power

France needs to protect its nuclear power at all costs

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Emmanuel Macron has decided to immerse himself in the controversy. In a joint interview with the major European newspapersthe French president has attacked the waterline of the Spanish energy model, describing the debate on the lack of interconnections as “false.” But behind his words lies a geopolitical anxiety: we are not facing a technical criticism of the stability of the network, but rather a territorial defense of a nuclear power. that sees its hegemony threatened for cheap energy from its southern neighbor. The direct accusation. “Spain’s problem is that it has a 100% renewable model that its own domestic network does not support,” Macron categorically sentenced The Country. The president insisted that the Spanish blackout “has nothing to do with interconnections,” but rather with the intrinsic instability of renewables. This diagnosis comes at a calculated time: according to the Financial TimesMacron uses external threats – the Greenland crisis and tensions with the US – to demand “Eurobonds” and financial centralism, asking for more Europe for his debt while building physical walls in the Pyrenees. The nuclear bunker. The underlying motivation is the economic survival of Paris. France aspires to be the “battery of Europe” and its nuclear investment plan of 300 billion euros desperately needs profitability. If Spain floods the market with cheap solar energy, the French nuclear model – centralized and expensive – loses competitiveness. Macron is already moving to protect himself: has sealed a pact with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to classify “pink hydrogen” (nuclear) as green, shielding its technology from the southern solar boom. An island by decree. The data refute the Elysée speech about self-sufficiency. Spain continues to be an “energy island” with barely 2.8% interconnection, very far from the EU’s 15% objective. As the ministers of Spain and Portugal pointed out in a letterFrance has explicitly excluded key Aragon and Navarra projects from its 2025-2035 network plan. What’s more, Ember data show thatDuring the blackout, Spain even exported energy to France because the French reactors were stopped, proving that the bottleneck is the lack of output, not generation. The Danish mirror. The fallacy about “renewable instability” collapses when looking north. with more 80% of wind generationdoes not suffer blackouts because it is ultra-interconnected to North Poolinstantly balancing its load with Germany and Norway. Meanwhile, the “nuclear stability” that Macron preaches is failing: last summer, the French reactors stopped not due to lack of wind, but because the Rhône and Garonne rivers They were too hot to cool them, skyrocketing prices in Europe while the Spanish solar plant continued to operate. Solar asphyxiation. The French blockade has a tangible cost. Without interconnections, Spain suffers curtailment —throwing 7% of their clean energy in the trash because it doesn’t fit on the grid—which sinks prices to zero and ruins investors. In his interview with The CountryMacron calls for a “European awakening” to not be vassals of China or the US. However, by keeping the Pyrenees closed, it effectively turns the Iberian Peninsula into an energy vassal of France, preventing the same strategic autonomy that it claims to defend. Image | House of Lords and freepik Xataka | The solar miracle that went wrong: Spain produces more electricity than it can manage

We have so much water in Spain’s reservoirs right now that it has become a problem for someone: nuclear power.

