Nuclear Energy News

May 13, 2025

Top Headlines

New Silver Mass Brings Us a Step Closer in Our Understanding of the Antineutrino Mass

May 6, 2025 — Neutrinos and antineutrinos are elementary particles with small but unknown mass. High-precision atomic mass measurements have revealed that beta decay of the silver-110 isomer has a strong potential ...

Big Problem for Fusion Energy Solved

May 5, 2025 — A new shortcut can help engineers design leak-proof magnetic confinement systems for fusion reactors 10 times as fast as the gold standard method, without sacrificing accuracy. While several other big challenges remain for all magnetic fusion ...

New Theory of Gravity Brings Long-Sought Theory of Everything a Crucial Step Closer

May 5, 2025 — Researchers have developed a new quantum theory of gravity which describes gravity in a way that's compatible with the Standard Model of particle physics, opening the door to an improved ...

New Method to Produce an Extremely Heavy Hydrogen Isotope

Apr. 30, 2025 — Scientists have produced one of the most neutron-rich isotopes, hydrogen-6, in an electron scattering experiment. The experiment presents a new method for investigating light, neutron-rich nuclei and challenges our current understanding of ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:47pm EDT

Maximal Entanglement Sheds New Light on Particle Creation

Apr. 11, 2025 — Physicists have shown that particles produced in collimated sprays called jets retain information about their origins in subatomic particle ...

Study Tracks Chromium Chemistry in Irradiated Molten Salts

Apr. 2, 2025 — Chemists report that radiation-induced chemical reactions may help mitigate the corrosion of metals in a new type of nuclear reactor cooled by molten ...

A Safe Nuclear Battery That Could Last a Lifetime

Mar. 26, 2025 — Lithium-ion batteries, used in consumer devices and electric vehicles, typically last hours or days between charges. However, with repeated use, they degrade and need to be charged more frequently. ...

Gas Injection Setup in New Fusion System Is Guided by Public-Private Research

Mar. 25, 2025 — Researchers have determined that six gas valves provide the best protection against plasma disruptions in SPARC, a next-generation, experimental ...

New Machine Learning Framework Enhances Precision and Efficiency in Metal 3D Printing, Advancing Sustainable Manufacturing

Mar. 21, 2025 — Researchers are leveraging machine learning to improve additive manufacturing, also commonly known as 3D printing. The team introduces a new ...

Muonic Atoms Unlock New Possibilities in Nuclear Physics

Mar. 20, 2025 — Researchers have combined theory and experiments to show that nuclear polarization does not limit studies of muonic atoms, clearing the way for new nuclear physics ...

Producing Nuclear Fusion Fuel Is Banned in the US for Being Too Toxic, but These Researchers Found an Alternative

Mar. 20, 2025 — Lithium-6 is essential for producing nuclear fusion fuel, but isolating it from the much more common isotope, lithium-7, usually requires liquid ...

Nanomaterials Used to Measure Nuclear Reaction on Radioactive Nuclei Produced in Neutron Star Collisions

Mar. 18, 2025 — Physicists have measured a nuclear reaction that can occur in neutron star collisions, providing direct experimental data for a process that had ...

Dialing in the Temperature Needed for Precise Nuclear Timekeeping

Mar. 17, 2025 — For decades, atomic clocks have been the pinnacle of precision timekeeping, enabling GPS navigation, cutting-edge physics research, and tests of fundamental theories. But researchers are now pushing ...

Direct Evidence Revealed for Rare Pulsing Pear-Shapes in Gadolinium Nuclei

Mar. 17, 2025 — Scientists have acquired direct evidence of rare, pulsing pear-shaped structures within atomic nuclei of the rare-earth element Gadolinium, thanks to new ...

Scientists Discover New Heavy-Metal Molecule 'Berkelocene'

Mar. 11, 2025 — Scientists have discovered 'berkelocene,' the first organometallic molecule to be characterized containing the heavy element berkelium. The breakthrough disrupts long-held theories about ...

Highly Radioactive Nuclear Waste: How to Keep It from Oblivion

Mar. 6, 2025 — Sweden's radioactive nuclear waste will be stored in a sealed bedrock repository for 100,000 years. It will be hazardous for a very long time. So how can we ensure that humanity does not forget ...

Some Fuel Lodges in the Inner Walls of Fusion Vessels: Researchers Now Have a Better Idea of How Much

Feb. 26, 2025 — New research offers insights that could help reduce the amount of radioactive tritium embedded in the walls of fusion vessels to a ...

