pilot

the first pilot line to recycle rare earth magnets

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Europe has learned an uncomfortable lesson in recent years: the energy transition does not depend only on political will or investments in renewables, but on materials that it does not control. After achieving —not without difficulties— reduce its dependence on Russian gas, the European Union is facing now to a deeper, more structural vulnerability: China’s near-absolute dominance over critical metals and, in particular, rare earth permanent magnets. Without these magnets there are no electric cars, no wind turbines, no advanced robotics, nor much of the defense industry. However, France has taken a step that goes beyond political discourse and can turn the tables. The inauguration of a pioneering pilot line. The Orano group and the Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) inaugurated at the CEA-Liten facilities in Grenoble, a pilot line dedicated to the recycling and remanufacturing of high-performance permanent magnets from rare earths. As Orano explained, The infrastructure has a pilot capacity of up to four tons and is equipped with technologies representative of an industrial scale, operated by a joint Orano–CEA team. The technical results of the project are expected by the end of 2026, with a view to subsequent large-scale implementation by an external industrial operator. A response to a critical dependency. The importance of the project goes far beyond its technical dimension. Permanent magnets based on neodymium-iron-boron have become key pieces for the European industrial future, but today the EU matters more than 95% of those you need. and the demand it doesn’t stop growing: The market has grown from around 250,000 tonnes of magnets this year to around 350,000 in 2030, with a growing proportion of high-performance applications. The problem is not only volume, but control of the value chain. China not only concentrates a good part of the world reserves of rare earthsbut between 70% and 90% of its processing and up to 99% in the case of heavy rare earths. This gives it a capacity for geopolitical pressure that has already translated into export restrictions and real supply interruptions for European industries. In this context, the Grenoble pilot line is fully part of the Critical Raw Materials Actwhich sets the goal that at least 25% of critical raw materials are recycled in Europe by 2030. “Short circuit” recycling. This is what the technological core of the project is called. Unlike traditional recycling – the so-called “long loop” – this approach allows rare earths to be recovered directly in metallic form from magnets at the end of their useful life, without going through complex chemical steps of dissolution, reoxidation and reconstitution. “This recycling offers an optimal compromise between magnetic performance, circularity and decarbonization,” explains Benoît Richebé, project manager for Rare Earths and Magnet Recycling at Orano, in statements collected by El Periódico de la Energía. The approach allows critical metals to be directly reused and reconstructed new high-performance magnets, suitable for demanding applications such as electric vehicle traction motors or offshore wind turbines. Orano defends, however, a hybrid approach. According to Richebé, short loop and long loop recycling are complementary, and Europe must be able to have both to build a flexible and resilient industry. The mixture of secondary raw materials with new alloys ensures maximum technical performance. Beyond the pilot. Currently, the recycling rate of rare earth magnets in Europe is just 1%, according to data cited by the German Mineral Resources Agency (DERA). For years, the combination of low prices for Chinese primary products and irregular availability of waste has slowed the development of a large-scale recycling industry. However, how RawMaterials collectsthe largest magnet recycling plant in Eastern Europe, operated by Heraeusand in the south of France the company Caremag plans to establish a rare earth recycling and refining plant in the coming years. However, here comes the key point: the Orano and CEA project is also supported by two collaborative consortia financed by France and the European Union —Magellan 1 and Magnolia 2—, which develop complementary technologies for the manufacture of magnets from recycled critical metals. One of the differentiating elements of the project is the application of Orano’s nuclear know-how to the magnets industry: powder metallurgy, processes in controlled atmospheres, sintering and management of highly regulated facilities. Experiences accumulated in plants such as Orano Melox, dedicated to nuclear fuel recycling, are now transferred to a key sector for electrification. A crack in the monopoly. France is not going to compete with China in production volume of rare earths or magnets in the short term. But with this pilot line, something perhaps more important has begun to be disputed: the control of industrial knowledge and processes. As Benoît Richebé summarizes“mastering the recycling of magnets will be essential for the ecological, digital and technological transitions.” It is not just about materials, but about industrial sovereignty. If the pilot meets its objectives and the processes are successfully transferred to an industrial scale, Europe could recover part of a value chain that it lost decades ago. In a world where critical metals have become instruments of power, recycling magnets is not just an environmental solution: it is a strategic act. Image | Unsplash Xataka | Europe no longer depends on Russian gas: it depends on something more difficult to replace

