Lateral computing of magnitude better than conventional computers. The Simulated annealing algorithm is designed by looking at how the pure crystals form from a heated gaseous state while the system is cooled slowly. The computing problem is redesigned as a simulated annealing exercise and the solutions are arrived at. The working principle of simulated annealing is borrowed from metallurgy: a piece of metal is heated (the atoms are given thermal agitation), and then the metal is left to cool slowly. The slow and regular cooling of the metal allows the atoms to slide progressively their most stable ("minimal energy") positions. (Rapid cooling
Liquid metal cooled reactor of Scotland, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) operated the Dounreay Fast Reactor (DFR), using NaK as a coolant, from 1959 to 1977, exporting 600 GW-h of electricity to the grid over that period. It was succeeded at the same site by PFR, the Prototype Fast Reactor, which operated from 1974 to 1994 and used liquid sodium as its coolant. The Soviet BN-600 is sodium cooled. The BN-350 and U.S. EBR-II nuclear power plants were sodium cooled. EBR-I used a liquid metal alloy, NaK, for cooling. NaK is liquid at room temperature. Liquid metal cooling is also used in