kaleidoSCOPE

Ever wondered how the most talked/feared fuel of the world, Uranium-235, is extracted from the earth crust and made ready to use in power plant? Probably you know three simple steps of Uranium mineral extraction: Digging - Cleaning - Spinning. But we are talking about one of the most advanced fuels that humankind has discovered to power the world. It fuels 11 % of the world power generation capacity. Let’s dig it up little further and see how exactly Uranium reach to the stage of Pellets (HEU - Highly Enriched Uranium), the form where it is 8000 times efficient than Coal! Stage I Ores are obtained by mining Uranium 238, which is naturally abundant. It contains 99.3 % U-238 and only 0.7 % of U-235 . We want U-235 for fuelling the Nuclear Power Plants. Ore is crushed and heated to remove carbon dirt items like gangue particles and clay. This is basically an extraction and cleaning stage. In India, Uranium is mined at Jaduguda and Narwapahar (Singhbhum Belt - Jharkhand) large...

ITER ("The Way" in Latin) is one of the most ambitious energy projects in the world today. It stands for “International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor”. ITER will work on the “ Tokamak ” concept where the reaction of hydrogen isotopes Deuterium and Tritium produces energy by the mass-energy conversion principle, thereby proving to be a source of unlimited energy. In southern France, Cadarache, 35 nations* are collaborating to build the world's largest tokamak, a magnetic fusion device that has been designed to prove the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale and carbon-free source of energy based on the same principle that powers our Sun and stars. The experimental campaign that will be carried out at ITER is crucial to advancing fusion science and preparing the way for the fusion power plants of tomorrow. ITER will be the first fusion device to produce net energy. ITER will be the first fusion device to maintain fusion for long periods of time. And ITER will...