Does the Telecom Industry Have an Exxon Valdez-Scale Problem on Its Hands With Toxic Lead Cables?

Daniel Frankel

NEXT TV
Sun, July 16, 2023 

Wheels of broadband fiber optic cables.

A week ago, The Wall Street Journal ran a stunning exposé revealing that cables laid down by telecom companies including AT&T and Verizon Communications decades ago are lined with lead, and that lead is potentially leaching into the ground.

By the WSJ's count, around 2,000 cables around the U.S. match this dangerous criteria.

In the past week, by equity analyst Craig Moffett’s accounting Monday, AT&T, Verizon, Lumen and Frontier Communications have lost a combined $18 billion in market capitalization for a weighted average decline of 6.4%.

Said industry trade group U.S. Telecom in a statement: “Many considerations go into determining whether legacy lead-sheathed telecom cables should be removed or should be left in place, including those regarding the safety of workers who must handle the cables, potential impacts on the environment, the age and composition of the cables, their geographic location, and customer needs as well as the needs of the business and infrastructure demands. The U.S. telecommunications industry stands ready to engage constructively on this issue."

With the story still reverberating around the media ecosystem, the equity analysts for another bank, TD Cowen, said it's too early to assess the long-term damage to telecom companies.

"While 2,000 cables sounds very manageable, we do not know the breadth of WSJ sample size; meanwhile the article notes that Telcos have previously acknowledged ‘some older metropolitan areas may still have over 50% lead cable,‘ suggesting the amount of lead-encased cables could be enormous,” reads a letter from TD Cowen's Gregory Williams sent to shareholders Sunday.

“If so, the cost could be in the tens of billions of dollars,” the letter continued. “We don’t believe the lead-sheathed cables were pervasive in last mile access networks, but perhaps used in aggregation trunk cables, essentially throughout the country.”

For the executive decision-makers at telecom companies, here's where the TD Cowen report got really scary.

“While many of the cables are not in use, and we suspect ownership of the cables will be hotly debated, we believe all the notable legacy ILECs will be in the conversation given AT&T’s breakup in 1984 into the seven RBOCs,” TD Cowan said. “When we consider other catastrophic environmental settlements, some coming to mind include the BP Gulf oil spill for $20.8 billion, the 3M ‘forever chemicals’ for $10 billion, or Exxon Valdez (criminal and financial).’

Another report, sent from MoffettNathanson senior equity analyst Moffett Monday morning, indicates just what a surprise the issue was … to pretty much everyone.

“In our combined decades of covering and/or consulting to the industry, we had never previously encountered the topic of lead in telecom networks,” Moffett wrote. “But at least we’re in good company; per the Wall Street Journal, four former FCC commissioners that it interviewed weren’t aware of lead in these networks, either.”

U.S. Telecom agrees: “We have not seen, nor have regulators identified, evidence that legacy lead-sheathed telecom cables are a leading cause of lead exposure or the cause of a public health issue," the group said.

Again, at this point, there’s no way to accurately assess the size of the problem.

“The WSJ identified some 2,000 lead-sheathed cables, but admitted the actual number could be orders of magnitude higher,” Moffett wrote. “Neither they, we, nor anyone else with whom we have spoken has any real idea what’s out there. Some of these cables have been removed, some have been abandoned in place and some are still in use. We’d be shocked if the carriers even had accurate, comprehensive records regarding the presence or location of all lead cables in their networks.”

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/07/at-falls-to-29-year-low-amid-concerns.html

'The night turned into day': How Manhattan Project scientists reacted to the world's first atomic bomb test


Alexander McNamara
Sun, July 16, 2023 

We see an enormous yellow bubble that is an atomic bomb exploding against a black sky.

To celebrate the release of the Christopher Nolan biopic "Oppenheimer," below is an extract from the book the movie is based on, "American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer" (Knopf, 2005), by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.

RICHARD FEYNMAN was standing 20 miles from the Trinity site when he was handed dark glasses.

He decided he wouldn't see anything through the dark glasses, so instead he climbed into the cab of a truck facing Alamogordo. The truck windshield would protect his eyes from harmful ultraviolet rays, and he'd be able actually to see the flash. Even so, he reflexively ducked when the horizon lit up with a tremendous flash. When he looked up again, he saw a white light changing into yellow and then orange: "A big ball of orange, the center that was so bright, becomes a ball of orange that starts to rise and billow a little bit and get a little black around the edges, and then you see it's a big ball of smoke with flashes on the inside of the fire going out, the heat." A full minute and a half after the explosion, Feynman finally heard an enormous bang, followed by the rumble of man-made thunder.

James Conant had expected a relatively quick flash of light. But the white light so filled the sky that for a moment he thought "something had gone wrong" and the "whole world has gone up in flames."

Related: Who was J. Robert Oppenheimer? Biographer Kai Bird delves into the physicist's fascinating life and legacy

"I could feel the heat on my face a full twenty miles away."

Bob Serber was also 20 miles away, lying face down and holding a piece of welder's glass to his eyes. "Of course," he wrote later, "just at the moment my arm got tired and I lowered the glass for a second, the bomb went off. I was completely blinded by the flash." When his vision returned 30 seconds later, he saw a bright violet column rising to 20,000 or 30,000 feet. "I could feel the heat on my face a full 20 miles away."

We see a black-and-white photo of famous scientists in suits at the bombing site.

Joe Hirschfelder, the chemist assigned to measure the radioactive fallout from the explosion, later described the moment: "All of a sudden, the night turned into day, and it was tremendously bright, the chill turned into warmth; the fireball gradually turned from white to yellow to red as it grew in size and climbed into the sky; after about five seconds the darkness returned but with the sky and the air filled with a purple glow, just as though we were surrounded by an aurora borealis. . . . We stood there in awe as the blast wave picked up chunks of dirt from the desert soil and soon passed us by."

Related: What was the Manhattan Project?