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What just a few months ago seemed like a chimera—seeing overflowing reservoirs in the middle of winter—has become an overwhelming reality after the passage of successive Atlantic fronts. But the water that has fallen on the peninsula has not only alleviated the drought; has generated such an excess of energy supply that the electrical system has had to do without its traditional “base load”: nuclear energy. The data confirms that, faced with the push of water and wind, the atom has lost its place in the market. A change of scenery. According to data from the Peninsular Hydrological Bulletinthe water reserve in Spain has skyrocketed to 77.3% of its total capacity, storing 43,341 hm³ of water. This represents an increase of 10.1% in a single week, a figure that illustrates the volume of rainfall. To understand the magnitude of this data, just look back: in this same week in 2025, the reserve was at 58.13%. Even more impressive is the comparison with the average of the last 10 years, which stands at 53.6%. That is, today we have 13,000 cubic hectometers more water than the historical average for the decade. The situation is such that the focus has shifted from scarcity to security. In Andalusia, where red notices have been activated, reservoirs are functioning as the last line of defense. The system has been doing “flood lamination” work (water retention to avoid floods), especially in the Guadalquivir and Genil basin, where dams such as Iznájar or El Tranco are crucial to contain the flow before it reaches cities like Seville. The great battery of Spain is full. The impact goes far beyond the visible. Reservoirs are not just liquid stores, they are giant batteries, and right now they are more charged than ever. As detailed in the Hydrological Bulletin in your energy sectionSpain currently stores 16,184 GWh of hydroelectric energy, the largest amount ever recorded at this time. If we compare this figure with the same week of the previous year (13,825 GWh), the jump is notable: today we have 117.1% of the energy we had a year ago. This massive injection of cheap electricity has saturated the seams of the Iberian market. The supply of renewable energy has been so high that interconnections have not been able to cope. According to expert Joaquín Coronado on your LinkedIn profilethe combination of rain and high wind production in Portugal caused the saturation of the interconnection between both countries. With electricity unable to flow freely, the market disengaged: while in Spain prices were sinking due to the sun and water, in Portugal they skyrocketed during peak hours due to technical restrictions. The physical network is suffering to manage such an avalanche of green electrons. The nuclear “no home”. The direct consequence of this renewable surplus is that nuclear energy is no longer competitive in this scenario. The thesis is clear: there is plenty of installed power when the weather is favorable. According to market datathe pressure from renewables has expelled 1.5 GW of nuclear power. On the one hand, Almaraz unit II had to reduce load. On the other hand, the Trillo Nuclear Power Plant was completely disconnected from the grid on Sunday, February 8. The confirmation comes from the headquarters itself. In his informative noteTrillo managers acknowledge that the plant stopped on a scheduled basis because “it was not compatible with the electricity market nor was it required by the System Operator.” Although they assure that the plant is technically perfect, they point to an economic reason: with prices sunk by storms and “high taxation”, operating the nuclear plant costs them. The underlying debate: why keep what is left over? This episode of “nuclear blackout” comes in the middle of the debate over the extension of the Almaraz plant, whose owners are requesting to extend its useful life beyond 2027. A new report from Greenpeaceprepared by the Rey Juan Carlos University and the UPC, warns that artificially keeping nuclear operational is a stopper for the ecological transition. What happened this week in Trillo reinforces his conclusions: Technical feasibility: The study ensures that in the period 2028-2029, Almaraz’s energy could be replaced by 96.4% by renewables. Economic cost: According to The Jumpextending Almaraz would cost consumers an additional 3,831 million euros and would stop green investments worth 26,129 million. Emissions: The report indicates that the extension would generate millions of tons of extra CO2 by discouraging the installation of new clean power. The market ruling. This episode is not a meteorological anecdote, it is confirmation of a change in structural cycle. The February storm has functioned as a stress test for the electrical system and the result is clear: in a marginalist market, water and wind physically displace nuclear power. The data supports that this is already a trend, not an exception. According to closing figures for 2025 published by Five Daysin Iberdrola’s generation mix in Spain, hydroelectric energy (33.3%) already surpassed nuclear energy (33.2%) in total production last year. What happened this week in Trillo is the real-time demonstration of that statistic. With Spain’s “battery” charged to 77% and the wind turbines spinning, the rigidity of the nuclear park becomes an economic barrier. The market’s conclusion is, today, unappealable: we have so much water that nuclear power is no longer essential. Image | freepik and freepik Xataka | When Spain embraced wind energy, it did not have a problem: it would be too windy.

With the new Amazon pack you will not have to connect the Fire TV Stick to the power

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Fire TV Sticks work by connecting them to an HDMI port on your TV and a power outlet, but What if we skip this last step? There is an accessory that allows you to do this, and Amazon has now included it in a new pack that sells for 44.99 euros and that also includes a Fire TV Stick HD. Fire TV Stick HD + Mission Cables Adapter The price could vary. We earn commission from these links A new Fire TV Stick HD pack Mission Cables is a brand that manufactures accessories for some of Amazon’s devices, such as the portable battery for Echo Dot or, in this case, the adapter for the Fire TV Stick. This last accessory allows us to skip the step of connecting the dongle to a power outlet, and It does it through a USB-A port on the television. It is ideal if we have few power outlets nearby or if we simply have a power strip (or do not have one directly) occupied by other devices, something that can be common if we have the TV, a sound bar or the router connected. The adapter is Compatible with all Fire TV Sticks (although nothing is mentioned about the Fire TV Stick 4K Select), so if you are interested in buying it on Amazon it has a price of 24.99 euros. As for the Fire TV Stick HDthis is a model aimed at televisions that do not offer 4K resolution and are not compatible with Dolby Vision or Dolby Atmosalthough it can perfectly be used on any television that at least has an HDMI port. Integrate the voice assistant Alexa and it comes with a remote that has shortcut buttons to apps like YouTube or Netflix. You may also be interested Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Plus, compatible with Wi-Fi 6, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos and HDR10+ The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition (latest generation) | With color screen, self-adjusting front light, wireless charging and long battery life | 32GB The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Enrique PerezAmazon In Xataka | The best mobile phones, we have tested them and here are their analyzes In Xataka | Best Amazon Fire TV. Which one to buy and recommended models to convert your TV into a smart TV depending on use

