Von Neumann's Machine

Nuclear Fission without the Mess - a new way of splitting the atom? Present day nuclear power reactors are driven by fission, making them controversial for reasons of environmental safety and abuse for weapons production. A team of scientists is working on a new type of reactor called the Accelerator-Driven Subcritical Reactor (ADSR). It combines a particle accelerator with low-grade fissionable material (e.g. radioactive waste) to generate energy without any danger of a runaway scenario.

The concept was first proposed in 1993 by Nobel prizewinning physicist Carlo Rubbia. The basic idea – and what distinguishes it from all other nuclear reactors – is the coupling of a particle accelerator, like the ones at Cern, with the reactor core.

Scientists […] are working towards an entirely new type of nuclear reactor: one that could be operated safely and without generating long-lived radioactive waste. This new reactor could even consume the toxic waste generated by conventional nuclear reactors, removing it from the ecosphere.

(via scinerds)