nuclear

Survey: Oil less popular than nuclear power in U.S.

Americans don't exactly like nuclear power, but they like oil even less.

Concerns about global warming, high oil prices and worldwide political turmoil have made oil the least popular fuel in the U.S., according to a survey from MIT and Knowledge Networks. In the survey, 74 percent of respondents said that they want to see decreased use of oil, up from 56 percent in 2002.

In the previous 2002 survey, nuclear was the least popular fuel. The 2007 survey polled 1,200 adults nationwide.

Nuclear, in fact, has gained a little bit of acceptance. The 2007 survey found … Read more

Google Earth shows Chinese nuclear sub

A researcher for the Federation of American Scientists on Tuesday said he's spotted what appears to be China's new nuclear submarine using Google Earth's publicly available satellite imagery.

The Quickbird satellite photographed the docked submarine at the Xiaopingdao Submarine Base in late 2006, said FAS's Hans Kristensen.

The new Jin-class or Type 094 submarines are expected to replace the Xia-class, Type 092 submarines built in the 1980s, Kristensen said. The new model appears to be 35 feet longer because of a longer missile compartment and possibly a larger nuclear reactor compartment, he said.

The image doesn'… Read more

Rudolf Guiliani: open to nuclear, diet soda

Friday I had a Diet Coke with presidential hopeful Rudolf Guiliani. I like him. We yacked for about an hour.

His answer to my question on what he will do different about our oil dependency was a bit weak. He said we should encourage all alternatives including Nuclear and showed that he hasn't parsed the "energy" word into "electricity" and "oil". But he now has that down correct (you are welcome). He has all the right things to say. I am just worried about what we will learn about him under the constant … Read more

Nuclear fusion firm draws $40 million from VCs

Tri Alpha Energy, which hopes to commercialize nuclear fusion technology, has raised $40 million from Venrock Associates and others, according to VentureWire. (Subscription required)

The company, which grew out of the University of California at Irvine, says its advanced plasma fusion technologies could be used to generate electricity as well as eliminate waste from nuclear power plants. A plant based on its technology would cost less than a conventional nuclear plant. Tri Alpha was founded in 1998 and has raised funds in the past.

Tri Alpha is working on a generator in which hydrogen chases boron, according to literature from … Read more

The nuke-proof USB drive

If there's one piece of computer equipment that is meant to survive extreme conditions, it's the USB drive. We've seen models that are shockproof, waterproof and weatherproof, so it's not surprising that the U.S. military would come up with one that's nuke-proof too.

R&D Electronics says its "IronDrive" has been "tested for high temperature, shock, vibration, caustic agents, submersion, EMI, and nuclear stresses," making it "the ideal USB drive for harsh military and commercial environments." As Everything USB notes, the chunky drive looks as if it … Read more

Radioactive watch really isn't

We may rail against watches that try to reinvent the way we tell time, but we'd never criticize one that provided important safety information. And what could be more important than radiation levels?

But the "Radio Active" stainless steel LED watch doesn't really measure radioactivity, though it does use some '50s-era atomic warning symbols to tell time. As much as we appreciate the effort, we're still not sure if this something we could use. "The design has nothing but signs and words," according to the description on AudioCubes. "However, it won't … Read more