Scientists pursuing fusion energy say they have found a way to overcome one of their biggest challenges to date — by using artificial intelligence.
     Nuclear fusion has for decades been promoted as a near-limitless source of clean energy. That would be a game-changing solution to the climate crisis. However, experts have only achieved and sustained fusion energy for a few seconds, and many obstacles remain, including instabilities in the highly complex process.
     There are several ways to achieve fusion energy. The most common involves using hydrogen isotopes as an input fuel and raising temperatures and pressures to extraordinarily high levels in a donut-shaped machine, known as a tokamak, to create a plasma, a soup-like state of matter.
     But that plasma has to be carefully controlled and is vulnerable to “tearing” and escaping the machine’s powerful magnetic fields that are designed to keep the plasma contained.
     Last Wednesday, researchers from Princeton University and the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) published a report in the journal Nature that they had found a way to use artificial intelligence (AI) to forecast these potential instabilities and prevent them from happening in real time.
     The team executed their experiments at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility in San Diego. They found that their AI controller could forecast potential plasma tearing up to 300 milliseconds in advance. Without that intervention, the fusion reaction would have ended suddenly.
     A Princeton spokesperson said, “The experiments provide a foundation for using AI to solve a broad range of plasma instabilities, which have long hindered fusion energy.”
     Egemen Kolemen is a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University and an author of the study. He said that the findings are “definitely” a step forward for nuclear fusion.
     Kolemen said in a recent interview, “This is one of the big roadblocks — disruptions — and you want any reactor to be operating 24/7 for years without any problem. And these types of disruption and instabilities would be very problematic, so developing solutions like this increase their confidence that we can run these machines without any issues.”
     Fusion energy is the process that powers the sun and all the other stars, and scientists have been trying for decades to master it on Earth. It is achieved when two atoms are fused together, releasing huge amounts of energy. It’s the opposite of nuclear fission which relies on splitting atoms to generate heat. Nuclear fission is the current basis of nuclear power.
     Scientists and engineers near the English city of Oxford recently set a new nuclear fusion energy record, sustaining 69 megajoules of fusion energy for five seconds, using just 0.2 milligrams of fuel. That would be sufficient to power roughly twelve thousand households.
     However, that experiment still used more energy as input than it generated. Another team in California managed to produce a net amount of fusion energy in December 2022, in a process called “ignition.” They have replicated ignition three times since.
     Despite the promising progress, fusion energy is a long way from becoming commercially available. Some analysts say that it will arrive too late to provide the pollution free energy needed to stave off worsening impacts of the climate crisis. Climate scientists say those pollution cuts are required this decade.

Ambient office = 74 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 120 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 117 nanosieverts per hour

Green onion from Central Market = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 94 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 80 nanosieverts per hour

Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 next)
     During their discussions regarding Ebisawa’s access to nuclear materials, Ebisawa also held discussions with UC-1 concerning Ebisawa’s desire to purchase military-grade weapons. In May 2021, Ebisawa sent UC-1 a list of weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, that Ebisawa wanted to purchase from UC-1 on behalf of the leader of an ethnic insurgent group in Burma (CC-1).  Together with two other co-conspirators (CC-2 and CC-3), Ebisawa suggested to UC-1 that CC-1 sell uranium to the General, through Ebisawa, to fund CC-1’s weapons purchase. On a February 4th, 2022 videoconference, CC-2 told UC-1 that CC-1 had available more than forty four hundred pounds of Thorium-232 and more than two hundred and twenty pounds of uranium in the compound U3O8. This is a compound of uranium commonly found in the uranium concentrate powder known as “yellowcake”. CC-1 said he could produce as much as five tons of nuclear materials in Burma. CC-2 also said that CC-1 had provided samples of uranium and thorium. He went on to say that CC-2 was prepared to show these to UC-1’s purported buyers. CC-2 mentioned that the samples should be packed “to the contain the radiation.”
     One week later, Ebisawa, CC-2 and CC-3 took part in a series of meetings with UC-1 and CS-1 in Southeast Asia to discuss their weapons, narcotics, and nuclear materials transactions. CC-2 asked UC-1 to meet in CC-2’s hotel room for one of these meetings. Inside the room, CC-2 showed UC-1 two plastic containers, each of which held powdery yellow substance which CC-2 described as “yellowcake.” CC-2 said that one container held a sample of uranium in the compound U3O8, and the other container held Thorium-232. UC-1 photographed and video-recorded the samples.
     With the assistance of Thai authorities, the nuclear samples were seized and transferred to the custody of U.S. law enforcement authorities. A U.S. nuclear forensic laboratory examined the nuclear samples. They determined that both samples contain detectable quantities of uranium, thorium and plutonium. In particular, the laboratory determined that the isotope composition of the plutonium found in the Nuclear Samples is weapons-grade. This means that the plutonium, if produced in sufficient quantities, would be suitable for use in a nuclear weapon.
    A list containing the charges for Ebisawa and Singhasiri is set forth below.
1. Conspiracy to commit international trafficking of nuclear materials
2. International trafficking of nuclear materials
3. Narcotics importation conspiracy
4. Conspiracy to possess firearms, including machineguns and destructive devices
5. Conspiracy to acquire, transfer, and possess surface-to-air missiles.
6. Narcotics importation conspiracy
7. Conspiracy to possess firearms, including machine guns and destructive devices
8. Money laundering
    The DEA Special Operations Division Bilateral Investigations Unit is currently investigating the case, with assistance provided by the DEA Tokyo Country Office, DEA Bangkok Country Office, DEA Chiang Mai Resident Office, DEA Jakarta Country Office, DEA Copenhagen Country Office, DEA New York Field Office, DEA New Delhi Country Office, the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section, and law enforcement partners in Indonesia, Japan and the Kingdom of Thailand.
    Dmitry Slavin is a Trial Attorney of the U.S. National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section. Alexander Li, Kaylan E. Lasky and Kevin T. Sullivan are Assistant U.S. Attorneys for the Southern District of New York. They are all prosecuting the case.
     This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces operation. The Task Force identifies, disrupts and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach.

Ambient office = 60 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 113 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 116 nanosieverts per hour

Garlic from Central Market = 804 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Part 1 of 2 Parts
     A superseding indictment was unsealed in New York City today charging a Japanese citizen with conspiring with a network of associates to traffic nuclear materials from Burma to other countries.
     Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, and co-defendant Somphop Singhasiri, 61, were previously arrested and charged in April 2022 with international narcotics trafficking and firearms offenses. Ebisawa is a leader within the Yakuza Transnational Organized Crime Syndicate. Orders were issued to detain both of them. Ebisawa has since been held in Manhattan awaiting trial.
     Matthew G. Olsen is the Assistant Attorney General of the U.S Justice Department’s National Security Division. He said, “The defendant stands accused of conspiring to sell weapons grade nuclear material and lethal narcotics from Burma, and to purchase military weaponry on behalf of an armed insurgent group. It is chilling to imagine the consequences had these efforts succeeded and the Justice Department will hold accountable those who traffic in these materials and threaten U.S. national security and international stability.”
     Damian Williams is the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. He said, “As alleged, the defendant brazenly trafficked material containing uranium and weapons-grade plutonium from Burma to other countries. He did so while believing that the material was going to be used in the development of a nuclear weapons program, and while also negotiating for the purchase of deadly weapons. It is impossible to overstate the seriousness of this conduct. I want to thank the career prosecutors of my office and our law enforcement partners for ensuring that the defendant will now face justice in an American court.”     
     Anne Milgram is an Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). She said, “As alleged, the defendants in this case trafficked in drugs, weapons, and nuclear material – going so far as to offer uranium and weapons-grade plutonium fully expecting that Iran would use it for nuclear weapons. This is an extraordinary example of the depravity of drug traffickers who operate with total disregard for human life. I commend the men and women of DEA and this prosecution team for their tireless work to protect us from such evil.” 
     According to the allegations contained in the indictment, starting in early 2020, Ebisawa informed an undercover agent (UC-1) and a DEA confidential source (CS-1) that Ebisawa had access to a large quantity of nuclear materials that he wanted to sell. Later in 2022, Ebisawa sent UC-1 a series of images depicting rocky substances with Geiger counters measuring radiation. He also sent pages of what Ebisawa represented to be lab analyses indicating the presence of thorium and uranium in the depicted substances. Following Ebisawa’s repeated inquiries, UC-1 agreed, as part of the DEA’s investigation, to help Ebisawa broker the sale of his nuclear materials to UC-1’s associate. The associate was posing as an Iranian general (the General). According to Ebisawa, the material was intended for use in a nuclear weapons program. Ebisawa offered to sell the General “plutonium” that would be even “better” and more “powerful” than uranium for this purpose.
Please read Part 2 next

