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Thursday, October 15, 2026

Can a Radioactive Ore Break China’s Grip on Rare Earths?

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/a-single-earth-moving-vehicle-drives-on-a-terraced-area-in-a-surface-mine.jpg?id=68422625&width=2000&height=1500&coordinates=416%2C0%2C417%2C0"/> The global campaigns to break China’s dominance of vital rare-earth markets are shaping up into one of the signature geostrategic struggles of the early 21st century. Hundreds of mining companies, government agencies, and industrial facilities scattered across North America, Australasia, and Europe are striving to wrest share from Chinese firms, which control roughly 90 percent of the markets for rare-earth oxides and rare-earth metals.Rare earths are the ingredients on which vast and crucial <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1002072124000358" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">manufacturing categories</a> depend: <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/384211713_Rare_Earth_Elements_for_Semiconductor_Manufacturing_Global_Supply_Chain_and_Dominance#:~:text=The%20semiconductor%20industry%20is%20highly,the%20performance%20of%20semiconductor%20devices." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">semiconductors</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/chapter/edited-volume/abs/pii/B9780128237106000182" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">LEDs</a>, lasers, displays, metal alloys, optical lenses, and catalysts for petroleum and chemical processing. Most important, though, are permanent magnets. Essentially all powerful electric motors are based on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare-earth_magnet" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">rare-earth permanent magnets</a>. These motors are the heart of electric vehicles, heating and cooling systems, robots, appliances, and tools. rare-earth magnets are also in the motors for military systems ranging from tactical drones to ballistic-missile submarines.<div class="ieee-sidebar-small" style="background: white; padding-left: 16px; padding-top: 16px; padding-bottom: 0; width: 40%;"><img src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy82ODQzMzYxNC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTgyNTA3ODA3Mn0.Z30wpJCLrtoNyFJrl1qnN4vEOCW4dGvOXoLRjTW9_0k/img.png"/>This article is a collaboration between <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/" target="_blank">Foreign Policy</a>, the global magazine of politics and ideas, and IEEE Spectrum, the flagship magazine of the IEEE.</div>Succinctly put, any industrial power that wants to remain competitive in vital, high-tech industries must have access to a steady supply of rare-earth elements or products based on them. The traditional supply chain for these elements, originating in China, is increasingly fraught—so much so that some analysts are beginning to use the term “<a href="https://voltrush.substack.com/p/chinas-rare-earth-weapon-inside-the" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mineral war</a>.” The countries that are now scrambling to piece together alternative supply chains, whether by themselves or in cooperation with each other, face daunting odds. Never mind the sheer momentum of the Chinese rare earths juggernaut. Few industries can match the rare earths business for instability, risk, intrigue, and sheer frustration.And yet, many rare-earth experts see a way forward, and it depends on a specific kind of ore, called monazite. The ore contains huge amounts of valuable rare earths, including neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium.Related: <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/china-rare-earth-minerals" target="_blank">Chasing China’s Monazite Monopoly</a>“The future is monazite,” declares <a href="https://investornews.com/author/jack-lifton/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Jack Lifton</a>, an analyst, consultant, and author. Lifton, who has been studying the rare earths industry since 1962, has seen countless trends, companies, and technologies come and go, and he isn’t given to sweeping statements. But on the subject of monazites, he’s bullish. “Right now, in my opinion, monazite is the most important rare-earth ore,” says Lifton, who is also cochairman of the <a href="https://criticalmineralsinstitute.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Critical Minerals Institute</a>, an organization that’s promoting the creation of a North American supply chain.That path forward isn’t going to be smooth or straight, Lifton and others are quick to acknowledge. Monazite typically contains radioactive thorium and uranium, which means its handling, storage, and processing are tightly regulated by government agencies. It can be processed only with special techniques and procedures, and the mildly radioactive wastes generated by processing must be stored in isolation indefinitely.Nevertheless, major investment is now flowing to monazite mines and processing technologies. In the United States, <a href="https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/energy-fuels-one-company-five-critical-materials" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Energy Fuels</a>, which operates the country’s only conventional uranium mill, has developed its own extraction process and is producing mixed oxides of neodymium and praseodymium—and also pilot-scale quantities of dysprosium and terbium oxides, key “heavy” rare earths that are otherwise produced almost exclusively in China. <img alt="An aerial view of a complex of industrial buildings and large, aboveground tanks near a large artificial pond." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2478034087acc2f2e5e9376875f5a94c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="7d6ee" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/an-aerial-view-of-a-complex-of-industrial-buildings-and-large-aboveground-tanks-near-a-large-artificial-pond.jpg?id=68423091&width=980"> Energy Fuels is processing monazite into rare-earth oxides at its White Mesa Mill in southeastern Utah. The body of water at left in the image is a tailings impoundment, where radioactive waste from processing is stored.Energy Fuels</img><a href="https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/energy-fuels-the-uranium-company-that-built-a-rare-earth-business-no-one-else-could" target="_blank">The company</a> has spent more than US $200 million to secure monazite assets in Brazil and Madagascar, and plans to scale its rare-earth production to higher commercial levels, at an estimated cost of $410 million. Energy Fuels’ rare-earth ambitions received a significant boost in June, when the Trump administration announced that it had signed a <a href="https://www.war.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/4520819/the-department-of-wars-office-of-strategic-capital-signs-725-million-conditiona/" target="_blank">$725 million conditional loan commitment</a> with the company.Meanwhile, though, a government-backed project in Saskatchewan, Canada, stands as a cautionary tale for monazite backers. After six years of construction and expenditures of more than CA $100 million (US $72 million), a processing plant there has produced only minuscule quantities of rare earths. The processing plant, built by the Saskatchewan Research Council, was supposed to be producing 40 tonnes of rare earths per month by the <a href="https://www.mining-technology.com/news/srcs-rare-production/" target="_blank">end of 2024</a>. That didn’t happen. “Full operation,” with production of 400 tonnes of metal per year was planned for “early 2025.” That didn’t happen, either. The organization is now targeting late 2027—by which time the project will have cost <a href="https://oilprice.com/Interviews/Inside-North-Americas-First-Fully-Integrated-Rare-Earth-Facility.html" target="_blank">more than CA $216 million</a>, according to the SRC’s CEO, Mike Crabtree.Outside of North America, major monazite projects are also planned by <a href="https://astronlimited.com.au/" target="_blank">Astron </a>Limited,<a href="https://www.miningweekly.com/article/heavy-rare-earth-containing-monazite-a-potential-third-revenue-stream-for-sovereigns-kasiya-2026-05-27" target="_blank"> </a><a href="https://www.iluka.com/" target="_blank"> </a><a href="https://hastingstechmetals.com/" target="_blank">Hastings Technology Metals</a><a href="https://www.iluka.com/" target="_blank">,</a><a href="https://www.steenkampskraal.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> </a><a href="https://www.iluka.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Iluka Resources</a>,<a href="https://www.tronox.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> </a><a href="https://mkango.ca/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mkango Resources</a><a href="https://www.tronox.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">, </a><a href="https://www.miningweekly.com/article/heavy-rare-earth-containing-monazite-a-potential-third-revenue-stream-for-sovereigns-kasiya-2026-05-27" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sovereign Metals</a>, <a href="https://www.steenkampskraal.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Steenkampskraal Holdings</a>,<a href="https://astronlimited.com.au/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> </a>and <a href="https://www.tronox.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Tronox</a>,<a href="https://hastingstechmetals.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> </a><a href="https://mkango.ca/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> </a>among others.