• Sweden to construct test reactor on its path to building ‘Europe’s first advanced SMR’

    Uniper SE, a German energy supply company, and Blykalla AB, a Swedish producer of advanced small modular reactor (SMR) technology, have signed a deal to start work on building a test reactor near the coastal town of Oskarshamn, Sweden. Founded in 2013 as a spin-out of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Blykalla is developing and building SMR technology. Its SMR prototype SEALER-E features an electric lead-cooled reactor together with a combination of proven technology and proprietary materials. The hope is that once built, this SMR will support Sweden’s efforts to produce clean and reliable baseload energy for a fossil fuel-free future. In October 2024, Blykalla announced it had signed a deal with global engineering company ABB on the development of its SMR technology. This…

  • Unlocking Earth's hidden treasures: Satellites and AI lead the future of mineral exploration

    Researchers are combining satellites, advances in hyperspectral imaging and computer processing to uncover much-needed mineral deposits in far-flung places – without ever going there. Reaching global net zero ambitions is contingent on discovering and developing new deposits of rare earth and other critical minerals. To be more precise, more than three billion tons of minerals and metals will be needed to deploy wind, solar and geothermal power and energy storage to achieve the Paris Agreement climate goal, according to estimates by the World Bank. Yet finding new ore bodies is becoming more challenging because of increasing costs, geopolitical tensions and the fact that much of the low-hanging fruit has already been exploited. As such, it’s expected that much of the untapped mineral wealth…

  • Wildfires and fossil fuel burning caused record surge in atmospheric CO2 levels in 2024

    The biggest-ever annual rise in atmospheric CO2 levels has been recorded by a Hawaii-based atmospheric monitoring station. The Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii has been recording atmospheric CO2 levels since 1958. Based on continuous measurements taken at the observatory, a graph is produced, known as the Keeling Curve. It depicts the annual variation and overall accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere. Last year, the Keeling Curve revealed that the level of CO2 in the atmosphere increased by 3.58 parts per million (ppm) to 427ppm – the biggest leap since records began there almost 70 years ago. This exceeded the Met Office’s prediction of 2.84±0.54 ppm. This predictive overshooting is concerning: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) calculates that if global warming is to…

  • UK loses out on 29 years of modernisation due to government’s approach to tech procurement

    The UK government should improve the way it works with technology suppliers to prevent further missed opportunities to modernise, says the National Audit Office (NOA). A new NOA report – Government’s approach to technology suppliers: addressing the challenges – scrutinises government’s approach to large-scale digital procurement. Effective use of technology is seen as essential to enable the government to improve and digitally transform its services and operations. However, the report states that “repeated delays and cost overruns in digital delivery undermine government’s ability to achieve its policy objectives”. The NOA estimates the UK public sector spends a minimum of £14bn on digital procurement annually. This digital spend covers a vast and diverse range of projects, from the Universal…

  • Local council to rely solely on AI to find potholes needing repair

    AI is going to be deployed by Surrey County Council to help it detect potholes so they can be swiftly repaired. The council is to fit its highway vehicles with cameras that can automatically spot and photograph potholes, which will then be recorded for repair. Future enhancements will see other defects such as missing signs and foliage overgrowth also programmed for repair. In December, the government promised to fix the UK’s tattered roads and fill in potholes with an extra £1.6bn investment that will be distributed to local councils. Recent figures from the RAC revealed that pothole-related breakdowns jumped by a fifth (17%) in the final three months of 2024 compared with the previous quarter. The body also predicted that the number of pothole breakdowns could increase even more in…

  • TikTok banned in the US for less than a day after Trump intervention

    Popular short-form video app TikTok was temporarily banned for US users yesterday following the culmination of its owner’s legal challenge to the Supreme Court. But over the weekend, Donald Trump, who is due to be sworn in as the new President today, said he would institute an executive order giving the firm an additional 90 days to comply with the court’s ruling. The ban was signed into law in April 2024, but TikTok owner ByteDance appealed to the Supreme Court. Earlier this month, the court upheld the law. It said that the app could not operate in the US unless it was sold to a US company because of concerns that ByteDance had links with the Chinese government. Then Trump intervened. “The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it’s appropriate. You know…

