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== '''[[Los Alamos National Laboratory]]''' ==
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''by  [[User:Milton Beychok|Milton Beychok]], [[User:Ro Thorpe|Ro Thorpe]] and [[User:Daniel Mietchen|Daniel Mietchen]]
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==Footnotes==
 
'''Los Alamos National Laboratory''' (LANL), located in [[Los Alamos]], [[New Mexico]], is one of several [[U.S. Department of Energy]] (DOE) national laboratories.  It is noteworthy as the site where the first [[atomic weapon]] was developed under a heavy cloak of secrecy during [[World War II]], and has been known variously as '''''Site Y''''', '''''Los Alamos Laboratory''''', and '''''Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory'''''.  Today, it is recognized as one of the world's leading science and technology institutes.
 
{{Image|Trinity test.jpg|right|200px|Trinity test of an [[Nuclear weapon|atomic bomb]] on July 15, 1945 at 0.016 seconds after detonation. The fireball was about 200 metres wide.}}
Since 2006, LANL has been managed and operated by [[Los Alamos National Security, LLC]] (LANS).<ref name=LANS/>  
LANL's self-stated mission is to ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the nation's nuclear deterrent.<ref name=LANL-Mission/> Its research work serves to advance [[Biology|bioscience]], [[chemistry]], [[computer science]], [[Earth science|earth]] and [[environmental science]]s, [[materials science]], and [[physics]] disciplines.<ref name=LANL-About/><ref name=LANL-Overview/>
 
===History===
 
The [[Manhattan Project]] was the secret [[United States]] project conducted primarily during [[World War II]] with the participation of the [[United Kingdom]] and [[Canada]] that culminated in developing the world's first [[nuclear weapon]], commonly referred to at that time as an ''atomic bomb''.
 
The project was initiated in 1939 by [[U.S. President]] [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]] after he received a letter from physicist [[Albert Einstein]] (drafted by fellow physicist [[Leó Szilárd]]) urging the study of [[nuclear fission]] for military purposes, under fears that [[Nazi Germany]] would be first to develop nuclear weapons. Roosevelt started a small investigation into the matter, which eventually became the massive [[Manhattan Project]] that employed more than 130,000 people at universities across the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada as well as at the three major design, development and production facilities: Los Alamos; Hanford, Washington; and Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
 
''[[Los Alamos National Laboratory|.... (read more)]]''
 
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! style="text-align: center;" | &nbsp;[[Los Alamos National Laboratory#References|notes]]
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Latest revision as of 10:19, 11 September 2020

After decades of failure to slow the rising global consumption of coal, oil and gas,[1] many countries have proceeded as of 2024 to reconsider nuclear power in order to lower the demand for fossil fuels.[2] Wind and solar power alone, without large-scale storage for these intermittent sources, are unlikely to meet the world's needs for reliable energy.[3][4][5] See Figures 1 and 2 on the magnitude of the world energy challenge.

Nuclear power plants that use nuclear reactors to create electricity could provide the abundant, zero-carbon, dispatchable[6] energy needed for a low-carbon future, but not by simply building more of what we already have. New innovative designs for nuclear reactors are needed to avoid the problems of the past.

(CC) Image: Geoff Russell
Fig.1 Electricity consumption may soon double, mostly from coal-fired power plants in the developing world.[7]

Issues Confronting the Nuclear Industry

New reactor designers have sought to address issues that have prevented the acceptance of nuclear power, including safety, waste management, weapons proliferation, and cost. This article will summarize the questions that have been raised and the criteria that have been established for evaluating these designs. Answers to these questions will be provided by the designers of these reactors in the articles on their designs. Further debate will be provided in the Discussion and the Debate Guide pages of those articles.

Footnotes
  1. ↑ Global Energy Growth by Our World In Data
  2. ↑ Public figures who have reconsidered their stance on nuclear power are listed on the External Links tab of this article.
  3. ↑ Pumped storage is currently the most economical way to store electricity, but it requires a large reservoir on a nearby hill or in an abandoned mine. Li-ion battery systems at $500 per KWh are not practical for utility-scale storage. See Energy Storage for a summary of other alternatives.
  4. ↑ Utilities that include wind and solar power in their grid must have non-intermittent generating capacity (typically fossil fuels) to handle maximum demand for several days. They can save on fuel, but the cost of the plant is the same with or without intermittent sources.
  5. ↑ Mark Jacobson believes that long-distance transmission lines can provide an alternative to costly storage. See the bibliography for more on this proposal and the critique by Christopher Clack.
  6. ↑ "Load following" is the term used by utilities, and is important when there is a lot of wind and solar on the grid. Some reactors are not able to do this.
  7. ↑ Fig.1.3 in Devanney "Why Nuclear Power has been a Flop"

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