Critical mineral supply concerns the identification, extraction, processing, and recycling of materials essential for energy, defense, and high‑technology systems, with particular emphasis on rare earth elements, uranium, lithium, graphite, and related metals. The field examines geological resources, waste and urban mining pathways, nuclear fuel cycle by‑products, and advanced materials development alongside geopolitical dependencies, trade controls, and national strategies. It also addresses supply‑chain vulnerabilities and sustainability constraints that influence low‑carbon energy transitions and long‑term resource security.
Engineering
Renewables are reshaping the global energy sector. Around the globe, we are installing solar panels and wind turbines with unprecedented speed to curb climate change.
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Energy & Green Tech
Green technologies are mineral-intensive: Electric vehicles, batteries, solar panels, wind turbines and grids need cobalt, lithium, copper, manganese, graphite and rare earths. The International Energy Agency estimates that ...
10 hours ago
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Energy & Green Tech
For decades, nonproliferation scientists and engineers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have helped convert the fuel in dozens of research reactors around the world so they can operate safely ...
Sep 23, 2026
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Engineering
Queensland researchers have reached a milestone in powering Australia's critical minerals refining industry, successfully delivering the nation's first grid-connected sodium-sulfur (NaS) battery energy storage system enabled ...
Sep 16, 2026
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Energy & Green Tech
A passenger car contains far more materials than its weight alone would suggest. Beyond the steel and aluminum are small amounts of gold, palladium and molybdenum—elements that can become highly significant when resource ...
Sep 14, 2026
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Energy & Green Tech
A new review paper from the Dalton Nuclear Institute at The University of Manchester uses a Tube map design to examine how closing the nuclear fuel cycle—recycling and reusing materials from used fuel—improves the sustainability ...
Sep 7, 2026
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Energy & Green Tech
The U.S. Army announced Wednesday that it plans to add nuclear microreactors at five military bases from New York to Texas as a reliable source of energy independent of the commercial electric grid.
Aug 27, 2026
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Business
For decades, nuclear fusion has been the physicist's dream: abundant, carbon-free power drawn from the same reaction that keeps the sun burning. Now it might be shifting from scientific ambition to industrial reality.
Aug 24, 2026
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Energy & Green Tech
In the Appalachian region stretching through the U.S. state of West Virginia, reddish water flowing out of retired coal mines is acidic, full of heavy metals and toxic to the environment.
Aug 22, 2026
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Business
Moving away from oil and gas and toward solar, wind and hydropower: that is the energy transition. To stop global warming, we must shift our energy infrastructure toward renewable sources in the coming years. The large-scale ...
Jul 28, 2026
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