010 07:41:58 EST news202020721 The European Union and six states backing a multi-billion-dollar nuclear fusion project said Wednesday they had reached a deal on the financing and timetable for the experimental reactor. http://phys.org/news199549825.html Physics Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:40:02 EST news199549825 Researchers have discovered mechanisms critical to interactions between hot plasma and surfaces facing the plasma inside a thermonuclear fusion reactor, part of work aimed at developing coatings capable of withstanding the grueling conditions inside the reactors. http://phys.org/news199466372.html Physics Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:19:54 EST news199466372 An explosion in costs has cast a cloud over a multi-billion-dollar nuclear fusion project aiming to make the power that fuels the sun a practical energy source on Earth. http://phys.org/news199345846.html Physics Mon, 26 Jul 2010 06:51:13 EST news199345846 SNM is optimistic that the anticipated recommencement of the Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL)-run National Research Universal (NRU) reactor in Chalk River, Canada, will provide short-term relief to the isotope shortage that has been plaguing patients and the nuclear medicine community for more than one year. However, SNM cautions that the restart of this reactor will not solve the ongoing production and supply issues causing the crisis. http://phys.org/news197806079.html Medicine & Health Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:20:01 EST news197806079 Canada's nuclear safety commission authorized Wednesday the restarting of a reactor that produced one-third of the world's supply of medical isotopes before it closed for repairs last year. http://phys.org/news197745926.html Medicine & Health Wed, 07 Jul 2010 18:25:40 EST news197745926 Virtual reality software that plans the safe decommissioning of nuclear power plants and other nuclear facilities could save industry millions of pounds, according to its inventors. http://phys.org/news197124817.html Technology Thu, 01 Jul 2010 00:00:06 EST news197124817 The most widely used medical radioisotope, Technetium-99m (Tc-99m), is essential for an estimated 70,000 medical imaging procedures that take place daily around the world. Aging reactors, production intermittencies and threats of permanent reactor closures have researchers striving to develop alternative methods of supply. In a comparative study presented at SNM's 57th Annual Meeting, researchers show that medical cyclotrons could be capable of producing this medical isotope. http://phys.org/news195134486.html Medicine & Health Mon, 07 Jun 2010 13:30:01 EST news195134486 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists in the U.S. and U.K. have demonstrated that the short-lived radioactive and neutron-rich isotope tin-132 has a doubly magic nucleus. http://phys.org/news194247215.html Physics Fri, 28 May 2010 07:40:01 EST news194247215 (PhysOrg.com) -- When Iron Man can't do the job, who ya gonna call? Well, how about Caltech theoretical physicist Mark Wise? In Iron Man 2, the blockbuster science-fiction film based on the comic book superhero, Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, is slowly dying from the palladium that gives him superhuman strength. He must come up with a new element to power the portable nuclear reactor attached to his chest so that he can defeat the evil Russian physicist Ivan Vanko. But how? http://phys.org/news193925221.html Physics Mon, 24 May 2010 13:20:02 EST news193925221 Scientists at the Nuclear Science and Technology Division of the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are merging decades of nuclear energy and safety expertise with high-performance computing to effectively address a range of nuclear energy- and security-related challenges. http://phys.org/news193420166.html Technology Tue, 18 May 2010 17:00:03 EST news193420166 North Korea on Wednesday claimed it had carried out a nuclear fusion reaction that could lead to a limitless supply of clean energy -- a process that the world's scientists have so far yet to achieve. http://phys.org/news192875549.html Physics Wed, 12 May 2010 09:41:58 EST news192875549 (PhysOrg.com) -- An article written in 2004 by a Lehigh engineering professor and his former student has received more citations than any publication in its field, according to a company that analyzes the influence of research papers. http://phys.org/news192807673.html Chemistry Tue, 11 May 2010 14:41:55 EST news192807673 Russia and Italy have entered into an agreement to build a new fusion reactor outside Moscow that could become the first such reactor to achieve ignition, the point where a fusion reaction becomes self-sustaining instead of requiring a constant input of energy. The design for the reactor, called Ignitor, originated with MIT physics professor Bruno Coppi, who will be the project's principal investigator. http://phys.org/news192730850.html Physics Mon, 10 May 2010 17:21:28 EST news192730850 Brazil is to build a 483-million-dollar nuclear reactor to produce radioactive material for medical use as well as industrial-grade enriched uranium, local media has reported, citing a cabinet minister. http://phys.org/news192356363.html Technology Thu, 06 May 2010 09:40:01 EST news192356363 A fission reaction in a nuclear reactor? There's an "app" for that! An iPhone "application" or software developed by the University of Utah's Scientific Computing and Imaging (SCI) Institute to look at medical CT or MRI scans now is being used by the university's nuclear engineering program to display simulations of a nuclear reactor's core on an iPod, iPhone or iPad. http://phys.org/news192346820.html Technology Thu, 06 May 2010 06:42:02 EST news192346820 Finland's government on Tuesday outlined a plan to massively boost renewable energy production to meet European Union requirements on slashing greenhouse gas emissions. http://phys.org/news191003168.html Technology Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:00:01 EST news191003168 (PhysOrg.com) -- Self-repairing materials within nuclear reactors may one day become a reality as a result of research by Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists. http://phys.org/news188749399.html Physics Thu, 25 Mar 2010 15:23:42 EST news188749399 Combined mechanisms of transport have important applications -- transport of nutrients across cell membranes in plants and animals, the aeration of agricultural soils, performance of chemical reactors, the design of membranes for desalting brackish water, and the design of clay membranes for retaining dangerous chemicals. Because mass transport of fluid constituents has important roles in biology, physics, and chemistry, one would assume that such transport would be well understood by the scientific community. However, transport of fluid constituents continues to be a source of confusion, particularly regarding models for combining transport by molecular diffusion and advection. http://phys.org/news186253821.html Biology Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:10:01 EST news186253821 (PhysOrg.com) -- One of the world's biggest providers of nuclear reactors, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (a joint venture of General Electric and Hitachi), wants to reprocess nuclear waste for use as a fuel in advanced nuclear power plants, instead of burying it in waste repositories such as that proposed at Nevada's Yucca Mountain. http://phys.org/news185694782.html Technology Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:30:01 EST news185694782 As U.S. physicians face an impending crisis caused by lack of a crucial isotope used in many diagnostic procedures, a U.S. company said Wednesday that it had reached an agreement with the Polish nuclear energy agency to obtain the isotope from a reactor in that country. http://phys.org/news185656330.html Medicine & Health Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:30:01 EST news185656330 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new experiment that reproduces the magnetic fields of the Earth and other planets has yielded its first significant results. The findings confirm that its unique approach has some potential to be developed as a new way of creating a power-producing plant based on nuclear fusion -- the process that generates the sun's prodigious output of energy. http://phys.org/news183544566.html Physics Sun, 24 Jan 2010 13:00:07 EST news183544566 Ever wanted to see a nuclear reactor core in action? A new computer algorithm developed by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory allows scientists to view nuclear fission in much finer detail than ever before. http://phys.org/news183389151.html Physics Fri, 22 Jan 2010 13:26:43 EST news183389151 As the nation ponders its energy choices, Americans keep asking themselves: how can the country make better use of its resources and emit fewer greenhouse gases without hurting U.S. industries? A research project at Idaho National Laboratory may have part of the answer. http://phys.org/news178821091.html Technology Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:10:01 EST news178821091