Australia tries to reign in corruption on A$50 billion submarine purchase

Australia has an A$50 billion (USD 38 billion) contract to build 12 submarines with a French company. Australia’s biggest-ever capital project will siphon billions in taxpayer dollars to a foreign entity (DCNS, now the Naval Group) which is embroiled in bribery allegations, construction could stretch to 2050, and no single agency exists to conduct a …

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CSIRO partners with Saildrone for ocean monitoring

CSIRO has announced a partnership with San Francisco-based ocean technology start-up, Saildrone, to radically improve measurement and monitoring in Australian waters and the Southern Ocean. The research partnership over five years between Saildrone and CSIRO’s Oceans and Atmosphere group will see the deployment of state-of-the-art unmanned ocean surface vehicles, Saildrones, for the first time in …

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Australia’s Tesla battery responded to power failure in 140 milliseconds and prevented 10-30 minute blackout

South Australia’s giant battery is already showing its worth, state Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis says. The world’s largest lithium-ion battery, built by tech billionaire Elon Musk, responded quickly last week when the coal-fired Loy Yang power plant tripped and went offline. The battery delivered 100 megawatts into the national electricity grid in 140 milliseconds. Emergency …

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Slightly acidic solution in insitu uranium mining boosts recovery by over ten times

Peninsula Energy has started the process to amend the license and permits for its Lance in-situ leach (ISL) uranium project in Wyoming, after laboratory tests showed that using an acidic rather than alkaline mining solution could potentially transform the project’s operating performance and costs. Peninsula Energy website is here. Tests using mildly acidic solutions have …

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Electricity should be cheap in Australia but is most expensive so Anything can be mismanaged

When the eastern states’ National Electricity Market was formed in the late 1990s, Australia had the lowest retail prices in the world along with the United States and Canada. South Australian households are now paying the highest prices in the world at 47.13¢ per kilowatt hour, more than Germany, Denmark and Italy which heavily tax …

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Australia, Argentina, Chile and the USA will be the top suppliers of Lithium

Almost 60 percent of supply from world’s planned large lithium projects through about the next five years will be added in Australia. Australia will cement its position as the top supplier of lithium according to CRU Group. The biggest mines due to enter production next year are both about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from Port …

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Big progress to Zinc Air batteries which will be cheaper and better battery

University of Sydney researchers have found a solution for one of the biggest stumbling blocks preventing zinc-air batteries from overtaking conventional lithium-ion batteries as the power source of choice in electronic devices. Zinc-air batteries are batteries powered by zinc metal and oxygen from the air. Due to the global abundance of zinc metal, these batteries …

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3D Printing of Metal that is 1000 times faster and 100 times lower cost

A new 3D printer creates metal parts at commercial production speeds. Their SPEE3D printer has the potential to turn 3D metal printing, which currently is just making prototypes of parts, into a tool for manufacturing actual parts for use. It is up to 1000 times quicker than conventional 3D metal printers. The entrepreneurs behind an …

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US-Australia had a successful Mach 8 HiFire 4 hypersonic missile test last week

The US-Australia Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation (HiFIRE) program had at least one successful hypersonic flight at Woomera testing range in South Australia last week. A round of experiments concluded on 12 July, confirmed Australian defense minister Marise Payne. UQ hypersonics researchers collaborated with the Defence Science and Technology Group (DST Group) and US Air …

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Australia makes solar paint that absorbs water and splits it to generate hydrogen

Researchers have developed a solar paint that can absorb water vapor and split it to generate hydrogen – the cleanest source of energy. The paint contains a newly developed compound that acts like silica gel, which is used in sachets to absorb moisture and keep food, medicines and electronics fresh and dry. But unlike silica …

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