French process to extract uranium from reactor ash

Areva and the University of Idaho have signed an agreement to develop technology for recovering uranium from incinerator ash at Areva’s uranium fuel plant in Richland, Washington state. The process also reduces the amount of ash classified as radioactive waste. Chien Wai, a chemistry professor at the University of Idaho, has developed a process that …

Read more

Stanford, Korean nanofab center, Oregon-based semi startup claim 3D computer chipbreakthrough

The 3D IC, which was processed on 8-inch wafers with industry standard 0.18-micron CMOS technologies both at NNFC and SNF, contains 128 million vertically oriented devices as a test vehicle, and was uniquely processed at low temperatures — below 400 degree Celsius, the parties explained. Also, a sub-micron-thick single crystalline silicon layer was initially formed …

Read more

Picometer resolution microscope open window to new physics of materials

Using electron microscope methods of a hitherto unknown accuracy, scientists from Forschungszentrum Juelich have succeeded in locally demonstrating polarization in the ferroelectric PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3 and measuring it atom by atom. The broken line forms the boundary of two areas with different electrical polarization marked by the arrows. This is due to the fact that the atoms …

Read more

You say inVitro meat, yuck. But eat deep fried meat slurry, corn and chemicals. Called chicken nuggets

I had previously covered the PETA $1 million prize for invitro (test tube / factory meat from stem cells) meat. PETA prize for chicken meat that can pass a fried chicken taste test and be sold in ten states commercially Many people have an initial reaction that invitro meat would be yucky and they do …

Read more

A simple-to-make “superlens” can focus 10 times better than diffraction limit, microwaves so far, next 19-38 nm for visible light

A simple-to-make “superlens” can focus 10 times more sharply than a conventional lens. It could shrink the size of features on computer chips, or help power gadgets without wires. No matter how powerful a conventional lens, it cannot focus light down to more than about half its wavelength, the “diffraction limit”. So far they have …

Read more

Norway considering Thorium reactors

Article from treehugger.com about Norway considering Thorium reactors •There is no danger of a melt-down like the Chernobyl reactor•It produces minimal radioactive waste•It can burn Plutonium waste from traditional nuclear reactors with additional energy output•It is not suitable for the production of weapon grade materials•The energy contained in one kilogram of Thorium equals that of …

Read more