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Submission + - Chinese nuclear research outfit reports "breakthrough" in thorium fuel cycle (interestingengineering.com)

Submitted by Mr. Dollar Ton
Mr. Dollar Ton writes: China has announced a "major breakthrough" in "advanced nuclear" energy. It has successfully achieved the first-ever conversion of thorium into uranium fuel within a Thorium Molten Salt Reactor (TMSR).

The Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (SINAP) confirmed that it has secured valid experimental data after loading the reactor with thorium, as reported by Global Times.

The institute expects to have a working thorium-molten salt reactor in 100MW prototype in 10 years, beating fusion power expectations by a full decade.

Submission + - Scientists Create New Form of Ice - Ice XXI - Super Compressed at Room Temp (popularmechanics.com)

Submitted by fahrbot-bot
fahrbot-bot writes: Popular Mechanics is reporting on a new study published in the journal Nature Materials, where scientists from the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) have now found yet another phase, appropriately named Ice XXI. At the heart of the experiment, scientists used diamond anvil cells (DACs)—a common device used in materials science for squeezing samples under immense pressure—to subject water to 2 gigapascals (20,000 times higher than normal atmosphere) of pressure in just 10 milliseconds.

The scientists call this kind of water “supercompressed,” and it’s metastable, meaning it persists for a time even when another form of ice would be more stable. And because of the immense pressure, ice forms at room temperature but the molecules are much more densely packed.

“Rapid compression of water allows it to remain liquid up to higher pressures, where it should have already crystallized to ice VI,” Geun Woo Lee, a co-author of the study from RISS, said.

Submission + - Beavers are undermining dykes in the Netherlands (theguardian.com) 1

Submitted by Bruce66423
Bruce66423 writes: 'Reintroduced for environmental reasons, the beaver has made an amazing comeback in the Netherlands. Extinct in the early 19th century, it was reintroduced in 1988, and now there are an estimated 7,000 beavers roaming around.now in danger of causing serious flooding.

'But there’s a significant downside to the booming Dutch beaver population. Beavers are increasingly digging burrows and tunnels under roads, railways and – even more worryingly – in dykes. For a country where a quarter of the land sits below sea level, this is not a minor problem – especially as beavers are not exactly holding back when digging.

“We’ve found tunnels stretching up to 17 metres into a dyke. Wide enough for a grown man to fit in. That’s alarming,” says Jelmer Krom of the Rivierenland water board. Rivierenland is a region in the middle of the Netherlands, crisscrossed by big rivers, where dykes are crucial for keeping high water at bay. If a major dyke gives way, it would cause a serious flood affecting thousands of people.'

Submission + - Musk says DOGE will upgrade Air Traffic Control soon (thehill.com) 1

Submitted by SonicSpike
SonicSpike writes: Tech billionaire Elon Musk on Wednesday said the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will make “rapid safety upgrades” to the air traffic control systems with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

“With the support of President @realDonaldTrump, the @DOGE team will aim to make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system,” Musk wrote Wednesday on the social platform X, which he owns.

“Just a few days ago, the FAA’s primary aircraft safety notification system failed for several hours!” he added, likely referring to an outage of the FAA’s Notice to Air Mission system over the weekend.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told CNN over the weekend that the system allows pilots to download flight details ahead of a trip and is required for planes to fly.

Shortly before Musk’s post on Wednesday, Duffy posted on X that he spoke with the DOGE team, who will “plug in to help upgrade our aviation system.”

The Department of Transportation (DOT) did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for more details on what these upgrades could look like.

When asked about the upgrades, a White House spokesperson doubled down on DOGE’s mission.

Submission + - Boeing, Lockheed Martin Consider Selling Space Launch Business (avweb.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: As NASA brass debate the future of its crew capsule, Boeing is said to be trying to get out of the space launch business. Reuters is reporting that Boeing and Lockheed Martin, who jointly operate United Launch Alliance, are in talks to sell their rocket business to Sierra Space, a subsidiary of Sierra Nevada Corporation, an increasingly influential defense contractor that recently landed a $13 billion deal to build the federal government's new Survivable Airborne Operations System based on five used Boeing 747-8s.

The talks about the rocket business are in their early stages, and ULA has previously tried to unload it without success. The company competes with SpaceX to launch government payloads into orbit. Reuters said the company should bring in between $2 billion-$3 billion and could fit Sierra Nevada's plan to bring its Dream Chaser space plane to market and service the space station it's planning to build in partnership with Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin.

Comment I fear the educational monoculture (Score 1) 35

If everybody begins educating kids the exact same way, Erroneous ideas will propagate throughout the generation being educated. I worry about stifled creativity. There probably shouldn't be one standard way to educate everybody. Richard Feynmann spoke of the power of being able to approach problems using a different set of tools but if everybody gets the same training everyone will be using the same set of tools.

Comment Re: It'll get there technically, but not economica (Score 1) 218

Neither those batteries nor those panels last very long and the production and shipping of both is terrible for the environment. Proponents will quickly point at coal plants or gasoline powered cars and the relative difference. Last I checked destroying the planet still counts even if you destroy it somewhat less than something else.

Meanwhile, please tell us how much concrete a fusion reactor will use? (For our convenience, please express in Cubic Mile units).

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