Japan has attempted to power up the world’s largest nuclear power plant. It only lasted a few hours

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The nuclear debate, which Japan thought closed, returns to the scene. The recent authorization to reactivate Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, the largest atomic plant in the world, has set off alarms: citizen distrust, the shadow of Fukushima and doubts have surfaced about whether TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) is the right company to lead the country’s new energy stage. Fifteen years of waiting for a reboot that didn’t even last a day. In Niigata, reactor number 6 went from complete silence to emergency shutdown in less than 24 hours. The failure, located in critical safety systems, has turned the great revival energetic of Japan in a lesson in technical fragility. A slow giant. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa had not produced a single kilowatt since 2012. That closure was not an isolated event, but the shock wave of Fukushima in 2011, which put all reactors of similar design in the spotlight. But for TEPCO, this complex of seven units and more than 8,000 MW is much more than energy: it is its financial lifeline. According to Japan Forward estimatesthe electricity company needs these reactors to inject some 100,000 million yen annually into its coffers, essential oxygen to pay the endless bill for the dismantling of Fukushima Daiichi. The Japanese Government, under the command of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, has positioned this reopening as a strategic pillar. The objective is ambitious, in saying that nuclear energy represent 20% of the energy mix by 2040. This energy is needed to power new AI data centers and semiconductor factories, thus reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels, made more expensive by the fall of the yen and current geopolitics. Chronicle of a fleeting reboot. The reactivation process of reactor No. 6 was marked by setbacks even before it began. The restart, initially scheduled for Tuesday, January 20, had to be postponed one day after it was detected that an alarm designed to warn of the accidental removal of control rods did not work during the tests, as reported by The Japan Times. After correcting this error, operations formally began on Wednesday at 7:02 pm. At 8:28 pm, the reactor reached the “critical state” (sustained nuclear fission). However, the celebration in TEPCO’s control rooms – where staff tensely monitored screens – was short-lived. At 12:28 a.m. Thursday, just 16 hours after the start, an alarm sounded again. This time it indicated a failure in the engine control panel that operates one of the reactor control rods (the devices that regulate or stop the nuclear reaction). TEPCO attempted to replace electrical components and inverters, but the anomaly persisted. Given the uncertainty, the company announced a “planned temporary shutdown” to reinsert the control rods and stop the fission, a process that concluded Friday morning. “We do not assume that the investigation will be resolved in one or two days; at this time we cannot say how many days it will take,” admitted Takeyuki Inagaki, director of the plant, at a press conference. Security under suspicion. Although TEPCO maintains that the reactor remains under control and without leaks to the outside, the incident has served to poke into a wound that was never closed. It is not just the present that is worrying, but a tarnished record: just five years ago, the Financial Times I already put the focus on the plant after a security scandal where an employee circumvented access controls using a foreign identification, revealing the fragility of its surveillance systems. However, distrust does not only fall on TEPCO. The Japanese nuclear sector is experiencing a systemic credibility crisis. Earlier this month, Chubu Electric admitted to manipulating seismic data to minimize the impact of potential earthquakes at its Hamaoka plant, leading the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) to describe the act as “scandalous” and to suspend its security review after a decade of paperwork. A divided society in Niigata. Outside the plant and at TEPCO headquarters, protesters like Yumiko Abe, 73, express their indignation: “Electricity is for Tokyo, but we in Kashiwazaki run the risk. It doesn’t make sense.” The figures support this discomfort. According to surveys cited by South China Morning Postabout 60% of Niigata residents oppose the restart. Furthermore, 70% of citizens fear that TEPCO will not be able to manage an emergency based on its history. On the other hand, prominent seismologists warn in the Financial Times that the plant is located near an area of ​​very high seismic risk where a large earthquake could cause billions of dollars in damage. The future of the atom in Japan. The path to full operation of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is once again up in the air. While TEPCO makes cost cuts of 3.1 trillion yen To fund the decommissioning of Fukushima, the NRA has promised strict on-site inspections to verify corrective actions following this latest failure. Experts like Dr. Florentine Koppenborg suggest that this “nuclear renaissance” It could be just a “drop in the ocean” as security costs have skyrocketed and public trust remains at rock bottom. Japan is at an energy crossroads: the urgency to decarbonize and feed its technology industry collides head-on with the memory of a disaster that, 15 years later, is still very present. The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa giant has shown that, in nuclear energy, the distance between strategic success and technical failure is measured in the sound of a single alarm. Image | IAEA Imagebank Xataka | Here is news that will surely reassure you: Europe’s largest nuclear power plant is running on diesel generators