Frank Oppenheimer was next to his brother [Robert] when the gadget exploded. Though he was lying on the ground, "the light of the first flash penetrated and came up from the ground through one's [eye]lids. When one first looked up, one saw the fireball, and then almost immediately afterwards, this unearthly hovering cloud. It was very bright and very purple." Frank thought, "Maybe it's going to drift over the area and engulf us." He hadn't expected the heat from the flash to be nearly that intense. In a few moments, the thunder of the blast was bouncing back and forth on the distant mountains. "But I think the most terrifying thing," Frank recalled, "was this really brilliant purple cloud, black with radioactive dust, that hung there, and you had no feeling of whether it would go up or would drift towards you."

Oppenheimer himself was lying facedown, just outside the control bunker, situated 10,000 yards south of ground zero. As the countdown reached the two-minute mark, he muttered, "Lord, these affairs are hard on the heart." An Army general watched him closely as the final countdown commenced: "Dr. Oppenheimer . . . grew tenser as the last seconds ticked off. He scarcely breathed. . . . For the last few seconds he stared directly ahead and then when the announcer shouted 'Now!' and there came this tremendous burst of light followed shortly thereafter by the deep growling roar of the explosion, his face relaxed into an expression of tremendous relief."

"Lots of boys not grown up yet will owe their life to it."

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We don't know, of course, what flashed through Oppie's mind at this seminal moment. His brother recalled, "I think we just said 'It worked.'"

Afterwards, [physicist Isidor] Rabi caught sight of Robert from a distance. Something about his gait, the easy bearing of a man in command of his destiny, made Rabi's skin tingle: "I'll never forget his walk; I'll never forget the way he stepped out of the car. . . . his walk was like High Noon . . . this kind of strut. He had done it."

"Later that morning, when William L. Laurence, the New York Times reporter selected by Groves to chronicle the event, approached him for comment, Oppenheimer reportedly described his emotions in pedestrian terms. The effect of the blast, he told Laurence, was "terrifying" and "not entirely undepressing." After pausing a moment, he added, "Lots of boys not grown up yet will owe their life to it."


American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer - $14.99 at Amazon

The definitive biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb for his country in a time of war, and who later found himself confronting the moral consequences of scientific progress.

Extracted from American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin published by Atlantic Books (2023).

8 wild stories about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the 'father of the atomic bomb'

Ben Turner
Sat, July 15, 2023 

A black and white photograph of J. Robert Oppenheimer.

J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904 -1967) is infamous for spearheading the development of the world's first atomic bomb — but the physicist's life was far from boring outside the lab. Here are eight intriguing stories about Oppenheimer, drawn from the biography "American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer" (Knopf, 2005), by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.

1. He was the first to propose the existence of black holes

J. Robert Oppenheimer writing equations on a chalkboard.

Oppenheimer was a tireless dilettante and loved to pursue his intellectual curiosity in any direction it took him.

After having been introduced to astrophysics by his friend Richard Tolman, Oppenheimer began publishing papers on theorized, yet-to-be-discovered cosmic objects. These papers included calculations of the properties of white dwarfs (the dense glowing embers of dead stars) and the theoretical mass limit of neutron stars (the incredibly dense husks of exploded stars).

Perhaps his most stunning astrophysical prediction came in 1939, when Oppenheimer co-wrote (with his then-student Hartland Snyder) "On Continued Gravitational Contraction." The paper predicted that, far in the depths of space, there should exist "dying stars whose gravitational pull exceeded their energy production."

The article received little attention at the time but was later rediscovered by physicists who realized that Oppenheimer had foreseen the existence of black holes.

2. Einstein called him a fool

Oppenheimer learning from Einstein.

Oppenheimer's stunning intellect and vast learning didn't always overcome his emotional immaturity and political naivety.

One such instance was a disagreement he had with Albert Einstein during the height of the McCarthy Red Scare. After bumping into Einstein at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, he spoke with his colleague about the growing efforts to revoke his security clearance.

Einstein counseled his colleague that he needn't submit himself to a grueling investigation and trial by the Atomic Energy Commission; he could just walk away.

But Oppenheimer replied that he would do more good from inside the Washington establishment than from the outside, and that he had decided to stay and fight. It was a battle Oppenheimer would lose, and the defeat marked him for the rest of his life.

Einstein walked to his office and, nodding at Oppenheimer, said to his secretary, "There goes a narr [Yiddish for 'fool']."

3. He may have tried to poison his professor with an apple

Pretty illustration of Bradford Rudge (1805-1885) English school Trinity College at Cambridge University. Here we see scholars dressed in black gowns wandering on the green grass banks of the River Cam and weeping willow trees.

Oppenheimer faced trying times while studying for his doctorate in physics at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, England. His intense emotional issues and feelings of growing isolation drove him into a period of deep depression.

Oppenheimer's adviser at Cambridge was Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett, an intelligent and gifted experimental physicist whom Oppenheimer envied. Despite Oppenheimer's renowned impracticality, Blackett pushed his student into laboratory work.

Oppenheimer's constant failures in the lab and his inability to win Blackett's approval made him intensely anxious. Consumed by his jealousy, Oppenheimer may have gone to extreme lengths. A longtime friend, Francis Fergusson, claimed that Oppenheimer once admitted that he laced an apple with noxious chemicals and left it enticingly on Blackett's desk.

However, there is no evidence of this incident beyond Fergusson's claims — and Oppenheimer's grandson, Charles Oppenheimer, disputes that this ever happened. But if there was a poisoned apple, Blackett didn't eat it. Oppenheimer is said to have faced expulsion from the school and possible criminal charges, before his father intervened and negotiated that his son instead be put on academic probation.

4. President Truman called him a crybaby

U.S. military commander General Douglas MacArthur (1880 - 1964) and U.S. President Harry S. Truman (1884 - 1972) as they talk in the back seat of a car in Wake Island, October 18 1950.

Oppenheimer was very persuasive in relaxed settings, but he had a terrible tendency to crack under pressure.

