build

Data centers do not want to depend on the conventional electrical grid. Solution: build your own plants

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AI data centers have sparked a new fever: the so-called “bring your own power.” The demand and consumption The pressure these plants impose is so enormous that they do not want to depend on external sources. The solution is theoretically simple, and we are already seeing how when a new data center is built, it is normal for some type of power plant to be built next to it. We are seeing it now. The data centers that OpenAI and Oracle are building in West Texas are accompanied by the creation of a natural gas-based power plant. Both xAI’s Colossus 1 and Colossus 2 in Memphis take advantage of gas turbines. And as they also indicate in The Wall Street Journalmore than a dozen Equinix data centers across the US are powered by stand-alone fuel cells. If the conventional electrical grid cannot be used, nothing happens: you create a power plant and that’s it. The US has an electrical problem. The technology giants would prefer to connect to the conventional grid, but bottlenecks in the supply chain, bureaucracy – permits, licenses – and the slowness in building the necessary transmission infrastructure prevent this. According to the ICV firmThe United States would need to add about 80 GW of new generation capacity per year to keep pace with AI, but right now less than 65 GW per year are being built. There is another direct consequence of this problem: the rise in the electricity bill. Data centers that look like cities. The needs and ambition of AI companies has made data centers become calculation and resource consumption monsters. One can only consume as much electricity as 10,000 stores in the Walmart electronics chain, WSJ estimates. Before 2020, data centers represented less than 2% of US energy consumption. By 2028 they are expected to represent up to 12%. A 1.5 GW data center, for example, would have consumption similar to that of the city of San Francisco, with about 800,000 inhabitants. China has a lot of advantage over the US in this. While the US deal with that lack of powerChina does not stop investing in new energy generation. According to data According to the National Energy Administration, the Asian country added 429 GW of new energy generation in 2024, while the US only added 50 GW. It is true that China has four times the population, but its centralized planning is helping to avoid problems that affect the US electrical grid. The white knight to the rescue. Faced with this shortage, natural gas has become the preferred resource for on-site energy generation. Although large turbines have long delivery times, smaller turbines or fuel cells that use natural gas are being used because of their rapid availability and installation. Renewables lose steam. Meanwhile, things are not promising for renewable energies (solar and wind, especially). There are about 214 GW of new generation theoretically in projectbut spending on such technologies could decline due to the potential loss of tax credits: the Trump administration criticizes that those clean energies do not provide a constant flow necessary for AI. The nuclear alternative. Faced with this apparent decline of nuclear energy, there is a growing interest in compact nuclear reactors (SMR), which allow us to provide the advantages of this type of center and a flexibility that can be very interesting for AI data centers. amazon, Google, Goal either Microsoft They are betting part of their future on nuclear powerbut that It doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges to overcome.. Image | Wolfgang Weiser In Xataka | World record in nuclear fusion: the German Wendelstein 7-X reactor has broken all records

Europe has been working for three years to isolate itself from Russian gas. Two countries have decided to build a direct gas pipeline to Russia