In Ukraine, the difficult thing is not to replace a drone, but its pilot. So Russia has started the hunt with something unprecedented: Rubikon

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For two years, Ukrainian drone operators had managed to maintain a decisive tactical advantage: the ability to detect, harass and destroy Russian positions with an agility that Moscow could not match. Pilots worked in small teams, in makeshift basements or camouflaged trenches, piloting from a distance FPV that turned the front into a transparent space where the enemy could rarely move unobserved. All that has changed with an appearance. The dark turn. Yes, that domain has been abruptly broken with the appearance Rubikona Russian unit created to track, locate and eliminate not so much drones as to those who operate them. The testimony in the financial times by Dmytro, a Ukrainian pilot and former rapper, summarizes this change of era: he went from being a hunter to being hunted in seconds when a Russian drone detected him on a reckless walk. That moment, which two years ago would have been exceptional, has become part of the daily routine on a front where the survival of the operator has become a strategic objective for Russia and a critical weak point for Ukraine. The result is a complete investment of roles: Innovators, previously almost untouchable, are now a priority target. Rubikon structure and ambition. This Russian elite corps is not simply a drone unit, but an organization of about 5,000 troops endowed with ample financial resources, tactical autonomy and a defined mission: deny Ukraine the ability to operate its drone network. Unlike the heavily bureaucratic operation that characterized the Russian army in the early stages of the war, this unit acts with speed, initiative and an approach more reminiscent of the Ukrainian groups it seeks to destroy. Their main task is not to attack the infantry on the front line, but penetrate behind the frontup to 10 kilometers in depth, to destroy logistics vehicles, ground robots and, above all, locate the operators who control the Ukrainian defensive swarms. Emblem of the elite Russian unit And much more. For Russian and Western experts, Rubikon functions as a development center of unmanned systems: trains other units, analyzes tactics, refines procedures and continually adapts its way of operating. Each technical or doctrinal improvement that emerges from Rubikon ends up radiating to the rest of the Russian army, which explains why the Ukrainians detect unexpected qualitative leaps in the performance of enemy drones. This ability fast learning It is one of the most disturbing elements, because it allows Russia to correct in months the technological gap that Ukraine built for years. The new invisible dimension. The combat is no longer limited to the visible sky, but is fought in a domain more abstract and lethal: the electromagnetic spectrum. Both Ukraine and Russia deploy electronic intelligence stations, signal guidance equipment and jamming systems capable of defeating, jamming or even hijacking adversary drones. This rivalry makes any radio broadcast a potential risk. Operators, no matter how hidden, need clear lines of sight, elevated antennas, and transmitters relatively close to the front, factors that Rubicon systematically explodes. Their teams track antennas on hills, thermal shadows in forests and emissions that reveal the presence of a pilot a few kilometers away. Andrey Belousov inspecting the Rubikon unit The signs. The inhibitorsdespite their usefulness, generate visible electrical signatures that can attract attacks. And in the midst of these maneuvers, both sides resort to signal hacking video to observe enemy cameras or locate the exact source of a remote control. Expert Tom Withington resume this complexity with a precise image: it is a game of cat and mouse where physics dictates the rules, and where each action leaves a trace that the opponent can exploit. Pressure on the pilots. Plus: unlike the Russians, Ukraine lacks the necessary troops to maintain continuous shiftswhich creates physical and psychological exhaustion that becomes as dangerous as the enemy itself. Zoommer, a Ukrainian soldier from a small drone unit, explained in the Times that Rubikon can operate without breaks because it has enough staff to rotate every few hours, while they must remain alert almost all day. The arrival of this unit to Pokrovsk area (a city that has been in a desperate defensive struggle for a year) has transformed life on the front, going from manageable days to a constant tension in which any movement can mean death. Before, says Zoommer.the area was almost “a vacation”, now it is an invisible hell where every antenna, every fleeting signal and every movement outside the trench can be a fatal mistake. This pressure has forced the Ukrainians to change routines, camouflage positions with extreme care, hide transmitters, disperse equipment and create anti-drone cells that act as a defensive mirror of Russia’s own tactics. The loss of transparency. Drones had provided Ukraine with a crucial tool: the ability to see and hit farther and faster, giving its defenders situational transparency that compensated for numerical inferiority. According to the RUSI analysisup to 80% of current casualties are attributed to drone operations, underscoring their central role in a war in which artillery and infantry depend on these mechanical eyes. What’s happening? Than Rubikon and the like have eroded that advantage in forcing Ukraine to reallocate resources from offensive missions to the protection of its own operators. The result is that, while Russia advances at an increasing pace, Ukraine devotes more efforts to stopping than hitting, losing the initiative at a critical moment in the conflict. Moscow has quickly absorbed the enemy’s lessons and turned them into doctrine, a process that would normally take years and that here has been compressed into months, tipping the balance on an increasingly dynamic front. Psychological warfare. The latest analysis show that the front is no longer defined only by the technology deployed, but by psychological pressure endured by Ukrainian operators and by the transformation of the Russian army towards a more agile structure, represented in Rubikon. The pilots, who have become priority objectives, live under constant tension that forces them to minimize any movement and operate with the permanent feeling of being watched, because … Read more