Just two months after the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Oppenheimer met with President Harry S. Truman in the Oval Office to discuss his concerns about a possible future nuclear war with the USSR. Truman brushed off Oppenheimer's worries, assuring the physicist that the Soviets would never be able to develop an atomic bomb.

Maddened by the president's ignorance, Oppenheimer wrung his hands and said in a low voice, "Mr. President, I feel I have blood on my hands."

Truman was enraged by this remark, and promptly ended the meeting.

"Blood on his hands, dammit — he hasn't half as much blood on his hands as I have," Truman said. "You just don't go around bellyaching about it." Truman later told his secretary of state, Dean Acheson, "I don't want to see that son-of-a-bitch in this office ever again."

Truman regularly returned to the subject of the Oppenheimer meeting with Acheson, writing in 1946 that the father of the atomic bomb was a "cry-baby scientist" who came to "my office some five or six months ago and spent most of his time wringing his hands and telling me they had blood on them because of the discovery of atomic energy."

5. His students were obsessed with him

U.S. theoretical physicist Robert Oppenheimer lectures at Kyoto University on September 14, 1960 in Kyoto, Japan.

Oppenheimer was a verbal physicist by temperament. He didn't rely solely on math to understand the world; he also reached for useful ways to describe it with words. His rhetorical felicity, and his erudition on topics far outside of physics, made him a captivating speaker.

Oppenheimer was so gifted at crafting beautiful sentences — often on the fly — that he enraptured the students he lectured. Some of these students became so obsessed with Oppenheimer that they began to dress and act like him — donning his gray suit and ungainly black shoes, chain-smoking his favorite Chesterfield cigarettes and mimicking his peculiar mannerisms.

The starstruck students were nicknamed the "nim nim boys" because they carefully imitated Oppenheimer's eccentric "nim nim" humming.

6. He was a passionate student of the humanities and could speak six languages, including ancient Sanskrit

Vishnu statue in Angkor Wat. The statue is wearing orange robes and is under an orange parasol.

Oppenheimer loved an intellectual challenge and relished any opportunity to demonstrate his prodigious ability to soak up information. He spoke six languages: Greek, Latin, French, German, Dutch (which he learned in six weeks to deliver a lecture in the Netherlands) and the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit.

Oppenheimer also read a lot of books outside of his field. He told friends that he had read all three volumes of Karl Marx's "Das Kapital" cover to cover on a three-day train trip to New York, that he had similarly devoured Marcel Proust's "A La Recherche du Temps Perdu" ("In Search of Lost Time") to cure his depression while on vacation in Corsica, and that he had learned Sanskrit so he could read the Hindu scripture the Bhagavad Gita.

Oppenheimer's close reading of the Gita gave him his most famous quote. In a 1965 NBC interview, he recalled his thoughts upon seeing the mushroom cloud from the first successful atomic bomb test:

"We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' I suppose we all thought that one way or another."

7. At age 12, he was mistaken for a professional geologist and was invited to give a lecture at the New York Mineralogy Club

Light passing through a prism.

From age 7, Oppenheimer became fascinated with crystals because of their structures and interactions with polarized light. He became a fanatical mineral collector and used his family typewriter to begin lengthy and detailed correspondences with local geologists.

Unaware that they were writing to a 12-year-old, one geologist invited Oppenheimer to deliver a lecture at the New York Mineralogy Club. Oppenheimer wanted his dad to explain to the club that his son was only 12, but his father was tickled by the incident and urged him to go.

The room of surprised geologists burst into laughter at the revelation that the boy was their mystery correspondent, but they soon provided him with a wooden box so he could reach the lectern. Oppenheimer delivered his speech and was met with applause.

8. He code-named the first atomic bomb test in honor of his dead mistress

At a nuclear test site near Alamogordo, New Mexico, atomic bomb scientists measure radioactivity in seared sand particles 2 months after the explosion when newsmen saw bomb effects for the first time. Standing left to right: Dr. Kenneth.T. Bainbridge (Harvard University); Joseph G. Hoffman, (Buffalo, NY); Dr. J.R. Oppenheimer, Director of Los Alamos Atomic Bomb Project; Dr. L.H. Hempelman, (Washington University in St. Louis); Dr. R.F. Bacher (Cornell University); Dr. V.W. Weisskopf, (University of Rochester); and Dr. Richard W. Dodson (California). | Location: Near Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Oppenheimer first met Jean Tatlock in 1936, and began a passionate romance that continued throughout his marriage to Katherine Puening and ended with Tatlock's death in 1944. When Tatlock and Oppenheimer met, Tatlock was an active member of the Communist Party and persuaded Oppenheimer to allay his concerns about the poverty he was witnessing during the Great Depression by donating to the party.

Oppenheimer's reputation as a communist sympathizer soon attracted the attention of the FBI, whose agents began to follow and wiretap him.

In 1944, Tatlock was found dead in her apartment from an apparent drug overdose. She had suffered for much of her life with intense bouts of depression and left an unsigned note, so her death was ruled a suicide. Nonetheless, conspiracy theories — some alleged by her brother — about intelligence agencies' supposed involvement in her death abounded.

Tatlock introduced Oppenheimer to the poems of John Donne, whose work she loved. He drew from Donne's poem "Batter my heart, three-person'd God …" when he assigned the code name "Trinity" to the first test of an atomic bomb.

The FBI's monitoring of Oppenheimer and Tatlock came back to bite him during his trial at the Atomic Energy Commission's 1954 security hearing, where his affair was exposed and used to allege that he had still held communist sympathies late into World War II. The trial, which resulted in the revoking of Oppenheimer's security clearance, hounded him from public life — making him one of the most prominent victims of McCarthyism.

