Big Science: The Ten Most Ambitious Experiments/Projects Currently Up And Running. (power, electric)
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1. Proving/debunking global warming.
2. Solving demand for safe drinking water.
3. Alternative fuel sources
4. Fair wealth distribution.
5. Curing Cancer.
6. Mainlining Global Education
7. Predicting natural disasters.
8. Pollution Aversion.
9. Solar energy
10. Better Mousetraps.
All of the items that you listed that are actually in the realm of science are being funded at much higher levels than any of the ten most ambitious projects in the OP's list. The purpose of the original list was not so show the most important research goals, but rather to demonstrate "big science", which refers to projects with a barrier to entry so high that they cannot be distributed out to thousands of smaller research teams the way the majority of research is conducted.
I noticed that they're all physics type projects on that list however i want to add a huge biology project/experiment (lol i should have been a neurologist ) breaking ground this year and that is the first ever stem cell trials for spinal cord paralysis (holy grail of uncurable) as i wish bio tech companies Geron, Neuralstem and Brainstorm success in the coming years in helping out those who have that disorder.
‪Energy from Thorium, LFTR Technology by Flibe Energy‬‏ - YouTube
developing the liquid-fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR) to provide safe, abundant energy from thorium. it is a lifetime's supply of energy in the palm of your hand and is is possible with thorium and LFTR technology. The liquid-fluoride thorium reactor is walk-away safe and runs at ambient pressure unlike the high pressures of water-cooled reactor.
EB-II reactor ran for 30 years. It was designed to produce about 62.5 megawatts of heat and 20 megawatts of electricity, which was achieved in September 1969 and continued for most of its lifetime. Over its lifetime it has generated over two billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, providing a majority of the electricity and also heat to the facilities of the Argonne National Laboratory-West in Idaho.
the fuel and structure in an off-normal situation causes the system to shut down even without human operator intervention. In April 1986, two special tests were performed on the EBR-II, in which the main primary cooling pumps were shut off with the reactor at full power (62.5 megawatts, thermal). By not allowing the normal shutdown systems to interfere, the reactor power dropped to near zero within about 300 seconds. No damage to the fuel or the reactor resulted. This test demonstrated that even with a loss of all electrical power and the capability to shut down the reactor using the normal systems, the reactor will simply shut down without danger or damage.
We could of built these for close to 50 years now but we did not and now it is the basis for the Gen 4 reactors and we know it works and that it is the green nuclear power that is very safe to operate.
"With an investment of $20.95 million from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Advanced Laser Light Source (ALLS) project—formed by a consortium of Canadian and international universities—will allow researchers from around the world to manipulate matter and probe its dynamics in a way that is not currently possible."
Ok I am Canadian and did not even know we had this but I do know Canada's national laboratory for nuclear and particle physics has the world's largest cyclotron.
it has a 18m diameter, 4,000 tonne main magnet produces a field of 0.46 T while a 23 MHz 94 kV electric field is used to accelerate the 300 μA beam.
it goes by TRIUMF which is run by a "consortium" of sixteen Canadian universities and is located at UBC Vancouver, Canada.
I guess since I live in Vancouver and the local news does a story on it once and a while that why I know about it but not the montreal based (ALLS) project.
Man what are we doing up here in Canada we seem to be doing some adavanced particle beam acclerators and super advaced lasers
I know that TRIUMF provides the all nuclear isotopes for cancer treatments it is the only one in the world that makes it.
but you kinda want to know what else are they doing there but it has a joint venture with CERN so it must be used for something.
‪Energy from Thorium, LFTR Technology by Flibe Energy‬‏ - YouTube
developing the liquid-fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR) to provide safe, abundant energy from thorium. it is a lifetime's supply of energy in the palm of your hand and is is possible with thorium and LFTR technology. The liquid-fluoride thorium reactor is walk-away safe and runs at ambient pressure unlike the high pressures of water-cooled reactor.
EB-II reactor ran for 30 years. It was designed to produce about 62.5 megawatts of heat and 20 megawatts of electricity, which was achieved in September 1969 and continued for most of its lifetime. Over its lifetime it has generated over two billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, providing a majority of the electricity and also heat to the facilities of the Argonne National Laboratory-West in Idaho.
the fuel and structure in an off-normal situation causes the system to shut down even without human operator intervention. In April 1986, two special tests were performed on the EBR-II, in which the main primary cooling pumps were shut off with the reactor at full power (62.5 megawatts, thermal). By not allowing the normal shutdown systems to interfere, the reactor power dropped to near zero within about 300 seconds. No damage to the fuel or the reactor resulted. This test demonstrated that even with a loss of all electrical power and the capability to shut down the reactor using the normal systems, the reactor will simply shut down without danger or damage.
We could of built these for close to 50 years now but we did not and now it is the basis for the Gen 4 reactors and we know it works and that it is the green nuclear power that is very safe to operate.
I totally agree and do not understand why we are not actively maturing this technology with an effort similar to the "Manhattan Project"......China is ahead of us in this aspect...no surprise there though.
It is not technology that is keeping us from building advanced reactor designs, it is politics. The same technology that permits the use of more interesting fuel cycles can be used to make weapons grade nuclear material, and currently nonproliferation efforts are all based on the reduction of weapons grade materials. This may seem familiar, as it has happened before. Back in the late 70's, Jimmy Carter decided to ban 'Breeder' reactors for the same reasons.
Also, automatic shutdown is only one of many features required for a passively safe reactor to pass modern safety regulations. The structure must be capable of withstanding once in a millennium natural disasters as well as bombs and artillery.
Finally, there are so many lobbying interests against nuclear power that any potential new nuclear development faces an absolute torrent of lawsuits. When I used to work at ORNL, the nuclear engineers would lament the fact that they spent their careers learning how nuclear materials behave, yet the scope of their work and any practical application of their research was absolutely mangled by the legal documents and contracts that were written by non-scientists with less than a first year engineering student's knowledge of the topic.
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) breaking ground this year and that is the first ever stem cell trials for spinal cord paralysis (holy grail of uncurable) as i wish bio tech companies Geron, Neuralstem and Brainstorm success in the coming years in helping out those who have that disorder.
