http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. A scientist claiming to work for the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran told a Finnish cyber-security group that Tehran's nuclear programme had been the victim of a new cyber attack, the group said Wednesday. http://phys.org/news262454761.html Technology Wed, 25 Jul 2012 17:06:06 EST news262454761 A US cyber war against Iran's nuclear program may have only just begun and could escalate with explosions triggered by digital sabotage, experts say. http://phys.org/news261371839.html Technology Fri, 13 Jul 2012 04:17:34 EST news261371839 Imagine the mess if we mined one ton of coal, burned five percent of it for energy, and then threw away the rest. http://phys.org/news259821253.html Technology Mon, 25 Jun 2012 05:35:03 EST news259821253 By using thorium instead of uranium as fuel, nuclear power could be safer and more sustainable, according to new research. http://phys.org/news258795987.html Technology Wed, 13 Jun 2012 08:46:41 EST news258795987 (Phys.org) -- A simple three-step chemical reaction which could herald the introduction of new sustainable feedstocks for the chemical industry has been developed by scientists at The University of Nottingham. http://phys.org/news257758971.html Chemistry Fri, 01 Jun 2012 08:43:05 EST news257758971 A voracious virus attack has hit computers running key parts of Iran's oil sector, forcing authorities to unplug its main oil export terminal from the Internet and to set up a cyber crisis team, according to reports on Monday. http://phys.org/news254391318.html Technology Mon, 23 Apr 2012 09:15:23 EST news254391318 New research has revealed that some events in Earth's history happened more recently than previously thought. http://phys.org/news252247779.html Space & Earth Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:00:13 EST news252247779 Scientists have produced a previously unseen uranium molecule, in a development that could help improve clean-up processes for nuclear waste. http://phys.org/news250768268.html Chemistry Mon, 12 Mar 2012 10:51:38 EST news250768268 Monitoring the construction of wells, avoid over-exploiting cold groundwater close to hot groundwater, and controlling mineral water extraction. These are the recommendations from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and the University of Barcelona, after analysing the contamination of La Selva geothermal system, above all by arsenic pollution. In this region, which is known for its spa resorts and bottling plants, as well as in other Catalan coastal mountain ranges, uranium levels higher than what is recommended by the WHO have been detected. http://phys.org/news249742607.html Space & Earth Wed, 29 Feb 2012 12:56:52 EST news249742607 Japan used seawater to cool nuclear fuel at the stricken Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant after the tsunami in March 2011 -- and that was probably the best action to take at the time, says Professor Alexandra Navrotsky of the University of California, Davis. http://phys.org/news246812720.html Chemistry Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:05:43 EST news246812720 At several U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sites, uranium mining, milling, and processing have led to groundwater contamination that persists above drinking water standards—in spite of natural flushing and the removal of contaminated sediments.  A multi-institutional research team, including researchers at DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), is investigating the use of bioremediation to treat the subsurface uranium plumes and remove pollutants. Research conducted by the team at the Integrated Field Research Challenge (IFRC) site in Rifle, Colorado has shown that indigenous bacteria can be stimulated to immobilize the uranium, resulting in groundwater concentrations below the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standard. http://phys.org/news246616697.html Space & Earth Tue, 24 Jan 2012 08:40:04 EST news246616697 Rifle, Colorado, is a small town on the Colorado River, in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, that's big on natural resources. It attracts hunters, fishermen, hikers, rock climbers. Its striking scenery attracted husband-and-wife environmental artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude as well; they stretched the Valley Curtain, a 200,200-square-foot orange sheet of nylon, across 1,250-foot-wide Rifle Gap. The curtain lasted only 28 hours before another of the area's natural resources, wind, began to tear it down. http://phys.org/news245493316.html Space & Earth Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:50:05 EST news245493316 The US administration scheduled an announcement Monday widely expected to implement a long-term ban on mining around the Grand Canyon, a move praised by environmental activists. http://phys.org/news245330197.html Space & Earth Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:40:02 EST news245330197 Iran said on Sunday that its scientists have "tested the first nuclear fuel rod produced from uranium ore deposits inside the country," the website of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation said. http://phys.org/news244638377.html Technology Sun, 01 Jan 2012 11:06:24 EST news244638377 A number of health and environmental issues and related risks need to be addressed when considering whether to lift the almost 30-year moratorium on uranium mining in Virginia, says a new report from the National Research Council, the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. http://phys.org/news243533121.html Space & Earth Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:05:37 EST news243533121 (PhysOrg.com) -- Determining if uranium will zip through the soil or not is easier now, thanks to scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of North Texas. Dr. Eugene Ilton and Dr. Paul Bagus elucidated a systematic approach for identifying uranium's state and hence its mobility. Their method uses x-rays, in the form of