China and the United States have reached an initial agreement on trade. Both parties said in a joint statement on Saturday that China has agreed to “significantly increase” purchases of US goods and services, in order to reduce the trade imbalance between the two countries. This was a top demand of the Trump administration during …
Trams, buses and trains for free for registered Estonia resident’s. Each city makes a profit of €1,000 from the citizen’s income tax every year. People need a €2 green card and carry their ID on public transport. Free public transport also stimulates the mobility of all income groups. People go out more often for entertainment, …
France uses about 80% nuclear energy for its electricity supply. The US has used about 16-24%. The US was on track to go to 80% nuclear energy but allowed this to be derailed with over-regulation. The spike in interest rates in the 1970s caused a problem but when interest rates went back down was when …
Beamed propulsion could achieve single stage to orbit. It could be 6 to 100 times cheaper. Most of the rocket becomes payload. DARPA funded developing a heat exchanger for direct energy. They tested a microwave beam director for a 100KW microwave source. The Breakthrough starshot update was the cost and engineering system model. This was …
Robert Zubrin was an inventor of the magnetic sail with Dana Andrews when they looked at the drag of a magnetic scoop intended for a Bussard ramjet. The magnetic sail would be great for a lighter braking mechanism for interstellar laser pushed vehicles. Robert also was a reviewer for the electric sail paper. It also …
Positron Dynamics gave an overview and update on their Antimatter propulsion work. They are slowing the positrons that are generated. Krypton isotopes to generate hot positrons. Use their system to moderate the positrons so they can be used. They need to efficiently create more isotope to get more positrons instead of using magnetic storage. They …
Graphene can provide disruptive advances in over 11 major areas from conductive inks, flexible electronics, spintronics, valleytronics, stronger materials, and much more. A billion euro project to accelerate graphene commercialization has provided an updated 345 roadmap that is an overview to all the work on graphene. They are in general looking at major disruption and …
Researchers are making progress to tuning and creating strained graphene where they want. This could lead to valleytronics and ultratiny free electron lasers and other applications. Strained graphene can create pseudo magnetic fields of 25,000 tesla. This is about 1000 times more than the magnetic fields from superconducting magnets. Electronics and spintronics have their strengths …
Scientists at the research consortium CaloriCool® are closer than ever to the materials needed for a new type of refrigeration technology that is markedly more energy efficient than current gas compression systems. Currently, residential and commercial cooling consumes about one out of every five kilowatt-hours of electricity generated in the U.S., but a caloric refrigeration …
The Eighth Japanese nuclear reactor is resuming power generation. Unit 4 of the Ohi nuclear power plant in Japan’s Fukui Prefecture began supplying electricity to the grid again on 11 May, Kansai Electric Power Company has announced. The reactor is expected to re-enter commercial operation early next month. Ohi 4 is the eighth of Japan’s …
Russia’s floating nuclear power plant Akademik Lomonosov has left Baltiysky Zavod shipyard in Saint Petersburg. It has two 35 Megawatt KLT-40S nuclear reactors, similar to those used in Russia’s nuclear-powered ice breakers. Akademik Lomonosov left the shipyard on 28 April and is now heading to its permanent base in Russia’s northernmost city of Pevek. The …