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Archive for August 20th, 2013
Highly Radioactive Water Again Found Leaking at Fukushima Plant
Posted by Nature World: None Given on August 20th, 2013
Nature World: Water so contaminated that it could expose a person to five years worth of radiation in just one hour was found leaking out of a storage container at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power station, the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) reported Tuesday.
About 300 metric tons of contaminated water leaked from a storage tank, Tepco said, adding that this incident is separate from reports of contaminated water leaks reported in recent weeks, which have stated that the same volume of...
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How an ocean went into hiding in Australia
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 20th, 2013
New Scientist: A chunk of the oceans took a wrong turn in 2011. Instead of going from sky to rain, into rivers, and then back into the oceans in the usual water cycle, it got stuck in Australia, caught up in record-breaking floods and rivers that run backwards into the continent. So much water got lost down under that global sea levels fell and stayed low for more than a year.
John Fasullo of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, noticed something amiss while looking at trends in...
Cuomo won’t join Obama at fracking hotbed sites
Posted by Associated Press: Michael Gormley on August 20th, 2013
Associated Press: Gov. Andrew Cuomo will avoid a potentially dicey political conflict by not accompanying President Barack Obama to parts of upstate New York roiled over the state's ban on hydraulic fracturing for natural gas. Obama supports the technology as an economic windfall that helps make the country more energy independent. He's expected to find supporters as well as protesters from environmental groups when he visits Syracuse and Binghamton late this week. Parts of central New York and the Southern Tier...
United Kingdom: Fracking: the Battle of Balcombe is far from over
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 20th, 2013
Guardian: What do bloody clashes on the streets of Cairo have in common with anti-fracking protests against the Cuadrilla exploration rig in rural West Sussex? At a stretch, what links the Battle of Balcombe, which so outrages Tory Fleet Street, with harassment of the Guardian over Edward Snowden's data-mining disclosures?
In terms of substance, not a lot connects a constitutional battle for the Egyptian presidency, an environmental tussle in a prosperous corner of Britain and a debate over national security,...
Frackers beware: public views on UK energy mix are based more on values than cost
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 20th, 2013
Guardian: Certain truisms have wormed their way into the national discourse of how people think about energy. We're told that no-one wants a wind turbine in their back yard. It's common knowledge that going green is only for the economic good times. And everyone knows that the only thing people are interested in when it comes to the energy system is the cost of their bills.
The trouble with truisms, though, is that they aren't always as true as they first appear. And as a new report on a major programme...
Japan: Fukushima operator reveals leak of 300 tonnes of highly contaminated water
Posted by Guardian: Justin McCurry on August 20th, 2013
Guardian: Frantic efforts to contain radioactive leaks at the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have been dealt another blow after its operator said about 300 tonnes of highly contaminated water had seeped out of a storage tank at the site.
The leak is the worst such incident since the March 2011 meltdown and is separate from the contaminated water leaks, also of about 300 tonnes a day, reported recently.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) said it did not know how the water leaked out or where...
Japan: Radioactive water leak at Fukushima
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 20th, 2013
BBC: Radioactive water has leaked from a storage tank into the ground at Japan's Fukushima plant, its operator says.
Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said the leak of at least 300 tonnes of the highly radioactive water was discovered on Monday.
The plant, crippled by the earthquake and tsunami in 2011, has seen a series of water leaks and power failures.
The tsunami knocked out cooling systems to the reactors, three of which melted down.
An employee discovered the leak on Monday morning,...
United Kingdom: Lucas: Anti-fracking demo action decision ‘not taken lightly’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 20th, 2013
Telegraph: Green Party MP Caroline Lucas was among more than 30 people arrested when anti-fracking campaigners staged a series of protests around the country. Dr Lucas said her decision to take direct action and join the Balcombe demonstration "wasn't taken lightly". She told ITV's Daybreak: "I do have a very privileged voice and taking this kind of action isn't something I do lightly but this comes at the end of having tried many, many different ways of raising this issue in Parliament - I've managed to...
United Kingdom: Caroline Lucas released on bail after arrest
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 20th, 2013
Guardian: Caroline Lucas, the Green party MP, has been released on bail after being arrested with dozens of other people for an anti-fracking protest that she attended because she felt the government "isn't listening" to opposition to the controversial technology. The former Green party leader said she would find out next week whether she would be charged for her part in a blockade of the energy company Cuadrilla's site in Balcombe, West Sussex, where it is undertaking exploratory drilling for oil. Her son...
Green MP Caroline Lucas arrested in Balcombe anti-fracking protest
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 20th, 2013
Ecologist: People are left with very little option but to take peaceful, non-violent direct action
Hundreds of activists blockaded the Balcombe oil drilling site in Sussex owned by the fracking company Cuadrilla, as well as its Lichfield headquarters and the offices of its PR firm in London.
Demonstrators hung banners at the country home of the Conservative Lord Howells, who stirred controversy by suggesting the "desolate" north should be fracked, and attempted to put up a small wind turbine at the home...