The use of solar energy to drive the chemical and energy processes,and the chemical storage of solar energy are the key elements to move to a low-carbon economy,sustainable society and to foster energy transition.For ...The use of solar energy to drive the chemical and energy processes,and the chemical storage of solar energy are the key elements to move to a low-carbon economy,sustainable society and to foster energy transition.For this reason,there is a fast-growing scientific interest on this subject,which is part of the general effort for a solar-driven chemistry and energy,the chemistry of the future.To realize this展开更多
Future electricity systems are challenged by deep decarbonization and concurrently increasing demand and there are growing concerns that renewables cannot shoulder this alone. Starting from the proven principle of div...Future electricity systems are challenged by deep decarbonization and concurrently increasing demand and there are growing concerns that renewables cannot shoulder this alone. Starting from the proven principle of diversity, we argue for keeping the nuclear option open or even for expanding its use. However, the perspectives are dim for the current technology as safety concerns and social aversion remain as fundamental problems. While looking for future revolutionary safe and more sustainable nuclear concepts we first review the main characteristics of civil nuclear energy, as well as its safety records and technical progress. We then list the key requirements for innovative nuclear systems designs which are less dependent on active safety systems and human performance as well as social stability. This allows us to provide a concept by concept comparison and assessment of existing and novel technologies and designs including different coolants and neutron spectra. The results indicate a high potential for far-reaching improvements compared to most advanced LWRs, although none of the candidate concepts meets all requirements convincingly, yet, helium cooled, small modular reactors (HTR-PM) come closest. We end by stressing the need for future research and development, and keeping human capital and know-how in nuclear energy;we call for an urgent increase in government and international RD&D funding by the order of a few hundreds of billions of USD per year, which will likely lead to breakthroughs that will restart productivity growth in severely affected stagnating modern economies.展开更多
The availability of ever stronger,laser-generated electromagnetic fields underpins continuing progress in the study and application of nonlinear phenomena in basic physical systems,ranging from molecules and atoms to ...The availability of ever stronger,laser-generated electromagnetic fields underpins continuing progress in the study and application of nonlinear phenomena in basic physical systems,ranging from molecules and atoms to relativistic plasmas and quantum electrodynamics.This raises the question:how far will we be able to go with future lasers?One exciting prospect is the attainment of field strengths approaching the Schwinger critical field Ecr in the laboratory frame,such that the field invariant E^(2)−c^(2)B^(2)>E_(cr)^(2) is reached.The feasibility of doing so has been questioned,on the basis that cascade generation of dense electron–positron plasma would inevitably lead to absorption or screening of the incident light.Here we discuss the potential for future lasers to overcome such obstacles,by combining the concept of multiple colliding laser pulses with that of frequency upshifting via a tailored laser–plasma interaction.This compresses the electromagnetic field energy into a region of nanometre size and attosecond duration,which increases the field magnitude at fixed power but also suppresses pair cascades.Our results indicate that laser facilities with peak power of tens of PW could be capable of reaching Ecr.Such a scenario opens up prospects for the experimental investigation of phenomena previously considered to occur only in the most extreme environments in the universe.展开更多
文摘The use of solar energy to drive the chemical and energy processes,and the chemical storage of solar energy are the key elements to move to a low-carbon economy,sustainable society and to foster energy transition.For this reason,there is a fast-growing scientific interest on this subject,which is part of the general effort for a solar-driven chemistry and energy,the chemistry of the future.To realize this
文摘Future electricity systems are challenged by deep decarbonization and concurrently increasing demand and there are growing concerns that renewables cannot shoulder this alone. Starting from the proven principle of diversity, we argue for keeping the nuclear option open or even for expanding its use. However, the perspectives are dim for the current technology as safety concerns and social aversion remain as fundamental problems. While looking for future revolutionary safe and more sustainable nuclear concepts we first review the main characteristics of civil nuclear energy, as well as its safety records and technical progress. We then list the key requirements for innovative nuclear systems designs which are less dependent on active safety systems and human performance as well as social stability. This allows us to provide a concept by concept comparison and assessment of existing and novel technologies and designs including different coolants and neutron spectra. The results indicate a high potential for far-reaching improvements compared to most advanced LWRs, although none of the candidate concepts meets all requirements convincingly, yet, helium cooled, small modular reactors (HTR-PM) come closest. We end by stressing the need for future research and development, and keeping human capital and know-how in nuclear energy;we call for an urgent increase in government and international RD&D funding by the order of a few hundreds of billions of USD per year, which will likely lead to breakthroughs that will restart productivity growth in severely affected stagnating modern economies.
基金This research was supported by the Swedish Research Council Grants Nos.2016-03329 and 2020-06768(T.G.B.and M.M.)2017-05148(A.G.),as well as the U.S.Department of Energy Office of Science Offices of High Energy Physics and Fusion Energy Sciences(through LaserNetUS)+1 种基金under Contract No.DE-AC02-05CH11231(S.S.B.)Simulations were performed on resources provided by the Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing(SNIC).
文摘The availability of ever stronger,laser-generated electromagnetic fields underpins continuing progress in the study and application of nonlinear phenomena in basic physical systems,ranging from molecules and atoms to relativistic plasmas and quantum electrodynamics.This raises the question:how far will we be able to go with future lasers?One exciting prospect is the attainment of field strengths approaching the Schwinger critical field Ecr in the laboratory frame,such that the field invariant E^(2)−c^(2)B^(2)>E_(cr)^(2) is reached.The feasibility of doing so has been questioned,on the basis that cascade generation of dense electron–positron plasma would inevitably lead to absorption or screening of the incident light.Here we discuss the potential for future lasers to overcome such obstacles,by combining the concept of multiple colliding laser pulses with that of frequency upshifting via a tailored laser–plasma interaction.This compresses the electromagnetic field energy into a region of nanometre size and attosecond duration,which increases the field magnitude at fixed power but also suppresses pair cascades.Our results indicate that laser facilities with peak power of tens of PW could be capable of reaching Ecr.Such a scenario opens up prospects for the experimental investigation of phenomena previously considered to occur only in the most extreme environments in the universe.
