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[Reno]

Self-repairing materials within nuclear reactors may one day become a reality as a result of research by Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists.
In a paper appearing today in the journal Science, Los Alamos researchers report a surprising mechanism that allows nanocrystalline materials to heal themselves after suffering radiation-induced damage. Nanocrystalline materials are those created from nanosized particles, in this case copper particles. A single nanosized particle—called a grain—is the size of a virus or even smaller. Nanocrystalline materials consist of a mixture of grains and the interface between those grains, called grain boundaries...... READ MORE

Mmmm, self repairing space ship hulls?? It'll be quite nice to have nuclear reactors that don't need to be rebuilt ever so often. From what I understand storing old radioactive parts can get expensive.

Edited by bobscrachy, 26 March 2010 - 03:54 PM.

[full_circle]

i wonder if this can be of use in medical field. suppose the upper mentioned Nanocrystalline materials were organic elements, then 1st, direct small amount of focused beam of radiation to the site of illness such as torn ligaments and then immediately inject organic Nanocrystalline materials to the site <-- repeating this procedure will rebuild the ligament.

Edited by full_circle, 26 March 2010 - 04:37 PM.