Norway is preparing to move ahead with the construction of the world’s first ship tunnel after securing funding in the revised national budget, and completing the evaluation of contractor bids for the project.

The Norwegian Coastal Administration (Kystverket) announced that it is ready to sign a contract with the winning contractor for the Stad Ship Tunnel project. The government agency expects construction to begin in early 2027.

The decision follows after Norway’s center-left parties reached an agreement to include funding for the project in the revised national budget. Final approval by the Norwegian Parliament is expected by June 19.

“We have received the news regarding the ship tunnel,” Einar Vik Arset, Kystverket General Director, said. “We are ready to initiate the processes needed to facilitate a construction start in the beginning of 2027.”

World’s first ship tunnel

First mentioned in an article in the Nordre Bergenhus Amtstidende newspaper, in 1874, the Stad Ship Tunnel will be the world’s largest ship tunnel. Located on the Stadlandet Peninsula, it is expected to stretch 1.1 miles (1.7 kilometers) through solid rock, or 1.37 miles (2.2 kilometers) when entrance sections are included.

The tunnel will measure 164 feet (50 meters) in height and 118 feet (36 meters) in width. Officials noted that it will be excavated through the narrowest part of the peninsula, connecting Moldefjord and Kjødepollen in the Vanylvsfjord region. The dimensions are large enough to accommodate vessels up to the size of Norway’s famous Coastal Route ships, including the Hurtigruten fleet.

It will allow large cargo vessels, ferries, and cruise ships to bypass the Stadhavet Sea. The waters are considered among the most hazardous along Norway’s coast, with rough weather, powerful currents, and high waves contributing to more than 30 maritime deaths since World War II.

“This is a major project, but we have prepared thoroughly over several years,” Arset pointed out. “We are ready as soon as we receive instructions from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries.”

According to Kystverket, about 81 percent of today’s ship traffic will be able to use the tunnel. Cruise ships will reportedly be limited to a speed of eight knots inside it. This will allow them to complete the passage in about 10 minutes.

Built for modern shipping

For its construction, Norway will excavate roughly three million cubic meters of rock. This is equivalent to around 750,000 truckloads of material. The project will rely on conventional drill-and-blast methods to carve the tunnel through hard gneiss rock beneath the peninsula.

Kystverket said that it has completed its review of bids from three consortiums competing for the project’s main construction contract. The final contenders include Norway’s AF Gruppen, France’s Eiffage Génie Civil, and a joint venture between Sweden’s Skanska and Norway’s Vassbakk & Stol.

“The evaluation has been completed,” Harald Inge Johnsen, one of the project’s manager, concluded in a press release. “Once the contract award is announced, there will be a standstill period for any complaints before the contract can be signed as planned.”

Additional contracts covering demolition work and new water infrastructure near the tunnel site are also ready to be tendered. The Stad Ship Tunnel is expected to improve navigational safety and reliability for maritime traffic along Norway’s rugged western coast.

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Germany has recently launched a multimillion-dollar fusion research hub, which will explore the extreme states of matter that exist deep inside stars and planets.

The new High Energy Density Initiative (HEDI) was unveiled by the University of Rostock and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) on June 18. It will reportedly investigate the matter under extreme conditions similar to those found in stars and giant planets.

The event was attended by Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Minister-President Manuela Schwesig and Saxony Minister-President Michael Kretschmer. It also drew other participants from politics, academia, and industry.

Dorothee Bär, Federal Minister for Research, Technology and Space, emphasized the importance of the initiative. “HEDI will investigate what happens to the fuel under the extreme conditions of laser fusion,” Bär highlighted. “To achieve this, outstanding experimental and theoretical expertise must be brought together across state borders and in cooperation with the federal government.”

A physics research center

Fusion energy is regarded as one of the most promising long-term solutions for producing large amounts of climate-neutral electricity. Yet, many of the physical processes that occur during fusion reactions remain poorly understood.

To tackle the issue, HEDI will focus on studying how matter behaves at extremely high temperatures and pressures. As part of the program, HZDR also established the new Institute of High Energy Density Physics. It was founded in early June and is funded jointly by the German federal government and the state of Saxony.

