Tag: Radioactive

Want to find life on Mars? Look deep underground

A new study from researchers at Rutgers University suggests that the best place to look for evidence of life on Mars is deep underground, where geothermal heat melted subsurface ice. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/mars-life-search-subsurface-ice-melted-by-geothermal-heat…

UK Seeks Site For World’s First Fusion Power Station

sciencehabit writes: The U.K. government today invited communities around the country to volunteer a site for a prototype fusion reactor, which would be the first — it is hoped — to put electricity into the grid. The project, called Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP), began last year with an initial 222 million pounds over 5 years to develop a design….

Radioactive elements may be crucial to the habitability of rocky planets

The amount of long-lived radioactive elements incorporated into a rocky planet as it forms may be a crucial factor in determining its future habitability, according to a new study by an interdisciplinary team of scientists at UC Santa Cruz. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-11-radioactive-elements-crucial-habitability-rocky.html…

Greenpeace Claims Fukushima Water Release Could Change Human DNA

An anonymous reader quotes CNN: Contaminated water that could soon be released into the sea from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant contains radioactive carbon with the potential to damage human DNA, environmental rights organization Greenpeace has warned. The environmental group claims that the 1.23 million metric tons of water stored at the plant — scene of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi…

Should Japan dump radioactive water from Fukushima into the ocean?

Around 1.2 million tonnes of water contaminated by radioactive substances from the 2011 Fukushima disaster will be dumped in the Pacific ocean, under a plan expected to be approved by the Japanese government within weeks. Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2258055-should-japan-dump-radioactive-water-from-fukushima-into-the-ocean/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

Japan Decides To Release Treated Fukushima Water Into the Sea

hcs_$reboot shares a report from CBS News: Japan will release more than a million tons of treated radioactive water from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea in a decades-long operation, reports said Friday, despite strong opposition from environmentalists, local fishermen and farmers. The release of the water, which has been filtered to reduce radioactivity, is likely to start in…

Astronomers identify 24 possible superhabitable worlds

Are there worlds out there – orbiting distant stars – even better suited for life than Earth? Might they be older, larger, warmer, wetter and with longer-living stars? Now astronomers have identified 24 possible superhabitable worlds. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/superhabitable-exoplanets-better-suited-for-life-than-earth…

A NASA Mission Is About To Capture Carbon-Rich Dust From a Former Water World

sciencehabit writes: OSIRIS-REx is ready to get the goods. On 20 October, after several years of patient study of its enigmatic target, NASA’s $800 million spacecraft will finally stretch out its robotic arm, swoop to the surface of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, and sweep up some dust and pebbles. The encounter, 334 million kilometers from Earth, will last about 10 seconds….

NuScale’s Small Nuclear Reactor Gets US Safety Approval

tomhath shares a report from Ars Technica: On Friday, the first small modular reactor received a design certification from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, meaning that it meets safety requirements and could be chosen by future projects seeking licensing and approval. The design comes from NuScale, a company birthed from research at Oregon State University that has received some substantial Department…