Author: Fission Today

It is the time of year when we remember those hot summer days in August 1945, when the United States attacked the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the first nuclear weapons. The American military and many of the scientists responsible for building the bombs were satisfied with the results — inhumane as they knew them to be — and tried to keep the world from learning what had happened to the people beneath the now-iconic mushroom clouds photographed from the bombers above. Source link

The same overheating problem that happens to our laptops also plagues computer servers and data centers around the world — and heat management is only getting harder as computer chips get more compact and powerful.Understanding how heat moves through chips at the micro scale is essential for continuing to improve their performance. Unfortunately, most methods for measuring heat flow struggle with multilayered devices like the electronics that power our modern world.Now MIT researchers have demonstrated a new way to study how heat moves through multilayered materials, combining X-rays that penetrate multiple layers with laser pulses for delivering heat. The researchers…

Walt Zlotow – Many top military leaders opposed atomic bombings 2 August 26, Walt Zlotow  West Suburban Peace Coalition  Glan Ellyn IL  Every year the four day period August 6 – 9 brings to mind the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings. This year marks the 81th anniversary of those horrific acts.  We may be closer to nukes fired in anger at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis 64 tears ago. Major wars in Ukraine and Iran could both devolve into nuclear war. U.S. withdrawal from several nuclear treaties and planning to spend a trillion dollars to upgrade our nuclear stockpile…

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) formally approved an estimated $211 million rate increase for Xcel Energy electric customers last week, including higher profits for utility shareholders. The decision contrasts with actions in several other states to rein in utility costs and profits. The rate hike drew strong opposition from consumer advocates and received an unprecedented 8,600 comments from Xcel customers, nearly 17 times as many as the last Xcel rate case. Concerns about Xcel’s profits and executive pay showed up in more than half of the comments analyzed by the Citizens Utility Board of Minnesota (CUB), a nonprofit ratepayer…

Growth in artificial intelligence (AI) is outpacing the world’s ability to generate enough power to sustain it. As AI adoption accelerates worldwide, it’s colliding with a power system that wasn’t built for its level of demand. Vittorio Pierangeli, senior vice president PowerGen at Rolls-Royce Power Systems (Figure 1), explains why electricity, not chips or algorithms, is the defining factor of the AI era. 1. Vittorio Pierangeli, senior vice president of PowerGen at Rolls-Royce Power Systems, is an expert when it comes to powering data centers. Courtesy: Rolls-Royce Power Systems Measuring AI’s Exploding Appetite for Power The scale of the AI…

Lithium-ion batteries are the leading choice in today’s electric vehicle and battery energy storage system industries, but they contain a number of critical minerals — including lithium, cobalt, nickel, and graphite — that are considered essential for economic and national security reasons, and therefore vulnerable to supply chain disruptions. As renewable energy, electrified infrastructure, and high-power digital technologies continue to grow, there is an increasing need for energy storage systems that are low-cost, resource-abundant, and capable of fast charging and discharging. That need, among other reasons, has motivated a group of researchers — based at MIT and led by Ju Li,…

DOE Selects Five States as  Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses Energy Communities Alliance Offers Diverse Approaches to DOE’s Needs Antares Raises $470M Series C to Deploy Nuclear Microreactors  Commonwealth Fusion Systems Raised $1 Billion Germany Announces National Hubs to Build Fusion Reactors in 2040s Cameco Announces IPO Plan for Westinghouse Holtec Plans to Build Four SMRs in New Jersey Crusoe and Aalo Atomics Plan First Nuclear-powered AI Factory NRC Proposes Transportation Rules to Support Advanced Nuclear Technologies DOE Selects Five States as  Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses Utah, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Idaho selected as potential hosts to modernize the nation’s nuclear…

The United States and Saudi Arabia have signed an agreement to use US technology and expertise to build a civil nuclear programme in the Gulf country. The deal has raised concerns about lack of safeguards to prevent nuclear material being diverted to produce nuclear weapons. The multi-billion dollar agreement is for 30 years and,  according to the US Energy Secretary, Chris Wright, it is aimed at meeting the “energy needs” of Saudi Arabia which plans to stop burning so much oil and gas for electricity generation to cut its carbon emissions and free up more oil for export.  Reportedly, Saudi…

Cost needs for the growing nuclear industry “The industry body has estimated that achieving the existing governments’ nuclear ambitions of 1,446 GWe by 2050, which would be more than tripling current capacity, would require around $6 trillion of nuclear investment over the next 25 years. That’s an average of approximately $250 billion per year, roughly three times today’s annual investment of $75 billion, the association said.” August 2, 2026 – Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs No comments yet. Source link

The post Politico: The future of power is gassy appeared first on Energy and Policy Institute. Source link