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The European energy map is changing at a speed that few would have imagined just three years ago. The old gas pipelines that linked Siberia to the industrial heart of the EU have been sidelined, while new routes and alliances reconfigure the power table around gas. The old continent proclaims its purpose of isolating Moscow, but in the center of the continent it is drawn an exception that alters the planned script and that may change the balance of forces in the coming winters. A map in transformation. Yes, the European gas map has changed radically in a few years, to the point that this winter of 2025 is the first in decades in which Russian gas ceases to be decisive throughout the European Union. After the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the energy crisis that broke out between 2021 and 2023, Brussels urged urgently diversification of supplies, relying on imports liquefied natural gas (LNG), especially from the United States and Qatar, and in the fortress of norway as a stable partner. The great gas pipelines that for half a century linked the Siberian fields with the European industrial heart have been underutilizeddamaged or reduced to a secondary role, as energy security moves towards the global balance of the LNG market and towards the vulnerability of infrastructures increasingly exposed to cyber attacks and hybrid incidents. On this new board, each molecule counts, but not all of them weigh the same: there are some that define true European autonomy more than others. The two exceptions. Despite the EU’s declared desire to eliminate purchases from Moscow, two countries have kept the valve open: Hungary and Slovakia. In August 2025, according to the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, both added imports of Russian crude oil and gas by more than 690 million of euros, that is, the majority of the European total. In fact, they continue to receive oil through the gigantic Druzhba pipeline, which crosses Ukraine and Belarus from Russian fields to Central Europe, and have used temporary exception granted by Brussels to landlocked countries to justify their dependence. The contrast is evident: while countries like France, the Netherlands and Belgium have limited themselves to importing residual Russian LNG, Budapest and Bratislava continue buying crude oil and gas straight from Moscow, keeping alive the energy artery that the rest of Europe has tried to close. Hungary and Slovakia are investing in gas infrastructure and creating a gas block in the heart of Europe aimed at protecting against any risks USA, Brussels and pressure. The intransigence of Viktor Orbán and Robert Fico has not gone unnoticed. At the UN, Trump accused Europe of “financing the war against itself” and pointed out with their own name to the Central European partners that do business with the Kremlin. Brussels, for its part, debate sanctions growing: the nineteenth package included a ban on Russian LNG starting in 2026 and restrictions on giants such as Rosneft or Gazprom Neft, although it avoided imposing immediate vetoes on crude oil and gas by gas pipeline, fearing a head-on crash with Budapest and Bratislava. However, the Commission is already preparing specific tariffs against imports that are still They arrive through Druzhbaand requires all Member States to submit disconnection plans before 2027the year in which the final cut is expected. The discourse of dependency. Hungary insists that its economy would fall 4% immediately if they were closed russian flowsand both Orbán and Fico speak of “economic suicide” and “ideological impositions” from Brussels. However, experts and analysts dismantle many of these arguments: geography is no excuse in an integrated European market where other equally landlocked countries, such as Austria or the Czech Republic, have reduced drastically reduce its Russian imports. Alternative infrastructures there are. The Adria pipeline, which connects to the Adriatic in Croatia, could supply enough crude oil to Hungary and Slovakia, although the reliability of its capacity tests is disputed. The Croatian oil company JANAF itself assures which can supply both refineries (Százhalombatta in Hungary and Slovnaft in Bratislava) with up to 12.9 million tons per year. In gas, the interconnections with neighboring countries and the expected abundance of LNG after 2026 suggest that the cutoff of Russian flows would be more political than technical. Politics, benefits and a shadow. Budapest’s stubbornness also has an internal political and economic dimension. The MOL company, close to the Orbán Government and owner of the Slovak refinery, has reaped huge benefits thanks to the price difference between Russian Urals crude oil and Brent, which has allowed extraordinary income for both the company and the state budget itself through taxes. In parallel, the speech of the Hungarian Executive associates the continuity of supply russian with stability of its star program of subsidies on household energy bills, despite the fact that the prices that Budapest pays for Russian gas follow the same international references as for the rest of Europe. In Slovakia, Fico also protects contracts with Gazprom valid until 2034, although the national company SPP itself has flexible agreements with large Western companies that would allow demand to be met without Moscow. The new axis of the Black Sea. Be that as it may, the most revealing element of the new energy map is that Hungary and Slovakia not only resist cutting the Russian gas pipelines inherited from the Cold War, but are betting on new connections. The route that arrives through the TurkStream and enters from Türkiye towards central Europe through the Black Sea consolidates a direct link with Moscow at the same time that Brussels seeks to isolate it. Paradoxically, the two Central European countries are becoming the main russian corridor towards the heart of the EU, a role that openly contradicts the energy autonomy strategy and reinforces the structural dependence on a partner considered hostile. Europe contradicts itself. The dilemma is obvious. The European Union proclaims its purpose to end with Russian imports in just two years, but at the same time tolerates exceptions that feed … Read more

In 1965 the Franco regime wanted to build a huge reservoir in Extremadura: instead it had 50 deaths and a cover-up

