Nuclear Reactor, home edition

The United States’ Los Alamos National Laboratory, in conjunction with private sector partner, Hyperion Power, has announced its first client for their miniature nuclear power reactors— TES of the Czech Republic.

The units will retail for US$25 million each. TES has committed to purchase 6 units (with an option on 12 more) to be delivered by 2013, and Los Alamos/Hyperion claim to have another 100+ orders in the pipeline. They have scaled their manufacturing capacity to deliver 4000 units over tens years.

Led by Dr. Otis Peterson, the reactors are based on a 50 year old design (the TRIGA), of a kind used by science students at University. It is said to be disaster proof (a completely sealed unit, with no moving parts) and nuclear-proliferation proof, as the fuel is Uranium Hydride which has proven ineffective as at being weaponized. Furthermore, the units will be installed underground to avoid tampering. The original patent was granted in 2003, for which Peterson was subsequently honored by the FLC.

Producing 70 megawatts of heat that powers a turbine that generates 25 megawatts of power, they will need refueling once every 7 to 10 years. By example they state that, based on contemporary US residential energy consumption levels, one mini-reactor would be capable of supporting the equivalent of 25,000 homes for five years. At the US$25M price tag, that comes to $200 per home per year.

Though the reactors were originally conceived for use by large industrial projects located off the power grid, Hyperion has adjusted their sales focus, after intense interest from remote communities including developers in the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands.

Recent growth in international energy demands coupled with concerns over global climate change have renewed interest in nuclear energy, which has the lowest Carbon emissions factor of any known form of energy production.

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FURTHER READING:

Hyperion: Nuclear In A Box

Micro-nuclear plants for local power

Hyperion Nuclear Batteries

We're Here to Go

NASA Administrator, Michael Griffin, in white

When NASA Administrator, Michael Griffin, can publicly state that, “The single overarching goal of human space flight is the human settlement of the solar system, and eventually beyond,” we have come a long way.

When my grandfather was with NASA, his pet name for the Space Shuttle was ‘the Space Truck’ or simply ‘the Truck’. As a teen, he explained to me how NASA had conceived of the Space Shuttle as a people mover. The Space Shuttle would have been much more affordable and practical if it only had to accommodate human passengers. It was meant to be a ‘Space Bus’, but in the 1970s, Congress was not receptive to the idea of funding space colonization. That was too Sci-Fi for most US politicians to embrace or fund. But a much more expensive “Truck” that could haul payloads, well that was something Congressmen could wrap their heads around. Once again, relating the conversations with my grandfather — it would have been much safer and extremely more economical to lift satellites and heavy payload for construction of the International Space Station on, to use Ralph’s words, “big dumb rockets”. Then the Space Shuttle’s dedicated role as a people mover would be undistracted by other tasks. Under this scenario the Space Shuttle would have been less expensive to develop, build and maintain. And payload launches could be handled by unmanned flights, human life would not have to be put at risk. Apparently the political realities of getting budgetary approval from Congress necessitated the compromise.

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ON A RELATED NOTE…

While the US is distracted with our own presidential election and domestic economic issues, the launch of China’s first space walk mission was barely covered here in the US.

Bravo to Bill Gates

A few weeks ago Bill Gates joined Linked[in]. It is often the network’s practice when a high profile member joins, to invite them to post a “featured question” on the site’s Q&A page. Mr. Gates did so by asking:

How can we do more to encourage young people to pursue careers in science and technology?

