Zapping Nuclear Waste in Minutes Is Nobel Winner’s Holy Grail Quest
Gerard Mourou—one of the three winners of the 2018 Nobel Prize for Physics—claims that the lifespan of radioactive waste could potentially be cut to minutes from thousands of years. Although Mourou, 74, is quick to say that the laser option for nuclear waste that he and Irvine, California-based Professor Toshiki Tajima are working on may be years away, its promise has created a flurry of excitement for the sector in France.
Gérard Mourou The Nobel Prize in Physics 2018
Born: 22 June 1944, Albertville, France
Affiliation at the time of the award: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, École Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France
Prize motivation: “for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses.”
The Guardian and Scientific American provided simplified summaries of the work of Strickland and Mourou: it “paved the way for the shortest, most intense laser beams ever created”. “The ultrabrief, ultrasharp beams can be used to make extremely precise cuts so their technique is now used in laser machining and enables doctors to perform millions of corrective” laser eye surgeries.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged the achievements of Mourou and Strickland: “Their innovative work can be found in applications including corrective eye surgery, and is expected to have a significant impact on cancer therapy and other physics research in the future”.
Dear Dr. Gerard,
YOU ARE OUR HERO !!!!!
LOVE YOU
xoxoxo
PLANET EARTH