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Five years on, cleanup of Fukushima's reactors remains a distant goal
Removal of nuclear fuel from power plant that suffered triple meltdown following 2011 tsunami could take 40 years or more
In the chaotic two years after its name became forever associated with nuclear disaster, the Fukushima Daiichi power plant “resembled a field hospital”, according to the man who is now in charge of the most daunting task the nuclear industry has ever faced: removing hundreds of tons of melted fuel from the plant’s stricken reactors.
“Now it really does feel like the situation is settling down and we can look ahead,” said Naohiro Masuda, head of decommissioning at the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco).
Continue reading...Draft ERF method: Community Buildings
Draft ERF method: Community Buildings
Newly discovered plastic-eating bacterium can break down PET
Fat under the collarbone may protect against diabetes
Could a new plastic-eating bacteria help combat this pollution scourge?
Scientists have discovered a species of bacteria capable of breaking down commonly used PET plastic but remain unsure of its potential applications
Nature has begun to fight back against the vast piles of filth dumped into its soils, rivers and oceans by evolving a plastic-eating bacteria – the first known to science.
In a report published in the journal Science, a team of Japanese researchers described a species of bacteria that can break the molecular bonds of one of the world’s most-used plastics - polyethylene terephthalate, also known as PET or polyester.
Continue reading...After Fukushima: faces from Japan's tsunami tragedy, five years on
On the anniversary of the 2011 disaster that killed 19,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands more, life and hope continue a steady resurgence, writes Justin McCurry
On 11 March 2011 a powerful earthquake and tsunami struck the north-east coast of Japan and triggered a triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Related: Five years after Japan's tsunami, orphan victims lament their lost parents
Continue reading...SENG Vic - Environmental Risk Assessment
SENG Vic - Environmental Risk Assessment
Skulls indicate dingoes 'probably aren't going to disappear' through cross-breeding
Activists urge Justin Trudeau to phase out Canada's failing seal industry
The government claims the seal-fur industry is lucrative, but protesters argue it costs more to monitor the practice than the hunts generate in revenue
Justin Trudeau’s government has come under renewed pressure to ban seal hunting after it emerged that Canada is spending far more on monitoring seal hunts than it receives in the export value of seal products.
Documents obtained under freedom of access laws show that Canada spends around $2.5m a year to monitor seal hunts that occur in the remote north-east. By comparison, the 2014 export figure for seal products was just $500,000.
Continue reading...Swallowtail butterfly holds record for number of vision cells in its eyes
Queensland Coral Reef Fin Fish Fishery - Application 2016
Queensland Coral Reef Fin Fish Fishery - Application 2016
Public consultation: Draft EPBC Act referral guidelines for the vulnerable Murray Cod
Ancient ichthyosaurs may have been wiped out by climate change
Barack Obama and Justin Trudeau to join forces on climate change
US and Canadian leaders expected to announce a series of common measures including methane emissions cuts and protections for rapidly warming Arctic
Barack Obama and Justin Trudeau will commit to work together to fight climate change and protect an Arctic experiencing the mildest winter ever recorded, sources familiar with the initiatives said.
The two leaders were expected to announce a number of common climate measures at a meeting at the White House this week, from a 45% cut in methane emissions from the oil and gas industry to protections for a rapidly warming Arctic.
Continue reading...France's oldest nuclear plant to close this year
Work will begin this year to shut down Fessenheim, which is at the centre of a row with Germany and Switzerland
The French environment minister, Ségolène Royal, said on Monday that work will begin this year to shut down the country’s oldest nuclear power plant, at the centre of a row with neighbouring Germany and Switzerland.
In doing so she implicitly contradicted a Green party minister who had said on Sunday that the process to close the Fessenheim plant in Alsace would be completed, rather than merely started, by the end of the year.
The two ministers spoke to the French media after a row sparked on Friday when Germany demanded that France close down Fessenheim following reports that a 2014 incident was worse than earlier portrayed.
Royal said on the TF1 television channel that shutting down a nuclear reactor “is not just turning off a tap” and involved not only time-consuming official paperwork but careful decommissioning under strict safety conditions, along with collateral issues such as the question of job losses.
“A nuclear plant like Fessenheim employs 2,000 people,” she explained, saying the site could eventually be converted for renewable energy, or maybe a car factory.
On Sunday France’s housing minister, Green party member Emmanuelle Cosse, had said that closing Fessenheim this year was “the timeline ... the president [François Hollande] has repeated to me several times”.
“The process of stopping a reactor is simple enough,” she added.
France’s Nuclear Safety Agency has said that safety at the plant was “overall satisfactory” but that the government’s energy policy “could lead to different choices” regarding the facility, which is near the German and Swiss borders.
It said there was “no need” to shut the plant from a nuclear safety point of view.
France has promised to cut reliance on nuclear energy from more than 75% to 50% by shutting 24 reactors by 2025, while stepping up reliance on renewable energy.
Fessenheim, located on a seismic fault line, has worried French, German and Swiss environmentalists for years.
In September, Hollande said the plant, in operation since 1977, would not be shut this year, contrary to a 2012 campaign promise, because of delays in completion of a new plant in northern Flamanville.
On Sunday, Cosse said that to reach its target, the government would have “to close other nuclear plants, other reactors, obviously, over several years.”
Obama administration pays out $500m to climate change project
The first chunk of a $3bn commitment made at the Paris climate talks ‘shows the US stands squarely behind climate commitments’, the State Department said
The Obama administration has made a first installment on its $3bn pledge to help poor countries fight climate change – defying Republican opposition to the president’s environmental plan.
The $500m payment to the Green Climate Fund was seen as critical to shoring up international confidence in Barack Obama’s ability to deliver on the pledges made at the United Nations’ climate change conference in Paris in late 2015.
Continue reading...The physics of gravitational waves
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