Next Big Future August 24, 2018 The ACPR100 and ACPR50S, are both with passive cooling for decay heat and 60-year design life. Both have standard type fuel assemblies and fuel enriched to less than 5% with burnable poison giving 30-month refueling. The ACPR100 is an integral PWR, 450 MWt, 140 MWe, having 69 fuel assemblies. It is designed as a module in larger plant and would be installed underground. The applications for these are similar to those for the ACP100. The offshore ACPR50S is 200 MWt, 60 MWe with 37 fuel assemblies and four external steam generators. It is designed […]
Tag Archives: S&T China
Superconductivity above 10 K in a novel quasi-one-dimensional compound
Phys.org August 13, 2018 Researchers in China succeeded in synthesizing the new Q1D K2Mo3As3 compound whose Tc value exceeded 10 K. Bulk superconductivity below 10.4 K was confirmed by electrical resistivity, magnetic susceptibility, and heat capacity measurements. The K2Mo3As3 is the first MoAs-based superconductor and possesses the record Tc in all Q1D superconductors. This discovery indicates that Cr and Mo based Q1D superconductors may share some common underlying origins within the similar structural motifs and will help to uncover the exotic superconducting mechanism in low dimensional materials… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
China Just Launched a Hypersonic Aircraft That Could Slip a Nuke Past US Defences
Science Alert August 8, 2018 The wedge-shaped Xingkong-2 (Starry Sky-2) hypersonic experimental waverider vehicle can reportedly achieve a top speed six times the velocity of sound. During the recent test the max speed was reportedly Mach 6 or 4,600 miles per hour (7,400 km/h), according to the state-run China Daily. The vehicle made several high-altitude and large-angle maneuvers at a maximum altitude of a little over 18 miles. The aircraft then landed in the targeted area as intended. The speed, as well as the unpredictable flight trajectories, of these vehicles make them particularly difficult for existing defence systems to intercept… […]
Current noises of Majorana fermions
Phys.org July 23, 2018 To detect Majorana fermions researchers in China used non-equilibrium Green’s function method, analyzed the current across a topological Josephson junction and related current noises, revealing the relation between the existence of Majorana fermions and non-equilibrium current noise. In condensed matter physics, zero-energy Majorana fermions obey non-abelian statistics, and can be used in fault-tolerant topological quantum computation… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
A smart safe rechargeable zinc ion battery based on sol-gel transition electrolytes
Phys.org July 20, 2018 Reversible sol-gel transition hydrogels are normally in flowing liquid state at or below room temperature and can transform into stationary gels when heated above a critical temperature and transition can be reversed after cooling down. Researchers in China synthesized a temperature-sensitive sol-gel transition electrolyte comprising proton-incorporated poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid) (PNA) incorporating it into a rechargeable Zn/α-MnO2 battery system. After heating above the low critical temperature, a gelation process occurs in the PNA sol-gel electrolyte shutting down the battery. After cooling down, the transition is reversed to liquid state and an original electrochemical performance can be restored. Because […]
Wood to supercapacitors
Nanowerk May 24, 2018 Researchers in China have developed an economical and sustainable method for the synthesis of ultrathin carbon nanofiber (CNF) aerogels from the wood‐based nanofibrillated cellulose aerogels via a catalytic pyrolysis process. They demonstrated that wood‐derived CNF aerogels exhibit excellent electrical conductivity, a large surface area, and potential as a binder‐free electrode material for supercapacitors. The results suggest great promise in developing new families of carbon aerogels based on the controlled pyrolysis of economical and sustainable nanostructured precursors… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Methodology for discovering common principles governing complex systems
Phys.org May 30, 2018 Traditional theories have been used to tackle macroscale or microscale problems, thus dividing scientists into the two camps of holism and reductionism. No matter how much they know about the details of the systems they study and how familiar they are with the behavior of these systems, they know little about the complex structures usually present at the scale between the whole system and its elements. Researchers in China have developed the concept of “mesoscience”—a methodology for discovering common principles governing all such complexity. Over 30 top scientists in various disciples, from the USA, UK, Australia, […]
Researcher warns China’s program ‘riskiest environmental project in history’
Eurekalert May 15, 2018 An international team of researchers (Portugal, Spain Canada, USA – Montana State University, China, Australia, Germany) is urging China to undertake rigorous strategic planning before embarking on its ‘Belt and Road Initiative’, which will ultimately span at least 64 nations across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Pacific region. By mid-century, the Belt and Road could involve 7,000 infrastructure projects and $8 trillion in investment. It could impact over 1,700 critical biodiversity areas and hundreds of threatened species. China claims its Belt and Road will be a blueprint for responsible development… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
China’s ‘Sky River’ Will Be The Biggest Artificial Rain Experiment Ever
Science Alert April 28, 2018 According to reports China is building thousands of fuel-burning chambers high up on the Tibetan mountains, that could increase rainfall in the region by up to 10 billion cubic metres a year. The chambers burn solid fuel to produce silver iodide, a cloud-seeding agent with a crystalline structure much like ice. The chambers stand on steep mountain ridges facing the moist monsoon from South Asia. As wind hits the mountain, it produces an upward draft and sweeps the particles into the clouds to induce rain and snow. Total area of about 1.6 million square kilometres […]
1100 Petawatt lasers could tear apart vacuum by 2023
Next Big Future April 20, 2018 Researchers in China intend to start building a 100-PW laser known as the Station of Extreme Light (SEL) which would pack more than 1,000 times the power of all the world’s electrical grids combined. By 2023, 100 Petawatts of power will show new way to accelerate particles for use in medicine and high-energy physics. It would also be showing that light could tear electrons and their antimatter counterparts, positrons, from empty space—a phenomenon known as “breaking the vacuum.” Researchers at the University of Rochester in New York, who are developing plans for a 75-PW […]