renovating Archives - usatoday24

is renovating its bullet train with 5G-enabled windows and noise-cancelling cabins

April 18, 2026 by usatoday24

High-speed rail is going through a phase of maturity where the differential is no longer so much speed, but rather productivity and comfort. In short: it wants to become a fully fledged alternative to flying in the business segment. While Spain is consolidated as the second country in the world in high-speed network and leader in technological interoperability, Japan (which was a pioneer with the Shinkansen in 1964) wants to regain its hegemony with deep digitalization. JR Central, the rail operator of the Tokaido Shinkansen, has announced which will equip the next premium suites of its famous bullet trains with windows with integrated 5G antennas and active ambient noise cancellation without the need for headphones. The news. The improvements are not cosmetic, but a serious commitment to transform the premium car into a work or rest environment comparable to a private office. 5G antennas on the glass. The technology is provided by AGCa Japanese company that weaves conductive microfibers into the glass to form an antenna that is connected to the on-board Wi-Fi router. While conventional systems bounce the 5G signal inside the train before reaching the router, antennas integrated into the glass keep direct line of sight with outside base stations. That is, a more stable Wi-Fi with a stronger signal. Integrated ANC. The system is called Personalized Sound Zone (PSZ) and has been developed by NTT. Its operation is like that of headphones with active cancellation: it detects the waveform of the ambient sound and from there, projects its inversion to cancel it. The main difference is that you don’t need to cover your ear: it uses a combination of microphones, speakers and spatially optimized low-latency processing. Why is it important. JR Central’s bullet train reaches speeds of up to 285 km/h, meaning it passes mobile network base stations so quickly that it often needs to reconnect to another radio. This phenomenon is known as handover and degrades the quality of the connection: it is the Achilles heel of connectivity in high-speed trains around the world. Yes, those internet outages also happen on the AVE. Finding a solution in windows is technically elegant and scalable. From the point of view of the premium segment, the robust connectivity and acoustic isolation without headphones places it in direct competition with the business class flight on routes within the country. Of course, in the absence of the price. For now, JR Central has only confirmed which will be more expensive than tickets for first-class Shinkansen Green Car seats, which already cost 40% more than a standard unreserved ticket. An example: standard ticket from Tokyo station to Kyoto (2 hours and 15 minutes) costs 13,320 yen and 18,840 yen for the Green Car, that is, 71 and 100 euros respectively. Context. The Tokaido Shinkansen is the busiest high-speed line in the world. Private compartments disappeared from the line in 2003 with the withdrawal of the Series 100 double-decker trains, which included private cabins. This new initiative means the return to the format in style two decades later. Regarding glass antenna technology, the collaboration between AGC, NTT Docomo and Ericsson has been going on since 2018. In fact, in 2019 this conglomerate of companies reached the world’s first 5G communication using an integrated fused silica glass antenna to transmit and receive 28 GHz signals, with average download speeds of 1.3 Gbps and maximum download speeds of 3.8 Gbps in a range of 100 meters. What JR Central is now announcing is the first commercial application in high-speed trains. And in Spain? In connectivity, there is a technological and approach gap. The AVE has Wi-Fi since December 2016 thanks to a system of outdoor 4G-LTE antennas combined with satellite, routers, servers and access points. That is, like what JR Central has just overcome: capturing the signal from outside and redistributing it inside. AGC’s solution for the Shinkansen eliminates this weak point by maintaining direct line of sight with the base stations, something especially critical at high speed. Of course, while PlayRenfe is universal for all travelers, the Shinkansen Wi-Fi will be in the luxury suites. Yes, but. The deployment is very limited: in the initial phase only a couple of suites will be installed in six trains, so coverage is residual against the park of operational units total and JR Central has not made public a roadmap for the expansion of these technologies. On the other hand, NTT’s noise cancellation technology applied to a train poses its own structural challenges, ranging from noise variations at 285 km/h to pressure changes in tunnels. It will be necessary to check the real effectiveness of the system under these conditions. In Xataka | There was a day when Japan was the leading high-speed country. It has been surpassed by China, a victim of its own country In Xataka | In 2015, Japan showed the world a train capable of reaching 600 km/h. Ten years later we still don’t know anything about him Cover | Fikri Rasyid

If you think that renovating your house is urgent, think about this building in Ukraine. Its hole is so big that it is a danger for Europe

March 28, 2026 by usatoday24

He Chernobyl accident released so much radiation that some areas they remain uninhabitable almost four decades later. In fact, the plant continues to house materials capable of remaining dangerous for thousands of years. Therefore, keeping them under control is one of the greatest engineering challenges ever faced in Europe. A challenge that a drone has put to the test. It was to last a century. The story we tell it a few months ago. The gigantic steel arch built over Chernobyl reactor 4 was conceived as a definitive solution to contain the worst nuclear accident in history for at least a hundred years, a colossal structure designed to isolate the ancient “sarcophagus” and buy humanity time. More than 100 meters high and capable of housing entire monuments inside, this system had to resist extreme conditions and allow the safe decommissioning of the reactor, encapsulating hundreds of tons of radioactive material that remain active decades after the disaster. The impact that changed everything. But everything changed in February 2025when a drone attack in the middle of the night pierced that shell seemingly invulnerable, opening a breach in the structure and exposing a system that was never designed to operate in a war environment. Although there were no immediate leaks or casualties, the damage compromised critical functionsespecially ventilation that controls humidity and prevents corrosion, introducing a silent but growing risk that could degrade the structure in a few years. What is still hidden under the steel. Under the damaged arch remains an environment extremely unstable: remains of the reactor, tons of nuclear fuel and melts of highly radioactive materials that continue to react slowly. The old “sarcophagus,” hastily built in 1986, was never structurally reliableand is actually completely dependent on the new cover to maintain the insulation. In other words, if that balance fails, the risk is not immediate, but potentially devastating, with the possibility of release radioactive dust that the wind could disperse throughout Europe. A “reform” as expensive as it is complex. System restore will not be neither quick nor easysince it involves working in conditions of high radiation, with strict limitations on time and exposure for operators. Temporary solutions barely contain the most urgent damage, while full restoration will require rebuilding highly specialized internal layers within a structure designed as a technical “sandwich”. We are talking about an estimated cost that exceeds 500 million of euros, a figure that reflects both the technical complexity and the hostile environment in which repairs must be carried out. The war enters Europe’s greatest nuclear risk. If you like, the incident it is not isolatedbut part of a context in which nuclear infrastructure have become exposed elements within an active conflict. Paradoxically, the Chernobyl exclusion zone that we had to protect from any danger has been the scene of military operationstroop movements and constant overflights of missiles and drones, which multiplies the risk of new impacts, whether accidental or intentional. In that scenario, even a technical failure or trajectory error could trigger consequences continental in scope. A reminder of what never ended. They remembered in a special from the Financial Times this week that, decades after the accident, Chernobyl remains the same latent threat, one that requires constant vigilance and international cooperation, and the drone impact has revealed the fragility of the systems designed to contain it. The infrastructure that was to definitively close the disastrous episode of 1986 now faces a new type of risk, thus demonstrating that nuclear safety depends not only on engineering, but also of geopolitical stabilitya (and common sense). In that delicate balance, each crack is not just a structural failure, but a warning about the limits of our ability to control the consequences of our own creations. Image | EBRD In Xataka | Drones in Ukraine have mutated into a system reminiscent of the Alien universe: an exoskeleton turns troops into super soldiers In Xataka | Iran is exploiting the US’s weak point: it is not its F-35s or its Patriot missiles, it is the bill every time they take off

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