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The Purdue panel said Rusi Taleyarkhan misled the scientific community by claiming his "bubble fusion" findings had been independently replicated.

U.S. President George W. Bush said on Tuesday there was no "magic wand" to bring down record-high fuel prices but would consider a proposal to suspend federal gasoline taxes this summer -- an idea that has divided the 2008 presidential candidates... Bush again prodded Congress to open an Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling and allow construction of more nuclear and coal plants... "I've repeatedly submitted proposals to help address these problems, yet time after time Congress chose to block them." Crude oil prices have surged more than five-fold since 2002... Oil prices are up nearly 25 percent since the...

Laser creates brightest light on Earth By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 3:01pm BST 08/04/2008 The brightest light on Earth now shines in a laboratory in Texas, one which will enable scientists to create a tabletop star. The $14m Texas Petawatt laser reached greater than one petawatt - one thousand million million watts - of laser power in the past few days, making it the highest powered laser in the world, says Prof Todd Ditmire, a physicist at The University of Texas at Austin. The laser in action in the lab, the blue glass amplifiers can also be seen...

INDIAN WELLS, Calif.--Nuclear fusion will move from the lab to reality in a few years, a noted venture capitalist says. "Within five years, large companies will start to think about building fusion reactors," Wal van Lierop, CEO of Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital, said in an interview at the Clean Tech Investor Summit taking place here this week. In three to four years, scientists will demonstrate results that show that fusion has a 60 percent chance of success, he said. If van Lierop were some crazy guy off the street with an old stack of Omni magazines, you could dismiss him....

Some two dozen power plants are scheduled to be built or refurbished during the next five years in Canada, China, several European Union countries, India, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, and South Africa. In the US and the UK, governmental preparations are under way that may lead to 15 new reactor orders by 2007. About 16% of the world's electricity supply comes from nuclear power, and energy demand is increasing (see PHYSICS TODAY, April 2002, page 54). Worldwide, nearly 80% of the 441 commercial nuclear reactors currently in operation are more than 15 years old.

To efficiently operate a fuel cell, carbon monoxide has always been a major technical barrier. But now, chemical and biological engineers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have not only cleared that barrier—they also found a method to capture carbon monoxide's energy. To be useful in a power-generating fuel cell, hydrocarbons such as gasoline, natural gas, or ethanol must reform into a hydrogen-rich gas. A large, costly, and critical step to this process requires generating steam and forcing a reaction with carbon monoxide (CO). This process, called water-gas shift, produces hydrogen and carbon dioxide (CO2). Additional steps then must reduce the...

The nation's energy industry is struggling to recover from Hurricane Katrina. Gas prices are soaring as a result of the catastrophic storm. America's reliance on overseas oil increases every year. And from his office in the North Bay city of Sebastopol, Mark Goldes envisions a day -- perhaps not so far off -- when none of this will be a problem. Goldes, 73, is chief executive of a small company called Magnetic Power Inc., which has spent years researching ways to, yes, generate power using magnets. Within a few months, he says, he might just have a breakthrough to report...

MUMBAI: The International Atomic Energy Agency's Co-ordinated Research Project has described the Indian nuclear data on thorium as unique and of high quality and its contribution very valuable for the international nuclear community. The nuclear data on thorium is much better than the six-decade data on natural uranium U-238 in both light water and pressurised heavy water reactors. "With these new evaluations done through the CRP on thorium, India has joined select band of criticality safety benchmark," Andrej Trkov, IAEA Scientific Secretary of Coordinated Research Project (CRP), said. The main Indian contribution is completion of the KAMINI reactor benchmark which...

...With insufficient fossil fuel reserves, our country very early on invested in energy alternatives. The two oil crises of the '70s convinced us to accelerate the construction of facilities to produce safe and economically profitable nuclear energy. That strategy paid off: In 30 years, France's energy independence has risen from 30% to 50%. While turning toward nuclear energy might have seemed unusual 60 years ago, I believe that it was an especially visionary choice. The development of nuclear energy enabled us to meet several objectives: energy independence and security of supply, and competitive, stable energy prices. This nuclear option is...

Zhiyu Hu believes it is possible to match nature's highly efficient method to convert chemicals into thermal energy at room temperature, and he has data and a published paper to support his theory. In a paper scheduled to appear in the May 18 print issue of the American Chemical Society's Energy & Fuels, Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Hu describes a novel method to achieve spontaneous ignition and sustained combustion at room temperature. He achieves this "nano-catalytic reaction" with nothing but nanometer-sized particles of platinum stuck to fibers of glass wool in a small jar with methanol and air – with...

"There is a growing consensus that more nuclear power will lead to a cleaner and safer nation," President Bush said on Wednesday during a trip to a nuclear power plant in Maryland. "It is time for this country to start building nuclear power plants again," he said to applause at the Calvert Cliffs plant. "We're taking practical steps to encourage construction of new plants, Bush said, as he pressed Congress to send him an energy bill by August. President Bush joked that he didn't understand all the buttons and dials in the control room of the Calvert Cliffs plant --...