Something has hit a Boeing 737, injuring the pilot. The truly unheard of: it happened at 11,000 meters

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A shattered windshield, a pilot with his arm covered in cuts, and United Airlines Flight 1093 diverted for an emergency landing. The plane that covered the route from Denver to Los Angeles has become the aeronautical mystery of the moment after, apparently, something hit the cockpit at 11,000 meters above sea level. What we know. The United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating an incident that occurred Thursday with a Boeing 737 MAX 8 flying over Moab, Utah, at cruising speed. The plane was traveling at an altitude of 36,000 feet when a suspected impact occurred in the cockpit. Photos of the incident show the captain’s side windshield completely splintered, the plane’s center console splattered with glass, and the pilot’s arm covered in small cuts and abrasions. According to initial reports, the captain “thought they had been hit by a piece of metallic space debris.” When they made an emergency landing in Salt Lake City, they ended up discovering a “3.5-inch” impact on the outer panel of the windshield, but the cabin did not depressurize. Space junk? The plane’s windshield has been sent to NTSB laboratories for analysis, but researchers are not working on the hypothesis that it was a space debris impact, but rather part of a more mundane object that also flies higher than airplanes: a weather balloon. Although space junk be a growing problemthe United States Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) considers the risk “minuscule” of a piece of satellite or rocket hitting an airplane. That it also injures a person on board has a probability of “less than one in a billion.” The famous popularizer Scott Manley points out one of the main reasons for skepticism: modern satellites are designed to disintegrate into small pieces. Upon reaching cruising altitudes, these pieces are no longer hypersonic and have low impact energy. So a balloon? If it wasn’t space debris, what could have broken the windshield and injured the pilot? One of the exterior images of the plane shows, in addition to the broken windshield, dozens of small marks and dents on the metal fuselage of the plane, just above the window, which could be an indication that they encountered a hail storm. Hail is rare at 11,000 meters, but not impossible. However, the NTSB is working on the line of investigation that it was “a piece of a weather balloon data packet,” according to the specialized website AVBrief. These balloons and their payloads usually operate at 25,000-40,000 meters above sea level. Of course: if the piece was still tied to a balloon, it is strange that the pilot confused it with space junk. The windshield failed. Whatever hit the plane, the photos suggest the windshield didn’t do its job. The cabin windows of a 737, Manley explains, have multiple structural layers: glass on the outside and inside, with a polymer layer in between. The impact did not cause depressurization, indicating that the main structure and polymer layer held, but the inner glass layer fractured violently, projecting “glass dust” and small fragments toward the pilot, and causing the abrasions and cuts seen in the photos. The crew descended to 26,000 feet after the incident to reduce the pressure differential over the damaged window, and landed without further complications. The definitive answer as to what hit Flight 1093 will have to wait for the forensic analysis the NTSB is conducting on that shattered windshield. Images | JonNYC In Xataka | Three large pieces of space debris reenter every day: “one day our luck will run out and they will fall on someone”

