Nuclear articles

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

Nuclear fusion edges closer to reality thanks to new tungsten reactor

Warren Buffett compares AI dangers to nuclear weapons, again, says tech will be great for scammers

US seeks assurance from China and Russia that AI will never control their nuclear weapons

What just happened? If you think the prospect of artificial intelligence controlling fighter jets, drones, and machine gun turrets is concerning, think about the potential ramifications of AI making decisions on the deployment of nuclear weapons. The US is one of the countries that has declared control over nukes will also rest in human hands, and it wants China and Russia to make the same promise.

Oppenheimer's grandson joins call for global action on AI and other existential threats

Pioneering study simulates using nuclear weapons for asteroid deflection

In nuclear fusion milestone, Japan unveils the world's largest reactor

Forward-looking: Fusion differs from fission, which is used in nuclear power plants, and it is based on the same principle that powers the Sun and stars as the hydrogen nuclei fuses into helium, releasing light and heat. Also, unlike nuclear power, fusion is intrinsically safe in that the reaction stops when the fuel supply or power source is shut down. Nor does it generate high-level long-lived radioactive waste.

Microsoft is looking for a modular nuclear reactor expert to power data centers