Russia’s elite GRU moves its war against Ukraine’s power grid to Polish soil

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Winter in Eastern Europe is not just a season; It’s a damage multiplier. As my colleague Miguel Jorge described wellwhat is emerging in the region is a ruthless reality dubbed “thermal terror.” In this scenario, extreme cold becomes a weapon of war designed to make civil infrastructure – heating, electricity, water – the cruelest target. The ultimate goal is not only to destroy military capacity, but to make daily life physically unviable. Under this logic of making daily life unviable to wear down the population, the Kremlin’s most feared cyberespionage group has decided to cross a dangerous border. 500,000 homes in the spotlight. As Poland prepared for the holidays, its security systems detected what Energy Minister Milosz Motyka called the “strongest attack against Polish energy infrastructure in years,” as reported by Reuters. The sabotage occurred on December 29 and 30 and was surgical. The targets were not chosen at random, but instead targeted two cogeneration plants and systems that connect renewable energy facilities — such as wind farms — to power grid operators. In other words, directly to the key nodes so that energy reaches homes. local media they collected the statements from Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who put figures at risk: if the attack had been successful, half a million people would have been left without heat in the middle of winter. Fortunately, as detailed in the press release of the Polish Governmentthe defenses worked. “At no time was critical infrastructure threatened,” said Tusk, although the incident has been treated with the utmost seriousness, mobilizing the special services to their full capacity. Sandworm’s signature. The attack took on an international dimension when the cybersecurity firm ESET announced the discovery of the weapon used: a destructive malware called DynoWiper. As reported by TechCrunchESET attributed this operation with “medium confidence” to the Sandworm groupan elite unit within the Russian military intelligence agency (GRU). The choice of dates does not seem coincidental. As investigative journalist Kim Zetter points outthis attempted blackout in Poland came almost exactly ten years after the first Sandworm cyberattack against Ukraine’s power grid in 2015, which left 230,000 homes in the dark. For experts, the use of a wiper on Polish soil is an unprecedented event, as it marks Russia’s move from simple espionage to destructive sabotage against a NATO member. Furthermore, this is not an isolated episode because since the beginning of the Ukrainian War, Poland has undergone a sustained increase of cyberattacks attributed to Russian actors. Nevertheless, according to the Ministry of Energy itselfthe December attempt was a turning point both in its intensity and in its objective: it was no longer about probing defenses, but rather about causing a real blackout. Anatomy of the attack. To understand the seriousness of the issue, it is necessary to break down the technology used. Unlike the ransomware commona wiper It is software designed exclusively to destroy. Your goal is not to ask for a ransom, but delete permanently information and leave equipment unusable. In this case, the attackers went directly to the ICS (Industrial Control Systems) systems since these systems are the ones that allow electric companies regulate the supply and monitor the network. So, Sandworm sought to break communication between renewable energy sources and distribution operators. When attacking these nodes, the technicians’ margin of action is minimal because the failures propagate in a chain. A conflict that expands. The Polish Prime Minister directly linked this attack to his country’s support for Ukraine. “We sell electricity there and, in critical situations, we receive it from them,” Tusk explained.. Attacking the Polish network is, by extension, attacking Ukraine’s energy rear. This Russian aggressiveness is not new for Western intelligence services. In fact, the United States government keeps a reward 10 million dollars for information about six GRU officers belonging to Sandworm, responsible for global attacks such as NotPetya, which caused losses of 1 billion dollars. According to Microsoft, Sandworm—whom they call Iridium— has launched nearly 40 destructive attacks against critical infrastructure since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, seeking to degrade not only military capacity, but the population’s trust in its leaders. From NATO’s point of view, attempted sabotage does not automatically activate collective defense mechanisms, but it does reinforce disturbing evidence: hybrid warfare makes it possible to strain the European system without formally crossing the red lines of an armed conflict. The next frontier is no longer territorial, but digital. Faced with the growing threat. The Polish Government is finalizing the Law on the National Cybersecurity System, a regulation that seeks the “autonomy and polonization” of security systems to reduce dependence on devices that facilitate foreign interference, according to official information. However, December’s failed sabotage is a reminder that in modern warfare, the front lines are on power plant servers. While in the trenches of Ukraine soldiers try to hide their thermal trace from drones, in cities like Warsaw or Krakow the battle is being fought so that the simple act of turning on the heating does not become an impossible luxury. For now, Poland has won this defensive battle, even achieving a historical record of energy production a few days after the attack. However, Sandworm’s shadow is still long. The hackers’ message is clear: “If we can’t turn off the light, at least we can scare you.” The war for control of the European switch has only just begun. Image | Unsplash and freepik Xataka | La Gomera has been suffering constant total blackouts for years. Now you have a solution: a cable that is unique in the world

