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Obama's 2012 budget includes push for 'mini-nuke' reactor development
The President revealed his 2012 budget proposal today, including $853 million for nuclear energy research -- which includes development of "mini-nukes," or small, modular reactors that can be shipped and deployed relatively quickly, and built relatively cheaply (up to $2 billion, as opposed to the $10 billion price tag of your traditional reactor). But don't get excited -- you won't likely be able to get your own backyard reactor just yet. For the time being, they're to be placed in existing large-scale labs like the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. It is hoped that the reactors will bring a 28 percent reduction of the Energy Department's carbon footprint by 2020.
Atomic bomb tests make for pretty, if unnerving, photography
The things America got up to in the 50s, eh? The New York Times has this week published a gallery of arresting images from atomic bomb testing done by the US military in the middle of the 20th century. From nuking its own destroyers and airships while gauging out their "vulnerability" -- let's hope that vulnerability was categorized as "total" -- to producing atomic cannons like the one you see above, the USA really went to town with its nuclear warfare practice. The Times' story is about atomic cameramen and the crazy risks they took to document these events; we'd advise giving it a read, but if you're pushed for time, just hit the source for all the wild visuals.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: solar surpasses nuclear, sewage-fueled rockets and the world's largest turbine
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. It was an exciting week for renewable energy, as Inhabitat reported the news that solar energy has trumped nuclear power in terms of cost for the first time! We also looked at two innovative new wind turbine designs - the supermassive Aerogenerator, which at 10MW stands to be the world's largest, and the diminutive home-focused Honeywell turbine, which will be hitting store shelves next month. Green transportation also received a big boost this week as Stanford researchers revealed a way to transform raw sewage into rocket fuel. Meanwhile, Santiago Calatrava heralded a new era for efficient transportation as he unveiled his awe-inspiring new rail station for the Denver International Airport. And with the summer heat embroiling cities across the states, we're daydreaming of slipping away to sea aboard this sleek solar Delta yacht. In other news, wearable technology is changing the way we change our underwear -- odor-absorbing astronaut undies have finally hit the shelves. We were also impressed by a new breed of 3d-printed textiles that may one day make needles and threads obsolete. Finally, in the spirit of summer this week we showcased 6 innovative designs that harness the power of play - from energy generating soccer balls to water-pumping merry go-rounds.
WWDC 2010: Vito Technology walks on with Star Walk and Geo Walk
We met up with both Victor Toporkov and Murad Nazaraliev of Vito Technology during WWDC this past week, and while we know the company's name well from their great Star Walk and Solar Walk apps (the first one won an Apple Design Award this week, and the second one is quite popular, too), we learned some interesting facts about the history of the company. Toporkov now lives in the United States, but the company has its roots in Novosibirsk, the biggest city in Siberia. Back in the 1950s, Russia created a scientific center out in the middle of Siberia, consisting of a whole group of nuclear and scientific research facilities. Toporkov was one of those nuclear scientists, and now that the Cold War is over, he and many other scientists in that community have moved on to creating various kinds of software. In fact, the region itself is now sometimes referred to as "Silicon Forest," in a comparison with Silicon Valley in the US. I found that background fascinating. But of course, Vito is looking to the future -- after a couple of solid educational astronomy apps on the App Store, they're looking to come back down to Earth with Geo Walk. I first got to use this app back at Macworld Expo this year, but the latest version has come a long way, with lots of various nodes to browse around a 3D globe, featuring historical locations or individuals. The app is due out next week on the App Store, with an iPad version coming later in July, and Vito says they'll be pricing the app at just 99 cents -- it's meant for kids, and they're trying to find the lowest acceptable price possible.
Toshiba and Bill Gates-backed TerraPower discussing small-scale nuclear reactors
It would seem that Toshiba hasn't given up on its dream of producing a nuclear reactor for the home, and its latest potential partner counts quite the big name among its backers. Run by a former Microsoft exec and partially funded by Bill Gates himself, TerraPower is said to have opened preliminary discussions with Toshiba regarding a possible joint venture between the two companies. The aim is, predictably, to make safer, smaller, more socially acceptable, and just plain better reactors. TerraPower boasts its tech can run without refueling for up to 60 years on depleted uranium and Bill Gates has gotten enthusiastic enough about the whole thing to give a 30-minute talk on the matter. Click past the break for the video.