The state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is investing USD 23 million (EUR 20 million) to support the construction of a novel research facility that is expected to be completed by 2030.

Michael Kretschmer, Minister-President of the Free State of Saxony, said that the investment is set to create an internationally visible center of excellence that will attract leading scientists and secure additional funding for the region.

“Saxony is a strong center for science and research, with excellent universities and research institutions,” Kretschmer explained. “Fusion research offers tremendous opportunities for a secure, climate-neutral, and long-term energy supply.”

Understanding fusion fuel

One of the hub’s basic goals is to refine the understanding of inertial confinement fusion (ICF). This fusion approach relies on powerful laser pulses to compress and ignite fusion fuel. In addition, researchers will also investigate warm dense matter and hot dense matter. These exotic states naturally exist inside stars and planets.

As per the team, studying how materials react under such conditions is crucial for fusion energy technologies. The first big projects will involve analyzing mixtures of light elements at megabar pressures and the dynamic properties of hot dense matter at gigabar pressures.

HEDI will collaborate closely with the European XFEL, as well as a broad network of national and international partners. It will also participate in Germany’s Fusion 2040 funding program. What’s more, it has already established a partnership with Marvel Fusion, a Munich-based firm developing laser-based fusion technologies.

“The major challenges of fusion research can only be overcome through a deep understanding of the properties of matter under extreme conditions,” Ronald Redmer, PhD, HEDI’s founding director, said in a press release. “HEDI creates the scientific foundation needed to answer these questions.”

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Researchers in the US have built a new smart tool that has the ability to instantly spot abnormal power grid conditions that result in wildfires, equipment damage and blackouts.

The platform was developed by a research team at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) located in Tennessee. It integrates artificial intelligence (AI) to rapidly analyze grid data.

According to the scientists, the technology uses advanced signal processing and machine learning to identify subtle grid disturbances that often go unnoticed by conventional monitoring systems. It can therefore automatically alert a utility to dangerous grid behaviors that require immediate response.

It is being validated using five years of field data collected by Southern California Edison (SCE), one of the US’ largest electric utilities. “The faster we realize what’s happening, the faster we can respond,” Ali Ekti, PhD, ORNL project leader, said.

Detecting grid threats

The tool can detect seven types of electrical faults, which create abnormal current or voltage in the grid. First of all, it can identify arcing faults, which happen when electricity jumps through an air gap between a power line and another object, like the ground.

Because these faults often generate only small increases in electrical current, they can evade traditional sensors and fail to trigger circuit breakers. This means that dangerous electrical arcs may persist for extended periods, and therefore increase the risk of wildfires.

ORNL’s new analytics system continuously monitors grid signals. It automatically alerts utilities once it recognizes abnormal conditions. “This tool is designed to provide utilities with a continuous pathway from signals to analytics to decisions,” Ekti elaborated.

As per the scientists, the tool relies on advanced analysis of waveform data, which captures changes in voltage, current, and frequency across the grid. Since arcing faults are often too subtle to be visible in raw waveform recordings, they created AI-assisted algorithms that amplify weak signals and highlight previously hidden disturbances.

Proving the technology

During testing with real utility data, the team increased waveform signal visibility from just six percent to 72 percent, using the ORNL algorithms. This allowed the tool to uncover faults that would otherwise remain undetected.

The platform was trained with data from ORNL’s Grid Event Signature Library. This web-based repository contains more than 5,700 waveform signatures collected from power grid events.

Apart from arcing faults, the system can also spot and classify six other categories of grid disturbances. These include overcurrent faults, recloser operations, blown fuses, short-lived faults, capacitor switching events, motor starts, as well as line-switching operations.

“Having more insight into the specific meaning of these signals will allow us to approach issues like arcing with a sense of urgency, so we know when we need to get a crew of first responders on the scene as soon as possible,” Michael Balestrieri, SCE senior engineer, concluded in a press release.

The next phase of the project will involve training an upgraded version of the tool using utility-specific data and assessing its performance on an SCE demonstration circuit. The ultimate goal is to integrate the detection algorithms into the utility’s internal analytics platform.

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