SCI FI TEK
Isometric taps $25M to build a registry and science platform focused on carbon removal



Ingrid Lunden
Mon, July 17, 2023 

Carbon removal -- technology that aims to remove carbon emissions from the environment by breaking it down and turning it into something less harmful -- saw a big splash of attention last year after Stripe, Shopify, Meta, Alphabet and more collectively agreed to pump $1 billion into funding removal startups. Today, a London startup called Isometric hopes to give some structure to that nascent industry. The startup is launching today armed with $25 million, one of the largest seed rounds this year for a climate startup.

Lowercarbon Capital and Plural are the co-investors in this round, alongside Niklas Zennström (Skype's co-founder and founder of the VC Atomico), David Helgason (founder of Unity Technologies), Ross Mason (founder of MuleSoft) and Ilkka Paananen (founder of Supercell).

Isometric will use the funding both to hire more scientists and technologists and to work on its products. Chief among them is a carbon removal registry to provide data to enterprises, looking to buy removal credits, to the various startups building that technology. Isometric claims it will be the first registry for "high-quality, long-duration" carbon removal credits.

More immediately, it is today launching what it refers to as a "science platform," which will provide a way for carbon removal companies to publish and share their data with those interested in seeing it, and for Isometric's team itself to do more firsthand, human vetting, too.


Some of the first carbon removal startups on Isometric will include Charm Industrial (a specialist in bio-oil sequestration); Eion (focusing on rock weathering); Planetary (ocean alkalinity enhancement company), and Brilliant Planet (a microalgae burial company).

Charm recently announced a big tranche of carbon removal sales to JPMorgan, Stripe, Shopify, Meta, Alphabet, McKinsey and more totaling $50 million. Isometric said that its science team has been "independently reviewing historically delivered tonnes" for Charm, posting them on the new science platform.

Eamon Jubbawy, the founder and CEO of Isometric, is a repeat entrepreneur in the London tech world with his startups ranging from other climate work to enterprise businesses.

He was the co-founder of identity verification startup Onfido (which has been backed by hundreds of millions of dollars from many investors); and more recently he was also the co-founder of Sequence, a financial operations platform (younger, but also backed by big names like Andreessen Horowitz). He also co-founded recycling startup Safi (formerly known as TrueCircle).

He said that Isometric is addressing a specific gap that has been identified in the market.

Carbon offsetting has been a popular route taken by companies that want to contribute something positive to the environment while still running their businesses, but it's also full of flaws. Critics have pointed to the fact that the exchanges don't really address the root causes of pollution and carbon emissions, and that many of the projects, unregulated or not, could turn out to be worthless, or worse.

"I was looking at carbon markets and how badly they work," he said in an interview, and he saw how thinking was starting to shift around them, and the belief that "there was more drastic change needed."

That has led many in the industry to search for alternatives and complements to offsetting, and carbon removal has emerged as one of the key areas to watch, helped in no small part by the efforts from Stripe and its Frontier Initiative co-investors, as well as moves from Apple and Microsoft to incorporate removal into their own ESG strategies.

But given relatively recent state of carbon removal -- and some of the learnings of the pitfalls in more widespread carbon offsetting -- there is an opportunity to provide some structure and order to how removal credits are accounted for, and to vet what the removal companies are claiming to do.

While there are registries out there for carbon offsetting, Jubbawy believes that carbon removal required a new approach.

"The carbon registries that existed missed the mark so badly that the only real option was to build another platform to fix all that, focused on removal," he said.

To be clear, there are still some significant conditionals around carbon removal. A lot of the technology being built and applied by removal companies is still largely untested at scale.

And there are definite leaps of faith that have to be accepted for how some of this might work -- for example, if the model is based on decades of in-ground storage of biofuels but the company developing completely that technique is only a few years old.

On the other hand, the tech and order that Jubbaway and Isometric hope to bring to the space, vetting and making their work more transparent to would-be customers and researchers, could be a significant step in separating what works and what does not.

TRYING FOR SEVENTY YEARS
UK to launch ‘Apollo mission of nuclear fusion’ in 2024

Joe Pinkstone
Sat, July 15, 2023

The Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in Abingdon, Oxfordshire has already experimented with the deuterium-tritium fuel mix needed for commercial fusion power - Heathcliff O'Malley for The Telegraph

When man first set foot on the moon in 1969 it brought to fruition the dream of John F Kennedy, who wanted to do it “not because it is easy, but because it is hard”.

Now Britain, with its plan for the world’s first nuclear fusion-powered plant, is having its own Apollo moment.

Nasa’s expertise and innovation took the former president’s speech from grandiose oration to reality in just seven years. Government scientists in the UK are channelling the mantra of JFK and the space race to build Step, a fusion energy power plant generating unlimited power with no waste or emissions, by 2040.

Fusion has been heralded as the holy grail of renewables for decades, but so vast are the difficulties surrounding the technology that it has thus far remained an unconquered enigma.

While the US in the 1960s was motivated by Soviet rivals, the 21st century UK Government has been spurred into action by the climate crisis and an energy shortage triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Officials are building on four decades of research and are in the early stages of turning a defunct coal power station in the East Midlands into the world’s first fusion power station.

The Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (Step), located at West Burton in Nottinghamshire, is the site of the UK’s hoped-for “small step for mankind” moment.

Politicians want Step to become an operational “mini-Sun” that contributes energy to the grid by 2040. George Freeman, the science minister, previously said he was hopeful this could be done even sooner, in just 15 years.

Pound for pound, fusion makes four million times more energy than coal and creates none of the emissions or problematic waste of current energy generation methods.

However, it is exceptionally difficult to create the conditions needed to initiate fusion and harder still to sustain it for long enough to produce more energy than it requires.

Speaking at an international fusion conference at the University of Oxford this week, Paul Methven, the Director of Step, admitted the technology is “embryonic” and refused to guarantee the project would be live by 2040.

Mr Methven also declined to comment on how much the project would likely cost. More than £200 million of taxpayers’ money has already been spent on setting up Step and Mr Methven expects the bill to run to multiple billions before completion.

A refined timeline and cost analysis is expected next year.

