1. Saudi Arabia plans to construct 16 nuclear power reactors over the next 20 years at a cost of more than 300 billion riyals ($80 billion), according to Abdul Ghani bin Melaibari, coordinator of scientific collaboration at King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy. Speaking during the Gulf Environment Forum in Jeddah, he said, …
The hybrid plasmon polariton (HPP) nanoscale waveguide consists of a semiconductor strip separated from a metallic surface by a low dielectric gap. Schematic shows HPP waveguide responding when a metal slit at the guide’s input end is illuminated. (courtesy of Zhang group) The creation of a new quasiparticle called the “hybrid plasmon polariton” may throw …
Switzerland generates roughly 40% of its energy from the country’s five nuclear reactors. The rest comes mostly from the more than 1,000 hydropower plants located in the Alps and along Switzerland’s rivers. Ms. Leuthard said the government hasn’t yet fixed a date for when the last nuclear-power station will go offline, but experts believe such …
A top-view photograph of the Hall bar device used for the electric double layer transistor What causes a magnet to be a magnet, and how can we control a magnet’s behavior? These are the questions that University at Buffalo researcher Igor Zutic, a theoretical physicist, has been exploring over many years. He is one of …
Iconic wrestler Macho man Randy Savage died of a heart attack recently. I found the Macho Man to be hilarious and he was one of the best wrestling performers. Babylon 5 actor Jeff Conaway died from pneumonia and sepsis. I greatly enjoyed Babylon 5 and Jeff Conaway acting in it. I also enjoyed his performances …
1. Russian Kalinin 4 nuclear reactor is a V-320 model VVER-1000 built using the major components unused at Bulgaria’s long-running Belene project. It is slated for start-up in September and commercial operation two months later in November, 2011. It will have net capacity of 950 MWe and gross capacity of 1,000 MWe. 2. The French …
This scanning electron microscope picture shows individual crystal “grains” in an array of a material called graphene. Researchers have developed a method for creating the arrays, an advancement that opens up the possibility of a replacement for silicon in high-performance computers and electronics. (Image Care of University of Houston) Researchers have developed a method for …
NASA will launch a spacecraft to an asteroid in 2016 and use a robotic arm to pluck samples that could better explain our solar system’s formation and how life began. The mission, called Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx, will be the first U.S. mission to carry samples from an asteroid back to Earth. After …
Battery prototype: Two sludge-like electrode materials are fed into the device shown here. The anode material flows into the top half, and the cathode flows into the bottom. Lithium ions pass from one material to the other, and electrons flow through the black and red leads. Credit: Yet-Ming Chiang MIT Technology Review – A big …
A technical assessment has concluded that there are no impediments to the further development of the Skylon spacecraft being developed by Reaction Engines. The UK Space Agency’s report on the Skylon technical assessment, for which the European Space Agency (ESA) was commissioned, also agreed with the objectives of the proposed next stage of the development …
Charles S. Holden founder of Thorenco LLC working with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory physicists has proposed a small transportable 50-megawatt-thermal Thorium converter reactor for multiple uses: producing electricity (15 megawatts), burning up high-level actinides from spent fuel, and producing low-cost, high-temperature steam (or process industrial heat). This high-temperature steam can be used for extraction of …