<a href="https://lynasrareearths.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> </a>Perth, Australia–based <a href="https://lynasrareearths.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lynas Rare Earths</a>, the largest rare-earths company outside of China, is expanding its monazite mining and processing operations. Most notable is the Lynas mine at Mount Weld, Australia, one of the world’s top monazite resources; the ore is processed at a sprawling facility in Malaysia.Of course, for countries outside of China, all this surging activity doesn’t guarantee a route to <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/best-rare-earth-elements-2025" target="_blank">rare earths</a> independence. It’s not even close. So the vital questions now are, What else has to happen to broaden and diversify the rare-earths supply chains? And can all of this be done safely?<h2>What Are the Advantages of Monazite Ore?</h2>Planet Earth has enormous quantities of monazite ore, in two different forms. In Australia, Canada, China, and South Africa, massive deposits of monazite take the form of veins of hard rock that run through mountains and calderas. Much of the new interest in monazite, though, is focused on a second type, called <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0375674225000378" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">heavy mineral sands</a>. The sands are the result of tens of millions of years of exposure to wind, water, and gravity crumbling mineral-rich rocks into grains, which then accumulated in coastal areas or alongside riverbeds. <img alt="Waves wash up on a beach of black and brown sand." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5a49cde41dc83d13f877e4d4bb19bd87" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="54fa3" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/waves-wash-up-on-a-beach-of-black-and-brown-sand.png?id=68423107&width=980"/> A particularly desirable form of monazite ore is found in heavy mineral sands, such as these on a beach in Brazil. Travel Pix/AlamyWithin those grains, the monazite is relatively hard and chemically inert. The monazite might be just a few percent by weight, but it typically contains between 45 and 70 percent rare earths by weight, including, in many cases, all of the necessary rare earths for magnets: neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium.“The best distribution of rare-earth elements that you can find anywhere is in monazites,” says <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/constantine-karayannopoulos-00b1a835/" target="_blank">Constantine Karayannopoulos</a>, former CEO of Neo Performance Materials and now a director of or adviser to several rare-earths firms. “The real money is in those four elements.” Dysprosium and terbium, both examples of “heavy” rare earths, are particularly sought after and are usually not present in the most commonly mined ore for rare earths, called bastnaesite.There are vast deposits of monazite-bearing heavy mineral sands in Australia, Brazil, India, Madagascar, Mozambique, and South Africa, with smaller ones in China, Idaho, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the southeastern U.S., and Vietnam. <img alt="A man in a white jacket and helmet points to dark seams in brown rock in an underground cavern." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9c75e3ce0e826989c9f4760505f6bba5" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="7388e" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/a-man-in-a-white-jacket-and-helmet-points-to-dark-seams-in-brown-rock-in-an-underground-cavern.jpg?id=68423136&width=980"/> <img alt="Samples of the dark rock are labeled with white characters." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c9159616b8406c501c5dc8f7717fa7cf" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="db30f" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/samples-of-the-dark-rock-are-labeled-with-white-characters.jpg?id=68423134&width=980"/> A geologist points out dark veins of hard-rock monazite ore in the Steenkampskraal mine in South Africa [top]. Ore samples from the mine are collected for analysis [above].Rodger Bosch/AFP/Getty ImagesWhat’s more, collecting the ore simply involves dredging or strip-mining the sands, as opposed to the blasting, drilling, and heavy earth moving required to get at hard-rock ores. Then, too, the sands are already in granular form, so they don’t need to be crushed or ground, like rock ores do. Separating out the heavy minerals from the sands can usually be done at the mining site, using relatively cheap magnetic or gravity-based techniques, leaving a relatively high grade of concentrate for further processing.And now the bad news about heavy mineral sands. “The problem is they tend to have a lot of thorium,” which is weakly radioactive, says <a href="https://threeconsulting.com/who/" target="_blank">James Kennedy</a>, president of <a href="https://threeconsulting.com/" target="_blank">ThREE consulting</a>, a rare-earths advisory firm based in Missouri. “The thorium is the single biggest problem” with using the sands, he says. “If you were mining and processing monazites for rare earths, you would end up with hundreds and eventually thousands of tons of thorium-containing radioactive residues” per processing facility. The only markets for thorium are a couple of tiny ones for welding rods and some optics, he says, so “you have to store it.” And under the rules for nuclear material set by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the <a href="https://www.iaea.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">International Atomic Energy Agency</a>, any stored radioactive material that doesn’t have a planned use or disposal pathway is considered nuclear waste. “So the [radioactive] liability suddenly far exceeds the value of anything you’ve mined and sold,” Kennedy says.It wasn’t always this way. Up until the 1950s, monazite was the main ore mined for rare earths. Companies processed heavy mineral sands from Australia, Brazil, and India, and hard rock from South Africa, to produce rare earths for tracer ammunition, steel alloys, cigarette-lighter flints, and, later, color-TV phosphors. <img alt="A small cluster of industrial buildings on the edge of an open-pit mine in a desert setting with a mountain in the background." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ff3297418727d6d59d2b85c3a1e081fd" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="4d57d" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/a-small-cluster-of-industrial-buildings-on-the-edge-of-an-open-pit-mine-in-a-desert-setting-with-a-mountain-in-the-background.jpg?id=68430788&width=980"/> The Mountain Pass mine and processing plants, in California, are the only large-scale rare-earth production facilities in the United States.David McNew/Getty ImagesSeveral developments combined to shift rare-earths production from monazite to bastnaesite. In 1949, a vast deposit of bastnaesite ore was discovered at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Pass_Rare_Earth_Mine" target="_blank">Mountain Pass</a> in California. By the early 1960s, bastnaesite had eclipsed monazite as the primary rare-earth ore. In the 1990s, with rare-earth production <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/194514/rare-earth-materials-china-trade" target="_blank">shifting to China</a>, the move toward bastnaesite continued with the <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/70189245" target="_blank">exploitation of massive deposits</a> in that country, such as those at <a href="https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202603/25/WS69c2badda310d6866eb3fa5d.html" target="_blank">Maoniuping</a>, that were either entirely or mostly bastnaesite.Now, though, any resurgence of rare-earth production outside of China may hinge on a monazite renaissance, and some observers are taking a hard look at the strict regulations that control the handling of thorium and other by-products of monazite processing. Those regulations, Kennedy insists, will throttle the rare-earth ambitions of the world outside China, unless governments take action now.“You rationalize the regulations around thorium and you will end the rare-earth crisis in the U.S.,” he declares. “You’ll turn rare earths from something that’s always scarce to something that is common and just naturally flows out of other mining.”<h2>How to Scale Rare-Earth Processing Using “Waste”</h2>A prime example of Kennedy’s vision already exists at Energy Fuels, based in Lakewood, Colo. It’s the only company in the U.S. licensed to process, handle, and store compounds of uranium, and among the very few licensed to store radioactive materials of any kind. Those permits give Energy Fuels the distinction of being the only U.S. entity allowed to process monazite ore for its rare earths. <img alt="In an industrial warehouse, a man in a blue shirt and gray hard hat and sunglasses guides a large white bag down onto a wood platform." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4e5ecafb19fda621d36c62afcbff4828" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="119c8" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/in-an-industrial-warehouse-a-man-in-a-blue-shirt-and-gray-hard-hat-and-sunglasses-guides-a-large-white-bag-down-onto-a-wood-pla.jpg?id=68430832&width=980"/>“Supersacks” containing a tonne of neodymium-praseodymium oxides were loaded on pallets at Energy Fuels’ White Mesa Mill.Energy FuelsThe company is moving aggressively to capitalize on that distinction. Energy Fuels’ main business is still uranium—last year it produced nearly 500 tonnes of it. But it has already started selling rare-earth oxides, following a modest $22 million investment in a small rare-earth processing facility at White Mesa Mill in Utah, where it also processes uranium. In September 2025, the company announced that it had sold <a href="https://investors.energyfuels.com/2025-09-09-U-S-Mined-and-Processed-Rare-Earths-Successfully-Manufactured-into-Permanent-Magnets-for-Use-in-EVs-and-Hybrids" target="_blank">1.2 tonnes of neodymium-praseodymium oxide</a> to South Korea–based <a href="https://www.poscointl.com/eng" target="_blank">POSCO International Corp.