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On October 22, 1965, a disastrous whistle began with a dismal sound in the working-class town of Saltos de Torrejón el Rubio, province of Cáceres, that at least some of the employees who at that time were working on the construction of the dams on the Tajo and Tiétar rivers have been fearing for days. About the nine twenty in the morning, while the children were hurrying through their breakfasts to leave for school, the hum of a siren began to resonate. The warning siren. The same one that screamed to warn of accidents. The problem is that that autumn morning Accident could very well have been written like that, with a capital letter. The discreet, humble and remote working-class town of the municipality of Torrejón el Rubioin the heart of Monfragüe, has just served as the setting that many still consider today as the worst work accident occurred in the history of Spain. A monumental work That is what the Franco dictatorship intended in the mid-1960s with the works in the channels of the Tiétar and Tagus rivers, to carry out an enormous reference work in Europe. It was the stage of developmentalism and only a few years earlier, in 1959, the regime had had to deal with the Ribadelago catastrophecaused by the failure of a dam that took away 144 residents of the Zamoran town. In Extremadura he wanted to make amends. In Xataka After the Civil War, Franco wanted to colonize emptied Spain. So 300 new towns were invented The project developed in Cáceres was certainly important. Neither more nor less than building two dams between the channels of the Tagus and Tiétar rivers, along with a huge canal between both infrastructures to transfer water and generate electricity. By October 1965 the works were already more than advanced. It is estimated that about 4,000 workers between 1959 and 1966, many of them residents of surrounding towns who found in the project a way to avoid emigration. In 2020, the anthropologist Manuel Trinidad he explained to elDiario.es that works of this type came to form a kind of guild, “the pantaneros”, who moved from one side of Extremadura to the other. The Negratín reservoir, in Granada. (Unsplash) To accommodate the workers who shaped the infrastructure for seven years, two towns were built, “the one upstairs”, designed for company officials and managers; and another for the laborers. Proof that it was an authentic town is that they had services such as a school, commissary, dining room, chapel, church and even a tavern, tobacco shop and a Civil Guard barracks. The Extremadura Newspaper precise that the person in charge of the construction was Agromán and the work was carried out for Hidroeléctrica Española, today Iberdrola. What happened? A combination of factors. One in which the meteorology is combined and everything indicates that negligence of those responsible for the project. The previous weeks had been especially rainy, which little by little caused the water level of the swamp to rise until it was barely 83 centimeters of the maximum authorized level. That the level and pressure rose did not mean, however, that the workers stopped working on the canal and the river bed. The inhabitants of the town were in fact preparing to witness quite a spectacle, like I would recognize years later one of the victims The Country: “Seeing the waterfalls of foaming water from the spillways for the first time.” It wasn’t like that. And what was expected to be a spectacle ended up being revealed as a branch. The pressure of the dammed liquid was such that a cofferdam ended up bursting. 14 tons that protected the pumping tunnel. Result: a violent torrent of water that ended up flooding the conduit, the underground plant and galleries. With everything that this implies. And the workers?  That is one of the keys to the tragedy. In the flooded canal between the Tagus and Tiétar dams, crews of workers continued to work and could do little to avoid the violence of the water. Not only that. The torrent expanded with such force that it ended up taking with it other employees who were toiling in the dry river bed. It is estimated that at that point alone there were some 400 people when the tragedy occurred. The force and speed of the water made it difficult for even them to get to safety. The event was so dramatic that it forced the town to be evacuated and rescue efforts to begin. “My father and many other workers were seeing him coming. He dreamed at night. He repeated many times: something is going to happen and it is going to be very bad. They want to try working with us,” remembers Flori Almendral in statements collected by The Jump. She is not the only one who retains memories of that episode. Paqui Martos tells for the same report how they managed to throw a rope to save a young man who was floating in a well. “It held on tightly with such bad luck that when it came out it broke.” His fate, he continues, was known shortly after: “15 days later we found him with the rope in his hands.” With the memory of what happened in Ribadelago still fresh, the Franco regime decided to silence the Monfragüe accident. The incident occurred on October 22 and on November 1 the NO-DO dedicated a brief space of 37 seconds to the news, remember The Daily Leapbehind a chronicle about a ball of the Barcelona bourgeoisie. Newspapers of the time, such as Above, Town either Alreadythey also passed on tiptoe about the tragedy. They officially recognized 54 fatalitiesbut there are those who raise the total number of deaths and missing people in the 1965 accident well above that figure, to more than a hundred. Specifying the exact amount is complicated. The workers remember that they moved 75 coffins and they were not enough to accommodate all the corpses. Some they even hold … Read more

