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Topic Review
Advanced Nuclear
Advanced nuclear is an emerging area of the energy industry focused on designing and commercializing next generation reactors for nuclear energy production. Encompassing more comprehensive and radical technological innovations and design advancements, these innovations aim to dramatically improve performance and eliminate known problems associated with the existing generation nuclear reactors (Gen I and Gen II) currently in use around the world. The earliest Gen I and Gen II nuclear reactors built utilized the light-water reactor design in one of three variants: the pressurized water reactor (PWR), the boiling water reactor (BWR), and the supercritical water reactor (SCWR). The use of the light-water design (i.e. using regular water, H2O and not heavy water, 2H2O) as both its coolant and neutron moderator but needing a plentiful supply) in all commercial reactors was a trade-off that enabled the industry to leverage the purchasing clout of Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, who was keen on procuring nuclear-powered submarines for the Navy, to grow quickly. The choice, however, imposed a riskier design that many argued was not optimized for terrestrial energy, bringing both competitive advantages as well as fateful disadvantages to the initial development and subsequent growth of the commercial nuclear power fleet. Despite operating to the military's exacting specifications and winning praise and massive contracts from government buyers, the industry quickly earned the distrust of the public. (See the Anti-nuclear movement.) Generation III reactors contain yet further incremental refinements to aspects of Generation II nuclear reactor designs but were not very popular. Improvements were developed for fuel technology, thermal efficiency, to safety systems to reduce maintenance and capital costs. The first Generation III reactor was Kashiwazaki 6 (an ABWR) in 1996 but the declining support for the underlying Generation II light-water design, caused relatively few third generation reactors to be built. Generation IV designs are the first generation where innovator in Advanced Nuclear technologies are exploring paradigm shifts in methodologies. Gen IV projects encompass not just innovative nuclear fission concepts, like the Molten salt reactor, Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactors, and High temperature gas cooled reactors, but also Fusion power and even Low Energy Nuclear Reactors (LENR), which generate heat through a series of controlled chemical reactions that then cause a nuclear bond to shift, which results in heat output. Gen IV is still in development as of 2017, and are not expected to start entering commercial operation until after 2020. Some of the different reactor design ideas being explored and developed for Advanced nuclear reactors, now thought of as Generation IV reactors (Gen IV) today were actually first conceived within the National Labs back in the 1960s. Several of these concepts, including Alvin M. Weinberg's Molten salt reactor (MSR) developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), even had the benefit of being prototyped and tested over a period of time. Weinberg's MSR became the first reactor to run on Uranium 233 in 1968 and logged more than 13,000 hours at "full power" before being shut down in 1969. Today, the concept of using a molten salt brew that acts both as the fuel and the "containment" of the reaction by using the ionic bonds of the salt to capture and contain the heat generated from the nuclear reaction, thereby dispensing with the need for expensive containment structures and eliminating much of risk and cost, remains of keen interest to those exploring Advanced nuclear technologies.
  • 355
  • 11 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Advanced Power Converters in Robotics
The effectiveness and performance of the robot’s manipulative actions in any field of operation primarily depend on the dynamic response of its internal drive system. Power converters play a pivotal role in robotics by facilitating efficient energy conversion and management. 
  • 483
  • 31 Oct 2023
Topic Review
Advanced Sham Coil for Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) neurophysiology has been widely applied worldwide, but it is often contaminated by confounders other than cortical stimulus-evoked activities. Although advanced sham coils that elaborately mimic active stimulation have recently been developed, their performance is not examined in detail. Developing such sham coils is crucial to improve the accuracy of TMS neurophysiology. Herein, we examined the specifications of the sham coil by comparison with the active coil. The magnetic flux and click sound pressure changes were measured when the stimulus intensity was varied from 10% to 100% maximum stimulator output (MSO), and the changes in coil surface temperature over time with continuous stimulation at 50% MSO for each coil. The magnetic flux change at the center of the coil showed a peak of 12.51 (kT/s) for the active coil, whereas it was 0.41 (kT/s) for the sham coil. Although both coils showed a linear change in magnetic flux as the stimulus intensity increased, due to the difference in coil winding structure, the sham coil took less than half the time to overheat and had 5 dB louder coil click sounds than the active coil. The sham coil showed a sufficiently small flux change at the center of the coil, but the flux change from the periphery of the coil was comparable to that of the active coil. Future use of high-quality sham coil will extend our understanding of the TMS neurophysiology of the cortex at the stimulation site. 
  • 649
  • 22 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Advanced Supercritical CO2 Thermodynamic Power Cycles
CO2 is a natural, non-toxic and non-flammable working fluid that possesses excellent thermophysical properties, including higher density, latent heat, specific heat, thermal conductivity and volumetric cooling capacity, along with lower viscosity.