</a>, a leading maker of permanent-magnet assemblies for EV motors. Around the same time, Energy Fuels disclosed that it had raised a further $700 million.In December 2025, the company <a href="https://investors.energyfuels.com/2025-12-19-Energy-Fuels-US-Produced-Heavy-Rare-Earth-Oxide-Successfully-Qualified-for-Use-in-Permanent-Magnets" target="_blank">announced</a> it had produced small quantities of dysprosium oxide.<a href="https://www.arnoldmagnetics.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Important-Role-of-Dysprosium-in-Modern-Permanent-Magnets-150906.pdf" target="_blank"> </a>Tiny amounts of <a href="https://www.arnoldmagnetics.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Important-Role-of-Dysprosium-in-Modern-Permanent-Magnets-150906.pdf" target="_blank">dysprosium</a> are needed for motor magnets to ensure they keep functioning at high temperatures. Today, essentially all of the world’s dysprosium comes from China.Energy Fuels says it can produce 1,000 tonnes of rare-earth oxide a year at White Mesa Mill. But its rare-earth production there currently shares facilities with the uranium operations, so they cannot both be produced at the same time. Its monazite comes from the chemical company <a href="https://www.chemours.com/en/" target="_blank">Chemours</a>, which mines heavy mineral sands in Florida and Georgia to produce titanium and zirconium. The monazite ore sold to Energy Fuels is what remains after Chemours strips out the minerals it needs, namely ilmenite and zircon. <img alt="A cranelike structure towers over a large mound of gray sand." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7055836263911655187dc5e0b463bd77" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="5f961" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/a-cranelike-structure-towers-over-a-large-mound-of-gray-sand.jpg?id=68430843&width=980"/>The chemical company Chemours mines heavy mineral sands at sites in the U.S. states of Georgia [seen here] and Florida. Monazite extracted from the sands is sold to Lakewood, Colo.-based Energy Fuels, which processes the ore into rare-earth oxides.Chemours“Effectively, monazites are waste,” Karayannopoulos points out. “So you don’t have to dig another mine” to produce them.Chemours and Energy Fuels have agreements under which Chemours ships 500 tonnes of monazite annually to White Mesa Mill. Energy Fuels is also negotiating or already has deals that would give it access to enormous reserves of monazite ore in Australia, Brazil, and Madagascar. These will be essential for its ambitions to become a world-class supplier of rare-earth oxides. <img alt="A man wearing horn-rimmed glasses and a blue shirt and hard hat stands at a mining site." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d1547c4db37db234a2f7f12aab0d643d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="6a00e" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/a-man-wearing-horn-rimmed-glasses-and-a-blue-shirt-and-hard-hat-stands-at-a-mining-site.jpg?id=68430845&width=980"/>Mark Chalmers, former CEO of Energy Fuels, led the uranium company’s entrance into the rare-earths business.Jesse Rieser/The New York Times/Redux“We’re playing a long game,” says <a href="https://www.energyfuels.com/mark-chalmers/" target="_blank">Mark Chalmers</a>, who recently retired as Energy Fuels’ CEO and is now a consultant to the company. “We’re doing the engineering right now on a larger facility that will have the capacity to produce up to 6,000 tonnes per year” of rare-earth oxide, he said in an interview. For comparison, Lynas Rare Earths produced around 12,000 tonnes of rare-earth oxide in its most recent fiscal year.In announcing the <a href="https://www.war.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/4520819/the-department-of-wars-office-of-strategic-capital-signs-725-million-conditiona/" target="_blank">$725 million conditional loan commitment</a> with Energy Fuels, the U.S. Defense Department’s Office of Strategic Capital said the deal would help Energy Fuels scale up its output of rare-earth oxides and also help realize the company’s plans to turn the oxides into metals, a key step preceding the fabrication of magnets.<h2>What Are the Risks in the Rare-Earth Supply Chain?</h2>To see what can go wrong with a monazite project, consider the project in Saskatoon, Canada, where the <a href="https://www.src.sk.ca/" target="_blank">Saskatchewan Research Council</a> (SRC) has built and demonstrated a pilot plant to produce rare-earth oxides from monazite ore. It’s the only rare-earth extraction and separation plant in the country. In an email, a spokesperson said the plant “is scheduled to be commissioned by year’s end and after a production ramp-up phase, operational within the calendar year 2027.” When in “full operation,” at a time not specified by the spokesperson, the plant will have a capacity somewhere between 400 and <a href="https://realloys.com/realloys-press-release/realloys-enters-into-historic-partnership-with-the-src-to-establish-north-americas-first-commercial-scale-heavy-rare-earth-production/" target="_blank">600 tonnes</a> of rare-earth metal per year.But even that relatively modest output will depend on a reliable supply or “feedstock” of monazite. In an industry small enough that many of the top people are on a first-name basis, SRC’s inability to secure such a supply is an open secret. “Their problem is they haven’t got enough feedstock to run on a continuous basis, so they’re making sample runs,” a well-connected industry observer told IEEE Spectrum. (SRC declined to make an official available for this story.)In April 2024, SRC announced it had reached agreements with a Vietnamese organization, the Hung Thinh Group, for <a href="https://www.saskatchewan.ca/government/news-and-media/2024/april/15/src-expects-to-produce-400-tonnes-of-rare-earth-metals-per-year-beginning-in-2025" target="_blank">3,000 tonnes of rare-earth carbonate</a> per year for five years. It’s unclear how much of that feedstock has made it to the SRC facility. Vietnamese government restrictions on the export of monazite and bastnaesite have been in effect since 2022 and became law this past January.But the real twist here is that one of the largest, highest-grade monazite deposits in the world is just 800 kilometers from Saskatoon, near <a href="https://appiareu.com/saskatchewan-properties/alces-lake/" target="_blank">Alces Lake in Saskatchewan</a>. It’s likely that the SRC facility was conceived and built with that monazite deposit in mind. After all, as a government-owned entity, SRC says its mission is “to help the people of Saskatchewan strengthen the economy with quality jobs and a secure environment.”The Alces Lake deposit is owned by <a href="https://appiareu.com/" target="_blank">Appia Rare Earths & Uranium Corp.</a> In an interview, Appia’s CEO, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-drivas-011aa36a/" target="_blank">Tom Drivas</a>, talked up the possibility of a link between Appia and SRC. “SRC would be our logical option because, you know, it’s in the same area, same province. They need the monazite. And if we can supply the monazite, that’s sort of a natural, right?”It probably won’t happen, though. The logic of rare-earth mining is utterly different from the logic of mining a commodity like, say, copper. Multiple experts contacted by Spectrum suggested that the cost of developing a monazite mine at Alces Lake, including such necessary infrastructure as roadways, electricity, and water, would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Such costs, and the mercurial exigencies of the rare-earths market, make it unlikely that the government of Saskatchewan would commit that kind of money, even with help from the Canadian federal government. These factors help explain why Canada, which has some of the most attractive deposits of rare-earth ores on the planet, along with impressive mining companies and resources, has no operating mines for rare earths.Meanwhile, SRC is pursuing other options. Under a deal announced in May with <a href="https://realloys.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">REalloys</a>, in Euclid, Ohio, REalloys will spend $20.6 million for upgrades to SRC’s Saskatoon facility, while SRC develops technology to produce rare-earth metals from rare-earth oxides. The deal also gives REalloys the right to purchase up to 80 percent of the SRC plant’s output. Where will the feedstock come from? Hard to say, but REalloys also struck a deal with <a href="https://uscriticalmaterials.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">U.S. Critical Materials Corp.</a> for 10 percent of the hypothetical output of a mine in Montana called Sheep Creek. Sheep Creek reportedly has substantial amounts of hard-rock monazite that’s unusually low in thorium. But it’s far from certain that those deposits will ever be mined. The proposal for developing a mine there, in a <a href="https://flyfishingjourneys.com/the-breathtaking-beauty-of-the-bitterroot-river-montana/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">breathtakingly scenic</a> area near the headwaters of the Bitterroot River, has attracted <a href="https://dailymontanan.com/2025/12/02/sheep-creek-mine-exploration-in-bitterroot-draws-opposition/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">fierce opposition</a> from <a href="https://www.montanarightnow.com/montana/debate-grows-over-sheep-creek-rare-earth-project-in-the-bitterroot/article_e984d74b-d611-498f-95d9-ff4e8592a72d.