Imagine a form of nuclear energy with greater output and virtually no safety issues. Such is the promise of liquid flouride thorium reactors (LFTRs), and we’ve had several past interviews with thorium expert Kirk Sorensen to discuss their potential: Kirk Sorensen provides an update on the current state of thorium power. The bad news is …
Researchers at NRG, a Dutch nuclear materials firm, have begun the first tests of nuclear fission using thorium salts since experiments ended at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the early 1970s. Thorium has several advantages over uranium, the fuel that powers most nuclear reactors in service today. 1. it’s much harder to weaponize. 2. Reactor …
The Center for International Development at Harvard University (CID) has GDP growth projections from now to 2025. Canada and Japan have surprisingly high average GDP growth from 2017 to 2025. If China were to maintain 1.54% more growth than the USA then China would gain about 16% from now to 2025 in overall economy. India …
The carcass of a giant sea creature has washed up in Indonesia. It was originally thought to be a type of giant squid but it seems to have bones and a fin. This would suggest it is some kind of whale. The video seems to show a dead whale which has grown almost unidentifiable because …
An Indonesian man claimed to be 146 years old – the longest living human ever. He died in his village in Central Java. According to his papers, Sodimedjo, also known as Mbah Ghoto (grandpa Ghoto), was born in December 1870. But Indonesia only started recording births in 1900 – and there have been mistakes before. …
Indonesia is exploring a number of new options for nuclear power, including high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) and a thorium molten salt reactors. Indonesia has signed several nuclear deals * In early 2015, they signed a contract to build and test a pebble-bed HTGR at Serpong with a consortium of Russian and Indonesian companies led by …
Construction of high-speed railways abroad is part of Beijing’s massive “One Belt, One Road” initiative to increase trade and infrastructure links with countries from Asia to Africa, but most of the current rail projects have stalled. China had a 124,000 km rail network as of the end of last year, featuring the world’s largest high-speed …
In November, China launched the world’s first spacecraft with a deep space x-ray navigation system. The X-ray Pulsar Navigation 1 (XPNAV 1) satellite, which the country launched on Nov. 10 aboard a solid-fueled Long March 11 rocket from the Jiuquan Space Launch Center in the Gobi Desert, is the world’s first x-ray navigation system to …
A Japanese city is subsidizing 80% of the cost for women to freeze their eggs The city of Urayasu is allocating 90 million yen (£600,000) over three years to fund the research project conducted by Juntendo University Urayasu hospital. The hospital hopes that preserving eggs will encourage women to give birth when they are ready …
DARPA’s Safe Genes program aims to build a biosafety and biosecurity toolkit to reduce potential risks and encourage innovation in the field of genome editing The Safe Genes program could help unlock the potential of advanced gene editing technologies by developing a set of tools to address potential risks of this rapidly advancing field. The …
Automated system outperforms competing machines in high-stakes final event aimed at revolutionizing software vulnerability detection and patching Capping an intensive three-year push to spark a revolution in automated cyber defense, DARPA today announced that a computer system designed by a team of Pittsburgh-based researchers is the presumptive winner of the Agency’s Cyber Grand Challenge (CGC), …