50 years ago, a man won the ‘US Dakar’ with an unusual co -pilot: his dog

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Dogs have been evolving thousands of years to become our best friends and They have a special memory When it comes to remembering our pampering. Other memories have a very short life in their head, but the safest thing is that Kookie, a mestizo dog, will remember throughout his life the adventures he had with John McCown, his owner. Because they did not give normal walks through the park: they toured the motorcycle desert competing in official tests. And Kookie was not the package: it was the co -pilot. The strange couple. Imagine The scenetoday impossible due to so straight regulations, the era of telemetrías, the absolute control of each extra gram in a competition vehicle and the most absolute technification: a dog uploaded on the deposit of a motorcycle, which competed in official tests and was moving based on the land they were going through. In the 60s, the carnicero by profession John McCown liked to walk with his bike. He did it accompanied by Kookie, his dog, who placed a back basket. At one point, John was going to go one step further: he bought an off -road motorcycle and began to get into his head that could compete in Cross competitions. He did so, and did not leave Kookie behind. My dog ​​knows how to wear the motorcycle. Instead of a basket, John improvised a “seat” with a blanket on the gas tank of his Husky 400 and OSSA 175 SDRand that is where Kookie felt like fish in the water. I imagine that the dog would be waiting for good doses of bones at the end of the day and that was the motivation, but the truth is that I was not there to make bulk: John and Kookie trusted each other to wear the motorcycle. During about 300 tests, the couple ate hundreds of potholes, swallowed dust and crossed puddles while both adapted their position on the vehicle to tame it in the best possible way. In This article From the American Motorcyclist magazine, McCown’s wife, McCown Describe That Kookie bowed to the curves, leaned on the deposit in the rugged field and stood up when potholes came. A bomb. Both executed a choreography on the motorcycle, and although at first they did not do it as an advertising maneuver, it is evident that it caught the attention of many. They appeared in the documentary movie ‘On Any Sunday‘, Kookie starred in children’s books such as’ Kookie the Motorcycle Racing Dog’ and ‘Kookie Rides Again’ and even brands like Ossa, Can-Am and Kawasaki the They sponsored. Kookie Junior. When Kookie got on the motorcycle, she was 10 years old. Hundreds of races later, and with 13, after a check, McCown preferred that his compi would limit to some shorter and less demanding races. Until 14, when John decided that Kookie should hang the helmet and live on the couch. He died at age 16, but as John remembers in the 1981 article, before leaving he left a litter. One of them was baptized as Kookie Junior, and for 10 years, he ran with John as Kookie had done before. They got some off-road championship (such as the 175cc class championship) and, although some wondered if it was not crazy, it was a friendship that benefited both of them for fun and for the company in the long and hard careers for the western American deserts. To the hall of fame. Such was the legend of McCown and Kookie (s) that were included In the Hot Shoe Hall of Fame, an organization and museum dedicated to preserving the history of motorcycle races in ‘Flat Track’ and ‘Speedway’, recognizing both the pilots and the mechanics, personalities and influential journalists in that world. “Kookie learned to read the terrain, leaning back in the rugged and standing at the most smooth. John could always know what came ahead because of the way Kookie moved.” – Description of the “plaque” of the Hot Shoe Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, that recognition is something that John did not live. McCown He died In 2011 due to complications after cardiac operation. On the other side, surely Kookie and KJ were waiting for him, with the engine on and ready for one more adventure. Images | McCown, Race DezertAmerican Motorcyclist In Xataka | “With head, we would all go on motorcycles of 20 hp”: there is a bud debate about how much power is too much power for a motorcycle

Microsoft has put co -pilot in Excel. And you have also notified that you do not use it if you need the results to be correct

