Nuclear articles

Fusion breakthrough: NIF achieves 8.6 megajoules, shattering previous record

Forward-looking: While the path to practical fusion energy remains long, the recent advances at the National Ignition Facility have emboldened researchers. The facility's ongoing progress is a testament to decades of persistence – and a sign that the age of controlled fusion ignition is no longer a distant dream.

CERN researchers create gold from lead in breakthrough nuclear experiment

Fusion rocket could cut Mars trips in half and reach Pluto in four years

Coin-sized nuclear 3V battery with 50-year lifespan enters mass production

Nuclear-powered battery could eliminate need for recharging

Solar power sets record in the US with 50 GW added, meanwhile Big Tech bets on nuclear

Scientists develop battery that converts nuclear energy into electricity via light emission

Bill Gates warns young people of four major global threats, including AI

The Doomsday Clock has been updated to just 89 seconds until a civilization-ending disaster

Chinese artificial sun shatters world record with 1,066-second plasma confinement

NASA wants to send a football field-sized radiator into space for its nuclear-electric Mars rocket

Nuclear-electric rocket propulsion could cut Mars round-trips down to a few months

"World's simplest" nuclear reactors could be installed underground to provide heat to cities

NASA's bleeding-edge radar has captured a secret Cold War base under Greenland's receding ice sheet

The Pentagon wants AI to enhance the capabilities of US nuclear weapons systems

Defense Department began testing AI surveillance system to safeguard critical military assets

New $150M facility will fire 7-petawatt lasers to (hopefully) achieve nuclear fusion

Forward-looking: Fusion energy is often regarded as the holy grail of power generation because it harnesses the same atomic process that powers the sun. The concept involves forcing atomic nuclei to fuse together, unleashing immense energy. If scientists can crack the code using lasers, it could lead to a virtually limitless supply of safe, sustainable energy without any carbon emissions.

Reopening Three Mile Island nuclear plant for Microsoft data centers could cost taxpayers $1.6 billion

Scientists use explosive X-rays to test viability of nuking incoming asteroids

Why it matters: The concept of launching nukes into space to knock asteroids off course or destroy them completely may not sound foreign thanks to numerous sci-fi films popularizing it. But the lack of atmosphere in space nerfs nukes' power considerably, so the idea isn't so easy to pull off. Now, researchers at Sandia National Labs have come up with a new way to compensate for this shortcoming.

Russian missile test ends in explosion, delaying production timeline

Autonomous robot replaces human fusion reactor inspectors in world-first trial

Math student builds fusion reactor at home with help from Claude AI and $2,000

A whopping 80% of new US electricity capacity this year came from solar and battery storage

World's biggest nuclear fusion project in trouble, launch pushed back to 2039

Nuclear reactor design company TerraPower begins construction of a next-gen power plant in Wyoming