RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
| Subject: Laser advance may increase spread of nuclear bomb Mon Aug 22, 2011 3:00 am | |
| Scientists have long sought easier ways to make the costly material known as enriched uranium - the fuel of nuclear reactors and bombs, now produced only in giant industrial plants.
One idea, a half-century old, has been to do it with nothing more substantial than lasers and their rays of concentrated light. This approach has always proved too expensive and difficult for anything but laboratory experimentation.
Until now.
In a little-known effort, General Electric has successfully tested laser enrichment for two years and is seeking permission from the US government to build a $US1 billion ($960 million) plant that would make reactor fuel by the tonne.
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/laser-advance-may-increase-spread-of-nuclear-bomb-20110821-1j4mm.html
|
|