Designs for Step are currently being fine tuned and government scientists at the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) have so far drawn up almost 150 different drawings and looked at 66 concepts in a bid to solve the fusion riddle.

The latest plans, seen by The Telegraph, reveal engineers will use a 22 metre tall spherical tokamak to merge two forms of hydrogen – deuterium and tritium – to make helium and therefore release huge amounts of harnessable energy.

The plasma ball of around 100 million degrees Celsius will have a radius of 3.6 metres, designs show, and be controlled by magnets.

It is also hoped that the plant will make its own fuel in another world first. A lithium blanket around the reaction will be deliberately bombarded by neutrons spewed out by the helium production process to produce the tritium fuel which, unlike deuterium, is rare in nature.

Engineers are hopeful that Step will generate 1.6GW of power – about half as much as Hinkley Point C – which equates to a net output of up to 200 MWe.

The rudimentary blueprints are likely to change significantly over the coming years as the concept is fine tuned.

Construction at West Burton is expected to start in spring 2024 and future optimisations and material breakthroughs are expected to optimise efficiency and boost output, experts say.

‘It’s an incredibly exciting opportunity’

“Step is fusion’s Apollo,” Mr Methven told The Telegraph.

“We are currently designing the rocket and building the team, across both public and private sectors, that will put our equivalent of people on the moon.

“It’s an incredibly exciting opportunity for the UK to be at the forefront of this new frontier.”

Cracking the nuclear fusion conundrum is akin to tackling an amorphous blob, Prof Sir Ian Chapman, the chief executive of UKAEA, told The Telegraph. Solve one problem, and a raft of others emerge.

“By far and away the biggest difficulty facing Step is this,” he said.

“We’ve got the high-level master plan laid out, but not the specifics of exactly how everything will be. But before you start building it, you need to know the specifics.

“It’s not the perfect way of running a project but it’s the sort of challenge you take on when the world is under existential threat, which we are.”

Officials are keen to keep the scale of Step as compact and manageable as possible to try to stay within budget, on time and give fusion the best chance of being a viable long-term energy source and of becoming an enduring success.
‘Hubristic to give cast iron guarantees’

Uncertainty over the feasibility of fusion, and an engineer’s pragmatism, has left Mr Methven less gung-ho than the politicians promising fusion powered homes in the next decade or two.

“We have a clear target from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to drive towards first operations in 2040 and myself and the team will strain every sinew to do that,” he told The Telegraph.

“But, equally, I think it would be hubristic to give cast iron guarantees about the lights in this room being powered by fusion from that plant within a particular timescale.”

Scientists are skipping physical tests for Step, instead relying on a “digital twin” powered by the world’s most powerful supercomputers to troubleshoot any issues.

Grant Shapps, the Secretary of State for Energy, said: “The world needs fusion energy like never before, it has the potential to provide a ‘baseload’ power, underpinning renewables like wind and solar.”

Explainer-Are LGBTQ+ rights at stake in Spain's election?

LGBT Pride Day in Madrid

Mon, July 17, 2023 
By Enrique Anarte

MADRID (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people have taken centre stage ahead of Spain's July 23 national election.

Opinion polls predict Alberto Nunez Feijoo's conservative People's Party (PP) will win the election after four years of coalition government by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's Socialists and the leftist Unidas Podemos.

But Feijoo would likely need the support of the far-right Vox party to form a government. Vox has strongly opposed LGBTQ+ rights.

Here is what you need to know.

Why are LGBTQ+ advocates worried?

Local elections in May paved the way for PP-Vox coalitions in several Spanish municipalities.

Vox made headlines in May by hanging a sign from a Madrid building showing a hand dropping cards with symbols representing feminism, communism, the LGBTQ+ community and Catalan independence into a rubbish bin.

A new Vox-led authority in the small eastern town of Naquera last month said it would no longer display the rainbow-coloured flag on public buildings.

In Valdemorillo, a small town near Madrid, the new PP-Vox council cancelled a performance of a theatre adaptation of Virginia Woolf's novel "Orlando", in which the protagonist changes gender.

What do right-wing parties advocate?

Both Vox and the PP have promised to take action against some pro-LGBTQ+ measures passed by the left-wing government.

They have both pledged to change a self-determination law that came into force in March, allowing trans people over 16 to change their legal gender simply by informing the official registry, rather than undergoing two years of hormone treatment.

The law also allows children over 14 to change their legal gender with parental approval.

The PP and Vox, as well as some women's rights groups, argue the legislation puts women in single-sex spaces at risk and have accused the left of forcing children to medically transition.

"Changing your sex is easier than getting a driver's license," Feijoo said. Vox party leader Santiago Abascal said "the 'trans law' discriminates against women."

But the parties have not clarified which parts of the law they would revoke. The legislation also banned so-called "conversion therapy", which aims to change someone's sexual orientation and gender identity, and unnecessary surgery on intersex babies, who are born neither male nor female.

Both the PP and Vox declined to answer requests for comment.

Vox has also proposed allowing parents to take their children out of sex education classes and lessons covering sexual and gender diversity.

What do LGBTQ+ activists say?

Spain is fourth in the ranking of European countries' LGBTQ+ rights by advocacy group ILGA-Europe, but LGBTQ+ activists said a PP-Vox government would roll back their rights.

Several international surveys rank Spain amongst the most LGBTQ-friendly societies in the world, although hate crimes against the community rose by 68% between 2019 and 2021, Interior Ministry data showed.

A right-wing government could also target LGBTQ+ rights by failing to implement existing laws, said Uge Sangil, head of LGBTQ+ umbrella group, FELGTB.

"We could go back 40 years," Sangil said.

For some, a PP-Vox coalition could also delay long-awaited measures such as including a non-binary option on identity documents.

"It would not only mean bring a setback in rights - we would also have practically no chances of moving forward," said Darko Decimavilla, a non-binary activist.

