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London to Tokyo in two hours

by Daily Mail

It will take only two hours to fly from London to Tokyo, be virtually pollution free, and promises to be no louder than today's modern planes. There's only one catch for prospective commuters - it will be another 40 years before commercial flights take place. Plans were unveiled this week for the first hypersonic passenger jet, which would use three sets of engines to reach 3,125mph, more than four times the speed of sound, known as Mach 4. Hailed as the heir to Concorde, the aircraft would be propelled by a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen, meaning its only emissions would be water. (Daily Mail)

Vital water treatment system halts

by Japan Times

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Tuesday that a pump on its new radioactive water treatment system at the Fukushima No. 1 plant halted automatically during an early morning trial run, freezing up the entire apparatus. Tepco said it believes the pump, a component developed by France's Areva SA to inject chemicals into the key system to decontaminate radioactive materials, stopped because it was overburdened by excessive liquid flow. Tepco said it restarted the trial run in the afternoon after adjusting the liquid flow. Smooth operation of the treatment system, which is designed to remove highly radioactive materials from the massive amount of water accumulating at the power station, is essential to containing the crisis; Tepco plans to eventually recycle the water to cool the plant's damaged reactors. (Japan Times)