some need chips and others need power

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Under such a reflex (and common, in my case) act of taking out the cell phone and opening Gemini or have a browser tab open with ChatGPT There is a huge infrastructure behind it. I am a free user of both models, but AI is a long-distance race that is worth a lot of money. Hence, companies with a solid ecosystem such as Google or Meta can better endure this initial phase of expansion and that OpenAI already has it on its roadmap. put advertising. I have mentioned two products that I use daily and that are competitors, but on a global stage they are on the same team: the United States. On the other side of the ring, China. Because the other power that has entered the race is China (Europe is still finding its feet). In fact, his government has outlined a detailed plan to dominate it by 2027. While in China the push for artificial intelligence is led by the government, in the United States it is the private sector. Two different ways of understanding the business that constitute the tip of the iceberg of two routes that, despite having a common goal, increasingly diverge. Different investment approaches. If we talk about investment, the difference is abysmal: in the United States, a venture capital investment of 175 billion dollars was made, according to data from China International Capital Corp. If we look for a figure from a reference entity within the US, signatures like PitchBook up the ante up to 222 billion (brutal: of every 3 dollars invested in startups in the US, 2 go directly to AI) and Crunchbase estimates it at 168 billion dollars. In any case, light years ahead of China, which is around 6 billion dollars, according to the Stanford AI Index Report. Focusing on business, the range narrows: American big tech companies invested six times more than their Chinese counterparts, according to with data from Pitchbook and FactSet. And if we combine public and private, too: in China the sum amounts to 165,000 million dollars in recent years, well behind the 563,000 million coming from companies and the US government. An obvious thing: state and private capital have different expectations in terms of profitability, investment horizons and target sectors. A concrete example: China has just launched its first LLM aimed at agriculturea strategic sector for the state that is surely not among the first interests of the US private sector. And this is key to understanding their divergent growth trajectories. Where does each one invest?. In China, money is flowing into underlying technologies, with advanced semiconductors leading the way. as explained by CICC. In the United States, on the contrary, the absolute priority is the construction of data centers, a slow and full of so many obstacles that until they consider the spaceand energy infrastructure able to meet the demand. And it makes sense, as each one’s case is particular: China is facing a technology blockade that has made it have to dig in its heels and step on the accelerator to achieve self-sufficiency and thus address the scarcity of resources derived from its restricted access to latest generation chips. In the case of the United States, the combination of aging energy infrastructure and strong growth in electricity demand has reactivated its search for new energy sources, with significant geopolitical effects, and has returned prominence to industries such as nuclear. What if it’s a bubble? In the midst of the growth phase of the sector and with countries putting all their efforts into action, it is inevitable to think that sooner or later the bubble could burst. For the Nobel Prize winner in Economics Michael Spence, we are facing a “rational bubblethus justifying the investments: “The cost of coming in third place in the competition is much greater than the losses derived from overinvestment or inefficiency” he explained in the Taihu World Cultural forum. At last month’s FII Priority Asia forum in Tokyo, SoftBank Group founder and CEO Masayoshi Son attempted to allay fears explaining that “if AI were to generate 10% of global gross domestic product in the long term, it would more than offset trillions of dollars in AI spending.” In any case, there are surveys that give food for thought. In Xataka | The race for AI has placed China in an unthinkable scenario: forcing the United States to leave its comfort zone In Xataka | Europe is discovering right now that the US is not the partner it thought. And that is a problem in AI. Cover | Gemini

Why are they different and what power does each one represent?

