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High-density storage of nuclear waste heightens terrorism risks

A space-saving method for storing spent nuclear fuel has dramatically heightened the risk of a catastrophic radiation release in the event of a terrorist attack, according to a study initiated at Princeton. Terrorists targeting the high-density storage systems used at nuclear power plants throughout the nation could cause contamination problems "significantly worse than those from Chernobyl," the study found.

Three Distant Quasars Found at Edge of the Universe

Astronomers have discovered three of the oldest, most distant quasars yet found -- quasars close to the Big Bang that began the universe. Xiaohui Fan of the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory in Tucson, Ariz., will present the results at the American Astronomical Society's meeting in Seattle. Fan, leader of the team that discovered the objects, explained that these distant quasars -- compact but luminous objects thought to be powered by super-massive black holes -- reach back to a time when the universe was just 800 million years old. The highest redshift quasar is roughly 13 billion light years away and was discovered recently in the constellation Ursa Major.

Computer program reveals optimum microstructure for new materials

A Princeton chemist has developed a general mathematical system for designing materials that perform two functions at once, even when the desired properties sometimes conflict with each other. Salvatore Torquato and colleagues used computers to calculate the optimum structure for any material that is a composite of two substances with differing properties. The achievement is the first simple example of a mathematically rigorous method for optimizing the design of multifunctional composites, which are an increasingly common kind of material.



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