x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Their technique and detailed analysis appear in an invited perspective article in Surface and Interface Analysis. http://phys.org/news243503946.html Chemistry Mon, 19 Dec 2011 07:59:18 EST news243503946 French state-owned nuclear giant Areva is to announce significant losses when it unveils its new corporate strategy this week, Industry Minister Eric Besson said on Sunday. http://phys.org/news242838061.html Technology Sun, 11 Dec 2011 15:01:07 EST news242838061 While modern-day humans use the most advanced engineering to build nuclear reactors, Nature sometimes makes them by accident. http://phys.org/news242296380.html Space & Earth Mon, 05 Dec 2011 09:00:05 EST news242296380 Gudiya Das whines as flies settle on her face, waiting for her mother to swat them while she lies on a cot in Ichra, one in a cluster of villages around India's only functioning uranium mines. http://phys.org/news242274242.html Space & Earth Mon, 05 Dec 2011 02:24:17 EST news242274242 The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) today recommended new proposed names for elements 114 and 116, the latest heavy elements to be added to the periodic table. http://phys.org/news241963950.html Physics Thu, 01 Dec 2011 12:13:04 EST news241963950 (PhysOrg.com) -- Uranium prefers petite particles. The radionuclide attaches quickly and abundantly to smaller subsurface grains, according to scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The team found that gravel and other large bits adsorbed less uranium(IV) than smaller grains. The larger particles also adsorbed uranium more slowly than the smaller ones. Using this information, the team wrote a series of mathematical formulas to predict uranium adsorption and desorption affinity and kinetics in sediments containing different grain sizes. The predictions were successfully tested using sediment from the Hanford Site. http://phys.org/news238752599.html Space & Earth Tue, 25 Oct 2011 09:10:10 EST news238752599 Using experimental and modeling resources at EMSL, scientists from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory determined the equilibrium and kinetic properties of uranium(VI) adsorption to subsurface grains, which ranged in size from tiny clay particles to larger pieces of gravel. They found that the kinetics or the rate of adsorption onto the grains varies with respect to the grain size. Specifically, the larger-size grains adsorbed less uranium and did so at a slower rate than smaller grains. After determining the size-specific equilibrium and kinetic properties, the team created a series of mathematical formulas that allowed them to calculate uranium adsorption in a heterogeneous subsurface sample from the Hanford Site, a plutonium production complex in southeastern Washington State. http://phys.org/news236260152.html Space & Earth Mon, 26 Sep 2011 13:00:01 EST news236260152 (PhysOrg.com) -- For several years, researchers have known that certain kinds of bacteria are able to "feed" off certain metals by either adding or removing electrons from their structure, but until now, haven’t really understood how they do it. Now, new research by Gemma Reguera and her team at Michigan State University have shown that the bacteria do so by means of protein nanowires, called pili, which are hair-like appendages with electrical conductivity. They have reported their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://phys.org/news234523217.html Biology Tue, 06 Sep 2011 10:20:48 EST news234523217 US conglomerate General Electric is seeking permission to build a $1 billion plant for uranium enrichment by laser, a process which has raised proliferation fears, The New York Times said Sunday. http://phys.org/news233205008.html Technology Mon, 22 Aug 2011 04:10:29 EST news233205008 China said Friday it had hooked its first so-called "fourth generation" nuclear reactor to the grid, a breakthrough that could eventually reduce its reliance on uranium imports http://phys.org/news230533711.html Technology Fri, 22 Jul 2011 06:08:44 EST news230533711 (PhysOrg.com) -- In efforts to reduce contamination at a former uranium mill tailings site, Dr. Krishna Mahadevan is developing genome-scale models to determine why certain bacteria reduce uranium better than others. The University of Toronto professor is part of a scientific team studying the Department of Energy's Integrated Field-Scale Subsurface Research Challenge site in Rifle, Colorado. He collaborates with Dr. Derek Lovley at the University of Massachusetts and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory scientists Dr. Timothy Scheibe and Dr. Philip Long. http://phys.org/news226747314.html Biology Wed, 08 Jun 2011 10:40:01 EST news226747314 Using a model organism isolated from a uranium seep of the Columbia River, scientists recently quantified how extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in subsurface environments can be used to immobilize heavy metal and radionuclide contaminants such as uranium [U(VI)]. http://phys.org/news226247762.html Space & Earth Thu, 02 Jun 2011 15:40:27 EST news226247762 A novel way to immobilise radioactive forms of iodine using a microwave, has been discovered by an expert at the University of Sheffield. http://phys.org/news225457583.html Chemistry Tue, 24 May 2011 12:08:50 EST news225457583 The fifth dwarf planet of the Solar System, Haumea, and at least one of its two satellites, are covered in crystalline water-ice due to the tidal forces between them and the heat of radiogenic elements. This is the finding of an international research study using observations from the VLT telescope at the European Southern Observatory in Chile. http://phys.org/news224416380.html Space & Earth Thu, 12 May 2011 10:53:16 EST news224416380 Gamma rays are the most energetic type of light wave and can penetrate through lead and other thick containers. A powerful new source of gamma rays will allow officials to search for hidden reactor fuel/nuclear bomb material. http://phys.org/news223570841.html Physics Mon, 02 May 2011 16:01:01 EST news223570841