Nuclear security

Modelling the future: how to build safer nuclear reactors

Since the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, there has been an industry-wide push to figure out how to make nuclear power generation safer. A long list of institutions has started collaborative research into developing new nuclear fuels and using materials that will reduce the risk of reactor accidents.

Nuclear power is an important energy source in the US, where it accounts for nearly 20% of the nation's total electricity generation. It is also gaining significant interest in hotspots around the world - notably China, Russia, the US and South Korea, among others - as a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels.

Hazards of traditional nuclear materials

Assistant professor of mechanical and nuclear engineering at Penn State University Professor Michael Tonks, who is involved with three nuclear research projects through the Department of Energy's Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP), says there are a lot of design plans for future reactors that have improved safety, but the cost of constructing these new reactors is prohibitively high.

"We have this large fleet of existing reactors, so it's important that we can take those existing reactors and make them safer without the huge cost of building a new next-generation reactor," he says. "This is really being pushed throughout the world."

There are programmes in many countries, including France and the UK, to develop new fuel and cladding materials that will be incorporated into current reactors.