Before the question was closed, it received 3567 answers. Unfortunately, Bill did not mark a best answer (or even a list of good answers). My reply, which appears here (the 18th answer on page 90), emphasized that meeting our job market demand for scientist and engineers could not be met with education alone, but only by also opening up citizenship to foreign born students receiving college degrees in American Universities. My reply began:

With only 5% of the world’s population, all our talent cannot be homegrown. We desperately need to open our doors to more (I’d say “unlimited”) H-1B visas. With a shortage of engineering and scientific degrees going to American students, our Universities give more technical degrees to foreign students than domestic… yet when their student visas expire we effectively throw them out of our country. A great many of them want to stay here, and yet after giving them our most precious intellectual property, we basically give them the boot. We should be passing out citizenship at graduation ceremonies. Foreign students who earn a degree at a U.S. University in a field where America has a shortage of talent should be granted immediate and automatic citizenship. Anything less is both foolish and shameful. —bold emphasis added.

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On March 12th, Bill Gates gave an address before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology, on the topic of Competitiveness and Innovation. This address marked the committee’s 50th Anniversary.

Bill Gates’ address to Congress:

Most of the committee members were respectful and receptive to Mr. Gates’ message. Representative Ralph Hall of Texas, district 4 gave a particularly warm introductory speech. There was one quite noteworthy exception. Dana Rohrabacher, California representative, district 46, who went on a protectionist/isolationist rant, felt that if Microsoft couldn’t hire the “A students” from abroad, they should just hire “B and C students” that were American born. He felt it was Microsoft’s responsibility to create jobs for these workers too. He even made the argument that, by giving H-1B visas to foreign engineers, that we would unfairly damage the labor needs of the recipient’s home country (you can’t make this stuff up!). After this bone-head (can I say that? …yes, of course I can. It’s my blog.) went beyond his alloted time, the chair of the committee asked him to wrap it up. Incensed by the perceived insult, Mr. Rohrabacher blathered, “You know, I’ve got a, uh, I’m working at, uh, I’m one of the guys who helped Kosovo become independent, I’m on the Foreign Relations Committee…” before he was eventually shut up. California, is this guy really the best you can find to represent you?

There is a very foolish and shortsighted sentiment that H-1B visas drive down wages and/or cause US citizens to loose jobs to foreign workers. With a shortage of scientific and engineering candidates, without more (many more) H-1B visa recipients, these jobs do not then go to natural born American citizens, but rather simply go unfilled. And that highly sought candidate will instead be employed by a foreign competitor.

Bill’s address was succinct but not thin, and his follow-up answers were well informed. He covered everything from the role of philanthropy in improving education, new educational opportunities offered by the internet, US competitiveness as compared to Europe and Asia, US investment in research and development, his strong support for the America Competes Act, teaching programs that have been successful both inside and outside the US, and what effect this has had on American competitiveness and businesses ability to meet their hiring needs. It was however, the issue of H-1B visas that captured the media. Below I have pulled all of Bill’s quotes related to the subject from the more than 2 hours of footage, sans any media spin (only 9 minutes of which was his actual Congressional address).

At time marker 5:25, citing research (PDF) Mr. Gates makes the case that H-1B visas actually create more jobs here in the United States:

Today our university computer science and engineering programs include large numbers of foreign students. In fact, the Science and Engineering Indicators Report showed that 59 percent of doctoral degrees and 43 percent of all higher-ed degrees in engineering and computer science are awarded to temporary residence. But our current immigration policies make it increasingly difficult for these students to remain in the United States. At the time when talent is the key to economic success, it makes no sense to educate people in our Universities, often subsidized by US tax payers and then insist that they return home. US innovation has always been based in part on the contributions of foreign born scientist and researchers. For example, a recent survey, uh, conducted by several universities, showed that between 1999 and 2005, firms with at least one foreign born founder created 450,000 new US jobs. Moreover, as a recent study shows– for every H-1B holder that technology companies hire, five additional jobs are created around that person. But as you know our immigration system makes it very difficult for US firms to hire highly skilled foreign workers.

At time marker 7:51 he added:

I want to emphasize that, to address the shortage of scientist and engineers, we must do both– reform our education system and our immigration policies.

