| Biography | |
|---|---|
 Dr. Liviu Popa-Simil Los Alamos Academy of Sciences, USA |
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| Title: Nuclear Power Renaissance based on engineered micro-nano- nuclear materials | |
| Abstract: Nuclear power as we know today has embedded difficulties that finally translated in many accidents and an increase in cost of the energy delivered this way. Main problem is the accelerated degradation of nuclear fuel under the action of fission products, transmutation products and radiation inside the active zone, corroborated with improper temperature distribution and mechanical stress induced during operation. The searches to solve these problems conducted to development of micro-nano-hetero structures able to use nuclear reaction kinematics to self separate the fission products from the nuclear fuel in microstructures, generically called “Cer-Liq-Mesh”, made of nuclear fuel (UO2, PuO2, UN, PuN, PuC, etc) micro-beads, with dimensions inside fission products range, chemically stabilized by a thin coating, soaked in liquid metal fluid. In order to assure mechanical stability the micro-beads are suspended on a wire mesh, or felt that is also elastic. As further analyzed, fission products share about 170 MeV in kinetic energy, and in interaction with the matter surrounding the fission origin they behave like charged particles depositing energy as ionization and nuclear recoil towards the end of the stopping range. In solid matter the nuclear recoil zone, also known as Bragg peak is characterized by having many remnant defects as dislocations. The new solid-liquid composite material, places Bragg peak in liquid that has exhibits no remnant structural damage. Transmutation products have shorter stopping range in nuclear fuel in nm range, and in order to extract them, a nano-clustered porous hetero-structure have been developed, where the pores are open and flooded with an extraction fluid, acting as a drain liquid. Nano-cluster exhibit special properties for impurities, different from bulk material, that makes a transmutation product created inside a nano-cluster to be expelled on the boundary from where the extraction liquid washes it out. In an ideal case, the micro-bead may be made of a nano-clustered structure contained inside the coating layer together with the extraction liquid. This type of nuclear fuel material that contains a porous nano-clustered structure embedded or forming a micro-hetero structure allows the separate extraction of the fission products from the micro-fluid and transmutation products from the nano-fluid may be packed together inside a cladding creating fuel pellet that may be fully compatible and replace the actual nuclear fuel. The advantage is that after a reasonable burnout, the fission or fission and transmutation products may be extracted on spot and the fuel may be reprocessed pellet by pellet, transferred in a new cladding and used in a breed and burn scheme, reducing the need for enrichment, and by this improving the nuclear fuel cycle and nonproliferation resistance. Energy released in nuclear reactions is by one million times larger than that delivered in chemical processes, and using engineered nano-hetero structures it become possible to produce battery like systems. There are three types of batteries that can be produced, generically called: - isotopic batteries, known for using nuclear transmutation reactions that release alpha or beta radiation, that is harvested and converted into electricity, previously known as alpha or beta voltaic, one such battery delivering the energy of more than 100,000 same power chemical batteries. - fission batteries, delivering energy at demand, being in fact a solid-state compact nuclear reactor, where the meta-material inside is harvesting the energy of the fission products , which are over 200 times more energetic than decay reactions, and - fusion batteries, where the meta-material is harvesting the energy of the fusion reactors, where fusion is up to three times more energetic than fission. Complementary these meta-materials may be morphed on surfaces, able to convert particle beam energy, useful in space beamed power applications, and being hyperbolic meta-structures for some combinations they exhibit intense EM properties, being possible of emitting THz up to optical radiation. There are many functional configurations of meta-materials that may be used, to convert moving particle energy into electricity as: - planar structures, made of parallel nano-layers of materials , where for harvesting the energy of a 3 micron thick alpha emitter, as 210Po, 239Pu, 241Am, it takes a harvesting double foil of about 50 m thick, useful for self-powered electronic modules, or long term batteries. For example using 40 g of pore 238Pu, it may produce a 200 g, 40cc, 15 W battery, able to power an artificial heart for more than 40 y, or 400 y lifetime batteries for space applications by using 241Am. In a modified configuration, the meta-material may work similar to a laser emitting THz or visible radiation for the same lifetime for data communication purposes. - nano-beaded structures, made of a distribution of nano-beads embedded into an amorphous dielectric structure, that have higher operating temperatures and efficiencies than planar structures, and - heterogeneous nano-tube structures, believed to exhibit higher conversion efficiencies, over 90%, for isotropic radiation, but exhibiting real constructive difficulties, being now only a theoretical endeavor. The project is in TRL=3 stage, having some simulations and ion beam tests accomplished, and more work is needed to develop the highly functional and reliable power sources. The novel, engineered micro-nano-materials will allow the design and constructions of new generations of Nuclear Power plants, and nuclear power related devices, being ecological friendly and assuring unfettered energy for the planet for the next 10,000 years, for terrestrial and space applications. Key Words: Nano, Nuclear-Energy, micro-hetero structure, nano-clustered-hetero structure, Hetero-nano-structure, Nano, Energy harvesting, Meta-material | |
| Biography: Dr. Liviu Popa-Simil, is the Executive Director of LAAS - Los Alamos Academy of Sciences, which strives to serve the public good by promoting science and innovation and the president of LAVM LLC, a private company developing nano-nuclear materials and THz applications as security systems. He is a nuclear engineer physicist, graduating from the Nuclear Engineering Faculty in Bucharest, Romania, specialized in Fast Breeder Reactors Physics and Engineering, and with dissertation work in Laser-Plasma Jet Nuclear Materials Enrichments. Since 2002, he has worked for Los Alamos National Laboratory, developing Real Time Radiography methods, and then, developed advanced nuclear fuel cycle as part of AFCI program, previously being a senior researcher, program manager at NIPNE-HH, in Bucharest Romania, specialized in accelerator applications and nuclear materials. He authored books on Kindle e-Book and iTunes on nano-nuclear materials, strategic space applications, climate change, transportation, supercomputers, etc., and he has filed patents on resistive spot welding, nuclear materials, THz imaging, ballistics, medical devices, etc. He has also contributed more than 300 peer-reviewed articles to professional journals, wrote chapters for several books on novel nuclear materials, super-computers, etc. and speaks at approximately three to four conferences per year. He gave more than 500 talks, several keynote speeches, many invited talks, and hundreds of seminaries and presentations. | |