(Writing by Enrique Anarte; Editing by Jon Hemming. Please credit Openly, the LGBTQ+ news website from the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters. Visit https://www.openlynews.com)

Spain's right on verge of majority in general election, polls find


A man walks past electoral posters in Ronda

Updated Mon, July 17, 2023 
By Inti Landauro and Andrei Khalip

MADRID (Reuters) -The final opinion polls allowed under Spanish law before the July 23 general election showed the conservative People's Party (PP) well ahead of the ruling Socialists on Monday, but at the very least needing the support of far-right Vox to govern.

According to the main Spanish pollsters, which are barred from publishing surveys from Tuesday, PP would garner 131-151 seats in the 350-member lower house, falling short of an outright majority of 176.

While some polls showed that even with Vox the right could struggle to achieve a joint majority, the average of all surveys released on Monday by pollsters GAD3, 40db, IMOP, Sigma 2 and Simple Logica shows PP and Vox getting 140 and 36 seats, respectively - just on the line.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) would get 98-115 seats, according to the surveys whose projections work out at an average of 108 seats.

A hypothetical alliance between PP and the anti-immigration, anti-feminist Vox could lead to PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo becoming premier, but much will depend on who comes third in a number of provinces, and how many lawmakers a few regional parties, who have supported Sanchez's minority coalition over the last four years, elect.

A national PP-Vox alliance would give the far-right a role in government for the first time since the current constitution was approved in 1978 after the four decades of Francisco Franco's dictatorship.

Vox is almost neck and neck with Sumar, a new alliance of far-left groups that includes Podemos, the junior ruling coalition partner. Sumar would fetch 25-39 seats, polls show.

In many electoral districts, the third spot is crucial as the fourth placed party generally fails to elect legislators.

Sanchez, who still hopes to have enough support in parliament to form a government, cancelled part of his agenda in Brussels on Monday to join a campaign rally in the northeastern town of Huesca, where the PSOE is fighting to get an extra seat.

Sumar and PSOE have said they intend to recreate the ruling coalition.

Feijoo has been coy about whether he would seal a post-election alliance with Vox even though the two have teamed up in several regions and many municipalities after local elections on May 28, in which the ruling coalition was routed.

Sanchez called the snap election on May 29, apparently hoping to out-manoeuvre the PP and force it to campaign while also negotiating uncomfortable coalition deals with Vox in the regions.

(Reporting by Inti Landauro; Editing by Andrei Khalip, Mike Harrison and Barbara Lewis)

Thoughts on International Drag Day from equalpride CEO Mark Berryhill

Mark Berryhill
Mon, July 17, 2023 


As we mark this year's International Drag Day, I am humbled to reflect on the incredible journey of this distinctive art form and the brave individuals who've made it the vibrant community it is today.

Drag is much more than just performance. It's a courageous expression of self, a dynamic reflection of culture, and a powerful tool for social commentary. It's a celebration of the intricate shades of human identity, a celebration of self and being unapologetically so. We at equalpride believe that this, like all art forms, deserves respect, celebration, and encouragement.

However, we have witnessed a worrying increase in anti-drag and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and legislation. These are not just attacks on the community but on the very ideas of self-expression, diversity, and personal freedom. We firmly oppose such discriminatory rhetoric and legislation. They only strengthen our resolve to amplify and uplift the voices of those often marginalized.

Equalpride understands the power and necessity of storytelling. Through our work, we strive to provide a platform for those stories that need to be told, especially the ones that showcase the resilience, creativity, and spirit of diverse communities. We believe in the magic that happens when we unite to create a culture and country of equality for all.

Our commitment is unwavering. We will continue to champion a world where every voice is heard, every individual is respected, and every expression of self is celebrated. We look forward to standing alongside you, amplifying your voices, and making strides toward a more inclusive and equitable society.

From the equalpride family of brands to your neighborhood drag stages, shows and story hours, wishing you all a happy International Drag Day!

Warm regards,

Mark Berryhill
CEO, equalpride

Minnesota mayor faces pressure to resign or meet LGBTQ+ group's demands after his comments on Pride


 An attendee holds up flags during the New York City Pride Parade, June 24, 2018, in New York. Members of an LGBTQ+ group are calling on the mayor of a southern Minnesota city to meet their demands — or resign — after he asked pastors at a church holding a Pride event if there would be stripper poles in the sanctuary and posted a public prayer alluding to “sin and brokenness” at the event.

 (AP Photo/Steve Luciano, File) 

Associated Press
Mon, July 17, 2023 

OWATONNA, Minn. (AP) — Members of an LGBTQ+ group are calling on the mayor of a southern Minnesota city to meet their demands — or resign — after he asked pastors at a church holding a Pride event if there would be stripper poles in the sanctuary and posted a public prayer alluding to “sin and brokenness” at the event.

In an open letter to Mayor Tom Kuntz, a Republican, and the Owatonna City Council, Rainbowatonna organizer Nathan Black said Kuntz used his elected position to harass and intimidate people involved in the city's Pride celebration on July 8, the Star Tribune reported. The Pride celebration included a service at Associated Church, festivities at a pavilion and a drag show after-party at the Owatonna Arts Center.

In his public letter, Black said Kuntz spoke to pastors at the church about two weeks before the service. He said the mayor appeared to be upset and asked several “bizarre” questions, including whether there would be stripper poles in the sanctuary. Black said he wasn’t concerned about the mayor’s behavior until later, when he found that last month Kuntz posted a prayer he wrote on social media.

In the prayer, Kuntz asked for wisdom in the face of upcoming public events “where sin and brokenness will be celebrated and where sexually explicit acts will be normalized.” Kuntz didn’t mention a specific event but called for prayer “until July 8,” according to the Star Tribune.

Black initially asked for the mayor’s immediate resignation, saying: “There is no place for homophobic bigotry in city government.”

But Black told The Associated Press that members of Rainbowatonna met with Kuntz on Monday and planned another meeting later this week. Group members are asking Kuntz for an apology “that acknowledges the impact of his actions,” along with diversity and sensitivity training for the mayor and city staff, Black said.

