US turns old nuclear site into polysilicon hub to produce 11 GW of solar cells yearly.
Former US nuclear plant site to be transformed into a polysilicon hub with energy-efficient production and renewable infrastructure.
Category: nuclear energy – Page 5
Gold Survives 33,740°F, Overturning a 40-Year Physics Theory
Scientists have made the first-ever direct measurement of atomic temperatures in extreme materials, shattering a four-decade-old theory about how far solids can be superheated.
Using a powerful laser and ultrabright X-rays, researchers at SLAC and collaborating institutions heated gold to an astonishing 19,000 K, more than 14 times its melting point, while it remained solid. This breakthrough not only redefines the limits of matter under extreme conditions but also opens the door to new insights into planetary interiors, fusion energy research, and high-energy density physics.
Measuring the unmeasurable: cracking the heat code.
Experimental device demonstrates how electron beams reconfigure plasma structure
In a scientific first, South Korean scientists have provided experimental proof of “multi-scale coupling” in plasma, where interactions between phenomena at the microscopic level and macroscopic level influence each other. The findings could help advance nuclear fusion research and improve our fundamental understanding of the universe.
Plasma is often referred to as the fourth state of matter, distinct from solid, liquid and gaseous states. This unique state is formed when you heat a gas to such high temperatures that electrons are stripped away from their atoms, creating a mix of free-floating positively and negatively charged particles. This state of matter is the most abundant in the universe, and fusion reactions take place within it.
Proving multi-scale coupling has been a long-standing challenge in plasma physics. But in a study published in Nature, a research team led by Dr. Jong Yoon Park from Seoul National University and Dr. Young Dae Yoon from the Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics (APCTP) proved how microscopic phenomena induce macroscopic changes that affect the entire plasma system.
OpenAI’s GPT-5 Flop, AI’s Unlimited Market, China’s Big Advantage, Rise in Socialism, Housing Crisis
Questions to inspire discussion.
📊 Q: How did GPT-5 perform compared to GPT-4? A: GPT-5 was narrowly ahead of GPT-4 in artificial analysis, but GPT-4 was significantly better in “humanity’s last exam” and RKGI2, which measures tasks relatively easy for humans but hard for AIs.
🌐 Q: What is the key architectural improvement in GPT-5? A: GPT-5 has a multimodal architecture that can self-select the underlying model for a task, providing a simple, clean interface without users needing to understand technical details.
AI industry growth and economic impact.
💰 Q: How much is being invested in the AI industry annually? A: The AI industry is experiencing astronomical growth, with hundreds of billions of dollars being deployed annually, and a projected trillion dollars in the next 5 years on data centers and AI infrastructure.
📈 Q: Are there already economic returns on AI investments? A: Economic returns on AI investments are already evident, with companies like Meta and Microsoft reporting significant revenue growth and productivity gains.
Physicists make critical energy breakthrough after unearthing long-forgotten experiment: ‘Our replication leaves no doubt’
Unlike more complex, high-energy fusion experiments such as those at the National Ignition Facility, this test was performed at a much lower energy level. That makes it a game changer for smaller labs and opens the door to more accessible fusion experimentation.
What the researchers learned is a notable contribution to ongoing fusion studies. If scientists can successfully scale fusion energy, it could power entire cities more affordably than conventional power while helping stabilize the grid. Fusion doesn’t generate heat-trapping pollution either, meaning cleaner air and healthier communities.
While fusion isn’t powering our homes just yet, such developments move us closer to a cleaner, more affordable energy future — especially with successes such as the 2022 ignition breakthrough at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
A dual ion beam tests new steel under fusion energy-producing conditions
A new class of advanced steels needs more fine-tuning before use in system components for fusion energy—a more sustainable alternative to fission that combines two light atoms rather than splitting one heavy atom. The alloy, a type of reduced activation ferritic/martensitic or RAFM steel, contains billions of nanoscale particles of titanium carbide meant to absorb radiation and trap helium produced by fusion within a single component.
When subjected to radiation damage and helium concentrations representative of fusion, the titanium-carbide precipitates initially helped trap helium but later dissolved under high damage levels. After dissolving, the alloy swelled as it was no longer able to disperse and trap helium, which could compromise fusion energy system components.
The first-of-its-kind systematic investigation led by University of Michigan engineers was published in Acta Materialia and the Journal of Nuclear Materials in a series of three papers.
Ghost particles may secretly decide the fate of collapsing stars
Neutrinos are cosmic tricksters, paradoxically hardly there but lethal to stars significantly more massive than the sun. These elementary particles come in three known “flavors”: electron, muon and tau. Whatever the flavor, neutrinos are notoriously slippery, and much about their properties remains mysterious. It is almost impossible to collide neutrinos with each other in the lab, so it is not known if neutrinos interact with each other according to the standard model of particle physics, or if there are much-speculated “secret” interactions only among neutrinos.
Now a team of researchers from the Network for Neutrinos, Nuclear Astrophysics, and Symmetries (N3AS), including several from UC San Diego, have shown, through theoretical calculations, how collapsing massive stars can act as a “neutrino collider.” Neutrinos steal thermal energy from these stars, forcing them to contract and causing their electrons to move near light speed. This drives the stars to instability and collapse.
Eventually the collapsing star’s density becomes so high that the neutrinos are trapped and collide with each other. With purely standard model interactions, the neutrinos will be mostly electron flavor, the matter will be relatively “cold,” and the collapse will likely leave a neutron star remnant. However, secret interactions that change neutrino flavor radically alter this scenario, producing neutrinos of all flavors and leading to a mostly neutron “hot” core that may lead to a black hole remnant.
Optimized cycle system recovers waste heat from fusion reactor
A research team led by Prof. Guo Bin from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has designed and optimized an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) system specifically for recovering low-grade waste heat from the steady-state Chinese Fusion Engineering Testing Reactor (CFETR) based on organic fluid R245fa, achieving enhanced thermal efficiency and reduced heat loss.
CFETR, a steady-state magnetic fusion reactor, is a crucial step toward realizing commercial fusion energy. However, managing the large amount of low-grade waste heat produced by components such as the divertor and blanket remains a key challenge.
To solve the thermodynamic and heat integration issues, the researchers developed advanced simulation models using Engineering Equation Solver for cycle analysis and MATLAB-based LAMP modeling for dynamic system configuration. These tools enabled a comprehensive investigation and optimization of the ORC configuration, leading to significantly improved thermal performance.