Former Washington Nuclear Site Gets New Life as Solar Farm

TRASH TO TREASURE

A former nuclear testing facility is poised to get new life as a massive solar farm. Originally part of the Manhattan Project in the 1940s, the Hanford facility in Washington state was home to the world’s first full-scale plutonium production reactor, and plutonium made there was used in the Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. As part of the Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative, the U.S. Department of Energy now plans to repurpose the 8,000-acre site into a 1 GW solar farm that, if completed to plan, would be the largest solar project in the country.
Source: Engadget

$25B

That’s how much Amazon lost on devices powered by its digital assistant Alexa between 2017 and 2021 according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. The paper found that when Alexa first debuted, the team behind it “didn’t have a profit timeline,” and also noted that people tend to use Alexa devices for free services like checking the weather, rather than purchasing goods from Amazon. A statement from the tech giant said their devices are focused not just on profit, but also on “the value we create when customers use our services.”
Source: Ars Technica

SCOTTSDALE 911

The police department in Scottsdale, Ariz., will be the first in the state to use drones as first responders in emergencies. The tech will come from drone startup Aerodome and Flock Safety, which makes software and cameras for gunshot detection, license plate readers and other public safety needs. 911 dispatchers can send the drones to crime scenes and emergencies, to search for vehicles that match descriptions from Amber Alerts, or to follow suspects while police officers are busy with other calls. Police drones are still subject to federal regulations limiting their use to the operator’s line of sight, among other restrictions.
Source: Engadget

SHOOTING FOR THE MOON

Lunar exploration and construction is getting a bit easier to visualize. Designed by 3D geospatial firm Cesium, the first easily accessible 3D data set of the moon was originally created for NASA’s Artemis mission but can now be used by anyone to build accurate simulations and visualizations of the moon’s surface. The data set uses images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter program, and other sources, and was recently demonstrated at the Digital Twin for Lunar Development Workshop at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Source: Cesium