  • Sweden breaks ground on repository to bury radioactive waste from nuclear power plants

    Sweden has begun constructing a repository to bury radioactive waste 500 metres underground. When complete, the storage facility will hold 12,000 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel. With all the permits in place and the conditions for the construction of the facility established, the final repository should be ready for waste disposal in the 2030s. Thousands of tons of radioactive waste will be encapsulated in around 6,000 copper canisters and disposed of in tunnels extending more than 60km underground in 1.9-billion-year-old solid bedrock. A layer of bentonite will be packed around the canisters, to act as a buffer and protect against minor movements in the rock. In January 2022, the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB), which is owned by the Swedish nuclear power plants…

  • UK government urged to tap into solar carport potential as Sunshine Bill returns to parliament

    Renewable energy company RenEnergy is urging the government to tap into the potential of installing solar PV panels on the roofs of commercial carports across the UK. The Sunshine Bill, formally known as the ‘New Homes (Solar Generation) Bill’, has had its first debate in parliament. The Bill is calling for all new homes built in the UK to be installed with solar panels as standard. For this Bill to be successful and progress to the next stage, at least 100 MPs in favour of the Bill needed to be present at the debate. Charities such as CPRE and locals councils such as Warwick District Council have been urging residents to write to their MPs urging them to attend the debate so as to enable its passage through parliament. Councillor Ian Davison, leader of Warwick District Council, said…

  • Millions in Arctic regions face infrastructure risks from thawing permafrost, study finds

    Up to three million people living in Arctic regions are at risk from thawing permafrost due to climate change, a study led by Umeå University has found. Permafrost underlies about 15% of the northern hemisphere’s land area but has been rapidly degrading in recent decades. Thawing permafrost not only poses a global threat through the release of greenhouse gases, but is also expected to have far-reaching implications for the livelihoods, infrastructure and environment of local inhabitants. For example, roads built on sensitive permafrost terrains are particularly prone to ground surface deformations and could become unusable with enough melting. Faced with limited budgets and numerous challenges, local stakeholders are concerned about the costs of repeated maintenance, and the difficulty…

  • Swarms of bug-sized bots could someday artificially pollinate crops

    Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are designing a robotic insect that could offer an efficient method for artificial pollination. In the future, these bug-sized robots could be unleashed to rapidly perform precise pollination and boost the yield of crops grown in multi-level warehouses. It is hoped the bots could match natural pollinators such as bees when it comes to endurance, speed and manoeuverability. Weighing less than a paperclip, the new bot has been designed for precise and agile flight while minimising the mechanical stress on its artificial wing flexures. The design also has room to accommodate tiny batteries or sensors. Kevin Chen, an associate professor at MIT’s department of electrical engineering and computer science, said: “With the improved…

  • Industry insight: How ACCU used technology to grow their business in a challenging market

    Alastair Morris, Managing Director of engineering component specialist Accu, discusses the challenges that the engineering industry has faced this year and why he’s optimistic for the future. The impact of digitalisation Software and digitalisation are set to help the UK’s manufacturing and engineering sector to really get ahead of the game. Embracing new technologies isn’t just an option, it’s a necessity for staying competitive in today’s fast-paced manufacturing landscape. As suppliers of engineering components into manufacturing, we are well aware that 2024 has been a challenging year for industry. Rising material, transportation and energy costs continue to impact many markets and the companies that have grown in the engineering components sector are those which have worked hard…

  • Prototype fusion energy plant could be built in UK with £410m taxpayer investment

    Ministers have pledged £410m to support the rapid development of fusion energy technology in the UK, with the hope that a prototype plant could be built by 2040. Fusion is a potential source of almost limitless clean energy that lacks many of the downsides associated with traditional nuclear fission, such as waste storage problems. It uses the same process that powers the sun by combining two forms of hydrogen and heating them at extreme temperatures. But despite its promise, the technology is still in the research phase and will not be part of the UK’s 2030 decarbonisation goals. The funds announced today will be available to the sector over the coming financial year and include support for the development of a prototype plant located at the decommissioned West Burton coal-fired power…

  • ‘World’s largest’ solar power and battery storage gigascale project to be built in Abu Dhabi