Mizzou's nuclear battery to power things smaller than your brain can imagine
Oh yeah, everyone loves the extended battery, but are we really kosher with the added bulge? A team of boffins at the University of Missouri certainly aren't, as they've spent the last good while of their lives researching and developing a new nuclear battery that could be used to power devices much smaller than, well, most anything. The radioisotope cell, as it's called, can reportedly "provide power density that is six orders of magnitude higher than chemical batteries," and while some may question the safety of this potentially volatile device, the liquid semiconductor (used instead of a solid semiconductor) should help ease concerns. The current iteration of the device is about the size of a penny, and it's intended to power a variety of MEMS systems. Now, if only these guys could find a way to make a standard AA last longer than a week in our Wiimote, we'd be pleased as punch.[Via BBC, thanks Jim]
Three guards suspended for nearly blowing up planet with PSP
There's an appropriate time and place for portable gaming. Stuck in a dentist's waiting room? Of course. In the back seat during a lengthy road trip? Go right ahead. Waiting for the movie to start? Acceptable! Working as a security guard stationed in the heart of one of the nation's oldest high-security nuclear weapons plants? No, sir. A thousand times no.A report from a Knoxville news station turned our eyes to the plight of three security guards who were recently suspended without pay from the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, TN. Their misconduct? They brought gaming devices "with transmitting capability" (the original article specifically mentions the PSP) into the plant's "protected zone," where cell phones aren't even allowed, because THAT'S WHERE THEY MAKE NUCLEAR WEAPONS. We sure hope those brief rounds of Lumines were worth risking nuclear holocaust, you jerks.
Mini nuclear plant is safe, affordable and purifies water (but doesn't turn lead into gold)
This isn't the first time we've seen a micro nuclear reactor, and with the looming energy crisis it probably won't be the last. Designed by scientists at Los Alamos, the Hyperion Power Module will retail for $25 million, has no moving parts, is about the size of a hot tub (less than 5 feet wide) and should generate enough electricity for about 10,000 homes, running up to ten years before it needs refueled. And if all that isn't enough, the company claims that the module is meltdown proof (the small amount of enclosed fuel would immediately cool if ever exposed to open air), that the enclosed material is unsuitable for proliferation, and in addition to generating inexpensive power the HPM can be used to purify water. Are you sold? Be sure to hit that read link -- Hyperion is taking orders now![Via Switched]
Royalty rate stays the same, iTunes Store still open
The U.S. Copyright Royalty Board decided today to keep rates the same for digital music stores, kneecapping Apple's threat to shut down the iTunes Store rather than operate at a loss. The three-member board kept the royalty rate at 9.1 cents, and mandated a 24-cent rate for ringtones. The board has never before established mechanical rates for digital files. "We're pleased with the CRB's decision to keep royalty rates stable," said an unnamed Apple spokesman. The popularity of Eddy Cue's statement that Apple would shutter the iTunes Store apparently had an effect on the board. "Sure it was posturing," said a music industry source, according to CNET. "I don't think Apple would have gone out of business but a statement like that from the biggest music retailer is going to carry some weight." [Via CNET.]
VP: Apple would rather close iTunes Store than pay additional royalties
If a ruling expected tomorrow by the Copyright Royalty Board raises royalties for online music sales from 9 to 15 cents per track, Apple would rather shut the iTunes store down than operate it at a loss. Them's fightin' words. Eddy Cue, Apple's iTunes VP, wrote in a statement to the Times of London, "If [iTunes] was forced to absorb any increase in the ... royalty rate, the result would be to significantly increase the likelihood of the store operating at a financial loss -- which is no alternative at all. Apple has repeatedly made it clear that it is in this business to make money, and most likely would not continue to operate [iTunes] if it were no longer possible to do so profitably." Of course, this is the "nuclear" option. Apple is most likely trying to gain aggressive leverage before the CRB decision is made. Apple is essentially asking music publishers, "do you want all the revenue you've earned through iTunes, or another measly 6 cents per track?" Shrewd, but is it shrewd enough? Some analysts speculate that Apple is more likely to pass the additional cost on to the consumer, rather than demolish a key slice of their business. What that will do to sales in the U.S. is hard to say. If the CRB raises royalties, what do you think will happen? Will you continue to buy music online? Sound off in comments. [Via IGM.]
NASA looking to go nuclear on the moon
As we've seen, NASA has some pretty big plans for the moon (which may or may not come to fruition), and it's now finally offering up a solution for how it might keep everything powered. Turns out, it's looking at going nuclear -- with a fission surface power system, to be specific. That system, seen above in an artist's concept, would consist of nuclear reactor buried below the lunar surface (which provides some handy radiation shielding), with the engines that convert the heat energy into electricity placed in the tower above the reactor -- those long radiators would "radiate into space" any leftover heat energy that wasn't converted to electricity. All told, the system promises to generate a steady 40 kilowatts of electric power, or enough for about eight houses on Earth, but with NASA's various power-saving measures, they say that'd be more than enough to sustain a serious lunar outpost.
