Scientific Highlights NES

Datum

Keeping geothermal energy on the table

Energy and Climate

A study by the Centre for Technology Assessment TA-Swiss, coordinated by the Paul Scherrer Institute, recommends further pursuing deep geothermal energy in Switzerland. The energy resources underground are vast, environmentally friendly to extract and available around the clock, the authors conclude. The earthquake risk and the cost of electricity production, which are still too high, however, remain challenges that society needs to weigh up against the advantages of deep geothermal energy.

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Ceci est un texte de l'archive des communiqués de presse du PSI. Le contenu peut être obsolète.

What attacks on oil pipelines have in common with epidemics

Energy and Climate

How susceptible is the global energy infrastructure to attacks by non-state actors? Has the number of attacks on this infrastructure actually increased of late? Which regions of the world are especially vulnerable? And which tactics do the attackers use? Scientists are looking to find the answers to these and other related questions with the aid of a database developed by researchers from the Center of Security Studies at ETH Zurich in collaboration with the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI.

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Ceci est un texte de l'archive des communiqués de presse du PSI. Le contenu peut être obsolète.

Hydrogen: a Trojan horse in fuel-rod cladding tubes

Energy and Climate Nuclear energy

In nuclear reactors, water is dissociated at the surface of the hot fuel elements, thereby producing hydrogen. This hydrogen can penetrate the fuel cladding surrounding the actual fuel and weaken it mechanically. Researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) have been using neutrons and synchrotron radiation to study how the hydrogen gets into the cladding tube and what impact it can have once inside.

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Clay remains clay: how radionuclides sorb to the host rock in repositories

Energy and Climate Environment

Researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences joined forces within an EU project to investigate the basic properties of argillaceous rocks in a repository for high-level radioactive waste. As the results reveal, the insights gained so far for Opalinus Clay can be transferred also to the Boda Clay found in Hungary.

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Ceci est un texte de l'archive des communiqués de presse du PSI. Le contenu peut être obsolète.
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Measuring the ecological footprint

Energy and Climate Environment

With ecoinvent, the Paul Scherrer Institute and its partners at ETH Zurich, ETH Lausanne, Empa and Agroscope have been running the world’s leading database for life cycle inventories for over ten years. The latest ecoinvent version 3 collects new data in areas such as electricity generation, agriculture, transport, mining and chemicals. In the power sector, which is significant for life cycle assessments, the database now covers over 80 per cent of the global production. And technology that has not been considered thus far such as enhanced geothermal systems is to be included in ecoinvent from now on. The result is more accurate ecological assessments of products and services

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Ceci est un texte de l'archive des communiqués de presse du PSI. Le contenu peut être obsolète.

How rock pores in deep repositories close over

Energy and Climate Nuclear energy Energy transition

Chemical reactions will change the nature of the deep repository and the surrounding rock (clay rock); that much is certain. But to what extent and with what impact on safety? Researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute are looking to answer this question with the aid of a combination of experiments and computer simulations.

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Ceci est un texte de l'archive des communiqués de presse du PSI. Le contenu peut être obsolète.

Computer simulations: a cornerstone of nuclear power station safety

Energy and Climate Nuclear energy

Without computer simulations, the operation of nuclear power stations would be very difficult. Whether it is a question of installing new components or conducting safety tests, virtually everything has to be calculated and analysed on the computer first. At the Laboratory for Reactor Physics and Systems Behaviour of the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, computational models and methodologies are developed with precisely this in mind. Through this, PSI researchers also act as an independent partner to the national regulatory authority ENSI and contribute thereby to support safe operation of the Swiss nuclear power plants.

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Ceci est un texte de l'archive des communiqués de presse du PSI. Le contenu peut être obsolète.