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Artificial intelligence has finally landed In one of the most famous spreadsheets in the world: Excel. But he hasn’t done it as many imagined. Talk to the program in natural language and automatically solve everything for us? Only in part. Copilot’s shortcuts allow to summarize, classify and order databut they do not turn Excel into a agent able to take control of a project from beginning to end. In addition, the novelty comes with clear limits: the function can make mistakes. Microsoft is testing co -pilot as a native function within the Excel calculation engine. The idea is simple: write an instruction in natural language within the sheet and obtain a result that is placed directly in the grid, with the same behavior as any Excel exit. Integration allows you to continue working with defined ranges, tables and names without changing the structure of the file, and the results are updated when the data changes, without resorting to scripts or external accessories. Copilot is landing in Microsoft Excel As we see, it is a useful function, but with clear limitations. At the moment we cannot ask in natural language things such as “fuses the books of the subsidiaries, make everything to euros to the official change, eliminate duplicates and enter me a quarterly consolidated balance with comparative graphics.” Copilot, for now, plays in another land: Understand instructions in natural languageYes, but it does it within Excel and always about the data you have on the sheet itself. Accepted that Copilot is not an automatic pilot, it is worth exploring what it is practical. Microsoft points to four daily fronts that are resolved without abandoning the sheet: Rain of ideas without leaving the sheet. Ask for a list of concepts, titles or keywords from a brief description. If we need it, we can ask that you rewrite a text in a lighter or more formal tone and leave the result ready to polish. Summaries that go to the point. Point out a wide range and request a short text with trends, peaks and falls. This is useful when a table must be converted into an understandable paragraph for a report. Direct classification in the grid. Deliver a column with comments, tickets or survey responses. We can ask that you return labels such as “positive/neutral/negative” and a brief category. Everything would turn to new columns to continue working. Lists and tables on the fly. From a description, which proposes a table with the columns that we indicate (task, responsible, date, state). It is a basis for organizing without wasting time mocking. ⠀In the official noteCatherine Pidgeon (Excel team) offers a very clear example of what Copilot can do today. Imagine a sheet with a column full of opinions about a new coffee maker in the office. Some value flavor, others complain about noise or deposit size. Copilot can read that column and return, right next to us, a table with two fields: the feeling of each comment (positive, neutral or negative) and a category Cut that helps you group (“taste”, “noise”, “capacity”). In minutes we would go from a messy list to something analyzable. There we decided: filter for the most frequent problems, count a category or prepare a summary. And how is it used in practice? Exactly like any other Excel function: writing the sign equal to the beginning of a cell and then the name of the function. In this case, Simply put = co -pilot () and add inside the instruction in natural language or the range of data that we want to use as a context. There are no tricks or hidden menus, it is invoked as invoked a = sum () or un = search (), which makes learning minimal and experience is familiar from the first moment. It is time to put the caution on the table. Copilot works within the book itself: it does not access the web or documents of the company, and its results must be reviewed and validated before including them in reports or business decisions. Microsoft is clear about it: it is not appropriate for high -risk scenarios (with legal, regulatory or compliance implications). There are also operational limits: the function has quotas of use (up to 100 calls every ten minutes and 300 per hour). Microsoft is clear about it: it is not appropriate for high -risk scenarios. What we are seeing should not surprise us either. Artificial intelligence has advanced by giant steps, but still has a weak point: it can be wrong. These inaccuracies are usually called “hallucinations”And, although technology improves with each generation, the companies that develop it warn that It is not convenient to re -one hundred percent. It is almost a courtesy reminder that we have already normalized: every time we open a chatbot as COPILOT, Chatgpt either GeminiWe find a warning that reminds us that what we read can contain errors. Will the day come when these failures disappear? There is no clear answer. Even paying for the most advanced versions, the fastest or most expensive, absolute security does not exist. That is the reflection that also applies in Excel: Copilot is useful and opens possibilities, but never replaces the tranquility it gives for oneself that the numbers walk. Copilot does not reach everyone yet. Microsoft is gradually display They are on the beta channel, both in Windows and Mac. The company ensures that in the coming months it will also be available in the Excel Web version through the Frontier program. Nothing must be done to activate it: the function appears on the sheet when the requirements are met, and its use is completely optional. Images | Microsoft | WIRESTOCK In Xataka | If the question is whether there is an AI bubble, Sam Altman has just answered. One with which he is winning

California will test a “co -pilot of AI” at one of the most sensitive points of its electricity grid. Can go very well … or very bad