While the video above only contains Bill Gates’ address, and not the follow-up questions by members of the house which, as I point out, lasted much longer than the address itself, I have included a couple of noteworthy highlights. The majority of the committee’s members were sympathetic to Mr. Gates position, Mr. Rohrabacher bizarre comments above being the only exception.

Later, in response to a question by Mr. Rothman, representative for New Jersey, district 9, at time marker 10:47, Mr. Gates further made the point:

I’d also suggest that, if someone’s educated in a US University that, because of the research funding that comes out of the government, you know, you’ve basically subsidized that education, I think there should be a direct path to permanent residency.

In another exchange with the committee regarding the stature of American Universities, Mr. Gates has this to add (11:04):

The very top engineers, the US Universities still have a strong position, but as I’ve said, the majority of the students in the computer science department are foreign born. And so we educate them. We provide the world’s very best education, and the… the research funding and various things are, a… a major factor there. And then those are the students who, uh, are not allowed to stay and, and work in the country because of the limits we have.

I would like to commend Bill Gates for speaking sense in the face of all the ill-founded isolationism being advocated by some false populist shills for the labor union special interests. The tech sector is the future of the American economy, and of the world. If America is to continue to prosper, we must increase our number of scientist, engineers and mathematicians. Even if all American college graduates became engineers, we would still have a shortage. This has more to do with birthrates than anything else. The only way to close this gap is through immigration, and the low hanging fruit are those foreigners who have already been educated in our system. They are already here, they want to stay here, and when we force them to leave, they will not leave the labor market, they will simply goto work in a foreign competitor economy, taking American intellectual capital with them as we throw them out.

I started off writing a technology story, and here I am, stuck in politics again.

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RELATED LINKS:

Bill Gates’ Address in the C-Span Archives
Bill Gates’ full hearing before the Committee on Science and Technology, including pre-address comments by committee members, as well as a post address question and answer with Bill Gates, can be viewed in full at C-Span’s online archives. Available formats include both a Flash Movie and a Windows Media file (total run time is just over two hours). It can also be ordered on DVD.

Committee on Science and Technology, 50th Anniversary Address
Additionally, the address can be viewed in full from the United States House of Representatives’ website as a Real Media file.

Bill Gates unabridged written testimony as PDF
Due to time constraints, Mr. Gates agreed to give an abridged version of his address. His full testimony was entered into the record in writing, and can be downloaded in PDF form.

Microsoft website— Bill Gates, transcript from committee address
The full transcript of Bill Gates address before the Congressional committee, including all follow-up questions.

Bill Gates’ Speeches— Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Transcripts of other speeches by Bill Gates, in the archives of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Shai Avidan goes to Adobe

Shai Avidan, formerly of MERL (Mitsubishi Electric Research Lab), lead developer of their dimensionality reduction technology, has just been hired this week by Adobe.

Expect great things.

Rather than trying to explain the technology, I recommend that you take the time to watch the video above, you will not regret it.

WiiFlash

Nintendo’s Wii Remote + Flash = WiiFlash on PC

Joa Ebert and Thibault Imbert of WiiFlash have put out a Beta release of their software that allows Nintendo’s Wii controler to be used with Flash content over the internet from a BlueTooth enabled PC.

Tim Kaiser's gonkulations

Tim Kaiser makes custom audio components, of a sort, crafted with a vintage look. In a deliberate act of over-engineering, Tim crafts elaborate devices, usually musical effects modules, and righteously gonkulated noisemakers. Go to his website to learn more.