They are also asking Kuntz to appoint a member of Rainbowatonna’s board to the city’s human rights commission, among other measures.

“If he meets these demands, and we’re hopeful that he will, then we would withdraw that request” for his resignation, Black said.

An email sent to the mayor was not returned on Monday.

But in a public response, Kuntz said to Black: “I did what I thought was the right thing to do."

He added: “My intent was not to harass or intimidate anyone. My words were my own and not those of the City. I try each day to follow my own faith and beliefs, but I also recognize other people have the right to follow their own faith and beliefs too. ... Please accept my apologies.”

Kuntz, who has been mayor since 2004, said he reached out to Black and offered to talk through the issue. Last week, Kuntz confirmed parts of Black's letter to the Owatonna People’s Press and said: “A couple people asked if there was going to be pole dancing, so I asked that."

He also said that he felt God would not approve of drag shows and homosexuality.

  

 

Indian Oil signs long term LNG import deals with ADNOC LNG, TotalEnergies


Indian Oil Corp Ltd logo


Mon, July 17, 2023 
By Nidhi Verma

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian Oil Corp, the country's top refiner, has signed long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) import deals with United Arab Emirates' s Abu Dhabi Gas Liquefaction Co Ltd (ADNOC LNG) and France's TotalEnergies.

The two deals were signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Visit to France and UAE last week. Supplies under the two deals would commence from 2026, the Indian company said in two separate statements.

ADNOC LNG would supply up to 1.2 million metric tonnes per year (tpy) of LNG to IOC for 14 years, the Indian company said, adding India's trade treaty with UAE enable it to import LNG without paying a 2.5% import tax.

This is the first time that an Indian company has signed a long term LNG import deal with ADNOC.

TotalEnergies would supply 0.8 million tpy LNG to IOC under the 10 year deal, it said. TotalEnergies would supply LNG to IOC from its global portfolio.

India companies are spending billions of dollars to boost their gas infrastructure and are scouting for long term LNG imports deals as the nation wants to raise the share of gas in its energy mix to 15% by 2030 from 6.2% currently.

IOC's signings are also the latest in a slew of term deals signed by Asian LNG importers in recent months. In June, Bangladesh's state-owned Petrobangla signed a 10-year contract to receive LNG supplies from OQ Trading, formerly known as Oman Trading International, and a 15-year suppy deal with QatarEnergy, starting 2026.

Chinese importers Zhejiang Energy and ENN have also signed 20-year deals in recent weeks to receive North American supplies, after QatarEnergy inked 27-year agreements with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and Sinopec.

Meanwhile, Thailand's state-controlled PTT is in advanced talks with Qatar for a 15-year LNG deal for supplies of 1 or 2 million tonnes per annum, sources told Reuters.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

India needs to grow at 7.6% a year for 25 years to be a developed nation -cenbank bulletin

A labourer runs across a wholesale market in the old quarters of Delhi

Mon, July 17, 2023

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India will need to grow at a rate of 7.6% annually for the next 25 years to become a developed nation, according to a research paper published by the central bank in its monthly bulletin on Monday.

India's per capita income is currently estimated at $2,500, while it must be more than $21,664 by 2047, as per World Bank standards, to be classified as a high-income country.

"To achieve this target, the required real GDP compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) for India works out to be 7.6% during 2023-24 to 2047-48," according to the study by the Reserve Bank of India's economic research department.

In nominal terms, which includes the impact of inflation, the economy would need to clock a CAGR of 10.6%, said the study, which does not represent the RBI's official view.

"It may, however, be mentioned that the best (nominal growth) India achieved over a period of consecutive 25 years in the past is a CAGR of 8.1% during 1993-94 to 2017-18."

To reach that level of sustained growth, India requires investment in physical capital and reforms across sectors covering education, infrastructure, healthcare and technology, the study said.

The country's industrial and services sector would need to grow at over 13% annually for these 25 years for India to achieve developed economy status, it said.

(Reporting by Ira Dugal; Editing by Savio D'Souza)

Tesla Is Considering A $25 Billion Bet On The Indian Electric Vehicle Market

Chris Bibey
Mon, July 17, 2023


Tesla Inc. is considering an investment proposal with the Indian government that would see the company open a factory with the capacity to manufacture roughly 500,000 electric vehicles each year, according to a recent report citing government sources.

Should this plan come to light, it would also provide Tesla with a home base for exporting vehicles to other countries in the region.

The Next Generation of Innovators: New Battery Beats Tesla’s Lithium-Ion By A Mile With 100x Cheaper Price Tag, 100% Recyclable and Longer Lifespan

Other Proposed Details

While details are still murky, it's been reported that the starting price for the vehicles in India will be $24,401. While that's substantially more than India's cheapest electric vehicle, it's competitively priced when compared to Tesla EVs in countries such as the United States.

“Tesla has come to us with an ambitious plan, and we are confident that the movement will be positive this time around, especially as it involves both local manufacturing and exports," said a source discussing the plan with the Times of India.

Last year, the anticipated entrance of Tesla into the Indian market faced hurdles when the national government declined to reduce import tariffs levied on the automaker's vehicles. Notably, India imposes an import tax of up to 100% on electric automobiles

India expressed its interest in Tesla establishing a local manufacturing base, while the automaker responded with a preference to initially export its vehicles into the country to gauge market demand.

With a modified strategy to penetrate the Indian market, Tesla engaged in negotiations with government representatives in May concerning potential incentives for vehicle and battery production.

The negotiations this time around are spearheaded by India's commerce and industry ministry, aiming to orchestrate a mutually beneficial agreement, ensuring a balanced competitive environment. The talks encompass both domestic manufacturing and exports.

During a recent interaction with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi encouraged the automotive manufacturer to make a substantial investment in the country.

If everything goes as planned, this will be a big win both for Tesla and the Indian auto market.

