Energy, features and articles | Educational Science

Jul 20, 2009

U.S. Energy Use Declined in 2008

The United States used more solar, nuclear, biomass and wind energy in 2008 than in 2007, according to a new report that shows overall energy use dropped. The nation used less coal and petroleum in 2008 compared to the previous year, and only slightly increased its natural gas consumption. Geothermal...

Dec 16, 2009

Earthquake Concerns Shake Geothermal Energy Projects

Hard times are now bedeviling geothermal energy projects that risk triggering earthquakes as they delve miles deep into the Earth to tap clean and virtually limitless energy. One such enhanced geothermal system, as they are known, caused a magnitude 3.4 quake in Basel, Switzerland, in 2006. A case in court...

Jan 28, 2010

Levitating Magnet Brings Nuclear Fusion Closer to Reality

Physicists may be one step closer to achieving a form of clean energy known as nuclear fusion, which is what happens deep inside the cores of stars. A recent experiment with a giant levitating magnet was able to coax matter in the lab to extremely high densities — a necessary...

May 12, 2010

Nuke the Gulf Oil Gusher, Russians Suggest

Using a nuclear explosion to try to plug the gushing oil well in the Gulf of Mexico might sound like overkill, but a Russian newspaper has suggested just that based on past Soviet successes. Even so, there are crucial differences between the lessons of the past and the current disaster...

Aug 10, 2010

Could Wildfires Threaten US Nuclear Reactors?

Firefighters are battling wildfires approaching a Russian nuclear center in the Nizhny Novgorod region, with fires also raging near another top Russian nuclear research center in the town of Snezhinsk. With nuclear energy facilities located near wildfires-prone areas in the United States, could such facilities here be at risk? It's...

Mar 11, 2011

Radiation Level 1,000 Times Too High at Japanese Nuclear Plant

The radiation level around a nuclear reactor at the Fukushima nuclear facility near Tokyo has risen to 1,000 times its normal level since this morning's earthquake blew out the plant's cooling system. Technicians at the plant are preparing to release steam that has been vaporized by heat from the nuclear...

Mar 14, 2011

What Is a Nuclear Meltdown?

A partial meltdown of nuclear fuel rods has occurred in two, or perhaps three, nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan. What does that mean exactly? A meltdown is when the uranium dioxide fuel melts. The melting temperature of uranium dioxide is 5,189 degrees Fahrenheit (2,865 degrees...

Mar 14, 2011

Q&A: Nuclear Power Expert Explains Japan's Crisis

To clarify exactly what happened at the Fukushima nuclear power plants in Japan following a massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake on Friday (March 11), LiveScience and its sister site Life's Little Mysteries consulted Temipote Taiwo, a nuclear engineer and head nuclear systems analyst at Argonne National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy...

Mar 18, 2011

Map Shows Nuclear Reactors in Quake Zones (Infographic)

This map shows where the world's nuclear reactors are located along with nearby quake activity. (Image credit: Ross Toro, LiveScience Infographic Artist) ...

Mar 28, 2011

Japan's Complex Megadisaster Offers Scary Glimpse of Future

The crisis in Japan could be considered the first complex megadisaster the world has ever seen — a potent combination of natural and technological calamities that might become more common in the future. A megadisaster is a catastrophe that threatens very quickly to overwhelm an area's capacity to get people...

Sep 21, 2011

Fuel at Fukushima Daiichi Reactors (Infographic)

A nuclear reactor like that at Fukushima Daiichi may contain lots of uranium fuel beyond what's stored in the fuel rods. (Image credit: Karl Tate, LiveScience Infographic Artist) ...

Feb 9, 2012

First Next-Gen US Reactor Designed to Avoid Fukushima Repeat

The United States has approved construction of new nuclear reactors for the first time in three decades. The two new reactors approved today (Feb. 9) for Georgia would represent the first U.S. versions of next-generation reactor designs that have begun appearing in China. These third-generation reactors are said to be...

Feb 23, 2012

Radioactive Rain Across the US Is Natural

There appears to be radiation literally raining down upon Earth. In several new YouTube videos shot in the United States and Canada, radiation-detecting Geiger counters are shown buzzing at an alarming rate when aimed at wet grass and puddles shortly after it has rained. Following a recent downpour in Toronto,...

Mar 10, 2012

How Safe Are US Nuclear Reactors? Lessons from Fukushima

The meltdown started when water to cool the reactors fell to dangerously low levels four hours after the fourth-largest recorded earthquake rattled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Five out of six of its reactors lost electricity when a 14-meter tall tsunami swept in 40 minutes later. Backup diesel generators...

May 14, 2012

Kodak had a 'Secret' Nuclear Reactor

A new report reveals that the Kodak industrial facility in upstate New York was home to a small nuclear reactor filled with weapons-grade uranium for more than 30 years. The refrigerator-size reactor was housed in an underground bunker at the former Kodak Par site in Rochester, N.Y., and was used...