Ambient office = 65 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 108 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 108 nanosieverts per hour

Mini cucumber from Central Market = 80 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 94 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 80 nanosieverts per hour

Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
     Japanese LNG imports have dropped steadily since 2021. In January, they were finally back to pre-Fukushima levels. However Japan has now definitively fallen behind as the world’s biggest LNG importer.
     South Korea and Taiwan are the two other major East Asian LNG importers. Their nuclear paths are diverging. South Korea joined Japan in the Cop28 declaration on tripling nuclear capacity worldwide by 2050. However, Taiwan, which could not attend officially, did not.
     South Korea and Taiwan face similar challenges to Japan’s. They are densely-populated, mountainous countries with very little fossil fuel resources of their own, limited land for large-scale renewables, and geology unfavorable for carbon capture and storage. However, in contrast to their neighbor, both are recording significant growth in demand, making new power generation even more urgent. Geothermal and offshore wind are promising new sustainable sources of energy but are at early stages of development.
     The previous government in Seoul planned to reduce the share of nuclear capacity on the national grid. However, climate concerns and the Ukraine crisis prompted a rethink amid soaring power demand for data centers and semiconductor factories. President Yoon Suk Yeol’s administration has begun serious discussions on constructing two to four new nuclear power plants. Any firm announcement probably has to come after elections on April 10th.
     South Korea also has a successful business exporting nuclear reactors. It is developing the Smart small modular reactor (SMR). This new type of reactor could be safer and quicker to build than large conventional nuclear power plants. Saudi Arabia is working with the Koreans to commercialize the Smart SMR.
     In contrast, the newly elected president in Taiwan, Lai Ching-te, will take office in May. He campaigned on closing the country’s last nuclear power plant by 2025. A referendum in 2021 on phase-out led to two reactors being shut under the incumbent. In contrast, the opposition parties in Taiwan had supported restarting these facilities.
     Yet Mr. Lai may need to reconsider. Tensions with China are high, and the Taiwan could be blockaded in the event of conflict. Without nuclear power, most of Taiwan’s electricity comes from fossil fuels, yet it has a target of net-zero by 2050.
     Falling LNG consumption in these established East Asian LNG markets is critical for the global picture. First, it helps improve the supply-demand balance since the shock of 2022. That will increase once major new supplies hit the market from the US, Africa and Qatar from 2026 onwards.
     Second, China is now the leader in LNG volumes. It is much more flexible because it can turn to other gas imports, its own domestic output and coal when LNG prices appear excessive. Because of this, it pays a lower price than its neighbors. Last March it paid just twelve dollars per million British thermal units. South Korea paid about eighteen dollars for the same number of units, Japan paid fifteen dollars and Taiwan paid fourteen dollars. It is therefore both less reliable and less profitable for LNG sellers, but too big to ignore.
     The story of nuclear power in East Asia features the modern global themes of energy security, affordability, and climate. It also illustrates how growth in new technologies is unexpectedly raising electricity requirements. In addition, it shows how changes in one energy source ripple through interconnected global markets.