Nam June Paik

Nam June Paik has long been recognized as a master and pioneer of video and electronic/technology based art. He was also a close associate of composer, John Cage, whom he was known to collaborate with. I’d seen one piece of his in the James Cohan Gallery collection on a prior visit, and have always had an appreciation for his work. The literature provided by the gallery describes Paik’s work as critiquing “culture consumed by technology.” In this way, Paik’s work is very self referential. His technology is not just a critique of, but also an example of “culture consumed by technology.” Often working with the housing cabinets from mid-century TV sets, in the case of all but one of the pieces in this exhibit, with their picture tubes removed and contemporary TVs set into their cabinets. Paik built sculptures- houses, figures, totems, walls, and environments from these cabinets and screens. Later he created work using only contemporary TVs. Television screens were the staple of his work. Of the pieces in this show, his humanoid primitive sculpture, Karen Blixen Robot (shown above), caught my interest most. Though I enjoyed the show, and had built up much anticipation in attending, there was something off that I could not at first put my finger on. Perhaps I went in with my expectations too high. But I think perhaps a combination of factors worked against the exhibit for me. For one, the idea of a wall of TV sets is so reminiscent of any consumer electronic store’s TV department, that nothing about the presentation is particularly riveting, losing some of the impact the approach may have had during the time of some of his earlier work. Although the picture tubes in the TVs had been removed, and “modern” TV sets had been placed within the vintage cabinets, these so-called “new” picture tube TVs have themselves become obsolete, in these days of HD flat-panels. Pioneering as it was in its day, I think Paik’s work suffers the fate of a lot of technology based conceptual art: As technology moves forward, if the work’s impact, no matter how conceptual, is most dependent on presentation rather than interaction, the work itself becomes “dated”. Some of Paik’s work qualifies as immersive, but in this exhibit W3 would be the only example, and by my estimation, the least inspired piece of the show. Tower is certainly monolithic. Perhaps it is the curse of being recently old. Once Paik’s body of work is as old as the mid-century cabinets he used, the perspective will be different and the timeliness issue will not be as it is now. I am glad to have had the opportunity to attend, and I appreciate the James Cohan Gallery for supporting such art.

Wessel Westerveld

I’ve been meaning to give Mr. Westerveld some ink (so to speak) for some time. Going by the pseudonym WEXEL, he makes spectacular devices, ingenious contraptions: A chorus from the clicks of mechanical projection devices, a music box that plays horns (shown at left). Then there is the SDSystem (Surroundings Defend System shown above)- a helmet with a very long visor, and built in headphones, the SDSystem allows the wearer to completely shut out all visual and auditory input from wherever they happen to find themselves. And you thought your iPod and dark sunglasses were enough to do the trick.

Though the link to his CV is currently a broken link, I don’t believe he has yet exhibited in the states. Lyons Wier • Ortt, Lehmann Maupin, anyone?

Potential cure for HIV

This week’s Foresight Institute newsletter has several recent breakthroughs in nano-filtration technology. One using a silicon membrane and two others using different applications of carbon nanotube technology.

At the University of Rochester researchers have developed a porous membrane of silicon just 50 atoms thick (4,000 times thinner than a single human hair) yet with the strength of 15 pounds per square inch, that can be used to filter out individual molecules within air, water or blood based on both molecular size, and the charge of the molecule. Read more here.

Scientist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, using a low-voltage electrical charge combined with a carbon nanotube membrane, have found a way to filter individual molecules of salt from water, in a discovery that they say can “transform salt water into pure drinking water almost instantly.” Read more here.

In the laboratories of Queensland University of Technology, Associate Professor Huaiyong Zhu is leading a team that has developed a carbon nano-mesh that they believe will be able to filter the HIV virus from blood. They’ve done a proof of concept removing individual viruses from water and are now seeking a partner to develop the technology into a real world medical application. Read more here.

You can join the Foresight Institute’s email list by subscribing in the upper right corner of their homepage.

Visible Beam Lasers

These lasers, available from the appropriately titled “Wicked Lasers”, have a visible beam and can shoot a visible straight line for 100 miles… not meters, miles.

Careful, these lasers can burn. If held stationary, they can melt a hole in a plastic bag, and will light a cigarette. Other than a note to wear eye protection, their real destructive power is actually pretty feather weight compared to anything Han Solo would strap to his hip. None the less, the strength of these lasers portents to where this technology may progress in the near future.