When I came to work at BWX Technologies immediately after getting my degree in chemical engineering from the University of Virginia, I was amazed to see how nuclear energy could be harnessed to both power and protect our country. Since then, I've come to see that nuclear energy can do even more. The nuclear industry's next tasks are to address climate change, propel us to other bodies in the solar system, and provide power when we arrive. Recently developed coated fuels are an enabling technology for these tasks. As compared to traditional fuel forms that rely on relatively large containment systems, coated fuels, such as TRISO, are tiny kernels of uranium (some as small as the diameter of a human hair), each encapsulated within minuscule layers of various materials that serve as individual containment vessels.
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