A Nuclear Plant That Can Compete with Natural Gas?
Dr. Andrew Kadak
Thu Jan 14, 10am-12:00pm, 26-302
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event
The MIT Nuclear Engineering Department has been working on an advanced design nuclear plant that is projected to be able to compete with today's natural gas plants. How can they do this? Common knowledge is that nuclear plants are expensive to build and operate and create regulatory headaches for management. The MIT group is facing these issues head on and believes that they can do it. The secret? Small modular, gas-cooled nuclear plants whose major components are factory assembled and shipped to the site. The design seeks to address the most common criticisms of nuclear power: safety, economics, proliferation, and waste. Some have dubbed the design as the first "politically correct" nuclear plant. This project started last year as a wild idea during IAP. Come and learn what an idea at IAP can become.
Contact: Dr. Andrew Kadak, 253-0166, kadak@mit.edu
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Rethinking the Nuclear Fuel Cycle: A Panel Discussion
Prof.Mujid Kazimi, Moderator , Dr. Herbert Feinroth, Prof. Michael Driscoll, Dr.Francesco Veneeri
Mon Jan 25, 02-05:00pm, 24-115
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event
The nuclear fuel cycle based on slightly enriched uranium dioxide fuel and once-through operation has been the favored cycle in the US. For both maximizing the benefits of the uranium resources and minimizing the environmental and proliferation risks from the spent fuel, other fuel cycles could be more advantageous than the present cycle. There are tradeoffs to be made among the present reliable fuel cycle and the new proposals. These tradeoffs will be examined in a panel discussion.
Moderator: Prof. Mujid Kazimi, MIT
Speakers and topics will be: Dr. Herbert Feinroth, Gamma Engineering, Inc. "Dry Recycling: What Is New?
Speaker: Prof. Michael Driscoll, MIT: "Thorium Fuel Cycles."
Speaker: Dr. Francesco Veneeri, Los Alamos National Laboratory, "Transmutation
by Accelerators or Reactors."
Contact: Sonia White, sunny@mit.edu
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What Are We Going To Do with Nuclear Waste?
Dr. Lake Barrett, Department of Energy
Mon Jan 11, 10am-12:00pm, 26-302
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event
Dr. Barrett, the leading Department of Energy official in charge of finding a solution to the disposal of high level nuclear waste, will answer this 50 year old question. The Department of Energy has been conducting a great deal of scientific exploratory research at the proposed disposal site in Nevada and at national laboratories across the country. DOE is about to release a "Viability Assessment" which discussed the feasibility of nuclear waste disposal at the Yucca Mountain site. Dr. Barrett will summarize the scientific results presented in this report which could lead to an answer to the nuclear waste question. Some may be surprised at the actual progress made and how close we could actually be to shipping spent fuel from commercial nuclear plants to a DOE respository and interim storage site.
Contact: Dr. Andrew Kadak, 253-0166, kadak@mit.edu
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