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Let’s tell you what are the colors of USB connectors that you can find both in the memories and in the cables that use this technology. These are the colors that you find on the tab, on the piece of plastic that goes inside the connector itself. Because it is not the same whether the color of this tongue is white or black or it is blue, the three most common colors, since each one points to different characteristics. Therefore, we are going to explain everything to you in a way that you can understand. What are USB colors USB is a plug & play connection interface, a term that means that when you plug it in it starts working. However, there are different USB typeseither because they have a connector with a different form factor or because the chips inside are different. Since its creation, USB has been evolving, and the different types have different powers and speeds. But since on the outside all connectors of the same form factor are the same, The colors added to the tab indicate the USB version that is, and each version has different features. Come on, this way you can know that a USB with a black tab is a USB 2.0 with a fairly limited data transmission speed, or that a turquoise one is a second generation USB 3.1 with a much higher speed. What does the color of the USB mean? Next, we are going to tell you which version of the USB standard each color corresponds toand what is the maximum connection speed that each of them supports. These colors are especially important in USB type A, the usual large ones, because that is where it is best seen. White tongue: It is associated with USB 1.0 and 1.1, the most basic and oldest created for simple peripherals such as mouse and keyboard. Its transmission speed is 12Mbps. Black tongue: It is associated with USB 2.0, also old. These already allow other devices to be powered with powers of 2.5W. Its transmission speed is 480 Mbps. Dark blue tongue: It is associated with USB 3.0 or 3.1 Gen 1, and is used for external drives and fast memories, in addition to supplying power at 4.5W. Its transmission speed is 5Gbps. Turquoise tongue: It is associated with USB 3.1 Gen 2, which greatly improves the performance of the previous generation. Its transmission speed is 10Gbps. Red/orange tongue: It is usually used for fast or special ports, and is also associated with USB 3.2, whose transmission is 5Gbps. It is also present in ports that allow charging even with the device at rest. Yellow tongue: This color usually means “always on,” and is for ports that continue to manage power even if the device is suspended or turned off. It is used as a permanent charging port, and usually uses USB 2.0 or USB 3.X speeds depending on each device. In Xataka Basics | Types of USB cables: which ones exist and how to identify them

The future of energy lies in fusion, and China aims to light the first light bulb with the power of the Sun in 2030

