Toggle light / dark theme

TAE Technologies pushes plasma machine to a new high on the nuclear fusion frontier

TAE Technologies, the California-based fusion company backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, said its latest and greatest plasma generator has exceeded the headline-grabbing performance of its previous machine.

“This announcement is an important milestone on our quest to deliver world-changing, clean fusion energy to help combat climate change and improve the quality of life for people globally,” Michl Binderbauer, the company’s president and chief technology officer, said in a news release. “This achievement further validates the robustness of TAE’s underlying science and unique pathway.”

A faster way to fusion

The benefits of fusion power are globally recognised. But the process of creating and commercialising fusion energy is a considerable scientific and engineering challenge.

This challenge is the sole focus of our work at Tokamak Energy. We believe we have a unique solution that will enable fusion to be implemented efficiently and quickly.

We are pioneering the compact spherical tokamak route to fusion power – exploring and developing our own compact spherical tokamaks (the device in which controlled fusion can take place) that will use high temperature superconductors to create strong magnetic fields to contain the hot plasma.

White graphene makes ceramics multifunctional

A little hBN in ceramics could give them outstanding properties, according to a Rice University scientist.

Rouzbeh Shahsavari, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, suggested the incorporation of ultrathin hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) sheets between layers of calcium-silicates would make an interesting bilayer crystal with multifunctional properties. These could be suitable for construction and refractory and applications in the nuclear industry, oil and gas, aerospace and other areas that require high-performance composites.

Combining the materials would make a ceramic that’s not only tough and durable but resistant to heat and radiation. By Shahsavari’s calculations, calcium-silicates with inserted layers of two-dimensional hBN could be hardened enough to serve as shielding in nuclear applications like power plants.

Researchers Discover Key to Diseases in Mitochondrial DNA Mutations

New view on mitochondrial DNA could put the brakes on mutations that drive diseases. Scientists perform landmark sequencing of mitochondrial DNA and discover surprising facts.


Summary: New view on mitochondrial DNA could help put the brakes on mutations that drive diseases. [Author: Brady Hartman. This article first appeared on LongevityFacts.]

DNA sequences between mitochondria inside a single cell are vastly different, reported scientists in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. This discovery will help to illuminate the underlying mechanisms of diseases that start with mutations in mitochondrial DNA and provide clues about how patients might respond to specific treatments. The researchers published their findings in the journal Cell Reports this week.

Mutant Mitochondrial DNA

Mitochondria are the tiny organelles that produce energy inside our cells. We have two types of DNA in our bodies, the DNA inside the nucleus of our cells, called nuclear DNA – which stores the vast majority of our genetic code – and a separate DNA inside the mitochondria called mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA).

Inside the ‘star in a jar’ reactor that could lead to limitless energy

A stunning new video has revealed a look inside the Wendelstein 7-X ‘stellarator’ fusion reactor – the largest of its kind in the world.

The video includes a compilation of footage from tests at the massive device, as scientists work to bring humanity closer to achieving ‘limitless’ energy by mimicking the conditions inside the sun.

Bright flashes can be seen erupting inside the reactor, showing the path of super-heated-plasma.

Investigation: Radioactive leaks at Illinois nuclear plants

Radioactive waste continues to pour from Exelon’s Illinois nuclear power plants more than a decade after the discovery of chronic leaks led to national outrage, a $1.2 million government settlement and a company vow to guard against future accidents, an investigation by a government watchdog group found.

Since 2007, there have been at least 35 reported leaks, spills or other accidental releases in Illinois of water contaminated with radioactive tritium, a byproduct of nuclear power production and a carcinogen at high levels, a Better Government Association review of federal and state records shows.

No fines were issued for the accidents, all of which were self-reported by the company.

NASA ‘nuclear engines’ could provide power to the first humans on Mars

NASA is set to begin testing a radical ‘nuclear engine’ that could provide power for astronauts on the Martian surface.

Dubbed the ‘Kilopower’ it would use a uranium rector the size of a toilet roll to create heat.

A high efficiency Stirling engine would then convert this to electricity, in a system that works in a similar way to a car engine.


NASA’s Kilopower engines will use a uranium rector the size of a toilet roll to create heat, then a high efficiency Stirling engine would convert this to electricity.

/* */