Business

Nuclear Waste Could Be a Source of Fuel in Future Reactors
In theory, nuclear fusion —a process that fuses atoms together, releasing heat to turn generators —could provide vast energy supplies with minimal emissions. But nuclear fusion is an expensive prospect because one of its main fuels is a rare version of hydrogen called tritium. Now, researchers are developing new systems to use nuclear waste to make tritium.
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Trump’s Bid to Support Coal Could Cost Ratepayers Billions: Report
The market has spoken: Across the country, coal plants have phased out as they’ve been unable to compete with cheaper renewables and natural gas. A recent report found that 99% of existing U.S. coal plants “are more expensive to run than replacement by local wind, solar, and energy storage resources.” Mandates from the Trump administration to subsidize aging, uncompetitive coal plants would cause taxpayers billions and lead to a massive spike in energy costs.
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Tariffs Can Improve U.S. Economy, but Global Trade Realities, Retaliation, Could Offset Gains
The United States could achieve modest economic benefits by applying uniform tariffs on all trade partners, but the complicated realities of supply chains, global trade and its downstream effects on people and businesses could offset economic gains and even lead to significant losses.
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Trump Fired BLS Chief, but Skipped Causes of Weak Jobs Report
While the July U.S. jobs report last week was surprisingly bad—sending U.S. equities, bond yields, and the dollar all sharply lower—the reasons behind the labor-market developments have been pretty easy to see. The incontrovertible facts notwithstanding, Trump has fired a highly regarded, long-term government employee who received bipartisan backing to oversee the country’s labor-market statistics, bizarrely, and falsely, accusing her of “rigging” the figures he found to be inconvenient. Eroding trust in U.S. economic data and policymaking is a recipe for slower economic growth and even more challenging policymaking, whatever the data may say.
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Geological Mapping Project Supports Critical Mineral Explorations, Enhances Public Safety in the Southeast
A key focus of a new USGS mapping project is to identify where critical minerals vital to the economy and national security might be located. As demand for rare earth elements and other critical minerals grows for use in technology, energy, and defense sectors, this project can provide vital data that helps the U.S. secure domestic sources of critical minerals, thus reducing the nation’s dependence on foreign sources.
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Argonne, UT to Strengthen Collaboration in Battery Sciences and Critical Materials Development
New memorandum of understanding expands joint research to accelerate U.S. battery innovation and secure critical materials supply chains.
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Cybersecurity Education in the Age of AI: Rethinking the Need for Human Capital in National Cyber Defense
Just five years ago, headlines were filled with urgent calls for the United States to drastically increase its output of cybersecurity professionals. Fast forward to 2025, and the proliferation of AI —especially generative and autonomous models—has transformed both the threats we face and the tools we use to defend against them. AI-driven cybersecurity software now automates many of the functions that once required a skilled human analyst, and the argument is made that AI may soon render many human cybersecurity roles obsolete.
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How Special Interests Keep Bad Laws on the Books: The Case of the Jones Act
The 1920 Jones Act restricts intra-U.S. water transport to vessels that are U.S.-flagged, U.S.-owned, and built in U.S. shipyards The law serves as a tribute to how entrenched interests can hijack public policy and make the repeal of failed, costly laws among the heaviest of political lifts.
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Plugging America's Forgotten Wells: Study Addresses Decades Long Problem
Since the drilling of the first oil well in 1859, millions more oil and gas wells have been drilled across the nation. Today, millions of wells – bout 3.4 million of them — sit idle, some for decades. One option for limiting the environmental and health impacts of orphaned wells is to plug them. But the question remains, with so many orphaned wells in the United States, what’s the best way to address this issue?
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Attacks on the U.S. Innovation Ecosystem Are an Attack on a Wellspring of American Prosperity
The Trump administration’s attacks on the country’s science and innovation ecosystem — its cuts to federally funded R&D; its war on higher education; and its aggression toward immigrants, including skilled immigrants — are dismantling America’s science and technology advantage—putting the country’s future prosperity at risk. This frontal assault on the key source of U.S. industry’s competitive advantage is not a recipe for American greatness; it is a recipe for long-term decline.
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U.S. Moves Decisively to Avoid Dependence on China’s Rare Earths
The Pentagon’s package of support for rare earths company MP Minerals, announced on 10 July, should free the US military and eventually much of US industry from dependence on Chinese supply chains for rare earth magnets.
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Microsoft Used China-Based Engineers to Support Product Recently Hacked by China
Microsoft announced that Chinese state-sponsored hackers had exploited vulnerabilities in its popular SharePoint software but didn’t mention that it has long used China-based engineers to maintain the product.
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Citing Potential for Fraud, Blue and Red States Pass New Crypto ATM Laws
While the crypto machines can be used for legitimate reasons, they’ve become favored by scammers.
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Nuclear Energy and AI Companies Seek Solutions at Argonne Summit
Three U.S. Department of Energy labs host major forum dedicated to building the energy infrastructure needed to secure America’s digital competitiveness. Leaders in artificial intelligence and nuclear energy explored ideas for powering a digital future and streamlining nuclear technologies.
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Trump Is Fast-Tracking New Coal Mines — Even When They Don’t Make Economic Sense
In Appalachian Tennessee, mines shut down and couldn’t pay their debts. Now a new one is opening under the guise of an “energy emergency.”
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