build as many houses as demanded

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Located near the ski resort of Cerler and the park POSETS-MALADETAin the heart of the Pyrenees, Benasque is a postal landscapes. Much less idyllic is its real estate market, marked by Turned rentals and a overwhelming weight Of the second residence, which greatly complicates the things to workers looking for accommodation there. With that backdrop, your City Council has just given a green light to a plan that provides 2,200 homes. A curious fact in a town of 2,300 neighbors. What happened? That Benasquea town in the region of Ribagorza (Huesca) famous, has just made a decision that will mark its urbanism in the coming years. A few days ago his town hall gave the green light to the Partial Plan of Cerlerwhich includes several infrastructure such as a new deposit, improvements in the purification system, the treatment of water and some accesses and (the really important) the creation of just over 2,000 homes. The news matters beyond Ribagorza is for four reasons. First, due to the scope of the project, which already It is presented as The greatest operation Real Estate of the Aragonese Pyrenees. Second, for its location, near the ski resort Aramón Cerler. Third because the approval of the plan concludes an convoluted process that dates back (with comings and turns) to at least A decade. And fourth, because Benasque is not just any town: it has been supporting a time serious housing crisis aggravated by him Huge weight that have the second residences there. What do you want to do? The most important thing about the plan is housing injection. In total, it provides 2,198 free homes that will be developed in several phases: 856 to begin, 504 in a second phase and 838 in the third. The project also provides for the transfer of more than 3,000 square meters (M2) to the Aragon government to raise 29 official protection homes with an investment of about 4.4 million euros. In May the Regional Executive I already advanced that will be dedicated to the affordable rent for tourist workers as part of a major initiative with which it wants to create almost 490 homes in 43 tourist locations. Is there anything else? Yes. In addition to the new homes, the plan foresees improvements in supplies, sidewalks and lighting networks. In fact in the same municipal plenary He unlocked the construction of a new water tank in the town, which will require works that the mayor He already warns which will be “complex.” The plan will also allow improving access to the clues and systems that will be in charge of purification, treatment, capture and water supply. “The partial plan reorder everything”, summarizes the councilorManuel Mora, in statements collected by Diario del Alto Aragón. There is talk of a global investment of almost 20 million of euros and a period of execution of 10 yearsin addition to greater development Urban of the Aragonese Pyrenees. Not everyone considers it good news. Tuesday The country It echoed of the suspicion of environmental and neighborhood associations that more than development speak of pure speculation. Is it something new? Yes. And no. The approval of the plans an important novelty, but this actually comes from behind, far behind. So much, that There are those who go back Its origins in the mid -60s, to the construction of the Cerler station and the commitments of urban use of the land. Since then changes, crisis and legal swings have occurred. In 2005 it was signed A first agreement Between the City of Benasque and Aramon, the Society of the Government of Aragon and Ibercaja that is responsible for managing the Cerler ski resort (among others) and over the years the project has continued writing New chapters. “This full approval involves speeding up a project since 2015 signed and in which in the last ten years nothing had been done,” I celebrated a few days ago Mora. In fact, the urban plan will not only serve to lift new houses. Some of the projected homes have already been builtbut they do not have basic services. The promoter of the plan is Bensque Valley Promotion and Developmentthe society that is responsible for the exploitation of station. What effect will it have? The big question. Benasque’s plan has caught attention for other reasons. To start because its 2,200 homes almost equal to the population of the municipality, where, according to The latest INE dataThere are 2,362 people registered. The country Clarify That its current real estate park does not reach 3,400 homes, a good part of them second residences. In fact it is The second town of all Spain in which this type of property has more weight. Just a year ago several hundred people They went out to protest how difficult it is to lease an apartment in the small Pyrenean town, a complaint that made clear with a large banner in which “the Virgen del Pilar could be read, she cannot rent”. Despite its size, the Aragonese Statistics Institute (IAE) reflects that in 2024 in Benasque there were 2.613 “Places in housing for tourist use“, a fact that only Zaragoza exceeds in Aragon, with 4,246 squares. What supposes that? That renting a house in Benasque does not leave cheap. Just a year ago The country He pointed out It was difficult to find a home for less than 1,000 euros. Today the most adjusted found in idealist are floors by 750 or 850 euros a month. Of course, the ads clarify that it is “seasonal rental.” Among other things that complicates things to workers who are forced to stay in the region, which has even led the entrepreneurs themselves claim that a “affordable” house for operators is guaranteed. “Before it was difficult to find something, but now it is almost a miracle,” Recognize to The avant -garde Jorge Castellano, a worker of the ski resort who comments that he has some colleagues who have no choice but to stay in motorhomes despite the low … Read more

Data centers for AI are an energy hole. Jeff Bezos’s solution: Build them in space

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In the next two decades we will see data centers at Gigavatio scale orbiting the Earth. Or at least that is the prediction that has launched The founder of Amazon and Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos. He said it during his speech at the Italian Tech Week in Turin, where he was able to establish conversation with John Elkann, president of Ferrari and Stellantis. Bezos’s proposal. Space data centers would take advantage of solar energy 24 hours a day, cloudless, rain or night cycles that interrupt the supply. According to Bezosthese “giant training clusters” of artificial intelligence would be more efficient and, eventually, more economical than terrestrial facilities. “We can exceed the cost of land data centers in space in the coming decades,” he said. Why now talks about this. The infrastructure demand for AI is becoming a large hole for the planet. Current data centers consume massive amounts of electricity and water to cool its servers, a problem that is aggravated with each new artificial intelligence model. Given this pressure, large technology explore alternatives: from Locate them in ships o Nordic countries until sink into the ocean. And of course, if we have capacity problems on Earth, some technological ones already think about taking the letter to send them to space. The technical advantages. In space, temperatures range between -120 ° C under direct sunlight and -270 ° C in shadow, which would greatly simplify equipment cooling. Constant solar energy would eliminate dependence on land electrical networks. Bezos places this development as’Natural evolution‘of a process that has already begun with weather and communications satellites. “The next step will be the data centers and then other types of manufacturing,” he explained. The real challenges. As they point out from Tom’s hardwarebuilding a spatial data center of a Gigavatio would require solar panels that would cover between 2.4 and 3.3 million square meters, with an estimated weight of 9,000 to 11,250 metric tons only in photovoltaic material. Transporting all that equipment to space would cost between $ 13,700 and 25,000 million with current technology, needing more than 150 launches. To this is added the difficulty of maintenance, updates and the inherent risk of space releases. Parallelism with AI. Bezos compared The current moment of artificial intelligence With the bubble Puntocom of the early 2000s. “We should be extremely optimistic about the social and beneficial consequences of AI,” he said, although he warned of the possibility of speculative bubbles. His message: Do not confuse possible excesses of the market with the reality of technological advances, whose benefits consider that “they will spread widely and reach everywhere.” When It will be done reality?. Bezos places the temporary horizon “in more than 10 years, but no more than 20”. Today, the project is commercially unfeasible, but its vision starts from the premise that the launch costs will continue to go down and the technology will mature. It remains to be seen, after two decades, part of our digital infrastructure is in orbit, beyond the existing one. In Xataka | Nvidia has control of the most powerful chips of AI: OpenAi, Broadcom and TSMC want to end their XPUS

