Total uranium production in Kazakhstan for the 9 months of 2009 amounted to 9,535 tU. Thus, the target was exceeded by 3%. The increase, as compared to the corresponding period of 2008, made up 61%, while a gain of U3O8 output in comparison with the corresponding period of 2008 was 50%. Full 2009 production should …
World Nuclear power generation for 2007 and 2008 The IEA nations currently generate about 80% of the worlds nuclear power and for the first seven months of the year are down 0.7% from 2008. The IEA total for Jan-July,2009 is 1246.2 TWHe. For 2008 the IEA total was 2160 TWHe. The world total was 2601 …
Lawrenceville Plasma Physics (LPP) a small research and development company part way through a two-year-long experimental project to test the scientific feasibility of Focus Fusion, controlled nuclear fusion using the dense plasma focus (DPF) device and hydrogen-boron fuel. Hydrogen-boron fuel produces almost no neutrons and allows the direct conversion of energy into electricity. Success would …
J Storrs Hall points out employment test for Artificial General Intelligence that was suggested by Nils Nilsson AI programs must be able to perform the jobs ordinarily performed by humans. Progress toward human-level AI could then be measured by the fraction of these jobs that can be acceptably performed by machines. The list of jobs …
The Petman robot is a follow up the Big Dog robot. Big Dog is four legged robot for carrying supplies. (H/T Sander Olson) PETMAN is an anthropomorphic robot for testing chemical protection clothing used by the US Army. Unlike previous suit testers, which had to be supported mechanically and had a limited repertoire of motion, …
In the Grist article by Amory Lovins: “stewart brands nuclear enthusiasm falls short on facts and logic” In its first half-century, nuclear power fell short of its forecast capacity by about 12-fold in the U.S. and 30-fold worldwide, mainly because building it cost several-fold more than expected, straining or bankrupting its owners This is referring …
Left) Carbon dome structure on an iridium substrate, indicating the tightly bound atoms at the edge of the island (C), the weakly bound atoms at the center (B) and intermediate atoms (A). (Right) Photoelectron spectrum at 970 K showing the contributions from the edge (C), center (B), and intermediate (A) atoms in the dome structure. …
IEEE Spectrum predicted that Intel’s Larrabee chip would be a technological winner. we believe that Larrabee is a winner—because of the one feature that it alone offers: C++ programmability. The first test chips came out only a few weeks ago (Jan 2009) , and the product won’t reach store shelves until late 2009. Intel Larrabee …
Wires made up of yarns spun from millions of carbon nanotube bundles may help make superconductivity practical. Researchers from UT Dallas, Clemson University and Yale University are using science on the nanoscale to address one of the most elusive challenges in physics—the discovery of room temperature superconductivity. With that as the ultimate goal, the team …
The winner of the 2009 Feynman Prize for Theory is Robert A. Freitas Jr. (IMM), in recognition of his pioneering theoretical work in mechanosynthesis in which he proposed specific molecular tools and analyzed them using ab initio quantum chemistry to validate their ability to build complex molecular structures. This Prize also recognizes his previous work …
Muon-catalyzed nuclear fusion. (1) A beam of negatively charged muons is produced and injected into a mixed fuel of deuterium and tritium, (2) resulting in the creation of many muonic tritium atoms (tµ). As muons are 207 times heavier than electrons, the muon orbits the nucleus at a much closer distance to the nucleus than …