Scientists get death threats over Large Hadron Collider
Really people, enough is enough. Death threats? Seriously? According to a fresh report from the Telegraph, gurus working on the mysterious Large Hadron Collider are receiving all sorts of strange messages, e-mails and faxes as the go-live date (this Wednesday, supposedly) draws ever closer. For those curious about why some folks are up in arms over this thing, we'll simply point you to this very informational rap video; for those opposed to nerdy hip-hop, let's just say its primary goal is to "seek out new particles including the long-awaited Higgs boson responsible for making things weigh what they do and the possible source of gravity called dark matter." Somehow or another, the paranoid among us think that carrying out those tasks will rip the world wide open or leave you stuck in 1990 with nothing in your CD player but Ice Ice Baby. Okay, so maybe that last scenario is worth getting worked up about.[Via TGDaily]
Toshiba's building a "Micro Nuclear" reactor for your garage?
Alright, details are slim, and we really have no idea if Toshiba has any plans whatsoever to sell these nuclear reactors to consumers -- in fact, we hope it doesn't -- but it does seem like the company is well on its way to commercializing the design. Toshiba's Micro Nuclear reactors are designed to power a single apartment building or city block, and measure a mere 20-feet by 6-feet. The 200 kilowatt reactor is fully automatic and fail-safe, and is completely self-sustaining. It uses special liquid lithium-6 reservoirs instead of traditional control rods, and can last up to 40 years, making energy for about 5 cents per kilowatt hour. Toshiba has been testing the reactors since 2005, and hopes to install its first reactor in Japan in 2008, with marketing to Europe and America in 2009. Oh, and we lied: we totally want one of these in our garage.[Via Dvorak Uncensored]Read - Next Energy NewsRead - Roland's Tech Trends (2005)
"Gatling gun" robot to clean up Britain's Windscale nuclear accident site
Last week marked the 50th anniversary of the Windscale fire, the worst nuclear accident in British history, and it looks like regulators are gearing up to finish dismantling the site within the next 12 years -- beating estimates of a further 40 years. The plan centers around the use of a robot nicknamed the "Gatling gun" to remove 15 tons of damaged nuclear fuel rods from inside the Pile 1 building, which investigators weren't even able to enter until last year due to health concerns. The robot, which gets its name from its distinctive shape, won't be deployed until several other parts of the plant are decommissioned in about four years, but that's still far sooner than researchers previously thought cleanup was possible. If all goes well, the robot's developer, US-based SA Robotics, says the site will be a useable "brownfield" by 2030 -- but we'll stick to our "greenfields," thanks much.
NASA draws up plans for nuke-packing asteroid interceptor
NASA has (thankfully) been working on various asteroid diverting measures for some time now, but the agency apparently still isn't satisfied with its options, and it's now showing off its newest bit of potential world-saving technology. Designed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, this latest system would consist of six missile-like interceptor vehicles that would launch aboard an Ares V cargo launch vehicle, each carrying with them a 1.2-megaton B83 nuclear warhead. That, NASA says, should be enough to deflect an asteroid the size of the Apophis asteroid that's expected to pass within the orbit of the Earth and the Moon in April of 2029. So as not to make the problem even worse, the warheads apparently wouldn't actually strike the asteroid directly, but instead detonate at a distance of one-third of its diameter, generating a force that would (theoretically) deflect the asteroid out of the Earth's path.[Via Slashdot]
SeaAway's offshore Sea Sentinels detect incoming contraband
A Florida-based startup dubbed SeaAway (no relation to Segway, truth be told) is looking to make our ports a good bit safer in the future by implementing an offshore screening process that could detect "chemical, biological, and nuclear traces as ships travel through." The aptly-dubbed Sea Sentinels would be anchored to the seafloor some 14-miles from a port, and will even house up to 15 humans and an array of unmanned aerial vehicles for extreme situations. The platforms would utilize RFID readers to detect what types of cargo passed through its screen, and if sensors flag a suspicious container, the Coast Guard is called into action. Unfortunately, the $100 million it costs to erect each system would have to be subsidized by a passage fee of $20 per container, but tax breaks for shippers are currently be pondered. Nevertheless, a prototype system will see construction later this summer, and if all goes well, finalized versions could be patrolling our seas in the not too distant future.