In the nineteenth century, Spain made the strange decision to build its ways in Iberian width. Now they will be a gift for Renfe in Galicia

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Renfe can breathe calm. The company has a huge business in the Galician corridor. The volume of travelers Between Madrid and Galicia he has shot to the point that airlines are retreating. Time savings since high speed arrives is such that many are choosing to pass to the train due to pure comfort or time flexibility. The Galician corridor is part of the next package of liberalization of the roads, next to the trains with destination Asturias, Cantabria, Cádiz and Huelva. It will not be, at least, until 2028 when the competition is palpable on the tracks because Adif is not complying with the deadlines planned. But Madrid-Galicia has another peculiarity. It is very likely that in 2028 we will see competition on their ways. To find the reason we have to travel to the nineteenth century. The particular Spanish railroad Each new technology arrives with a good rosary of standards of all kinds. It has happened with electric cars and passed with electricity itself. Also with measurement standards or, as in this case, train tracks. The railroad had started in the early nineteenth century. Although the steam machine was already born in the 18th century, it was not until 1804 when Richard Trevithick built A prototype in which the concept applied to transport. The steam locomotive was born. That one of those huge irons with wheels will pull a kind of drawers and could move the goods faster than they had done seemed like a great idea. So great that it soon caught and in 1830 the first train line was opened with passengers. They were the famous 50 kilometers that separated Liverpool from Manchester whose first trip headed George Stephensonwho was the ideologist of the construction of those first route. Those first trains circulated through some roads of 1,422 millimeters, 4 feet and 8 inches. Shortly after, those same ways widen half inch until reaching the famous 1,435 mm. Then they did not know but they had just adopted the “international width”, which is mounted in most trains in the world. Those measures also served to establish Two categories: narrow path (below those 1,435 mm) and wide via (above). The good results of the first trains made the railroad make the leap to continental Europe and the United States. But, like everything in this life, there were those who thought the system could be improved and that it was worth trying. That person was Isambard Kingdom Brunelan excellent British engineer who would create the Great Railroad of the West, joining London with the southwest, western England and much of Wales. Brunel thought that the higher the width of roads, faster speed could reach a train because the greater the stability achieved. Thus, it extended the track width up to 2,140 mm. Then a war of standards began that ended up resolving the Commission of Railroad Widths in favor of Stenphenson and its width of 1,435 mm. It was 1845. In Spain, at that time, we were engaged in the same fight. Railroad yes, but … how? That doubt was the one that set fire in the middle of the 19th century. Observing the good results that were being achieved outside our borders, the Government began to receive requests for the granting of licenses that allowed them to exploit the roads. Aware that it was necessary to harmonize the matter, they consulted a commission of engineers led by Juan Subercase, number one in the Corps of Engineers, acting president of the Advisory Board and director of the School of Engineers since 1837. He was helped Calixto Santa Cruz, number one of his promotion of 1839, and José Subercase, who in addition to his son was also the number one in his promotion the following year, 1840. Together they drafted the report 17.10.1844, on the Madrid Railroad to Cádiz, which recommended to reject a concession to build a railroad from Madrid to Cádiz. This concession was requested by the French engineer Juqueau Galbrun, which was certainly ironic over the years. Explains J. Moreno Fernández in a document in which the whole story of that controversial decision tells that none of the mentioned engineers had left the country and known firsthand how the railroads were abroad. That, perhaps, was one of the reasons why it was omitted that France had opted for international road width. And it is that Subercase was a firm defender of a width of six feet Castilians. The 1,672 millimeters that would end up receiving the name of “Iberian Width”. The defense is that a higher track width forced to use more powerful locomotives. In those days they thought they could increase vaporization with a wider boiler and that this was essential to, in a mountainous country like Spain, to have sufficient power to move the train. They also defended that a higher track width allowed a more stable step per curve but the truth is that time showed that neither one thing nor the other were key. The international width has been versed enough to be used in mountainous areas and the largest boilers in the trains had the problem of increasing the weight so the gain was diluted. In the government they thought that Subarcase motivations They were correct and they didn’t care that in the neighboring country they bet on a narrower track width. To import, they did not care that our other neighbor, Portugal, also promoted their railroads with the international width. In 1844, it was finally decided that the Spanish measure of the six Spanish feet was the one that should be protagonist for its orographic peculiarities. However, that did not condition the government that gave the approval to two routes built on that international width that was quickly imposing. Portugal pressed to have a railway exit to France that Spain ignored. And that created an urban legend that remains until today First in a line between Barcelona and Mataró, projected from the beginning with that exceptional width for the Spaniards … Read more

