Construction Begins on Pioneering Nuclear Power Plant in the USA

Image: TerraPower

TerraPower, a company founded by Bill Gates, has officially commenced construction on its pioneering Natrium reactor plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming. “Natrium” is the Latin (and German) name of the chemical element “Na” – “sodium” in English. This is why, confusing absolutely no one, the key element of the Natrium plant is a sodium-cooled fast reactor combined with an energy storage system. The plant is designed to generate 345 MW and, if all goes according to plan, should begin operation by 2030. If successful, the project could position the Natrium technology as a cornerstone in future energy infrastructure. More information here.

This episode of Science News covers black hole decay. Stephen Hawking’s most famous prediction is that black holes decay by emitting radiation. This prediction has never been tested and most physicists, me included, think that it's basically impossible to test. So I was surprised to see that a group of astrophysics recently claimed they can put the prediction to the test because black hole mergers produce morsels. What does that mean? Let’s have a look. You can take the quiz here.

Particle Accelerators For Microchip Production?

Etched Silicon Wafers. Image: PPPL

Scientists in Japan are planning to build particle accelerators for microchip production. This might sound far-fetched, but particle physicists and microchip producers have the same problem: to resolve increasingly small distances, one needs increasingly small wavelengths, and those require increasingly high energies.The current state-of-the-art version of microchip production is Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUV) which uses, as the name says, ultraviolet light. Generating light of even shorter wavelengths at high intensity becomes increasingly difficult. Particle physicists at KEK in Japan want to use a free electron laser to get the job done. In such a machine, electrons are first linearly accelerated and then forced on wavy trajectories that make them emit light. The current technology is too bulky and not stable enough for lithography, but I think it’s plausible that this technology will eventually be used in microchip production. More on IEEE here.

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Moral Oversaturation is Wearing Us Down

Have you recently been feeling exhausted or tired just checking what’s the outrage of the day on social media? Then again, “exhaustion” and “tiredness” just don’t quite capture those emotions, do they? Psychologists have now suggested calling it “moral oversaturation”. They say that constant exposure to content that seems to require moral judgement leads to mental fatigue, and in the long run makes it harder to encourage collective action when needed. If you’ve ever looked for an excuse to just scroll on, this is it. Paper here.

Our podcast “Science with Sabine” is available on Spotify, Amazon, Apple, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Radio Public, and YouTube.