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When we think of the future energyit is easy for us to think about renewables. Much of Europe has a while running with renewables, China is an expanding power and even some states in the United States They are seeing its benefits. However, the future lies in nuclear power. But not because of fission, but for the fusion. And China has just taken a giant step in the forecasts of its BEST program with a single objective. Replicate the process that powers the Sun. China and the ultimate energy. Fusion and fission are nuclear reactions that release energy from the nucleus of the atom, and That’s where their similarities end.. Briefly, fission consists of breaking the nuclei of heavy atoms such as uranium to release energy. It is the process that we use in current nuclear power plantsand decades ago we managed to make it something stable. Fusion is the reverse process: it joins light atoms to generate energy. It is tremendously unstable and the heat generated is enormous, but the process generates a much higher amount of energy. Imitate that star power It is extremely complex, but we have been trying to replicate it for years for a very simple reason: it is estimated that it will offer almost unlimited energy and long-lasting waste-freesomething against which nuclear fission can’t compete. China is one of the countries that is pushing the development of nuclear fusion plants the most, so much so that it intends to put the first plant into operation a decade before its competitors. EAST. It stands for ‘Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak’, an experimental program that China has been developing since 2006 to test the viability of commercial fusion energy. After setting some records for temperature and operating time, in 2021 achieved continuous plasma operation for 17 minutes in which the core operated at 70 million degrees Celsius. They are five times the sun temperature and, although temperatures of up to 160 million degrees were previously achieved for 20 seconds, the ideal is to maintain a very high temperature for as long as possible. Steps have continued to be taken and researchers recently discovered that the reactor could work at 165% of its maximum theoretical capacity without suffering disruptions. To contextualize, it is as if we have an engine designed to go at 200 km/h, but we discover that we can drive at 330 km/h constantly without it overheating. In short: China is taking steps to control the enormous challenge represented by the magnetic confinement of plasma. BEST. The ‘Burning Plasma Experimental Superconducting Tokamak’, for its part, is the spearhead of its nuclear fusion program. If EAST is the proof of concept, BEST is the demonstration of feasibility. The EAST steps are those that will be replicated in BEST, a reactor built on a larger scale that will operate for a shorter period of time in a sustained manner, but under conditions of greater energy gain. Goal: 2030. China began construction of the BEST in 2023 and hopes to complete it by 2027 to begin testing with plasma. If it goes well, the CFETR reactor will be the one that pours fusion energy into the grid. In a statement published by the state media Xinhuawe see that the intention is to generate electricity by 2030 and start do it commercially by 2035. If the goal is reached, China will be the first country that will be able to commercially emulate the power of the Sun to light the “first nuclear fusion light bulb” in history. Although, of course, the United States and Massachusetts They also say that they will be the first. They are not the only ones. If they reach the goal, it will be a fundamental step in achieving new generation energy, and they want to reach that future a decade before the rest of the countries, or so China suggests. In this race for nuclear fusion, the BEST is expected to begin operating commercially between 2030 and 2035. Meanwhile, in France there is the ITER. With 24,000 million euros in budgetis the most expensive international program in history, only surpassed by the Apollo Programthe International Space Stationhe Manhattan Project or the GPS system. It aims to be very powerful, but has constant delaysa budget that has overflowed and an operational date that has not been fulfilled. In the United States, a private startup is building SPARCmuch smaller than ITER, but more profitable. United Kingdom has the STEPJapan JT-60SA and Russia the T-15MD Hybrid. Talking about dates is complicated, since there were tests that were expected to be obtained in 2025 and were not achieved… and there is talk of between 2040 and 2060 for the commercial viability of this energy “from the stars”, although the calendars have been readjusted. China has turned new generation energy in a matter of stateand we will see if they meet their goal of starting production in 2030. And, although it seems that we have to put the artificial intelligence even in the soup, the enormous energy needs of this technology are encouraging advances in nuclear fusion. The joke that nuclear fusion energy always has 30 years to go may have come to an end. Images | Oak Ridge National LaboratoryNASA In Xataka | Europe is looking for where to put its first nuclear fusion reactor. And Spain is one of the best candidates

three out of four workers have not improved their purchasing power in two years

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Salaries rise, but they give less and less. At least that is the perception of three out of every four workers in Spain, who feel that They have lost purchasing power or they have not improved it in the last two years, despite having chained annual salary increases. This leaves an increasingly widespread feeling: working serves to cover holes, but not to live better. ​In response to this perception, the majority cut back on leisure and vacations to face basic housing expenses, shopping basket and paying bills. What is striking is that only a minority consider asking for a salary increase in 2026. They don’t make it to the end of the month. The photograph left by the last InfoJobs report It is that of a labor market in which 38% of workers have lost purchasing power in the last two years and 34% say that it has remained the same. This means that almost three out of every four employees have not perceived a real improvement in their ability to save or in its purchasing power. The survey indicates that only 28% claim to have increased their purchasing power. This situation occurs especially in young people between 16 and 24 years old who are entering their first jobs, so they start from a very low previous income. The salary in Spain. According to Eurostat data The average annual salary in Spain in 2024 was 33,700 gross euros, below the 39,808 gross euros that on average registered the European Union. But the averages leave room for interpretation. If we use the data collected by the last 2023 Annual Salary Structure Survey, The median salary in 2023 was 23,349 euros, while the modal salary (the most common) was within the limits of the Minimum Interprofessional Salary with 15,574.85 euros per year. Increases that do not compensate for inflation. The InfoJobs survey indicates that 52% of those surveyed have had a slight salary improvement and 6% recognize a significant increase. Even so, only 40% declare that they have improved their purchasing power, which indicates that a relevant part of these increases has been absorbed by inflation and the rising cost of living. Among those who have received salary increases, a considerable proportion indicate that their economic capacity remains the same or has even worsened. InfoJobs summarizes this gap by noting that “perceived increases are not translating into a real match with the cost of living.” Furthermore, moderation weighs on expectations of increases in the future and they expect insufficient increases in the coming months. 69% estimate that the salary improvement will be less than 1,200 euros gross per year (an increase of 100 euros gross per month) and half do not plan to exceed 2,400 euros gross per year. The payroll goes to housing and basic expenses. The spending structure reinforces the feeling of suffocation in which 92% of those surveyed have had to cut expenses. The InfoJobs survey indicates that dwelling and the shopping basket They add up to 44% of the workers’ monthly budget. Savings represent only 10% of the salary, which greatly limits the possibility of building a financial cushion or facing unforeseen events. Between the ages of 25 and 44, a stage in which mortgages or high rents are usually assumed, housing absorbs 26% of the salary. This implies applying cuts to spending, which are concentrated mainly on leisure and free time (78%), and on vacations and getaways, with 75% of workers having cut their budget to cover the essentials. ​Dissatisfied with salary. The survey reflects that 33% of workers are dissatisfied with his salaryespecially women under 35 years of age and people with low or medium salaries. Despite everything, the percentage of general dissatisfaction decreases compared to the 39% that was registered in last year’s consultation. However, this discontent does not translate into an intention to ask for a raise. Only 17% of workers plan to ask for a salary increase in the coming months, while 83% will not do so. Among those who do not plan to apply for it, just over a third attribute it to the fact that they expect the employer to take the step (21%) or to the fact that they have already had a recent review (16%). A complicated labor market. The majority consider it difficult to find a job that provides a substantial improvement in their current salary or working conditions, which causes a certain immobility in the active search for improvement by changing jobs, as is the case. how it was happening in recent years. The conciliation conditions appear as the most difficult aspect to improve for 45% of employed people, closely followed by the possibility of accessing better salaries, which 42% see as especially complicated. According to the authors of the report, “taken together, the data reflect a labor market that workers perceive as not very permeable to improvement, where progress in salary, conciliation or professional development is increasingly complex.” In Xataka | A study has compared the gap in public salaries vs. private companies in Europe and has found a problem: Spain Image | Unsplash (Emil Kalibradov)