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">environmental groups</a>, <a href="https://fieldandstream.com/stories/conservation/public-lands-and-waters/montanans-oppose-controversial-mine-above-bitterroot-headwaters" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">outdoor enthusiasts</a>, and <a href="https://zinke.house.gov/media/press-releases/zinke-sheehy-statements-proposed-sheep-creek-mine" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">local officials</a>.Taken together, SRC’s recent moves have left industry veterans nonplussed. “I’m not sure what their business model is,” said one. “They say, ‘we’re a research institute. Our mandate is to help industry.’ The reality is, they’re competing with industry.”SRC has also drawn scrutiny for some questionable business practices. In 2022, SRC board member Dennis Fitzpatrick <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBMDoswuGK8" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">was fired after raising concerns</a> about the qualifications of an engineer hired to manage and direct operations at SRC’s Saskatoon plant. The president and CEO of SRC at the time, Mike Crabtree, was responsible for the hire. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/minister-jeremy-harrison-fired-crown-corp-board-chair-who-blew-the-whistle-on-apparent-conflicts-of-interest-1.7352049" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">A subsequent investigation</a> of Fitzpatrick’s claims by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. detailed a wide and troubling web of relationships and practices surrounding the SRC’s rare-earths initiative. (Fitzpatrick did not respond to multiple emails.) For example, past business associates of Crabtree’s were reportedly appointed to positions of authority without any other candidates being considered and without their connections to Crabtree being made public.In one case, in 2021, Crabtree disclosed that he was offering a venture capital firm, Westbridge Capital, an opportunity to invest in the rare-earths plant. But according to Fitzpatrick, Crabtree never mentioned that the VC firm was run by an SRC board member who also happened to be one of Crabtree’s business associates—or that Crabtree himself was a trustee of Westbridge and an investor in the company, as well as a paid advisor.Crabtree remains as SRC’s CEO.<h2>Managing Toxic By-products From Rare Earths </h2>Putting aside SRC’s missteps, the organization does have one advantage: It holds multiple licenses from the <a href="https://www.cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca/eng/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission</a> to handle, process, and manage radioactive materials. And that’s huge.Most of the radioactive burden associated with processing monazite ore comes from substances produced during processing. In one of the early steps, pulverized, powdery ore is dried and then leached in strong acids—a process called cracking—to produce a rare-earth concentrate. Waste products of this step include a slurry containing thorium hydroxide and much smaller amounts of uranium hydroxide. The rare-earth concentrate then undergoes an extraction process to isolate specific rare earths, such as neodymium or dysprosium. More <a href="https://www.smenet.org/What-We-Do/Technical-Briefings/Thorium-as-a-Byproduct-of-Rare-Earth-Element-Produ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">thorium</a> and also radium are produced during these steps. <img alt="A wall of gray and a few green barrels, three units high, sits in the sand under a blue sky." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="bc089742824840950c964e8bcffa948b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="42f44" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/a-wall-of-gray-and-a-few-green-barrels-three-units-high-sits-in-the-sand-under-a-blue-sky.jpg?id=68430861&width=980"/>Waste barrels were photographed in 2024 at Energy Fuels’ White Mesa Mill, where ores containing uranium and rare-earths are processed and refined.Jesse Rieser/The New York Times/ReduxThe thorium hydroxide slurry, meanwhile, is typically deposited in heavily regulated waste cells, called tailings impoundments or tailings ponds. The thorium hydroxide, either in the form of a slurry or a powder, must be stored in isolation from the environment indefinitely. Energy Fuels stores waste from its longstanding uranium production operations, as well as its new rare-earth operations, in tailings impoundments at its White Mesa Mill facility. The impoundments are just 10 kilometers from the community center of the <a href="https://www.utemountainutetribe.com/" target="_blank">Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, a group of Indigenous people</a>, which has <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/10072026/arizona-raises-uranium-mine-contaminant-limits/" target="_blank">vigorously opposed</a> operations at White Mesa Mill for <a href="https://icmagazine.org/the-ute-mountain-ute-tribe-is-paying-the-price-of-nuclear-colonialism/" target="_blank">more than 20 years</a>.Virtually all of the thorium is the isotope thorium-232, which is only weakly radioactive. Its radiation is alpha particles, which cannot penetrate human skin. Nevertheless, improper storage can have serious consequences, particularly if the thorium is inhaled or ingested.“Have a look at the gravitational separation of HMS [heavy mineral sands] in Nigeria,” <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tkruemmer/" target="_blank">Thomas Kruemmer</a>, a rare-earth consultant and analyst, wrote in an email. “There is lots of dust in the Nigerian processing sites, which the workers inevitably breathe in. And inside your respiratory system there isn’t any protective skin, so alpha radiation develops its full potential. This is something many people do not consider.” <img alt="People carrying signs marching in protest." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9d0c7e4390677957f75c911f2e3c0819" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="e055d" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/people-carrying-signs-marching-in-protest.jpg?id=68430863&width=980"/> <img alt="An industrial plant with a central tower. " class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5805aead3e410c4c88dc68d2b2be6cea" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="ab1b1" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/an-industrial-plant-with-a-central-tower.jpg?id=68432240&width=980"/>In 2012, protestors in Malaysia [top] rallied against the Lynas rare earths processing facility [above], then under construction near Kuantan. Left: AFP/Getty Images; Right: Goh Seng Chong/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesMoreover, adds Kruemmer, “it is not thorium itself. It is the decay isotopes of thorium that are highly radioactive.” One decay product of thorium is polonium, he points out, “the preferred poison for [killing] <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/09/21/1039224996/russia-alexander-litvinenko-european-court-human-rights-putin" target="_blank">Russian dissidents</a>.”In 1982, a company called Asia Rare Earth, a subsidiary of <a href="https://www.mcgc.com/english/" target="_blank">Mitsubishi Chemical</a>, began extracting yttrium from monazite ore in Perak, Malaysia. Local residents soon began complaining of various illnesses. With the consent of the Malaysian government, the company had built a waste channel to a nearby disposal site, where the waste was stored in open steel barrels and in an unlined waste pond. The waste overflowed from the pond whenever it rained heavily. In 1984, a Japanese professor measured radiation levels at and near the pond and found them to be, in the most extreme cases, <a href="https://consumer.org.my/chronology-of-events-in-the-bukit-merah-asian-rare-earth-development/" target="_blank">hundreds of times higher</a> than internationally accepted maximums. A subsequent investigation found extremely <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/business/energy-environment/09rareside.html" target="_blank">high levels of birth defects</a> and eight cases of leukemia in the <a href="https://youtu.be/BKJnbvtjjfQ?si=Eq8xd-THyibspx0i" target="_blank">small community near the waste dump</a>. <img alt="A black-haired woman in a light-colored print pants suit leans over her grown son, who looks up at her." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f5dbbe6d22b1de6c18fecc8521382098" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="ff6bc" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/a-black-haired-woman-in-a-light-colored-print-pants-suit-leans-over-her-grown-son-who-looks-up-at-her.jpg?id=68430872&width=980"/> <img alt="An industrial plant is seen through the vertical bars of a gate." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7bffa37bb7a07128c415631373201018" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="a2049" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/an-industrial-plant-is-seen-through-the-vertical-bars-of-a-gate.jpg?id=68430870&width=980"/>In 2011, at age 69, Lai Kwan prepared to bathe her 29-year-old son, Cheah Kok Leong [top]. Cheah Kok was born with severe mental disabilities that Lai Kwan believed were caused by exposure to radiation that she received while working at a rare earths processing plant in Bukit Merah, Malaysia [bottom, photographed during its disassembly].Rahman Roslan/The New York Times/ReduxA protracted legal fight among local residents and Asia Rare Earth and the Malaysian government culminated in the closure of the plant in 1992. By that time, so much radioactive material had been carelessly dumped that cleanup took more than two decades and cost Mitsubishi an estimated $100 million. The episode still haunts the rare-earths industry in Malaysia, where Lynas now processes monazite concentrate at the <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/delicate-extraction-malaysia-offers-rare-earths-alternative-to-china" target="_blank">largest rare earths processing facility</a> in the world. That plant, in Kuantan in the state of Pahang, has been the subject of organized and active local opposition that began even before its commissioning in 2012. The Malaysian government has sporadically <a href="https://www.asiapacific.ca/publication/what-canada-can-learn-about-critical-minerals-from-australian-firm" target="_blank">tightened its regulations on the plant</a>, stipulating that, for example, radioactive wastes be shipped out of Malaysia or that the processing stages that create radioactive residues be accomplished outside of Malaysia.Kennedy notes that if monazite ore is to become a major source of rare earths, much larger quantities of thorium will need to be disposed, probably more than could be economically accommodated in lined and isolated tailings ponds.One of the very few options for using such large amounts of thorium involves nuclear power. Years ago, countries including the U.S., Canada, Norway, and Germany had thorium-reactor research programs, and India has had a slow-moving program for decades. But today, the only operating thorium power reactor is in China. The Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has been operating, since 2023, a <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/chinas-thorium-molten-salt-reactor" target="_self">2-megawatt molten-salt-cooled reactor</a> that is thorium-fueled. <img alt="Four workers in white smocks and blue caps use mechanical manipulators to handle samples behind a window of thick glass." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9602497802e90879508e6f340ebaff8a" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="2b4cd" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/four-workers-in-white-smocks-and-blue-caps-use-mechanical-manipulators-to-handle-samples-behind-a-window-of-thick-glass.jpg?id=68430878&width=980"/>The world’s only operating thorium reactor is a 2-megawatt unit at the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In October 2025, technicians used mechanical arms to analyze samples of the reactor’s molten-salt fuel.Jin Liwang/Xinhua/Getty ImagesA couple of Western startups are keeping the thorium reactor dream alive. A Franco-Dutch company called <a href="https://www.thorizon.com/about-us" target="_blank">Thorizon</a> says it has designed a reactor that would be fueled by a mixture of thorium and spent nuclear fuel. Startup <a href="https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/copenhagen-atomics-secures-thorium-supply-from-norway" target="_blank">Copenhagen Atomics</a> is working on a 1-MW reactor that’s a prototype for a 100-MW, mass-manufacturable, molten-salt reactor.Processing of monazite ore could provide fuel for an enormous number of thorium reactors far into the future. Consider a single large facility producing 5,000 tonnes of rare-earth oxide a year. If the monazite contains 7 percent thorium, the plant would also be producing roughly 700 tonnes of thorium a year. According to <a href="https://acu.edu/faculty/rusty-towell/" target="_blank">Rusty Towell</a>, a professor at <a href="https://acu.edu/" target="_blank">Abilene Christian University</a> in Texas who directs an advanced-reactor project there, a tonne of thorium would be sufficient to generate about 350 MW (electric) for a year. So the large processing facility alone would be throwing off enough thorium annually to keep 2,450 100-MW reactors operating for a year.That amount of power—245 gigawatts—is <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/504369/electric-power-sector-capacity-in-the-us-forecast/" target="_blank">about half</a> of all the generating capacity growth forecast for the United States over the next decade, a period during which analysts expect accelerating electricity growth due to increasing numbers of data centers and electric vehicles.<h2>What Could Strangle Rare-Earth Supply Chains? </h2>Virtually all rare-earths experts foresee a growing role for monazite. But given the problems with thorium, local opposition to some projects, and political instabilities connected to others, some have muted expectations. “The sole and single monazite hope rests with Iluka’s expensive project in Australia, IMHO,” writes Kruemmer. <a href="https://www.iluka.com/" target="_blank">Iluka Resources</a>, based in Perth, is now building a <a href="https://www.iluka.com/operations-resource-development/resource-development/eneabba/" target="_blank">massive rare-earths refining facility</a> at Eneabba, 275 km north of Perth. <a href="https://rare-earth-mining.com/iluka-resources/" target="_blank">It will process</a> a million-tonne monazite stockpile that accumulated over decades from the company’s other mining operations. The cost of the project is estimated at AU $1.8 billion (about US $1.3 billion). <img alt="An aerial view of an industrial plant and, beyond it, a large pile of dark brown sand." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2d3ee65cb5cf8a40c23128b53f961c81" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="2f962" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/an-aerial-view-of-an-industrial-plant-and-beyond-it-a-large-pile-of-dark-brown-sand.jpg?id=68430881&width=980"/>In a US $1.3 billion project, Iluka Resources is building a massive facility in Eneabba, Australia, to extract and separate rare earths from a million-tonne stockpile of monazite, visible in the background of this photo.Iluka ResourcesFor other experts, though, the biggest challenges facing monazite projects isn’t thorium, or radiation, or regulations. It’s the blend of quirks, misconceptions, and self-dealing that dog the entire rare-earths industry.“The rare-earth mining business is the Afghanistan of mining,” quips Kennedy. It’s a place where people and companies go with grand ideas, only to become ensnared in quagmires.One fundamental problem is the highly speculative nature of almost every aspect of the rare-earths business, which lends itself to backroom deals. In particular, the industry is plagued by speculators who buy stakes in a project with no intention of staying with the project through completion; they cash out as soon as they can profit from any future favorable news—a technique known as “pump and dump.”Consider the Trump administration’s<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/0a337dc3-5a12-4c82-87b5-f2340378006c?syn-25a6b1a6=1" target="_blank"> </a>decision to take a 10 percent stake in USA Rare Earth <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/0a337dc3-5a12-4c82-87b5-f2340378006c?syn-25a6b1a6=1" target="_blank">in exchange for $277 million</a> and to provide a $1.3 billion secured loan to the company. USA Rare Earth has the rights to a deposit called Round Top near Sierra Blanca, Texas. The company <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/4ba88e38-fdfd-447c-9250-163cd85293c4?syn-25a6b1a6=1" target="_blank">hired the Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald</a> to raise $1 billion in equity financing for the deal. Cantor Fitzgerald, as it happens, is run by the sons of Howard Lutnick, Donald Trump’s Commerce Secretary.Meanwhile, there is no rare-earths mine at Round Top, and it’s a distinct possibility that <a href="https://nightmarketresearch.com/usar/" target="_blank">there never will be</a>.“The current administration consistently fails to seek expert advice and is recklessly pouring billions of taxpayer dollars into speculative [rare-earth element] processes and projects, like Round Top, that have little chance of commercial success,” says <a href="https://www.cim.org/past-award-winners/terence-p-mcnulty/" target="_blank">Terry McNulty</a>, a mining consultant based in Tucson.<a href="https://investornews.com/critical-minerals-rare-earths/world-renowned-rare-earths-expert-geoff-atkins-to-join-the-critical-minerals-institute-board/" target="_blank">Geoff Atkins</a>, vice president of business development of the Canadian rare-earths firm <a href="https://ucore.com/" target="_blank">Ucore Rare Metals</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwTv8JwU2yE" target="_blank">had advice for his colleagues</a> at a convention of the Critical Minerals Institute in 2022. “Instead of focusing on your speculative value,” he said, “instead of being able to say we’ve got the biggest project in the world, instead of, ‘we’ve got a [net present value] of $3 billion or $4 billion,’ how about you say, ‘we’ve got a project which is going to get into operation, and this operation is going to provide the greatest value to our shareholders in the long term, not just in the short term when we can pump this up and, you know, the [early] investors can sell out.“Because unless there is that shift,” he warned, “we’re not going to have any hope of getting the volumes we need to give the certainty to the downstream supply chain.”In short, the rare-earths industry outside of China needs to grow up. And sooner rather than later. Reference: https://ift.tt/n6EGOgv

