• Westinghouse, Missouri utilities promote Westinghouse Small Modular Reactor

    Westinghouse Electric Company and the Missouri Electric Alliance led by Ameren Missouri have formed a utility participation group called the NexStart SMR Alliance; alliance members signed a Memorandum of Understanding that highlights the importance of advancing nuclear energy by deploying the Westinghouse Small Modular Reactor (SMR)

  • Collecting solar power in space

    Researchers have tested equipment in space which would provide a platform for solar panels to collect the energy and allow it to be transferred back to earth through microwaves or lasers; this method would provide a reliable source of power and could allow valuable energy to be sent to remote areas in the world, providing power to disaster areas or outlying areas that are difficult to reach by traditional means

  • Groundbreaking tests to offer better understanding of post-earthquake fires

    Post-earthquake fires are a well-known and serious hazard, but very little is known about the performance of fire protection systems in earthquakes; groundbreaking tests to be conducted next week are aimed at better understanding of the effects of earthquakes on building systems designed to suppress or prevent the spread of fires

  • McAfee, Intel collaborate on protecting energy infrastructure

    McAfee and Intel will collaborate on improving the protection of the world’s energy utilities, including generation, transmission, and distribution, from increased cyber attacks; the two companies have provided a blueprint for a comprehensive solution of multiple products which create layers of security and operate together without great complexity or without impacting availability

  • Seismic safety worries about South Carolina nuclear fuel facility

    The worries about the seismic safety of nuclear energy-related facilities, worries which have only grown since the March 2011 Fukushima disaster, extend not only to nuclear power reactor, but to other facilities as well; the most recent example is a Westinghouse facility outside Columbia, South Carolina, one of only three facilities in the United States which make nuclear fuel for commercial reactors

  • Groundwater pumping causes sea level rise, canceling out effect of dams

    Those in charge of infrastructure protection must now worry about another source of sea level rise: water pumped out of the ground for irrigation, drinking water, and industrial use; this water ends up emptying into the world’s oceans, and scientists calculate that by 2050, groundwater pumping will cause a global sea level rise of about 0.8 millimeters per year

  • Groundwater pumping causes sea level rise, canceling out effect of dams

    Those in charge of infrastructure protection must now worry about another source of sea level rise: water pumped out of the ground for irrigation, drinking water, and industrial use; this water ends up emptying into the world’s oceans, and scientists calculate that by 2050, groundwater pumping will cause a global sea level rise of about 0.8 millimeters per year

  • Floating sensors to monitor water systems

    The Floating Sensor Network project at UC Berkeley is building a water monitoring system that can be deployed in estuarine environments and rivers, and can be integrated into existing water-monitoring infrastructure

  • Fears of cyber espionage hinder U.S. license to China Mobile

    Serious concerns over cyberspying have fueled a debate among U.S. national security agencies about whether communications giant China Mobile should be granted a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) license to provide international service to American customers

  • The American West running low on water

    The American West has a drinking problem; on farms and in cities, people who live in that region are guzzling water at an alarming rate; scientists say that to live sustainably, they should use no more than 40 percent of the water from the Colorado River Basin; currently, however, they use 76 percent, nearly double the sustainable benchmark

  • Little of Earth’s water is usable in everyday life

    Very little of Earth’s water is usable in everyday life; about 96 percent of water on Earth is saline; of the total freshwater, over 68 percent is locked up in ice and glaciers; another 30 percent of freshwater is in the ground; rivers are the source of most of the fresh surface water people use, but they only constitute about 300 mi3 (1,250 km3), about 1/10,000th of one percent of total water

  • Calibrating volume of U.S. petroleum flow

    Per capita consumption of petroleum in the United States is ten liters per day; there are 300 million people in the United States, so this means that three billion liters, or about nineteen million barrels, of petroleum are moving around across the United States in pipelines, waterways, roads, and rails each day; with crude oil priced around $100 a barrel, this comes to about $2 billion worth of petroleum

  • Using nanomaterials to build safer, longer-lasting roadways

    Asphalt is now made from petroleum, so it is very expensive; researchers tested two types of nanoclays, adding 2-4 percent by weight to asphalt; this is a smidgeon — less than half of a percent of the total weight of the asphalt pavement itself, but it made a big difference, and could make for safer, longer-lasting roadways

  • Protecting U.S. bridges from terrorism, accident

    More than 600,000 bridges in the United States are 20-feet long or longer, some over a century old, many of them national iconic monuments; DHS, the Federal Highway Administration, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are conducting a series of tests aiming to make the bridges better able to withstand a terrorist attack; this research is discovering how materials, connection details, and designs in aging bridges react to IEDs, other explosives, kinetic impact, intense fires, and other accidents

  • New tool offer better flooding protection

    There are more than 84,000 dams across the United States, and millions of Americans live behind them; if these dams and levees were to fail and unleash catastrophic flooding, as some did in New Orleans in 2005, a high price will be paid in life lost and property destroyed; DHS S&T and partners develop new software systems for fast simulation of catastrophic flooding