Safer Nuclear Power? | Research Focuses on Neutron Stars | Nuclear Transmutations | Dr Illingworth

Dr. Sam Illingworth reads his poem, Consumed by the Stars. Poem 108. ☢️✨

Watch to discover the latest science 🔬papers communicated via the medium of poetry! 🧐 Research on which this poem is based: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science...

This poem is inspired by recent research, which has looked to neutron stars to reduce nuclear waste.

A significant challenge in the adoption of nuclear energy is the management of nuclear waste, which remains radioactive and hazardous for extremely long periods. Transforming these waste products into more stable forms is an ongoing scientific challenge, as current methods to achieve this are not yet practical for widespread application.

Scientists have now advanced a technique, inspired by insights from observing gravitational waves emanating from merging neutron stars, to make nuclear waste safer by adding neutrons to unstable elements – a process known as transmutation, essentially the reverse of nuclear decay. This transforms the waste into safer, heavier versions of itself. While previously hard to measure accurately, researchers can now estimate transmutation by observing how much selenium, a nuclear waste byproduct, does not change when bombarded with neutrons. Despite not seeing transmutation directly, their method accurately infers it, paving the way for cleaner nuclear energy. The applications of this discovery are considerable, potentially revolutionising nuclear waste treatment facilities as well as providing insights into the formation of heavy elements within the cosmos.

Video credits:
Video interpretation created by the team at ideaXme, a collaboration as part of ideaXme Creators.
Video footage from Canva.
Voice-over for ideaXme introduction: Nicole Stott, retired NASA astronaut, founder of @spaceforartfoundation8741 and ideaXme board advisor.

Nicole's 🚀 🌍Links: https://www.spaceforartfoundation.org , https://www.npsdiscovery.com , Twitter @Astro_Nicole https://twitter.com/astro_nicole?lang=en

Voice-over for the "please subscribe ending": Neil Koenig, Senior Tv Series Producer and ideaXme interviewer. 🎤 🎬

Music for ideaXme introduction: Music: Space Heroes by MaxKoMusic | https://maxkomusic.com/
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Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

Research on which the poem is based: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science...

Links to Dr. Illingworth's audio podcast and social media:

Find all of his poems in this series (and further information relating to credits):
https://thepoetryofscience.scienceblo...
https://scipoetry.podbean.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/samillingworth?re...

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