  • 173
  • 04 Dec 2023
Topic Review
Advancement in UV-Visible-IR Camouflage Textiles & Camouflage Physics
Optical theory of Camouflage engineering has been invented for defence protection. This optical theory can be implemented by defence scientists to explore camouflage products and multidimensional branches of optical technologies. Advancement in ultraviolet-visible-near infrared (UV-Vis-IR) camouflage engineering has been designed for defence protection. Camouflage physics has been explained through camouflage textiles and camouflage materials. This technique of camouflage engineering can be explored to defence technology for the design and manufacturing of combat product against multidimensional combat backgrounds such as dry leaves, green leaves, tree bark-woodland combat background; water-marine combat background; sand-desertland combat background; stone-stoneland combat background; snow-snowland combat background; sky combat background; ice-iceland combat background and concrete-concreteland combat background (DGTWSICB). This is a novel addition of camouflage technology for the engineering progress of camouflage product design. Hence, camouflage engineering has been briefly reported by “Anowar Hossain’s invention of camouflage physics at PhD School, first version submitted to Nobel committee for Nobel nomination in 2023 under affiliation of RMIT University”. http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.29936.23048, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8286832
  • 383
  • 06 Oct 2023
Topic Review
Advancements in Microgrids with  Model Predictive Control
Microgrids face significant challenges due to the unpredictability of distributed generation (DG) technologies and fluctuating load demands. These challenges result in complex power management systems characterised by voltage/frequency variations and intricate interactions with the utility grid. Model predictive control (MPC) has emerged as a powerful technique to effectively address these challenges. By applying a receding horizon control strategy, MPC offers promising solutions for optimising constraints and enhancing microgrid operations.
  • 301
  • 05 Jul 2023
Topic Review
Advancements in Noble Metal Nanoparticles-Based Point-of-Care Testing
Noble metal nanoparticles (NM NPs) have been used for POC testing for decades. The most known example might be the lateral flow assay (LFA, or test strip), where Au NPs are usually utilized as colorimetric labels owing to their outstanding optical properties. Over-the-counter pregnancy tests and the recent COVID-19 antigen rapid tests are representative examples of the lateral flow assays (LFA). Over the last couple of decades, engineered NM NPs have been extensively used for the point-of-care (POC) tests of various platforms beyond the LFA, despite most of them being in early stages of commercialization. This recent NM NPs-based POC testing techniques with innovative designs are discussed.
  • 444
  • 29 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Advancements in Power Converter Technologies
Power converter technologies have become vital in various applications due to their efficient management of electrical energy. With the growing prominence of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, the high penetration of power electronic converters has been justified. However, ensuring power quality has emerged as a significant challenge for grid-connected power converters. 
  • 170
  • 22 Sep 2023
Topic Review
Advancements of Rim-Driven Fans in Aerial Vehicles
As the aviation industry seeks sustainable propulsion solutions, innovative technologies have emerged, among which rim-driven fan (RDF) systems hold notable promise. Amid escalating concerns about greenhouse gas emissions, the aviation sector’s shift towards electric propulsion has gained impetus. RDF technology has emerged as a beacon of optimism, heralding the prospect of energy-efficient and eco-conscious air travel. 
  • 280
  • 22 Dec 2023
Topic Review
Advances and Concerns Related to Electric Vehicles
Human operators’ presence for periodic maintenance is required in all transportation infrastructures; while providing a sustainable solution with Electric Vehicles (EVs) network, each vehicle needs servicing to maintain its robustness. Parts, such as reactive components from converter units, namely electrolytic capacitors, require periodic replacement. Other components, such as microcontroller PCBs (Printed Circuit Boards), are prone to EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory) decay and data loss. As fossil fuel is mainly used in generating energy and biosphere degradation remains a concern due to terrain expansion, wireless energy transfer could be an immediate solution for substituting the current transportation infrastructure for a robust and renewable solution. When migrating an entire transportation infrastructure to wireless energy transmission, periodic maintenance of energy transmitters, for example, orbital space stations, would be necessary. This requires the operator’s presence, and health becomes important in maintaining the robustness of this hypothetical sustainable transportation infrastructure. Multiple health concerns are related to the effect of conversion units, typically used in electric vehicles and other hybrid and modern combustion engine means of transportation. These units cover both wire-based and wireless energy transmission. As covered in further sections, several already implemented features of vehicles could negatively impact the operator’s health because such features are mainly based on wireless energy transfer, while other functionalities cause EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) perturbation.
  • 185
  • 20 Dec 2023
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