The new Qualcomm chip for PC is a declaration of intent: more intelligence than power

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Qualcomm has taken advantage of the CES 2026 to present the Snapdragon NPU reaches 80 TOPS and it proclaims itself as the world’s fastest for laptops. Why is it important. This launch does not specifically confront anything that Intel or AMD have, but rather it is a positioning play: Qualcomm is betting on energy efficiency and integrated AI as its differential weapons, not on dethroning anyone in benchmarks. This is the chip that wants to colonize the mid-high range of Windows laptops, not the 17-inch clunkers for gamers. Between the lines. The figures are curiously contradictory: Qualcomm talks about a 35% jump in CPU but a 78% improvement in the NPU. There is the implicit message: Qualcomm knows that part of the future does not involve winning in traditional processing, but rather mastering computing. Local AI. In other words, Qualcomm has decided that one of the next PC battles will not be fought in Photoshop, but in applications that run LLMs or generate images offline. The 3nm node and memory LPDDR5X up to 152 GB reinforce this narrative: Qualcomm is building machines to work all day without a plug, not sedentary workstations, so to speak. It is an explicit commitment to the user profile that values ​​autonomy and instant response over sustained power. Yes, but. The problem continues to be the ecosystem: Windows on ARM It has improved, but it still has incompatibilities with professional software. Adobe works, yes, but the market goes further. Qualcomm can have the best chip on the market for efficiency… and still be irrelevant if developers don’t optimize for its architecture. Apple managed to overcome the latter in 2020 because it controls the silicon, the operating system and the hardware: without transition there was no business with the new Macs. Qualcomm has to convince third parties. The context. This release arrives while Intel tries to recover lost ground and AMD consolidates its dominance in high-performance laptops. But neither has the mobile DNA that Qualcomm does. It is a company that comes from the world of the smartphone, where efficiency is not optional but existential. That background is their advantage: they have been making powerful chips that don’t fry eggs in your pocket for decades, not to mention modifying the phrase slightly and making it sound worse. The threat. For Intel and AMD, the danger is not that Qualcomm will take market share from them tomorrow, but that it will normalize ARM on Windows. If the average user begins to associate “laptop with a good battery” with “it has a Qualcomm chip”, the x86 architecture is at risk of losing its last stronghold of absolute dominion. And that is a structural change, not a temporary one. In Xataka | The amazing history of ARM, the architecture that triumphs in mobile phones and that was born more than 30 years ago at Acorn Computer Featured image | Qualcomm

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