Protest rally in USA against ‘temporary’ nuclear wastes morgue
Anti-nuclear waste rally in Montpelier, 18 Sept 18 MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) An anti-nuclear waste campaign visited Montpelier Tuesday night, delivering a replica radioactive waste cask. The event was organized by the “Citizens Awareness Network” as part of a multi-stop tour throughout New England.
Activists say they are responding to a bill now in the U.S. Senate that would establish temporary mobile storage for high-level nuclear waste. The storage casks would travel from places like the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant and would be transported to southwestern states like Texas and New Mexico. The group’s goal is to leave the waste where it is, but better protected.
“We have to find a responsible way to deal with this waste and what the industry is trying to do is just get this waste off of their hands as quickly as possible,” said Tim Judson of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service.
“In New Mexico, we are concerned about not just our communities because of the storage, but the transport would impact everyone across the nation. Anywhere between a nuclear power plant and the waste site,” said Leona Morgan of the Nuclear Issues Study Group.
Radiation toll on astronauts to Mars has been calculated – and it’s massive.
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Astronauts Going to Mars Will Absorb Crazy Amounts of Radiation. Now We Know How Much. https://www.space.com/41887-mars-radiation-too-much-for-astronauts.html
New data from one of the many spacecraft at work around Mars confirm just how dangerous a round-trip human journey would be by measuring the amount of radiation an astronaut would experience. Cosmic radiation is made up of incredibly tiny particles moving incredibly fast, nearly at the speed of light — the sort of phenomenon a human body isn’t very well equipped to withstand. That radiation travels across all of space, but Earth’s atmosphere buffers us from the worst of its impacts. That means the farther away from Earth’s surface you go, the more cosmic radiation your body absorbs. [Space Radiation Threat to Astronauts Explained (Infographic)] By the time you’re traveling to and from Mars, that gets to be a very big problem. “Radiation doses accumulated by astronauts in interplanetary space would be several hundred times larger than the doses accumulated by humans over the same time period on Earth, and several times larger than the doses of astronauts and cosmonauts working on the International Space Station,” Jordanka Semkova, a physicist at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and lead scientist on the new research, said in a statement. “Our results show that the journey itself would provide very significant exposure for the astronauts to radiation.” Those results are based on data from the European Space Agency’s Trace Gas Orbiter, a spacecraft that has been circling the Red Planet since 2016. One of the instruments it carries is a dosimeter, which has been taking measurements throughout the orbiter’s journey. According to the team behind the new research, those measurements show that just getting to and from Mars would expose astronauts to at least 60 percent of the current recommended maximum career exposure. What precisely that recommended maximum is varies with sex and age, but it ranges from 1 sievert for a 25-year-old woman to 4 sieverts for a 55-year-old man. (The measurement of sieverts already accounts for differences in weight.) But 60 percent just for the round-trip is particularly concerning, since presumably the point of going to Mars is to spend at least a little time on the planet’s surface — ideally, without overdosing on radiation. Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. |
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Australia’s Minister For The Coal Lobby, Angus Taylor’s false statement about carbon emissions
Claim we’re on track to meet emissions targets is false, New Daily, James Fernyhough,
Here is what he wrote in the Australian Financial Review on Tuesday:
“[E]missions reductions are the least of our problems, with every prospect we will reach the 26 per cent reduction below 2005 levels ahead of schedule and without interventions.”
This, he implied, justified the Morrison government’s decision to do nothing to reduce carbon emissions, and focus instead exclusively on price and reliability.
But The New Daily looked into Mr Taylor’s claim, and the evidence suggests it is in one sense downright false, and in another seriously misleading.
Let’s address the seriously misleading aspect first.
Under the Paris Agreement, Australia has committed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030.
According to Mr Taylor’s department, Australia is on track to woefully miss the 2030 target.
On page 11 of this document from December last year, the Department of Environment and Energy projects that if no new emissions-reduction policies are implemented (as none have been), our greenhouse emissions will be just 5 per cent below 2005 levels – not 26 per cent, as Mr Taylor seems to claim.
Mr Taylor’s figures appear at a glance to be off by a massive 21 percentage points……….
The Morrison government has scrapped the NEG – the policy that triggered Malcolm Turnbull’s downfall – and has made it clear it will not replace it with anything.
So we are once more back to where we were – on track to miss all our emissions reductions targets.
Minister Taylor’s office did not respond when presented with the evidence that his statement was false. https://thenewdaily.com.au/money/finance-news/2018/09/18/energy-ministers-claim-carbon-emissions-false/
Malaysia says NO to nuclear energy – that’s a good move
No to nuclear energy a good move Science has yet to find ways to manage its waste to prevent cataclysmic outcomes, says PM Malaysian Reserve , By LYDIA NATHAN 20 Sep 18
Malaysia will have to figure out a substantial and safe way to dispose of nuclear waste if the country were to opt for nuclear energy to generate electricity.
Association of Water and Energy Research Malaysia president S Piarapakaran, who supports Prime Minister (PM) Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s decision to not rely on nuclear energy for the country’s power generation, said the biggest issue would be the containment of energy from leaking.
The government would also have to determine the cost that would be incurred, apart from finding methods to manage such a project successfully.
“A worst-case scenario we’re looking at is leakage in a case of nuclear exposure that could cause various types of cancer to develop rapidly ending in death, or a more severe and long-term outcome, which is severe genetic inflammation that causes mutation,” he told The Malaysian Reserve (TMR) in a telephone inter- view yesterday.
Piarapakaran said mutation as a result of nuclear radiation is also a serious issue as it could last for generations. “In some cases, babies are born with organs outside of their bodies. They are sick all their lives and cannot develop normally,” Piarapakaran said, adding that the cost of management will only increase over the years.
“Waste management is becoming more expensive and we won’t know the exact cost 30 or 40 years from now,” he said.
The PM’s call for the country to not rely on nuclear power was announced at the launch of the Conference of the Electric Power Supply Industry 2018 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre earlier this week………https://themalaysianreserve.com/2018/09/20/no-to-nuclear-energy-a-good-move/
There are no winners from Australia’s costly energy chaos — RenewEconomy
Investment in energy generation does not need new subsidies, but it does need certainty. Yet, a small group of vindictive politicians would prefer to block all action on climate change and get revenge on Malcolm Turnbull, rather than reduce power prices. The post There are no winners from Australia’s costly energy chaos appeared first on…
via There are no winners from Australia’s costly energy chaos — RenewEconomy
Sustainability at the Solar Farm succeeds again — RenewEconomy
The Sunshine Coast Solar Farm has been recognised once again, taking out the Environmental and Sustainability Award at the Australian Regional Development Conference Awards 2018. The post Sustainability at the Solar Farm succeeds again appeared first on RenewEconomy.
via Sustainability at the Solar Farm succeeds again — RenewEconomy
Australian financial watchdog hones in on climate risk, warns companies to lift game — RenewEconomy
ASIC says it will closely monitor the climate reporting standards of ASX-listed companies, after a review found them seriously lacking – particularly on risk disclosure. The post Australian financial watchdog hones in on climate risk, warns companies to lift game appeared first on RenewEconomy.
via Australian financial watchdog hones in on climate risk, warns companies to lift game — RenewEconomy
September 20 Energy News — geoharvey
Science and Technology: ¶ “Flood frequency of world’s largest river has increased fivefold, study finds” • Flooding on the Amazon River has increased fivefold over the last two or three decades, a new study has found. Analysis of more than 100 years of river level records from the Amazon showed that both floods and droughts […]
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