Nuclear plants can fail when the heat from the reactor is not removed quickly enough from the core. This can happen in pressurised water nuclear reactors if the water in the cooling system boils, because steam is a much poorer conductor of heat than liquid water.

These reactors have a primary water cooling system that directly takes heat away from the reactor. It is sealed under huge pressure to prevent it boiling and conducts heat to a secondary water cooling system that is not sealed.

But this secondary system is also at risk of boiling. If that happens, heat builds up in the primary cooling system, which can lead to meltdown.

Ronald Baney and colleagues at the University of Florida in Gainesville, think they can tackle this problem by turning to diamond â€“ one of the best heat conductors known to science.

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Their idea is to add diamond nanoparticles to the water of the secondary cooling system to dramatically improve its ability to transfer heat.

Baney and colleagues say such nanoparticles are chemically inert and radiation resistant, so are unlikely to clump together in a way that could block the cooling system. However, they don't say how much a diamond-based heat transfer fluid might cost.

Read the full diamond-cooled nuclear reactor patent application.

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