Compact Analog Signal Generators for Fast RF Testing

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/electro-rent-white-logo-with-stylized-er-icon-on-a-gray-background.png?id=68417208&width=980"/> This White Paper shows RF and microwave engineers and technicians how compact analog signal generators support core amplifier and receiver test tasks, from gain and distortion measurements to blocker rejection, power calibration, and local oscillator substitution.What you will learn about:<ul><li>How to measure amplifier gain and gain compression, including the P1dB point that marks the transition from linear operation into saturation.</li><li>How two-tone intermodulation distortion testing reveals unwanted signal products created by amplifier nonlinearities, and why third-order intercept (IP3) is used to compare amplifier linearity.</li><li>How to test receiver performance under blocker and interferer conditions, using high output power and fast switching speed to simulate real-world interference.</li><li>How power calibration and RSSI testing depend on accurate, repeatable signal sources across multiple frequency channels and bands.</li><li>How signal generators can substitute for local oscillator and clock subsystems during early-stage receiver development, before final circuit prototypes exist.</li></ul><div><a href="https://content.knowledgehub.wiley.com/fast-rf-device-testing-with-analog-sources-a-practical-guide-to-amplifier-and-receiver-characterization/" target="_blank">Download this free whitepaper now!</a></div> Reference: https://ift.tt/lvrKDTC