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There is a less visible part of the electricity grid: the one that goes out on purpose. From time to time, whole teams must disconnect by maintenance. They are routine tasks, but their coordination and validation are decisive so that the system continues to work. In California, that work falls to the California Independent System Operator (Caiso) human team. Now, an artificial intelligence will begin to collaborate with them. Caiso has launched A pilot project with the firm Oati. The objective is to verify how a language model, similar to the one that drives Chatgptcan attend in a critical mission: manage requests – especially the scheduled – that come daily to perform maintenance in the network. Artificial intelligence to attend a task that cannot fail Many of these requests imply, although not always, temporarily disconnect key assets. If the information is incomplete or incorrect, the consequences can be felt in real time: from Network instability even alterations in the electricity market. Therefore, although part of the flow is already automated, the final review remains manual and exhaustive. Between 2020 and 2025, internal graphs show a high volume of applications, with clear spring and autumn peaks, the usual maintenance windows. That seasonality, added to the total number of requests, converts maintenance management into one of the most complex operating challenges in the system. The tool is called Oati Genie and is raised as a co -pilot of AI. Detect anomalies, extract operational information and suggest steps based on previous cases. To achieve this, it combines retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) with a system of multiple agents: operators formulate questions in natural language and receive contextualized answers, with links to documents and records that support them. The operator can, for example, ask what work could affect a certain electric route and obtain a history, procedures and public data such as those of OASIS (Open Access Same-Time Information System), the regulated base that centralizes technical and market information in real time. That consultation, which previously demanded manual searches, now comes with much more agility. The co -pilot does not decide for itself, its role serves to reinforce and expedite the human decision. If everything is going as planned, the tool will enter internal tests before the end of the year. Those who use it may report failures, limitations or improvements and help profile their evolution. It is not an isolated experiment, but part of a broader strategy to Apply to other areas of the system. The plan is underway, but there is still knowing if Oati Genie will fulfill what he promises. It may become a daily ally for operators; Maybe it’s just a step on the road to a smarter network. The only sure thing is that the electricity sector already explores that address. Images | Caiso | Javad Esmaeili In Xataka | Harvest wheat or kilowatts? The new account that many farmers make in Spain

Take it to the car to speak with you and act like a real co -pilot

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Google wants to change how we communicate with the car (And also with the clock and TV). Until now, talk to Google Assistant In Android Auto or Android Automotive It was useful, yes, but also required concrete commands, well -formulated phrases. That is about to change. In ‘The Android Show: I/O’ edition, Google has confirmed that Gemini, its assistant with generative, will reach vehicles. And it will not be a simple evolution of the assistant. The goal is to make the voice experience in the car as natural as a real conversation. It will no longer need to think about how to ask for something. It will be enough to say “Hey Google, let’s talk” to start a fluid talk with Gemini, without hands and without menus. And this is where the interesting thing comes in: the new mode looks a lot like Chatgpt voice mode. That is, you can maintain a continuous conversation, correct yourself on the march and replace. A co -pilot with AI who does not need translation. In the center of this experience is Gemini Livethe conversational mode that Google. It is not just to ask for a song or a route. The idea is that you can raise things like “I need to talk to my boss about a promotion, how do I focus?” and receive useful, natural and context suggestions. In addition, many frictions are eliminated that previously complicated the interaction: now you can issue a message, edit it before sending it, start from scratch or even translate it into more than 40 languages ​​without touching the screen only once. Everything is done by voice, everything flows in natural language. And if that were not enough, the new graphic interface has been redesigned to accompany this approach, with visual elements that adapt to Gemini. These are some of the actions that Gemini will allow from the car: Find routes with Google Maps. Send and edit voice messages, with real -time corrections. Play music on YouTube Music or Spotify. Translate messages automatically to more than 40 languages. It will also be possible to interact with other Google apps, such as Gmail or Maps, to solve more complex requests. If you need to find that field where your son plays football and just remember that someone mentioned it by email, Gemini can rescue the location directly from your entrance tray and take you there. The deployment begins soon (although without a specific date). According to Google, Gemini will begin to reach cars compatible with Android Auto in the coming months, and later will also do it in vehicles that make up the Google operating system directly. There is no exact date, but the plan is underway. The important thing here is not only the arrival of a more powerful AI, but the change of paradigm. Voice assistance ceases to be a list of commands to become a natural conversation, with context, memory and free language. We will have to wait to know if what the company promises us will be fulfilled. Images | Google In Xataka | Google has been trying to create your WhatsApp. With RCS it is achieving it without it seems In Xataka | How to access the Android Auto faster with this little trick