Build the first closed cycle nuclear reactor

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Vladimir Putin has announced what he calls the “first nuclear energy system in the world with a closed fuel cycle”, a technology that promises to reuse up to 95% of nuclear fuel. If it materializes by 2030, as stated by the Russian president, Russia would dodge two of the greatest challenges of current nuclear centrals: the Radioactive waste management and the possible exhaustion of uranium reserves. Uranium? What do you want that. In the Moscow Global Atomic Forum, and before the presence of figures such as Rafael Grossi, director of the OIEA, Putin described the Russian reactor of closed cycle as a “truly revolutionary development” that, in his words, “will eliminate the problem of uranium supply.” The centerpiece of the ambitious Poryv project (“advance” in Russian) is a rapid reactor refrigerated by lead called Brest -od-300, which is being Building in Severska city in the Siberian region of Tomsk. In the same complex, called Odek, Russia will also build the modules for the spongery and reprocessing of the irradiated fuel. 95% recoverable. In addition to using molten lead instead of water as refrigerant, the Brest-O-300 reactor is designed to operate with uranium-reputony nitruro as fuel. It is its in situ integration with the sponge and reprocessing modules that will allow closing the nuclear fuel cycle. According to official statements, this system It will allow 95% of the spent fuel to reusea technically consistent figure with the external reprocess processes, where most of the fuel used (uranium and plutonium) ends up being recovered. The remaining 3-5% corresponds to fission products and minor actinids, which remain high radioactivity residues. It is not a new technology. Countries like France and Russia itself Nuclear fuel already reproces at an industrial scale. And Japan intends to join the club with the Rokkash Plant. However, the Russian project is a pioneer in its attempt to create a fully integrated complex where a fast reactor operates in symbiosis with its own fuel manufacturing and recycling facilities in the same place. If Russia meets its deadlines, you could have The first complex of this type in operation. And to support him, he has established an International Research Center in the Uliánovsk region (the MBIR International Research Center in Dimitrovgragra), inviting scientists around the world to collaborate in what Putin has called a “new era in nuclear energy.” But is uranium running out? Putin’s justification for this strong investment is a future with uranium shortage. During his speech, he cited OECD estimates that suggested a possible exhaustion of uranium resources by 2090, or even before: as soon as in the 2060s. However, the “Red Book” of the OEA does not speak of an exhaustion of uranium, but of An increase in demandwhich could produce tensions in the supply between 2080 and 2110 if significant investments are not made before for the opening of new mines. Russia’s plan It is a strategic bet. If you achieve the closed cycle reactor for the 2030s, we could witness a new way of understanding nuclear energy, and a world with limited resources in which Russia has managed to outdo the rest. Image | ROSATOM In Xataka | France was not prepared for such an extreme climate or to run out of uranium: its energy model cross, and Europe feels it

To build an “artificial sun” we need to be able to move the weight of ten elephants with millimeter precision. This is what China has just done