More Fallout 3 details than you can shake a nuke at
There were so many great tidbits revealed at Bethesda's Fallout 3 press event that we couldn't fit them all into the basic overview. For you obsessive fans, here are some more notes on what the game will, won't and might include: The game takes place 30 years after the events Fallout 2. The events of the much-maligned Fallout: Brotherhood and Fallout: Tactics never happened in the universe of Fallout 3. The game will feature a day/night cycle and changing weather. There will be 21 collectible bobbleheads hidden throughout the game for Easter egg lovers. The game will feature 20 licensed songs from the '40s that will be played through radio stations accessible via your on-arm PIP-Boy and radios peppered throughout the game world. There will be no drivable vehicles in the game, but you can travel between locations through subway tunnels. There are children in the game, but the team isn't sure yet if they will be killable as they were in the previous Fallout games. The game will have no multiplayer mode and no demo is currently planned. Downloadable content and player-created mods are being considered, but nothing has been finalized. The game will feature nine to 12 endings based on how you've played it. The game's version of Washington D.C. will include iconic landmarks and the general topography of the real city, but will not be a street-by-street recreation. The downtown area represents about one quarter of the in-game map. There will be fewer non-player characters in Fallout 3 than in Oblivion, owing to the game's post-apocalyptic setting. Almost all the NPCs will be killable. You'll be able to hire mercenaries to aid you as in the first Fallout game. You won't have much direct control over them. Among other statistics, the demo's loading screens contained a mysterious metric of "corpses eaten." "We're not talking about that stuff," Executive Producer Todd Howard said when asked about the stat. Also see: Joystiq First Look: Fallout 3 %Gallery-4331%
Kim Jong-Il's iPod, wine orders to get denied by US
If you've ever wondered what happens when you run an entire nation into the ground, bar almost every type of contact with the outside world, launch nuclear bomb tests against the orders of outsiders, and still try to order an iPod, well, now you know. North Korea's highly dodgy Kim Jong-Il will reportedly be "doing without luxuries" such as iPods, jet skis (saywha?), jewelery, designer clothes, and fine wines as the US implements an all-out ban against selling these goods to the power-trippin' leader. The nation's elite often enjoy lavish luxuries of first-world countries while the vast majority of its people are left without bare necessities, and apparently, new sanctions are trying to put an end to it. While this case has certainly been made before, individual countries were previously allowed to "make their own decisions," however the United States has now taken a stand by barring all luxury sales to Mr. Kim and his constituents -- which will probably do nothing outside of producing a sudden swell in iPod knockoff orders to the DPRK, unfortunately.[Thanks, SRW985]
IGN's weeklong MGS feature highlights [Update 1]
We told you IGN was going to make their Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops coverage a week-long event. However, some of you may have forgotten. Here are a few highlights from the week so far: As you may already know, the story begins with Snake thrown into a South American jail six years after the events of Snake Eater. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Russia abandoned many of its soldiers, leaving one military commander named Gene very sour. He plans on sabotaging the negotiations between Russia and the US by using nuclear technology stolen from both countries. Obviously, Snake will be in the middle of all of this. The character-generation system uses data from both the access point and PSP system information. You'll want to rotate characters in your party, as they'll suffer from exhaustion, and in the worst case scenario, fall unconscious during a mission. Let them heal their wounds. There's a lot to manage: "During your mission briefings, you'll be overseeing seven separate units for your army: Sneaking, Spy, Technical, Medical, Independent, Rookies and Prisoners." You can enter a unique Sleep mode which will transfer character data to any nearby PSP that's also in Portable Ops sleep mode. There's a mode called "Cyber-Survival," which is turn-based and similar to the Metal Gear Acid series. "Real Combat" is high stakes: if a character dies in multiplayer, they're dead in singleplayer as well. For obvious reasons, Snake can't partake in this mode. Is this too much info for you? Well, don't forget that these are just highlights. The real meat of the stories can be found on IGN. Prepare to never have a life again starting December 5th.[Update 1: MGS. Yes. That's what happens when Andrew-bot writes stories. Bad, evil things. Typo corrected!]
Air Force looking to develop foot-long subterranean defusers
While it probably won't matter much once we're pitting one robot army against another, it appears that the US Air Force is looking into new "subterranean vehicles" that could be used to navigate to underground bombs, traps, or nuclear pods and defuse the situation from beneath. Although we figured the USAF would focus the majority of its attention somewhere above the Earth's surface, the newfangled moles would be deployed a safe distance from the target and "autonomously navigate itself to the target" while cleverly avoiding buried obstacles on its route. While larger digging machines can certainly accomplish the same task, the catch here is that the life-saving worm must not exceed "12 inches" in length and be able to run off of minimal battery power. Similar to other "teams" of robotic creatures feeding off one another to accomplish complex goals, the Air Force envisions swarms of these diggers penetrating and neutralizing potential hotbeds for underground explosives, all without sacrificing human lives. Now if we only had one of these bad boys to sneak up into Best Buy's PS3 holding closet last night, we'd have a winner.[Via Defense Tech]
