Hasta La Gadget!

Taking a page from the North Korean Handbook for Successful International Diplomacy, Iran has recently announced that it is inaugurating a new addition to its Ardakan Yellowcake Production Plant. The facility will handle the processing of the 60 some-odd tons of uranium excavated from the nearby Saghand uranium mine after the latest international round of unsuccessful nuclear negotiations. Because this isn’t going to inflame tensions or anything. More »

Though we know in theoretical terms that North Korea has missiles that could hit Los Angeles, where else could North Korea’s missiles actually hit? With all the hub bub about North Korea and its redeployment of missiles on North Korea’s eastern coast, the Washington Post created a map showing the range of North Korea’s various missiles. More »

The first people to step on to the surface of Mars won’t arrive aboard the chemical-fueled rockets that delivered Apollo 11 to the Moon—they simply don’t provide enough thrust to get to the Red Planet before exposing their crews to months of dangerous space radiation. Instead, NASA is turning to long-ignored nuclear-thermal rocket technology to deliver the first Martian explorers into history. More »

America alone produces about 2,000 metric tons of nuclear waste annually and our best solution for disposing of it: bury it deep in the Earth. However, a pair of MIT scientists believe they’ve found not only a better way of eliminating nuclear waste but recycling the deadly detritus into enough clean electricity to power the entire world until 2083. Win, meet win. More »

I think it’s definitely a good idea to try to replace some of the world’s nuclear power plants with clean and sustainable sources of energy. After the disaster at the Fukishima power plant, Japan has unveiled a plan to decrease its reliance on nuclear energy and move towards greater use of wind power.

To help with this transition, the Japanese Agency for Natural Resources and Energy plans to build the world’s largest offshore wind farm by 2020. It will be located near the current site of the now-defunct Fukushima nuclear power plant. The wind farm will have 143 wind turbines on floating platforms anchored to the sea floor. Once fully operational, the wind farm could generate up to a gigawatt of power.

This latest project is part of Japan’s initiative to become completely energy self-sufficient by 2040.

[via New Scientist]