A Completely New Type of Microscopy Based on Quantum Sensors

Feb. 25, 2025 — Researchers have invented an entirely new field of microscopy -- nuclear spin microscopy. The team can visualize magnetic signals of nuclear magnetic resonance with a microscope. Quantum sensors ...

Scientists Design Battery That Runs on Atomic Waste

Feb. 25, 2025 — Researchers have developed a battery that can convert nuclear energy into electricity via light emission, a study ...

Illuminating the Proton's Inner Workings

Feb. 21, 2025 — Scientists have now mapped the forces acting inside a proton, showing in unprecedented detail how quarks -- the tiny particles within -- respond when hit by high-energy photons. The international ...

Breakthrough Study Challenges Long-Held Beliefs About the Shape of Atomic Nuclei

Feb. 20, 2025 — An international research collaboration has overturned the long-standing belief that the atomic nucleus of lead-208 is perfectly spherical. The discovery challenges fundamental assumptions about ...

From Photons to Protons: Team Makes Breakthrough in High-Energy Particle Detection

Feb. 11, 2025 — Researchers have discovered that superconducting nanowire photon detectors can also be used as highly accurate particle detectors, and they have found the optimal nanowire size for high detection ...

A New Feature Discovered in Radioactive Lanthanum Isotopes

Jan. 31, 2025 — Researchers measured very precisely atomic masses of radioactive lanthanum isotopes and found an interesting feature in their nuclear binding energies. The discovery provides essential data for ...

Aging Reactors Need a Concrete Solution

Jan. 31, 2025 — It's been known for some time that radiation impacts the structural integrity of concrete. However, until now the details of this were unknown. Researchers can finally demonstrate what ...

New Measurements of Solar Radiative Opacity Thanks to Helioseismology

Jan. 27, 2025 — Researchers have pioneered an innovative method using helioseismology to measure the solar radiative opacity under extreme conditions. This groundbreaking work not only reveals gaps in our ...

Method Can Detect Harmful Salts Forming in Nuclear Waste Melters

Jan. 7, 2025 — A new way to identify salts in nuclear waste melters could help improve clean-up technology, including at the Hanford Site, one of the largest, most complex nuclear waste clean-up sites in the world. ...

Plasma Heating Efficiency in Fusion Devices Boosted by Metal Screens

Dec. 19, 2024 — Scientists have performed computer simulations confirming a technique that prevents the production of unhelpful electromagnetic waves, boosting the heat put into fusion ...

Thorium Film Could Replace Crystals in Atomic Clocks of the Near Future

Dec. 18, 2024 — Atomic clocks that excite the nucleus of thorium-229 embedded in a transparent crystal when hit by a laser beam could yield the most accurate measurements ever of time and gravity, and even rewrite ...

Step Forward in Generating Solar-Powered Hydrogen

Dec. 17, 2024 — Another advance has been made by experts in nano-scale chemistry to propel further development of sustainable and efficient generation of hydrogen from water using solar power. Experts have now ...

Eyes on the Sun: Naked Thallium-205 Ion Decay Reveals History Over Millions of Years

Dec. 11, 2024 — The Sun generates its tremendous energy through the process of nuclear fusion. At the same time it releases a continuous stream of neutrinos -- particles that serve as messengers of its internal ...

Particle Research Gets Closer to Answering Why We're Here

Dec. 5, 2024 — Physicists have outlined the next 10 years of global research into the behavior of neutrinos, particles so tiny that they pass through virtually everything by the trillions every second at nearly the ...

'Spooky Action' at a Very Short Distance: Scientists Map out Quantum Entanglement in Protons

Dec. 2, 2024 — Scientists have a new way to use data from high-energy particle smashups to peer inside protons. Their approach uses quantum information science to map out how particle tracks streaming from ...

ODS FeCrAl Alloys Endure Liquid Metal Flow at 600 °C Resembling a Fusion Blanket Environment

Nov. 25, 2024 — Researchers explored protective coatings to resist corrosion in fusion reactors. They tested -Al2O3 oxide layers on ODS alloys in a high-temperature, flowing lithium-lead environment. Even bare ODS ...

Deciphering the Anomalous Properties of Water

Nov. 14, 2024 — Water, a molecule essential for life, has unusual properties -- known as anomalies -- that define its behavior. However, there are still many enigmas about the molecular mechanisms that would explain ...