The Download: detecting bird flu, and powering industrial processes with nuclear energy

Over the winter, eggs suddenly became all but impossible to buy. As a bird flu outbreak rippled through dairy and poultry farms, grocery stores struggled to keep them on shelves.

The shortages and record-high prices in February raised costs dramatically for restaurants and bakeries and led some shoppers to skip the breakfast staple entirely. But a team based at Washington University in St. Louis has developed a device that could help slow future outbreaks by detecting bird flu in air samples in just five minutes. Read the full story.

—Carly Kay

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This Texas chemical plant could get its own nuclear reactors

Nuclear reactors could someday power a chemical plant in Texas, making it the first with such a facility onsite. The factory, which makes plastics and other materials, could become a model for power-hungry data centers and other industrial operations going forward.

The plans are the work of Dow Chemical and X-energy, which last week applied for a construction permit with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency in the US that governs nuclear energy.

While it’ll be years before nuclear reactors will actually turn on, this application marks a major milestone for the project, and for the potential of advanced nuclear technology to power industrial processes. Read the full story.

—Casey Crownhart