Wednesday, October 14, 2026

Fridge hack costing millions and sparking fires stemmed from poor security

Earlier this week, a mass hack of refrigeration systems at an <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/14/europe/france-cyberattack-supermarket-fridges-intl">estimated</a> 700 supermarkets throughout France caused them to suddenly malfunction, causing spoilage of untold tons of perishables and, in some cases, fires. As is now the norm, basic cybersecurity would have prevented it. French authorities say the systems, made up of entire fleets of refrigerators and freezers throughout a store, were hacked. More specifically, Internet-connected controllers that allow technicians to remotely administer the store-wide systems were compromised. The unknown attackers responsible then activated defrosters long enough for the fridges to reach temperatures as high as 50° Celsius (122° Fahrenheit). By the time the mass compromise was discovered, food was spoiled, and in some cases their electrical systems caught fire. <h2>The hacks that didn't have to happen</h2> <a href="https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/ics-advisories/icsa-26-057-10">Multiple</a> security <a href="https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/ics-advisories/icsa-25-140-03">advisories</a> and public research reports show that all three of the controller models reportedly hacked in the incident—sold by Danfoss of Denmark and Dixell and its parent company Copeland in the US—contained critical vulnerabilities that allow attackers to remotely log in to the devices with the same system rights as administrators. Until recently, Danfoss controllers, for instance, used a credential that changes each day. The password is generated by the publicly available firmware based on the date. A hacker who takes the time to analyze the code can do the same thing on any device that hasn’t received a recent update. Daily passwords are identical across models located in hundreds or thousands of stores.<a href="https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/10/fridge-hack-costing-millions-and-sparking-fires-stemmed-from-poor-security/">Read full article</a> <a href="https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/10/fridge-hack-costing-millions-and-sparking-fires-stemmed-from-poor-security/#comments">Comments</a> Reference : https://ift.tt/WjTXNVa

IEEE Continues Preparations for the Realignment of Its Regions

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/2d-world-map-with-countries-colored-according-to-their-designated-ieee-region.jpg?id=68429251&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C127%2C0%2C128"/> Progress continues in restructuring IEEE’s geographic regions, as outlined in The Institute’s February 2023 article “<a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/realigning-ieee-geographic-regions" target="_self">IEEE Is Realigning Its Geographic Regions</a>.” <ul><li>The “Region 1” designation will no longer be used.</li><li>The new <a href="https://r2.ieee.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Region 2</a> will merge what is currently <a href="https://ieeer1.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Region 1</a> (Northeastern U.S.) with the current Region 2 (Eastern U.S.). It will be called Region 2 (Northeastern and Eastern U.S.).</li><li>The current <a href="https://www.ieeer10.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Region 10</a> (Asia Pacific) will be divided into two separate regions. The new Region 10 will encompass North Asia, and the new Region 11 will cover South Asia and the Pacific.</li></ul>The restructuring is defined in the image of the redrawn map in this article. <h2>What’s underway</h2>Although the new regional alignment will not officially take place until 1 January 2028, several activities have begun within <a href="https://mga.ieee.org/region-realignment" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Member and Geographic Activities (MGA)</a> and across other IEEE organizational units. Within MGA, volunteers and staff have been actively addressing system enhancements, director/director-elect <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ieee-annual-election-2026" target="_self">elections</a>, governance updates, communications, and regional finances and offerings.<h2>No changes to membership </h2>Work will continue from now until the effective date of realignment in 2028. The change will not affect your IEEE membership, nor will it change either your local IEEE section or chapter.If you have any questions regarding the realignment, contact <a href="mailto:Reg-Realignment@ieee.org">Reg-Realignment@ieee.org</a>. Reference: https://ift.tt/TMG81pV

Anthropic warns small AI models could self-replicate through IoT devices

AI company Anthropic is warning that advances in small AI models could soon usher in a new era of self-replicating malware that’s capable of infecting smart fridges, vacuum cleaners, and a wide range of other Internet-of-things devices and is more resistant to takedown. By next year, smaller AI models may be able to autonomously self-replicate on all kinds of IoT devices, the company said. Eventually, the capability could enable computer worms, which propagate without requiring human interaction and are capable of infecting unfamiliar IoT devices. An experiment the company performed recently revealed significant challenges in bringing such an AI malware replicator to fruition, so the finding is necessarily tempered. Still, the results do raise concerns about the possibility of new forms of computer worms. <h2>Challenging to shut down</h2> Anthropic further <a href="https://www.anthropic.com/research/self-replicating-ai">warned</a> not only about the new potential malware, but also that it could be difficult to stop. In its blog post, it wrote that “a replicator like this would be challenging to shut down, since there’s no centralized point to shut off—though it may be slow (with a doubling time of days). Unlike non-AI malware, it could also figure out unfamiliar devices on its own.”<a href="https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/10/anthropic-warns-small-ai-models-could-self-replicate-through-iot-devices/">Read full article</a> <a href="https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/10/anthropic-warns-small-ai-models-could-self-replicate-through-iot-devices/#comments">Comments</a> Reference : https://ift.tt/N9fMERn

Tuesday, October 13, 2026

Topgolf saved over $11.3 million after leaving VMware

Topgolf’s VMware costs were going to increase by 400 percent under Broadcom. To avoid that cost, the sports entertainment company moved 12,000 virtual machines (VMs) to VergeIO’s VergeOS and has saved over $11 million so far. Before migrating, Topgolf’s VMware connection “ran very deep,” Scott Forehand, Topgolf’s global infrastructure manager, told Ars Technica. Topgolf has over 100 locations worldwide featuring interactive golf games with real-time shot tracking and digital analytics. The company used vSphere and ESXi for decades and started using VxRail, the hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) platform that VMware co-engineered with Dell, in 2017. Topgolf employees previously participated in numerous VMware customer councils and have been interviewed for books on how Topgolf used vSphere and Horizon (now Omnissa Horizon), per Forehand, who is a leader of the <a href="https://dfwvmug.com/">Dallas/Ft. Worth VMware User Group</a>.<a href="https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/10/topgolf-saved-over-11-3-million-after-leaving-vmware/">Read full article</a> <a href="https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/10/topgolf-saved-over-11-3-million-after-leaving-vmware/#comments">Comments</a> Reference : https://ift.tt/5EMbiVw

