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Maintaining Bridge Safety: Digital Sensing-Based Monitoring System
Bridge maintenance monitoring technology is applied to long-span bridges such as cable-stayed bridges and suspension bridges. This monitoring system consumes a lot of resources for design and installation, and the system configuration itself is complex, so there are limits to its application for maintenance of small- and medium-sized bridges. This is bout to change.
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Assessing Small Modular Reactor Applications to Rebuild a Clean Economy in Post-War Ukraine
Building on a decades-long partnership, the Argonne National Laboratory will play a leading role in planning and rebuilding the nuclear-generated clean energy infrastructure in post-war Ukraine.
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New AI Tool Generates Realistic Satellite Images of Future Flooding
Visualizing the potential impacts of a hurricane on people’s homes before it hits can help residents prepare and decide whether to evacuate. The method could help communities better prepare for approaching storms.
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Preparing our Ports for the Future of Alternative Maritime Fuels
Fuels like ammonia will greatly reduce carbon emissions—better for the environment, but are they safe for our infrastructure? The Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) recently conducted a market research survey to assess hazards associated with alternative fuel production, storage, and transport at U.S. ports. High-risk ports could be the sites for future ammonia release tests that will inform preparedness and response.
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World Heading Towards a “Data Doomsday” as Demand Outstrips Energy Supply
New research warns that global renewable electricity supply will be unable to meet the surging demand from digital data by 2033.
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Startup Turns Mining Waste into Critical Metals for the U.S.
At the heart of the energy transition is a metal transition. Wind farms, solar panels, and electric cars require more exotic metals with unique properties, known as rare earth elements. Phoenix Tailings is creating domestic supply chains for rare earth metals, key to the clean energy transition.
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High-Tech Methods to Stem the Flow of Fentanyl
Keeping up with illicit labs churning out new forms of fentanyl, nitazenes is the goal.
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How AI Can Enhance the Accuracy of Eyewitness Identification
AI and natural language processing can provide deeper insights into eyewitness reliability. “Just because someone says they’re confident doesn’t mean they’re right. The worst mistakes come from highly confident witnesses who are actually wrong,” one expert said.
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Safer and More Precise Nuclear Plant Dismantlement
As the need for technologies to cut and dismantle reactors and internal structures increases due to the end of the operational lifespan of nuclear power plants, an innovative laser cutting technology for nuclear dismantlement has been developed.
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Hybrid Reef-Mimicking Experiment Could Provide Protection from Storms and Coastal Flooding
The U.S. Air Force installed a new kind of structure in the waters of St. Andrew Bay on the shore of the Tyndall U.S. Air Force Base in Florida. The first section of the “self-healing” reef is made of custom-designed concrete modules and living oysters. The reef is designed to protect the base and its people from hurricanes and tidal surges.
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AI-driven Cyberattacks More Sophisticated and Scalable, but There Are Solutions
Cyberattacks used to be engineered by crafty hackers looking to infiltrate computer systems. Artificial intelligence now allows hackers to create a new scale of attacks that penetrate banking, critical infrastructure, intellectual property, and even traffic lights and baby monitors.
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First Tidal Turbine in the Pacific Northwest Signals Wave of the Future
New tidal turbine tested at PNNL-Sequim showcases the lab’s growing role as a regional center for marine energy research.
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Recent Hurricanes and Geoengineering
The recent back-to-back hurricanes that made landfall in the United States have sparked conspiracy theories about the government creating these disasters through geoengineering. While such theories are false, they have drawn attention to the risky idea of geoengineering, which typically refers to the large-scale, intentional manipulation of the earth’s processes to modify weather.
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New AI Model Could Make Power Grids More Reliable Amid Rising Renewable Energy Use
As renewable energy sources such as wind and solar become more widespread, managing the power grid has become increasingly complex. An AI model that can address the uncertainties of renewable energy generation and electric vehicle demand, making power grids more reliable and efficient.
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Accelerating Clean Energy Geothermal Development on Public Lands
Geothermal energy is one of our greatest untapped clean energy resources on public lands. Replenished by heat sources deep in the Earth, geothermal energy generates electricity with minimal carbon emissions. Interior Department announces new leases and pioneering project approval, and proposes simplified permitting.
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The long view
New Technology is Keeping the Skies Safe
DHS S&T Baggage, Cargo, and People Screening (BCP) Program develops state-of-the-art screening solutions to help secure airspace, communities, and borders
Factories First: Winning the Drone War Before It Starts
Wars are won by factories before they are won on the battlefield,Martin C. Feldmann writes, noting that the United States lacks the manufacturing depth for the coming drone age. Rectifying this situation “will take far more than procurement tweaks,” Feldmann writes. “It demands a national-level, wartime-scale industrial mobilization.”
How Artificial General Intelligence Could Affect the Rise and Fall of Nations
Visions for potential AGI futures: A new report from RAND aims to stimulate thinking among policymakers about possible impacts of the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI) on geopolitics and the world order.
Keeping the Lights on with Nuclear Waste: Radiochemistry Transforms Nuclear Waste into Strategic Materials
How UNLV radiochemistry is pioneering the future of energy in the Southwest by salvaging strategic materials from nuclear dumps –and making it safe.
Model Predicts Long-Term Effects of Nuclear Waste on Underground Disposal Systems
The simulations matched results from an underground lab experiment in Switzerland, suggesting modeling could be used to validate the safety of nuclear disposal sites.