VIENNA -- The UN atomic agency's investigation of Iran will continue as Iran has failed to provide "sufficient" information on crucial questions about uranium-enriching centrifuges and nuclear smuggling, the agency's chief said on Tuesday. Mohamed ElBaradei also said that Iran had not given access requested by the IAEA to the Lavizan and Parchin military sites, where diplomats say that weaponization work is suspected. Diplomats said that the agency had also requested but had been denied access so far to interview key officials such as Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a brigadier general who has worked at Lavizan. Information is lacking over how close...

PASADENA, CALIF. - For the last few years, mentioning cold fusion around scientists (myself included) has been a little like mentioning Bigfoot or UFO sightings. After the 1989 announcement of fusion in a bottle, so to speak, and the subsequent retraction, the whole idea of cold fusion seemed a bit beyond the pale. But that's all about to change. A very reputable, very careful group of scientists at the University of Los Angeles (Brian Naranjo, Jim Gimzewski, Seth Putterman) has initiated a fusion reaction using a laboratory device that's not much bigger than a breadbox, and works at roughly room...

On Saturday May 4th, the Associated Press quoted a source from U.S. intelligence and foreign allies who avowed havingg enough evidence to prove that several top Al Qaeda operatives are hiding in Iran - with the complicity of the Iranian government. If that is confirmed (and in part it already is), it will be a huge blow to the credibility of those who tell us that Shiite and Sunni fundamentalists could never collaborate with each other. This alliance of rivals has been built as a way to wage a "holy war" on the U.S., Israel and the democratic world at...

The Monju nuclear reactor located in Tsuruga, 350 kilometers (217 miles) west of Tokyo, was a signature of Japan's energy projects until December 1995 when it was closed due to a massive leak of sodium coolant. The Nagoya High Court in January 2003 for the first time ordered the closure of a Japanese reactor, siding with a lawsuit filed before the accident by local people who wanted Monju shut down due to fears of a meltdown. But the Supreme Court backed the government which said it has taken sufficient measures to ensure safety at Monju, administered by the government-run Japan...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- November 28, 2004 Hydrogen Production Method Could Bolster Fuel Supplies By MATTHEW L. WALD ASHINGTON, Nov. 27 - Researchers at a government nuclear laboratory and a ceramics company in Salt Lake City say they have found a way to produce pure hydrogen with far less energy than other methods, raising the possibility of using nuclear power to indirectly wean the transportation system from its dependence on oil. The development would move the country closer to the Energy Department's goal of a "hydrogen economy," in which hydrogen would be created through a variety of means, and would be consumed by...

The world's only known natural nuclear reactor, which decommissioned itself over two billion years ago, could provide insights into how modern nuclear plants can operate more safely. The site, in Gabon, West Africa, ran for 150million years without blowing up, and storing its own waste in a safe manner. The reactor was a natural deposit of uranium. Today, and for the last two billion years, natural uranium will not undergo nuclear reactions, because it contains too little of the fissionable isotope, uranium-235 (U235). But in the distant past, U235 was more abundant, comprising 3% of the total amount - the...

Claimed they asked directions to facility to find fishing spot -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: June 30, 2004 5:00 p.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Five men from Islamic nations were detained after asking for directions to a Pennsylvania nuclear power plant. The men, one from Pakistan and four from Bangladesh, reportedly were seen yesterday at a rest area along Interstate 80, on their way to the Salem Township plant, according to the Citizen's Voice newspaper of Wilkes-Barre, Pa. State police pulled them over about four miles south of the Susquehanna Steam and Electric Power Plant. The men, who were released last night, claimed...

Z Produces Fusion Neutrons, Sandia Scientists Confirm; Huge Pulsed Power Machine Enters Fusion Arena PHILADELPHIA, Pa. (April 7, 2003) -- Throwing its hat into the ring of machines that offer the possibility of achieving controlled nuclear fusion, Sandia National Laboratories' Z machine has created a hot dense plasma that produces thermonuclear neutrons, Sandia researchers announced today at a news conference at the April meeting of the American Physical Society in Philadelphia. The neutrons emanate from fusion reactions within a BB-sized deuterium capsule placed within the target of the huge machine. Compressing hot dense plasmas that produce neutrons is an important...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 October 16 Oklo: Ancient African Nuclear Reactors Credit & Copyright: Robert D. Loss, WAISRC Explanation: The remnants of nuclear reactors nearly two billion years old were found in the 1970s in Africa. These reactors are thought to have occurred naturally. No natural reactors exist today, as the relative density of fissionable uranium has now decayed below that needed for a sustainable reaction. Pictured above is Fossil Reactor...