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Archive for October 19th, 2015
Solvents save steps in solar cell manufacturing
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 19th, 2015
ScienceDaily: Advances in ultrathin films have made solar panels and semiconductor devices more efficient and less costly, and researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory say they've found a way to manufacture the films more easily, too. Typically the films--used by organic bulk heterojunction solar cells, or BHJs, to convert solar energy into electricity--are created in a solution by mixing together conjugated polymers and fullerenes, soccer ball-like carbon molecules also known as...
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North Dakota oil well spewing after weekend blowout
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 19th, 2015
Reuters: A North Dakota oil well owned by Oasis Petroleum Inc blew out over the weekend and has yet to be capped, leaking more than 67,000 gallons of crude so far and endangering a tributary of the Missouri River, state officials said.
The cause of the blowout remains unknown, though state officials surmise it may have been caused by hydraulic fracturing of a nearby well in a situation referred to in the industry as "communication" between wells.
Thick gray smoke rose from the Helling Trust 11-15H well...
There’s no moderation in Republicans’ dirty energy plans
Posted by Grist: Ben Adler on October 19th, 2015
Grist: Leading Republican candidates have released plans in the last couple weeks to melt glaciers, raise sea levels, and promote drought, wildfires, superstorms, and flooding. They propose to worsen famine and water scarcity in Africa and the Middle East, to chase indigenous communities out of their homes, and to render uninhabitable chunks of the East Coast from Wall Street to Miami Beach. Of course, this is not how they would put it. They would say they have released energy plans. But those energy...
With Abandoned Gas Wells, States Are Left With The Cleanup Bill
Posted by National Public Radio: Stephanie Joyce on October 19th, 2015
National Public Radio: When energy booms go bust, the public is often left responsible for the cleanup. That's because while most states and the federal government make companies put up at least some money in advance to pay for any mess they leave behind, it's often not enough.
After the methane industry collapse, there were almost 4,000 wells in Wyoming that the company responsible walked away from. Now, the state has to pay the price.
Driving around the Powder River Basin in northeast Wyoming with Jeff Campbell...
Life on Earth likely started 4.1 billion years ago, much earlier scientists thought
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 19th, 2015
ScienceDaily: UCLA geochemists have found evidence that life likely existed on Earth at least 4.1 billion years ago -- 300 million years earlier than previous research suggested. The discovery indicates that life may have begun shortly after the planet formed 4.54 billion years ago.
The research is published today in the online early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Twenty years ago, this would have been heretical; finding evidence of life 3.8 billion years ago was...
Drought-Stricken California Prepares For Strong El Niño Winter
Posted by National Public Radio: Kirk Siegler on October 19th, 2015
National Public Radio: In parched California, water managers and emergency management officials are preparing to move from one extreme to another with predictions of a "too big to fail" El Niño winter ahead.
Alaskan boreal forest fires release more carbon than trees can absorb
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 19th, 2015
ScienceDaily: A new analysis of fire activity in Alaska's Yukon Flats finds that so many forest fires are occurring there that the area has become a net exporter of carbon to the atmosphere. This is worrisome, the researchers say, because arctic and subarctic boreal forests like those of the Yukon Flats contain roughly one-third of Earth's terrestrial carbon stores.
The research is reported in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Alaska fire records go back only to 1939, and scientists often assume that present-day...
More rain leads to fewer trees in the African savanna
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 19th, 2015
ScienceDaily: In 2011, satellite images of the African savannas revealed a mystery: these rolling grasslands, with their heavy rainfalls and spells of drought, were home to significantly fewer trees than researchers had expected. Scientists supposed that the ecosystem's high annual precipitation would result in greater tree growth. Yet a 2011 study found that the more instances of heavy rainfall a savanna received, the fewer trees it had. To this ecological riddle, Princeton University researchers might have...
Chinese-built reactor at Bradwell could have ‘major impact’ on estuary
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 19th, 2015
Guardian: Conservation charities have expressed alarm at plans for a Chinese-built nuclear power station in Essex, with one saying the plant could have “major impacts” on the estuary location, a haven for birds and marine life.
The new reactor in Bradwell, on the heavily protected Blackwater estuary, east of Chelmsford, could be confirmed this week during a state visit to Britain by China’s president, Xi Jinping.
The conservation concerns come on top of worries over the security implications of Chinese...
Scientists help safeguard nuclear reactors
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 19th, 2015
ScienceDaily: Like much of the rest of the world, thousands of scientists and engineers watched in March 2011 as Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors exploded. The chain of events began when a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the coast of Tohoku caused a tsunami that destroyed the ability to cool the fuel elements in the reactors. The fuel's cladding, a zirconium alloy used to contain the fuel and radioactive fission products, reacted with boiling coolant water to form hydrogen gas, which then exploded, resulting...