nuclear

In Germany, nothing says fun for all ages like an abandoned nuclear power plant cooling tower! That's the sentiment behind Wunderland Kalkar amusement park--formerly known as the Schneller Bruter cooperative energy project--where you're more likely to encounter cotton candy and motion sickness than Geiger counters and radiation poisoning.

Before you let those fashionably hip Cold War-meets-Steampunk visions in your head take hold, I should note that the nuclear facility was, for political reasons, never completed, so there's actually no danger of coming in contact with any radiation while taking a ride on the mechanical swings that have … Read more

MAKUHARI, Japan--For many Japanese, food safety is an urgent concern in light of the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, from which radiation has entered the food supply.

Kyoto-based scientific equipment maker Horiba is trying to help with a radiation detector kit that can tell users if their food is contaminated.

It's basically a transparent bucket with a radiation monitor in the bottom and an upper compartment that holds rice and other foods. It also works with soil.

The bucket works with Horiba's new PA-1000 Radi monitor, which was being shown off here at Ceatec trade show outside Tokyo ahead of its release this month.

Priced at 125,000 yen ($1,628), the Radi can detect radiation ranging from 0.001 to 9.999 microsieverts per hour and has a buzzer option for alerts.

Horiba staff members said Japan residents are now looking for higher quality detectors instead of cheaper imports. The company's PA-1100 Radi is a monitor with USB and Bluetooth for links to PCs, smartphones, and tablets. It can be used with GPS applications to quickly create radiation maps. … Read more

No one wants to stumble upon the radiation warning sign. But its presence at least indicates that hazardous materials have been detected, and that there might be some form of control of those materials.

In high-risk scenarios without up-to-date signage (war zones, abandoned testing sites, and now airport security lines), it could prove quite handy to have a handheld device that can detect hard radiation--including nuclear weapons.

Chemists at Northwestern University report in the journal Advanced Materials that they are one step closer to developing such a device.

"We have designed promising semiconductor materials that, once optimized, could be … Read more

A nuclear plant in Marcoule in southern France suffered an explosion earlier today.

According to France's Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), the explosion at the plant occurred in a furnace used for melting radioactive scrap metal. Earlier reports from the BBC suggested the fire occurred in a storage space for radioactive waste. In a statement on the matter, France's nuclear safety regulator, the French Safety Authority (ASN), said that one worker died and that four other people were injured, including one person who "suffered deep burns."

Local news site Le Midi Libre was first to report on … Read more

As a design exercise to show what a vehicle capable of lasting 100 years without maintenance could look like, Cadillac debuted at the 2009 Chicago Auto Show its World Thorium Fueled concept car powered by nuclear energy. While the vehicle didn't contain a working thorium-fueled nuclear reactor, one researcher says that the technology is within our reach.

Charles Stevens, a researcher at the Massachusetts R&D firm Laser Power Systems, is creating a prototype of a thorium-powered laser that can be used to generate enough energy to power a vehicle while producing zero-emissions, according to an article in … Read more

TomTom embraces apps, the ultimate driving machine drives itself, an electric car sets a Nurburgring record, and we make fun of a Ferrari 456 Italia.

• TomTom Go Live 1535M: Has apps, will travel

• Ford presents unified tech vision in Evos concept

• Hyundai Genesis Coupe's new nose: Hot or not?

• 2012 Hyundai Veloster three-door coupe to start at $18,060

• How to ruin a perfectly good Ferrari 458 Italia (video)

Workers struggling to contain the leaking Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan have only a few robots that are able to get deep inside the highly radioactive reactor buildings and piloting them has been very difficult, according to a blog written by one of the workers and republished by IEEE Spectrum.

The postings, written by an author who goes by the initials S.H., began appearing after the March 11 quake and tsunamis that knocked out the plant and ran through July. Many of them detail training sessions, as seen in the associated video compilation below. The blog was deleted last month when word of it spread in Japan, but it has also appeared on the site of AIST, a government-backed research center.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) hired contractors, including S.H.'s employer, to help bring the plant to a cold shutdown in January, but the postings paint a picture of an inadequately equipped robot response to the catastrophe. Observers, including your humble correspondent, have wondered why robot-mad Japan wasn't prepared for a major nuclear accident like Fukushima. … Read more

Some people like to tend to their garden, play video games, or tackle woodworking projects as a pastime. A 31-year-old Swedish man, according to the Associated Press, had a rather unusual hobby. Richard Handl was working on a homemade nuclear reactor.

In Angelholm, a municipality in southwest Sweden with a long sandy beach right outside of the main town, Handl was busy experimenting in his kitchen with radioactive elements radium, americium, and uranium. He opened up fire alarms, which contain small amounts of americium and ordered other elements from companies overseas, according to Swedish news site The Local.

His work … Read more

As the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan continues to leak radiation, engineers at MIT are devising a robot that could help limit contamination from nuclear facilities in the U.S.

The egg-size device, described in this paper for ICRA 2011 earlier this year, is being developed by MIT's Harry Asada and others.

The robot would swim through pipes, capturing images and checking for corrosion that could lead to contaminated groundwater. It's spherical without appendages so it doesn't snag on reactor plumbing parts.

Last month, an Associated Press investigation found that 48 sites in the U.S. … Read more