Monday, October 12, 2026

Meet the Anthropic Engineer Keeping Its AI Agent Trustworthy

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/an-indian-man-in-a-dress-shirt-smiling-in-front-of-the-entrance-to-an-office-building.jpg?id=68416593&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C469%2C0%2C469"/> If you’ve ever wondered how <a href="https://claude.ai" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Claude</a> and similar AI agents can answer complex questions in seconds and where they get the information, you’re not alone.<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/gurmeetsaran" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Gurmeet Saran</a> works to find that answer every day as an engineer at <a href="https://www.anthropic.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Anthropic</a> in San Francisco, the AI research company behind Claude. The IEEE senior member is developing an infrastructure to understand the mechanics behind the chatbot’s behavior and to ensure its underlying architecture produces reliable outputs.<h3>Gurmeet Saran</h3> Employer Anthropic in San FranciscoTitle Member of technical staffMember grade IEEE senior memberAlma maters University of Kalyani, in India; Birla Institute of Technology and Science, in Pilani, India “My job is to make sure the data is accurate, structured, and trustworthy, and that private data stays private,” he says. “As I learned earlier in my career, privacy can’t be a layer you bolt on—it has to be part of the architecture from the start.” If you can’t trust the logic, he adds, you can’t make reliable claims about the behavior, and that has real safety implications.Safety is a priority for Anthropic, he says. According to Claude’s <a href="https://www.anthropic.com/constitution" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mission statement</a>, the company wants the AI agent to be “genuinely helpful to the people it works with or on behalf of, as well as to society, while avoiding actions that are unsafe, unethical, or deceptive.” Crucial to the mission is ensuring that researchers can observe and understand how AI models behave, a challenge that is especially acute for <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/large-language-models-ieee-course" target="_self">large language models</a>, Saran says.“We have decent tools to monitor databases and web services,” he says, “but for LLMs, we’re still figuring it out.”<h2>Solving data quality problems at Yahoo, Intuit, and Meta</h2>Saran’s interest in computing systems dates back to his childhood in Kolkata, where he logged as much time as he could in the school computer lab.“I remember the first time I used one of the computers,” he says. “What struck me was that you could write instructions, and the machine would follow them exactly. No ambiguity.“That felt magical to me.”After graduating from high school in 1999, he stayed in India to pursue advanced degrees. He earned a bachelor’s degree in electronics and telecommunication engineering in 2004 at the <a href="https://klyuniv.ac.in/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">University of Kalyani</a>. In 2010, he earned a master’s degree in software engineering from the <a href="https://www.bits-pilani.ac.in/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Birla Institute of Technology and Science</a> in Pilani.While a graduate student, he began his career in 2007 at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Yahoo</a> as a technical lead of the data team in Bengaluru, India. While there, he encountered the project that shaped his career trajectory: working on web analytics and business intelligence reporting solutions.“We kept running into a frustrating problem,” he recalls. “Different teams would calculate the same website metric—something like daily active site users—using slightly different logic, and end up with conflicting answers. It sounds like a small issue, but when leadership is making decisions about resource allocation and product development using that data, not knowing which number is correct becomes a problem.”The team built a central data repository with defined metrics, essentially serving as a single source of truth. Saran created a model that defined what “daily active site users” means, breaking down which events counted, how to handle edge cases (or when standard code fails), and more.With the new model, data teams across the company could rely on a standard method to determine the number of daily active users for the projects and sites they were responsible for and obtain comparable results using the same logic.From there, Saran and his team built <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262286424_Yahoo_Digits_A_Design_Driven_to_Provide_Instant_%27Data_Driven_Insights%27_and_its_Use_in_User_Experience_Design" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Yahoo! Digits</a>, an internal web analytics tool used for all the company’s products.Saran left Yahoo in 2010 to join <a href="https://www.intuit.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Intuit</a> as a staff engineer in Mountain View, Calif. He helped build the analytics infrastructure that unified data across the company’s products, including <a href="https://turbotax.intuit.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">TurboTax</a> and <a href="https://quickbooks.intuit.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">QuickBooks</a> accounting software. During his tenure, Intuit developed a feature that detected fraudulent tax filings in real time. It required Saran and other engineers to build a system to protect taxpayer data while adhering to strict U.S. <a href="https://www.irs.gov/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Internal Revenue Service</a> policies.“IEEE operates in a lot of countries where engineers don’t have easy pathways into the global professional community. That kind of connection matters as AI development spreads beyond a handful of organizations.”“This taught me that privacy and governance can’t be layers you bolt onto software after the fact,” he says. “They have to be part of the architecture from the start.”Saran joined <a href="https://www.meta.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Meta</a> (known as Facebook at the time) in 2016 as a lead software engineer in Menlo Park, Calif. The company was facing controversy over its video metrics: Meta publicly acknowledged an error that caused it to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/24/business/media/facebook-apologizes-for-overstating-video-metrics.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">overstate the number of views for posted videos</a>.“This wasn’t a coding bug; it was an architectural problem,” Saran says. He built a system that worked similarly to what he had developed at Intuit, whereby one single truth was defined to govern all video view metrics across the site.That system, <a href="https://metrics360.ai/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Metric360</a>, eventually became part of the site’s architecture. By the time he left Meta in 2021, he says, Metric360 was being used across the company to calculate video metrics.He left the company to become a principal software engineer at <a href="https://www.wealthfront.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Wealthfront</a>, a financial services company in Palo Alto, Calif. He helped build the company’s data infrastructure.<h2>Building trustworthy AI systems at Anthropic</h2>Saran joined Anthropic in 2025 as a member of the technical staff.To describe the implications of his work, he uses a medical analogy: “Imagine a doctor is monitoring a patient’s vital signs and making treatment decisions based on those numbers. What if one or a few of the medical devices used were slightly miscalibrated? Even if most readings are fine, it’s a serious problem because the difficult decisions happen in the margins.“It’s the same with AI systems. My job is essentially to make sure the instruments are giving accurate readings—that the data means what it says it means.”His job comes with high stakes and complex problems to solve.“<a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ai-agent-security" target="_self">AI agents</a> are especially tricky to observe,” he says. “When a system is taking sequences of actions [generating conversational responses with different users], you need a way to capture what it did, what information it was working from, and whether outcomes matched what the end user expected. And you have to do all of that without exposing anyone’s private information—the systems are designed to recognize sensitive data and keep it protected as it flows through. It’s a much more demanding observability problem than anything I’ve worked on before.”Solving for system reliability while AI is still in its early days of adoption is both Saran’s passion and the problem that keeps him up at night, he says.“I think making AI systems genuinely auditable and transparent is one of the more important engineering problems of the next decade,” he says, “and it doesn’t get talked about as much as model capabilities do.”<h2>IEEE can play a role in shaping AI development</h2>Saran joined IEEE in March 2025.“After more than 20 years of building data infrastructure across organizations like Yahoo, Intuit, Meta, and Wealthfront,” he says, “I wanted to contribute back to the technical community through peer review, publishing, and engaging with the broader engineering research ecosystem.”He says he believes <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ieee-ai-training-mini-mba" target="_self">IEEE can play an essential role</a> in shaping the future of AI through its <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ieee-ai-3119-standards" target="_self">standards work</a>.“We have standards for everything, from building codes to software testing,” he says. “AI infrastructure needs something similar, and IEEE has the credibility and the reach to do that.”Another problem that IEEE can solve for, he says, is access: “IEEE operates in a lot of countries where engineers don’t have easy pathways into the global professional community. That kind of connection matters, especially as AI development spreads beyond a handful of organizations in a few cities.” Reference: https://ift.tt/HtozOTm