Educational Science

Alcohol made from radioactive Chernobyl apples seized by Ukraine government

In 2019, a group of scientists and distillers decided to create a bold new type of booze: Atomik, an artisanal alcoholic spirit made from ingredients grown in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant's still-radioactive exclusion zone. (The booze itself was not radioactive after the distilling process, Live Science previously reported). Now,...

Russia's Floating Nuclear Power Plant Heads for the Bering Strait

Russia's got a floating nuclear plant on a barge, and it's heading for the Bering Strait — just a short hop from Alaska. The Akademik Lomonosov, according to a statement from Russian nuclear energy company Rosatom, docked in the Russian port of Murmansk on Saturday (May 19). There it will...

Dangerous radioactive waste has been trapped inside solid glass in a first-of-its-kind demonstration, according to a statement from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in southeastern Washington. In the demonstration, scientists at PNNL, a part of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), mixed low-activity radioactive waste — that is, waste...

Here's the Science Behind Finding North Korea's Nuclear Weapons

Negotiations over denuclearization of North Korea collapsed this morning after North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un insisted the United States lift all economic sanctions in return for any nuclear disarmament. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that talks with North Korea will soon resume, according to the Associated Press....

Enriched Uranium Particle Appears Over Alaska — and No One Knows Why

There's a whiff of something radioactive in the air. A research plane flying over the Aleutian Islands on Aug. 3, 2016 detected a single speck of enriched uranium floating about 4.3 miles (7 kilometers) above Alaska's far-western island chain, according to a new research paper that will be published in...

How much energy can be created at one time?

Above our heads there is a powerful energy source created by nature, the Sun. Because the Sun is 93 million miles from us, only one-billionth of the Sun's total energy output reaches the Earth, creating a world blooming with life. The energy that the sun gives the Earth's surface every...

Unsafe levels of radiation found in Chernobyl crops

Crops grown near the Chernobyl nuclear site in Ukraine are still contaminated with radiation from the explosive 1986 disaster. In a new study, researchers found that wheat, rye, oats and barley grown in this area contained two radioactive isotopes — strontium 90 and cesium 137 — that were above safe...

Mysterious Radiation Cloud Over Europe Traced to Secret Russian Nuclear Accident

A vast cloud of nuclear radiation that spreadover continental Europe in 2017 has been traced to an unacknowledged nuclear accident in southern Russia, according to an international team of scientists. The experts say the cloud of radiation detected over Europe in late September 2017 could only have been caused by...

Iran is enriching uranium to 20%. What does that mean?

Iran announced that it is enriching uranium to 20% purity — does that mean they could develop a nuclear bomb? The uranium enrichment process began at the Fordow nuclear facility in Iran on Monday (Jan. 4), according to the Islamic Republic News, the official news agency of the Iranian government....

Nuclear Fusion Power Could Be Here by 2030, One Company Says

A private nuclear-fusion company has heated a plasma of hydrogen to 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius) in a new reactor for the first time — hotter than the core of the sun. UK-based Tokamak Energy says the plasma test is a milestone on its quest to be...