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In Chinese mythology, Kuafu was a giant who challenged the gods when trying to catch the sun to give light and heat to their people. Centuries later, China re -pursues that same ambition, but now with avant -garde science: to create a “Artificial sun” that provides clean and unlimited energy. And in that way, the engineers have just presented a new protagonist worthy of legend: a colossal robot. The arm for fusion. The Asian giant has developed a remote manipulation platform for future fusion reactors. It is a system with three robotic arms, whose main manipulator can raise up to 60 tons – the weight of ten African elephants – with a millimeter accuracy, According to South China Morning Post. Meanwhile, the two secondary arms stand out for even more extreme precision: ± 0.01 millimeters, which makes it the most advanced remote management system in the field of fusion. Closer to the “artificial sun.” The objective of this whole project is to achieve stable nuclear fusion, that almost inexhaustible energy that mimics the process that occurs in the sun’s core. In fact, China has been breaking records for years in its East experimental reactor, which this year has achieved Maintain a confined plasma for 1,066 seconds, a world record that exceeds 403 seconds Realized in 2023. But for this energy to become commercial, it is necessary to resolve a major challenge: maintenance. The internal components of a reactor, such as coating or the diving, are constantly damaged by heat, radiation and magnetic fields. And this is where this new robot comes into play: no human being could work in these extreme conditions. The in -depth project. The robot is part of the craft (Comprehensive Research Facity for Fusion Technology), an installation in Hefei, Anhui, nicknamed “Kuafu” in honor of the mythical giant. More than 300 scientists and engineers participate in this project, According to SCMPunder the supervision of the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. “We have developed a machine capable of meeting extremely demanding requirements by overcoming obstacles in materials, sensors and control,” explained Pan HongtaoInstitute researcher. The idea is to use craft as a test bank to develop and validate key fusion technologies, including those that will be applied in the future Chinese experimental fusion reactor (CFETR) and in the International Iter project In France. Ready to go into action? For now, we are not talking about an operational robot in a reactor, but of an experimental platform. According to China Dailythe system has already exceeded the evaluation of experts and will serve as an engineering verification platform to ensure that, when reactors enter into operation, remote maintenance is safe and precise. Craft, where it is housed, plans to be completed in the late 2025. Beyond fusion. Although the immediate objective is to maintain fusion reactors, technology is not limited to that field. According to CGTNthe advances achieved in this robot could also be applied in inspection of nuclear plants, aerospace industry, operations with heavy machinery or even emergency rescues. A global career for the artificial sun. The Kuafu robot does not arise in a vacuum. Other countries also develop remote maintenance systems, although with much lower capabilities. The most advanced arm of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Japan) supports only 2 tons. In contrast, the Chinese robot can manipulate 30 times higher loads. At the international level, the Iter project in France – in which 35 countries participate – will have a system Able to handle up to 45 tons. The new Chinese system already exceeds it in load capacity, although both remain development platforms rather than operating systems. The road map is clear but slow: Chinese experts They calculate that they are still 30 to 50 years to see commercial fusion reactors. And the European Union, with its Eurofusion projectdoes not expect to start testing with plasma until the end of this year. Forecasts The Chinese commitment to nuclear fusion advances with firm steps. The development of a robot capable of lifting 60 tons with surgical precision is not a simple engineering achievement: it is an essential piece for someday fusion reactors to maintain and function stable. Humanity He has been trying to replicate the energy of the sun on earth. With advances like this, China shows that it is determined to be the protagonist in that race. Decades may be missing to see fusion plants in operation, but every step we bring us a little more to that utopia to capture the sun. Image | Freepik Xataka | The largest nuclear fusion project on the planet has survived the setbacks. This is the date on which Iter should be ready

The Spanish rail giant had planned to build a lightwail between Jerusalem and the West Bank. Now has a problem

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The Basque CAF It is found In the international view for its participation in the Jerusalem Railway Project, which connects Israeli settlements considered illegal by the United Nations. The pressure on the company has intensified after appearing cited in An official report of the UN on companies that benefit from the occupation. A dispute project. CAF has been part of a consortium with the Israeli Shapir since 2019 to build and expand the red and green lines of the Light Jerusalem Rail. The project, valued at 1.8 billion euros, includes 27 kilometers of new roads and 50 stations that connect settlements in the West Jerusalem. The Basque company would take more than 500 million euros for construction and equipment, in addition to its participation in management for 15 to 25 years. Why is it problematic. The UN Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, has included to CAF in its report “of the economy of occupation to the economy of the genocide”, presented before the Human Rights Council. According to the document, these infrastructure “contribute to the maintenance and consolidation of illegal settlements” and connect the colonies with Israel “while excluding and segregating the Palestinians.” The Human Rights Council itself declared the project illegal in 2016 and 2017. The pressure intensifies. Amnesty International has been asking CA for years to leave the project. “CAF cannot continue looking the other way and not meet international recommendations,” affirms Esteban Beltrán, director of the NGO in Spain. The organization also claims the Spanish government and the Basque Government, a shareholder of the company, to evaluate the CAF links with “the illegal behavior of Israel.” Others are retiring. The case It is not isolated. In 2024, the Catalan Comsa withdrew from the consortium that had won the construction of the blue line of the Jerusalem tram. The Basque Acerera Sidenor also announced that it will stop serving steel to Israeli companies. International funds such as the Norwegian sovereign have retired their participations from Shapir, a partner of CAF, and the manager Storeband excluded CAF from his portfolio for his participation in the project. CAF’s response. The company maintains in its sustainability reports that “no violation of human rights has been detected” derived from their participation and describes the territories as “object of political controversy.” However, for international organizations, CAF is obviating the resolutions of the UN Security Council, the European Union and the International Court of Justice on the illegality of settlements. Between the lines. The project places CAF at a crossroads between commercial interests and international pressure. Your shareholders include to the Basque Government, Kutxabank, the Matrix of the Mayoral Textile and the workers themselves with 25% of the shares. Meanwhile, the geopolitical context has hardened after the attacks of October 7 and the Israeli response in Gaza, increasing international scrutiny over any company linked to occupied territories. Cover image | Alexander Berezhnoy In Xataka | Ryanair’s escape in small airports has taken Andalusia to a radical idea: his own independent “aena”

United Kingdom will be just the first client. Spain raises a colossus in Galicia to build war ships like churros

