IYNC is launching its first-ever international innovation contest – Innovation for Nuclear (I4N) – to be held at the 2018 Congress in Bariloche, Argentina on 11- 17 March 2018. The purpose of the Innovation Contest is to propose new and innovative nuclear technologies, applications, or systems that will contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The contest will also give a platform for the visibility and discussion of these ideas and catalyze young energy into thinking about and creating innovative solutions.
Winners of selected national or regional nuclear innovation contests may apply to receive grants to attend IYNC2018, where a panel of experts will choose an overall international winner for I4N. Current partners include Spark!, Innovatome, the ANS student conference and the FR17 Youth Innovator Challenge. More information can be found here.
At the American Nuclear Society (ANS) student conference IYNC presented our activities in the career fair and our future conference in Bariloche. Moreover on the 8th of April the first national competition of I4N took place. 5 valuable teams competed proposing innovative solution for the nuclear industry. The team from Purdue University won with their proposal on “Magnetohydrodynamic Energy Conversion for Advanced Nuclear Reactors”. Our congratulations go to all the team. Here presented: Ian Christopher Hamilton, Drew McLane Ryan, Corey Loescher, Robert S. Bean. More information on the team and their work can be found at https://purduefoundry.com/default/startup-single/atlas-energy-systems-llc.
Hamilton and h
is team believe that “Innovation in the nuclear industry has been significantly slow and underfunded for the past fifty years. However, the recent rise in2.jpg interest in the next generation of nuclear reactors has spurred an increase of innovation, both in startup companies and within large operators. These companies are focusing on new, passive reactors as a whole. Atlas Energy Systems, LLC is teaming with Purdue University to contribute to this advancement and innovation of the nuclear industry. The team is focusing on the electricity production system rather than the reactor itself though. The steam turbine has always been the staple of electricity production, even with its limited efficiency. The team from Purdue and Atlas are working on a direct energy conversion system that could potentially produce electricity with little to no moving parts. The concept is a magnetohydrodynamic energy conversion system that is applied directly to the primary loop of a natural circulation nuclear reactor. The technology makes use of a flowing conductive fluid, either liquid metal or molten salt, in the presence of a magnetic field to directly produce electricity at high efficiencies. The team is taking advantage of modern computational tools and materials science to bring innovation to this commonly overlooked concept.
We cannot wait to see all our winning teams and their innovative solutions.
