Micro Nuclear Reactors

A small but mighty problem: what to do with the radioactive waste we've already made?Professor Clare Corkhill from the University of Bristol gives us the run down on how radioactive waste is created. In Onkalo Finland, Victoria Gill visits the first national facility able to prov ...  Show more

Elon Musk says his company Space X will focus on establishing a ‘self-growing city’ on the moon before going to Mars. Why the pivot? And what would it take to build a lunar metropolis? Victoria Gill speaks to head of space at the Science Museum Libby Jackson. Can we stimulate the ...  Show more

Could the future of nuclear power be the mass production of cheap small modular reactors?Justin Rowlatt visits a UK-based consortium led by Rolls Royce that is trying to develop these factory-produced miniature power stations. But how much funding does their chief executive Tom S ...  Show more

Recently, the Chinese government has been testing a thorium nuclear reactor that uses molten salt as a coolant. Although this radioactive element has been trialed in reactors before, experts say that China is the first to have a shot at commercializing the technology. The Wuwei ...  Show more

Nuclear energy accounts for 20% of the electricity in the United States, but remarkably, 2023 marked the commissioning of the U.S.'s first new nuclear reactor in over three decades. The past few years have been a story of changing public opinion, but equally, innovative startu ...

The race to reduce emissions has more and more nations reaching for the nuclear option. Nuclear power plants are being built around the world, generating carbon-free electricity day and night, windy or calm. But they also generate radioactive waste, some of which can remain de ...