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While Spain does not count With f-35 fighterssoon he will do it with what will be a source of pride for the nation: The Bonifaz frigatefirst of the F110 class, whose launch took place in the navantia shipyards in Ferrol. In fact, Navantia has received a commission that will place her in the world showcase as a reference construction: United Kingdom has asked her to do her Your next frigate. In the background: a plan to become the elite of the sector. A naval milestone from Spain. Navantia is carrying out in Ferrol the largest investment of the last hundred years in a shipyard in Spain: the creation of the Digital Block Factory (FDB) conceived to place military naval construction in the world technological avant -garde. With a budget of 110 million eurosan area of ​​45,000 square meters, 500 meters in length and 90 wide, the plant will double the productive capacity of the Galician shipyard and mark the final step towards the model of shipyard 4.0where automation, artificial intelligence and robotization will be protagonists. The day. Its inauguration is scheduled for the First quarter of 2026after a construction process that began in March 2024 and has included the creation of a digital twin to monitor in real time the progress of the works, control cost deviations and anticipate failures. Unpublished productive capacity. The new factory will allow Navantia to manufacture in Only one year the blocks equivalent to a air holder such as Juan Carlos Itwo F-18 frigatesfour European corvettes EPCfour maritime action ships (BAM) or up to two combat supply ships (BAC), in addition to logistical support ships such as the FSS that already produces For the Royal Navy. In practical terms, the plant may generate simultaneously The blocks of two frigates, with a production cadence of one section every ten days (about 26 per year), which will reduce construction deadlines by 20-25%. In the case of the F-110, about 85% From the structure of each unit it will be manufactured in the FDB, while the singular blocks (such as the dome of the sonar or the multimission mast) will continue to be built in the traditional workshops. This scheme will simultaneously add the commitments to the Spanish Navy and the eventual Export contractsa strategic aspiration in the current context of International Rearme, where the armed demands to have their ships in the shortest possible time. Automation, AI and Robotics. The factory has been designed under an optimized workflow scheme, divided into three major areas: steels, prearmament and flip. In the first they will be installed Robotized welding lines Equipped with hybrid laser technology, guaranteeing higher structural dimensional precision and robustness. In the prearmament phase, the subblocks will be transferred autonomously by vehicles not manned with IoT sensors, and robots will be integrated for welding, manipulation and palletization that will work collaboratively with the operators. Finally, in the voltage zone, the blocks will be assembled with subcomponents previously manufactured in an automated assembly system that combines speed, flexibility and reliability. The whole process will be supported by a system of Complete digital traceability: Each piece will generate information associated with its digital twin, which will automatically readjust the following phases and detect real -time deviations using smart cameras connected to 3D models. The Innovation and Robotics Center. Navantia digital transformation is not limited to the plant itself. He Innovation and Robotics Center (CIR), directly linked to the factory, acts as technological nucleus where the latest innovations in automation, automatic inspection, advanced welding and dimensional control are tested and validated. The CIR not only develops solutions applicable to immediate production, but also works as Training and Transfer Space of knowledge, ensuring that advances are quickly integrated into productive processes. The ecosystem, reinforced With collaborations With the University of La Coruña and with specialized consultants, it guarantees, a priori, that the Ferrolano shipyard remains on the border of naval innovation. Labor impact. From the company it has been ensured that, despite the high level of automation, the factory will not involve a template reduction. On the contrary, it will maintain a volume of Between 270 and 400 workers In turn, including both direct employees of Navantia and personnel from auxiliary companies. In each turn they will operate Between 300 and 325 peopleconfirming that robotization is raised as a tool for support to human capital and not as a substitute. The combination of specialized manual labor and intelligent systems ensures that flexibility is maintained to meet specific demands of each naval program. Reference at the military plane. Once finished, the FERROL FDB It will not have equivalent in the world of military construction. The only comparable reference is the Alemán Meyer Werft Shipyarddedicated to luxury cruises and has been gradually applying automated systems for fifteen years. Navantia, however, will be the first company to move this industrial logic War shipswhich, according to the company, will allow you to offer a competitive, sustainable and higher quality product in a sector where the speed of delivery is practically a strategic requirement. In addition, the possibility of producing blocks to Other international shipyardsexpanding his role as a key actor in the global naval supply chain. New era in the estuary. If you want also, with this bet, Navantia aims to turn Ferrol into a World Reference Pole For military naval construction, combining tradition and modernity in a project that represents a before and after in Spanish industrial history. As Rafael Morgade underlinedresponsible for the digital transformation of the company, it is an authentic “new era” in which the Galician shipyard will go from a disorderly growth accumulated in a century to a concentrated, efficient and technologically advanced model. In a marked geopolitical context For the rearmethis megafactoría not only reinforces the capacities of the Spanish Navy, but also positions Navantia as a industrial partner in the elite of the international defense market. Image | Navy In Xataka | The United Kingdom wants to remain one of the great powers. So he will not … Read more

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