Green Energy Movement

This comes at a time when India is rapidly moving towards green energy solutions. As one of the largest energy producers in the world, the country is quickly becoming one of the largest renewable energy producers in the world as well. As the country, and most of the worlds super powers, look to embrace electric vehicle solutions like Tesla, there’s a race to develop more innovative solutions. For example, startups like Airthium are developing solutions to beat out Tesla’s lithium-ion solutions.

Fisker to sell limited edition electric SUVs in India by fourth quarter

Reuters
Mon, July 17, 2023 

 The 2022 Paris Auto Show

(Reuters) - U.S. startup Fisker said on Monday it would produce 100 limited edition electric sports utility vehicles (SUVs) for the Indian market and expects to begin deliveries in the fourth quarter this year.

The company had said in September it would begin selling its Ocean electric SUVs in India by July 2023, with local production beginning in a few years.


But it now expects to complete the final checks for the SUV, named Fisker Ocean Extreme Vigyan, for India by the end of September, with its pricing aligning with the European market.

Fisker Ocean Extreme is priced at 69,950 euros ($78,588.83), excluding taxes, in Germany. That would equate to around 6.45 million Indian rupees. A Fisker Ocean SUV starts at $37,499 in the United States.

Electric vehicles (EVs) make up just 1% of the 3 million cars sold each year in India, with the government wanting to increase this share to 30% by 2030. For this, the country has introduced several incentives, including tax breaks for consumers.

In India and across all regions outside China, the U.S. and Europe, EV sales are expected to represent 2%-3% of car sales in 2023, a relatively small yet growing share, according to data from International Energy Agency.

Fisker has a secondary office in Hyderabad, India, and has about 100 employees in the country, according to its LinkedIn page.

The California-based company has a contract manufacturing agreement with Magna International, which would produce the Ocean at its Austrian unit and ship it to India. Fisker also looks to produce its next EV, the smaller, five-seater PEAR in India with Foxconn.

($1 = 0.8901 euros)

(1 Indian rupee = 0.0108 euros)

(Reporting by Akshita Toshniwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)

How China Beat Everyone to Be World Leader in Electric Vehicles

Linda Lew
Mon, July 17, 2023 




(Bloomberg) -- In the race to reduce carbon emissions, countries from the US to New Zealand are doling out incentives to spur electric-vehicle sales — tactics China used for years as it turned into the biggest EV market on Earth.

Beijing’s success is breathtaking. EVs accounted for a quarter of all passenger cars sold in China last year, far ahead of the roughly one in seven in the US and one in eight in Europe. And the pace is accelerating. HSBC expects the EV penetration rate in the world’s second-largest economy to reach 90% by 2030.

Including plug-in hybrids, China’s clean-car sales hit 5.67 million in 2022, more than half of all global deliveries. The country will account for about 60% of the world’s 14.1 million new passenger EV sales this year, BloombergNEF predicts.

It’s not just buyers. Manufacturing is booming too — Chinese brands account for about half of all EVs sold globally, HSBC analysts said in a recent note.

Sufficient infrastructure obviously helps with EV adoption. China, which has the largest charging network in the world, added 649,000 public chargers in 2022 alone, which is more than 70% of all installations done globally that year.

Encouraged by all the progress made, EV makers have swarmed China with new models, and a price war has flared this year as companies try to get ahead of rivals. Analysts expect some consolidation is looming for the industry in China.

Here’s a closer look at China’s carrot-and-stick approach to cultivating EVs:

The Carrots

Consumer Subsidies: A program that ran for a decade reimbursed EV Buyers with as much as 60,000 yuan ($8,375). Although the national subsidies ended in 2022, local governments in places like Shanghai continue to dole out rebates of up to 10,000 yuan.


Tax Breaks: A standard 10% tax levy has been waived for clean-car purchases under 300,000 yuan until 2025, and will return at 5% for 2026 and 2027. The tax break, in place since 2014, is estimated to amount to 835 billion yuan by the end of 2027. In the US, the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed last year, includes $270 billion in tax incentives for EV purchases and clean manufacturing and nearly $12 billion in loans to clean-energy projects.


Manufacturer Subsidies: Direct government support to EV makers helped many get up and running. While an overabundance of companies emerged, with more than 500 EV brands crowding the market in 2019, the effort nurtured successes like BYD Co. The Shenzhen-based company has become the best-selling brand in China, ending Volkswagen AG’s decades-long reign.


Infrastructure: Widely accessible, government-subsidized charging stations reduce drivers’ costs and ease any range anxiety. Charging standards are uniform, thanks to agreements with manufacturers, so everyone uses the same plugs. China had 6.36 million EV chargers at the end of May, more than anywhere else on the planet. A significant portion is part of the state grid, the fourth-largest provider behind private companies like Wanbang New Energy Investment Group Co. and TGood New Energy Co.

The Sticks

Gas Hurdles: Buying and owning gasoline-powered cars is less and less appealing. Cities are fighting congestion by limiting the number of cars on the road with measures such as lotteries for new license plates in Beijing and an auction system in Shanghai. Plates went for an average of 92,780 yuan at auctions in Shanghai during the first five months last year. EV drivers, meanwhile, can easily get a green license plate, showcasing their environmentally-friendly credentials. Green plates are increasingly prominent on city streets.


Production Penalties: China introduced a dual-credit system for the auto industry in 2017, which awards points for making clean cars and penalties for those with high fuel consumption. Cars from producers with negative scores may be taken off the market. To avoid punishment, manufacturers can buy credits from rivals with positive scores, like Tesla Inc. or BYD. It can get expensive. State-owned Chongqing Changan Automobile Co. lost 4,000 yuan in profit for each car sold in 2020 as it bought credits to avoid the penalty.


The Sales

Government Purchases: Some local governments converted their public transport and taxi fleets to 100% electric, and encouraged local agencies to procure electric or plug-in hybrids. The result was steady business for EV makers such as BYD, which also makes buses, and Guangzhou Automobile Group Co.

Bloomberg Businessweek