    Abu Dhabi-based renewable energy company Masdar and Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC) have announced the launch of the “world’s largest” combined solar and battery energy storage system (BESS). Located in Abu Dhabi, the project will feature a 5.2GW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant and a 19 gigawatt-hour (GWh) BESS, delivering up to 1GW of baseload power daily. Masdar says this gigascale project reflects the UAE’s ambitions of being a global pioneer in renewable energy deployment. Sultan Al Jaber, minister of industry and advanced technology and chairman of Masdar, said: “In collaboration with EWEC and our partners, we will develop a renewable energy facility capable of providing clean energy round the clock. For the first time ever, this will transform renewable energy into a…

  • E+T Podcast: Episode 9 | Is the AI bubble about to burst?

    While Artificial Intelligence is on everyone's lips as the key to the development of just about everything, more practical issues are resulting in a re-evaluation of where the technology might take us. Public uptake and trepidation on the user side are added to by energy consumption, LLM limitations and profitability on the technology development side. All this and more is discussed in the latest E+T Off The Page podcast. Regulars Jack Loughran and Tanya Weaver are joined by guest Julie Wall, Professor of AI & Advanced Computing, University of West London.

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Teardown: Meta Quest 3S

    This diminutive device tracks vital health signs and physical activity, but does its environmental impact override the technological advance? With VR headsets still failing to take the world by storm, one may have thought that Meta would by now have given up on its attempt to make the technology the next big thing. But the Facebook-owning firm is still soldiering on, determined to make consumers actually care about VR. In the mid-to-late 2010s, VR was riding high, with the technology apparently on the brink of breaking through to a mass audience. But it never took off. Consumers enjoyed the novelty for a bit, but its litany of issues such as being disconnected from the world around you and motion sickness ultimately made the technology a more niche proposition. While VR may not have lived…

  • Pothole-related breakdowns jumped by a fifth in last three months of 2024, RAC data finds

    On National Pothole Day, the RAC has revealed its latest breakdown stats as the government reaffirms its commitment to fixing up to seven million potholes across the country this year. In the UK, potholes seem to be a bottomless problem – so much so that in 2018 National Pothole Day (15 January) was established by Street Repairs to raise awareness around the safety risks. Today, 2025’s National Pothole Day, British automotive services company the RAC revealed that pothole-related breakdowns jumped by a fifth (17%) in the final three months of 2024 compared with the previous quarter. Defective road surfaces caused 4,709 drivers to contact the RAC (up 669 from the previous three months), and almost four in 10 breakdowns (39%) the RAC attended were a result of punctured tyres, predominantly…

  • Sizewell C nuclear plant costs set to double as project faces scrutiny

    The total cost of upcoming nuclear power plant Sizewell C is expected to be double the initial estimates, the Financial Times (FT) has reported. With the UK’s ageing fleet of eight nuclear power stations in need of replacement, and only Hinkley Point C currently undergoing construction, Sizewell C will play an important role in backing up renewable energy in the switch away from fossil fuels. EDF, the French state-owned energy firm overseeing the construction of both power plants, gave Sizewell C a budget of £20bn in its 2020 development consent submission, But the FT reports that people close to negotiations now estimate it will cost closer to £40bn in 2025 prices. The government had already proposed subsidising the construction of the project by £5.5bn as the project struggles to attract…

  • Renewables contribute 45% to UK energy mix as gas-fired power output falls to 20-year low

    Demand from gas-fired generation dropped in 2024 as a result of near-record levels of renewable generation, according to a report from Montel Analytics. The report – GB electricity market summary – offers analysis and insights into Britain’s energy mix over 2024 by looking at the generation and contribution by fuel type. Renewables were the dominant contributor, accounting for 44.8% of the total. Gas-fired generation accounted for 27.5%, with nuclear (14.5%), imports (12.6%) and coal (0.6%) making up the rest. The main takeaway from the report is that output from gas-fired generation has reached its lowest level in at least 20 years. This reduced demand is the result of near-record levels of renewable generation and also significantly increased levels of electricity imports through the…

  • UK risks losing economic benefits of engineering biology boom, Lords committee warns