In just a few days Rapidus will begin operating a pilot line of 2 Nm chips

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Rapidus is a very young company. It was founded on August 10, 2022 by the Japanese government with an initial capital of 7,346 million yen (just under 46 million euros) contributed by, and here comes the interesting, Sony, Toyota, Nec, SoftBankKioxia, Denso, Nippon Telegraph and Mufg Bank. The initial capital invested in the constitution of this company is not very bulky, but there is no doubt that the companies that participate in it have an indisputable relevance in the sectors of technology, automotive and telecommunications. The relevance of this organization, in any case, lies in the role entrusted to him by the government currently led by Shigeru ishiba. And this is the company with which Japan aspires to recover competitiveness in the semiconductor manufacturing industry that had three decades ago. Its economy is at stake. In fact, this Asian country began to deploy its strategy to reinforce its integrated circuit industry more than two years ago, so the first results begin to see the light. Rapidus is ready to start the manufacturing tests of avant -garde chips Japan is currently investing more money in its sector of integrated circuits than the US, Germany, France or the United Kingdom. Not in terms of net value, but its effort is greater if we weigh the investment of these countries on their gross domestic product (GDP). The US dedicates 0.21% of its GDP to its semiconductor industry, and Germany 0.41%. France, according to Nikkei Asia0.2%, and, finally, the United Kingdom 0.04%. The difference is very significant and puts on the table the effort that Japan is making with 0.71% of its GDP. Private investment has a very important role in the economic support of Rapidus Today several solvent media, such as Nikkei Asia either BloombergThey have collected that the Shigeru Ihiba administration is preparing an injection of 5.4 billion dollars specifically for Rapidus. And, as we have seen in the first lines of this article, Private investment It has a very important role in the economic support of this company. In any case, the most interesting is what Rapidus already has. And it is that the state -of -the -art semiconductor production plant that has taken to point in northern Japan, in the city of Chitose (Hokkaido), will begin in April the wafering processing tests in a pilot line. The directive’s directive plan is to start large -scale production of 2 Nm semiconductor In 2027. If he succeeds, this company will get recorded in a record time to TSMC, Intel and Samsung, which a priori will be its main short -term competitors. In addition, what is causing the new Rapidus factory to monopol It will be completely automated. Its purpose is to resort to robots and artificial intelligence (AI) to tune an automated production line that will be specialized in the manufacture of 2 nm chips for AI applications. Its plan consists, in short, to produce integrated circuits faster, with a lower and more quality cost. More information | Nikkei Asia | Bloomberg In Xataka | Japan takes the initiative with nuclear fusion and sets an extremely ambitious date: the 2030s In Xataka | Japan has taken the carrier to dominate the chips industry. Prepare a 325,000 million dollar plan

SMR reactors are the great promise of nuclear energy. The United States pilot project has failed

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Fission energy based on small modular reactors (SMR) is the great promise to complement renewables in the energy transition. But the failure of the first pilot project in the United States has highlighted the economic challenges that could stop its development. The advantages of SMR. With nuclear fusion energy in diapers, the promise of a safer, cheap and efficient fission nuclear excites political leaders and technological equally. SMRs have clear benefits regarding conventional fission reactors: they are Compact unitsdesigned to be manufactured in series; Therefore, in theory, they can be transported and assembled rapidly, adapting to different locations to integrate into the electricity grid together with intermittent sources, such as solar panels and wind turbines. The Nuscale case. With their compact size and modular design, SMRs should considerably reduce the cost and construction times of large nuclear reactors. However, reality proved to be more complicated For the first pilot project in the United States. The Nuscale project, developed by the Nuscale Power company for small Utah communities, was canceled at the end of 2023, when it was supposed to be inaugurated, due to its crazy cost overruns. It had been projected in 2015 with 12 reactors capable of generating 600 MW of power for 3,000 million dollars. By 2023, The planned capacity of the plant had been reduced to 462 MW and the estimated project costs had climbed up to 9.3 billion dollars. He became unfeasible. A scale problem. Despite their modular nature and the aspiration to produce them in series, SMRs are an emerging technology that does not have the advantages of the scale economy, as renewables do. A German report He revealed that SMRs remain the most expensive option against renewable technologies, whose costs continue to decrease This already happened with conventional nuclear energy. A 2014 study He revealed that 180 nuclear projects analyzed, 175 had exceeded their initial budget with an average overrun of 117%. The SMR can be expected, at least initially, also raise the cost per megavatio compared to other more settled options. Many interested. Despite these financial challenges,The industry sees potential in SMR. Giants like Google, Microsoft and Amazon They have announced agreements to acquire energy from future projects of modular reactors of companies such as Kairos Power and X-Energy. These investments, driven by the energy consumption of artificial intelligence, could provide the financial impulse that the industry needs to solve long -term economic problems, with the expectation that costs decrease as more projects are built. Image | Nuscale Power In Xataka | Europe does not want to lose the SMR nuclear reactors train. This is your formula to deploy them in 2030

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