Author: Fission Today

MIT professors Zachary Hartwig and Wanda Orlikowski exemplify a rare but powerful kind of mentorship — one grounded not just in intellectual excellence, but in deep personal care. They remind us that transformative academic leadership starts with humanity. Whether it’s Hartwig’s ability to bring engineering brilliance to life through genuine personal connection, or Orlikowski’s unwavering support for those who share in her mission to create meaningful impact, both foster environments where people, not just ideas, can thrive. Their students and colleagues describe feeling seen, supported, and encouraged not only to grow as scholars, but as people. It’s this ethic of care, of…

Small modular reactor (SMR) developer X-energy has secured a binding reservation agreement with South Korean power-generation equipment giant Doosan Enerbility to manufacture main power system steel components for 16 Xe-100 SMRs. As part of the decisive move to industrialize the supply chain for advanced nuclear energy, Doosan has also committed to building a new dedicated SMR fabrication facility in Changwon, South Korea, to bolster X-energy’s 11-GW commercial pipeline—”equivalent to 144 advanced reactors,” X-energy noted. The preemptive agreement marks a substantial boost for X-energy, enabling it to secure manufacturing capacity for some of the Xe-100’s most safety-critical and longest-lead components—including reactor pressure…

Duke Energy has asked North Carolina regulators to approve major rate hikes for both of its North Carolina utilities while also increasing the “return on equity” that the utilities may earn. Return on equity (ROE) is the profit that the utilities are allowed to earn on the equity-financed share of their capital investments; it drives utility profitability. In November, the Charlotte-based company, which earned $4.4 billion in net profits last year, filed a request with the state Utilities Commission to take an additional $1.7 billion in revenue over two years: $1 billion from its Duke Energy Carolinas customers, a 15%…

Machine-learning models can speed up the discovery of new materials by making predictions and suggesting experiments. But most models today only consider a few specific types of data or variables. Compare that with human scientists, who work in a collaborative environment and consider experimental results, the broader scientific literature, imaging and structural analysis, personal experience or intuition, and input from colleagues and peer reviewers.Now, MIT researchers have developed a method for optimizing materials recipes and planning experiments that incorporates information from diverse sources like insights from the literature, chemical compositions, microstructural images, and more. The approach is part of a…

A toxic troika of extractivism, authoritarianism and war A new report – the most far-reaching analysis of environment and environmentalism in Russia since 2022 – shows how Putin’s regime relies on a toxic troika of extractivism, authoritarianism and war. Fossil fuels finance war. War justifies repression. Authoritarianism shields elites from scrutiny while blocking demands for justice. Its veil of disinformation, propaganda and control of information is now so thick that free reporting on Russia now depends on information gathered from outside its borders: the world’s largest country has become a void of reliable information. Polish, Ukrainian and other activists paint…

Policymakers are eager to use V2G to help bring more renewable energy into the system. The Swiss parliament has already made a decision that V2G operators won’t have to pay the full network fee when charging their batteries. Specifically, the energy that is stored and then sent back to the grid is exempt from this network fee. However, the exact implementation of this network rate exemption is currently in the consultation process. In this blog post, we analyse and discuss different implementations of this network rate exemption.Policymakers should address V2G’s lack of profitabilityConsidering the potential of and the political support…

People tend to think of quantum materials — whose properties arise from quantum mechanical effects — as exotic curiosities. But some quantum materials have become a ubiquitous part of our computer hard drives, TV screens, and medical devices. Still, the vast majority of quantum materials never accomplish much outside of the lab.What makes certain quantum materials commercial successes and others commercially irrelevant? If researchers knew, they could direct their efforts toward more promising materials — a big deal since they may spend years studying a single material.Now, MIT researchers have developed a system for evaluating the scale-up potential of quantum…

In a world in which nuclear energy is experiencing a resurgence of interest and action, the determined efforts of groups opposed to the relicensing of the twin 1,100 MW PWRs at the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant flies in the face of global wisdom. According to the World Nuclear Association, as of 12/04/25, 33 nations have signed a pledge to triple the amount of nuclear power on the planet by 2050. That’s a lot of good company for any utility wanting to start, restart, and/or relicense a nuclear power plant of any size or design. Sama Bilbao y León, Director General…

Judge’s gavel, Themis sculpture and collection of legal books on the brown background. On August 8, 2025, the California Supreme Court issued an opinion (Center for Biological Diversity v. Public Utilities Commission, S284614 (August 7, 2025)) on a single issue of law specific to the degree of deference afforded to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in interpreting the Public Utilities Code.  Specifically, “whether the highly deferential approach of Greyhound continues to apply…” in light of the Legislature’s acts to revise and expand judicial review of CPUC actions as part of the deregulation process of the 1990s under Public Utilities…

A number of advanced energy technologies — including fuel cells, electrolyzers, and an emerging class of low-power electronics — use protons as the key charge carrier. Whether or not these devices will be widely adopted hinges, in part, on how efficiently they can move protons.One class of materials known as metal oxides has shown promise in conducting protons at temperatures above 400 degrees Celsius. But researchers have struggled to find the best materials to increase the proton conductivity at lower temperatures and improve efficiency.Now, MIT researchers have developed a physical model to predict proton mobility across a wide range of metal…