    Urgent action in the engineering biology sector is needed or the “UK is at risk once again of seeing the economic benefits of science and technology developed here but exploited overseas”. The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee’s report, Don’t Fail to Scale: Seizing the Opportunities of Engineering Biology, calls for a radical overhaul of investment strategies, regulatory frameworks and talent pipelines. Engineering biology is a fast-developing and evolving field. While synthetic biology is the design and fabrication of biological components, systems and materials from biological elements, engineering biology is the process of taking those synthetic biology concepts and translating them into solutions. There are vast applications for engineering biology across many sectors…

  • Nuclear power meets its AI reckoning

    Why nuclear could be the answer to energy-guzzling AI data centres. It sounds like the plot of a sci-fi film – a massive corporation looks to restart an ageing nuclear reactor in order to feed the massive power requirements of its new AI platform. But that’s exactly what Microsoft is trying to do on Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island, the very site of an infamous meltdown in 1979 that some credit with pushing back America’s nuclear power ambitions by decades. What many readers might not know is that while the plant’s second unit suffered a catastrophic meltdown – abruptly bringing its working life to an end – the first unit continued generating energy until 2019. Now Microsoft is negotiating with owner Constellation Energy to recommission the unit once more, with plans to restart the reactor…

  • Nasa exploring nuclear-powered propulsion as a way to shorten trips to Mars

    Nasa is to consider deploying nuclear-powered electric propulsion as a way to speed up a future voyage to Mars. A round trip to the Red Planet is expected to take up to two years to complete, a long time for any astronaut even aside from concerns that exposure to chronic, low-dose radiation in space could cause neural and behavioural impairments over time. But Nasa is hoping to shorten this timeframe by exploring the potential of nuclear electric propulsion, which employs a nuclear reactor to generate electricity that ionises, or positively charges, and electrically accelerates gaseous propellants to provide thrust to a spacecraft. Researchers at Nasa’s Langley Research Center are working on a project dubbed Modular Assembled Radiators for Nuclear Electric Propulsion Vehicles, or MARVL…

  • Industry reacts to the government’s AI action plan to ramp up AI adoption across the UK

    The tech and engineering industry has reacted – mostly positively – to the announcement of the UK’s AI action plan, although many have drawn attention to the challenges and risks associated with the initiative. Yesterday (13 January) the UK government unveiled details of a wide-ranging AI opportunities action plan to boost the country’s role in developing and deploying AI. The aim is to use AI tools to boost economic growth and deliver public services more efficiently. Peter Kyle, science, innovation and technology secretary, said: “This government is determined that the UK is not left behind in the global race for AI, that’s why the actions we commit to will ensure that the benefits are spread throughout the UK so all citizens will reap the rewards of the bet we make today.” Industry…

  • Drones must be prevented from delivering contraband to prisons – chief inspector

    “Urgent action” is needed to stop drones being used to bring drugs and weapons into prisons, chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor has warned. Recent inspections of HMP Manchester and HMP Long Lartin revealed major concerns regarding the safety and security of the sites including “thriving” economies of drugs, mobile phones and weapons. Mandatory drug tests revealed that 39% of prisoners in Manchester had tested positive, whereas 50% of inmates at Long Lartin who responded to a survey said it was easy to get drugs and alcohol. The report found that drones could carry payloads of up to 1.3kg of contraband into prisons, often under cover of night. At Long Lartin, drones regularly delivered contraband to gangs in black plastic bags, while in Manchester the prison had failed to replace…

  • Boeing production in 2024 expected to be less than half of rival Airbus

    Airbus delivered 766 commercial aircraft in 2024, while analysts expect rival Boeing to have delivered half that amount. Earlier this month, Airbus announced 2024 production statistics for its commercial aircraft business. Across the year it delivered 766 aircraft to 86 customers. The year also saw 878 gross new orders registered, putting its 2024 year-end backlog at 8,658 aircraft. Christian Scherer, CEO commercial aircraft at Airbus, said, “Given the complex and fast-changing environment we continue to operate in, we consider 2024 a good year.” In contrast, its rival Boeing is expected to have delivered far fewer aircraft. Indeed, according to Flight Plan, which publishes research, analysis and forecasts on the aerospace and defence market, the company is expected to report that it…

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