Two Important Developments in Nuclear Energy

This Week in Engineering

Nuclear energy for electricity generation has been the standard application for civilian nuclear power since the industry began seven decades ago. Heat produces steam, which spins a turbine—technology which uses readily available processes developed in coal, oil and gas burning power plants for over a century. Space and process heat, however, are major energy demands for cities and in industry, and a demonstration nuclear district heat plant has powered up in Dalian City, China. In the United States, a development program for scalable, truck-transportable small modular reactors may have encountered a restraining force more powerful than physics: inflation.

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