Archive for the 'Energy' Category
Help Wanted in Fukushima: Low Pay, High Risks and Gangsters
October 25th, 2013Via: Reuters: Tetsuya Hayashi went to Fukushima to take a job at ground zero of the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. He lasted less than two weeks. Hayashi, 41, says he was recruited for a job monitoring the radiation exposure of workers leaving the plant in the summer of 2012. Instead, when he turned up […]
Fukushima Readies for Dangerous Operation to Remove 400 Tons of Spent Fuel
October 24th, 2013Via: Russia Today: Fukushima operator TEPCO is getting ready for its toughest and the most dangerous clean-up operation. In November it will try to remove 400 tons of spent fuel from plant’s Reactor No. 4. But even a little mistake may result in a new nuclear disaster. The operation is scheduled to start in the […]
Saudi Arabia Set for Diplomatic Shift Away from U.S.
October 23rd, 2013Via: Guardian: Saudi Arabia’s intelligence chief has said the kingdom will make a “major shift” in dealings with the US in protest at perceived American inaction over the Syria war and its overtures to Iran, a source close to Saudi policy said on Tuesday. The source said that Prince Bandar bin Sultan had told European […]
The Sixth Stage of Collapse
October 23rd, 2013Dmitry We’re-Fucked-No-Matter-What Orlov outlines how the light at the end of the civilization tunnel is the train. Via: Club Orlov: A solution for avoiding the sixth stage must be found, but I don’t know what that solution would look like. I do find it unsafe to blithely assume that collapse will simply take care of […]
France to Increase Troops in Central African Republic
October 15th, 2013Via: Reuters: France will boost its troop presence in the Central African Republic by the end of the year under a forthcoming U.N. resolution to help prevent the country from spiralling out of control, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Sunday. Fabius and the European Union aid chief, Kristalina Georgieva, are in the country to […]
Arizona Solar Plant Keeps Producing Electricity Hours After Sundown
October 14th, 2013Via: PhysOrg: Abengoa’s Solana plant in the desert near Gila Bend, Arizona, passed commercial testing this week The 280-megawatt Solana solar thermal power plant producing electricity without direct sunlight made the announcement on Wednesday. Abengoa said Wednesday that the facility, about 70 miles southwest of Phoenix, can store the sun’s power for six hours via […]
Japan Finally Seeks International Help with Fukushima Crisis
October 9th, 2013Via: CBS: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan is open to receiving overseas help to contain widening radioactive water leaks at the crippled nuclear plant in Fukushima, with leaks and mishaps reported almost daily. Abe made the comments Sunday in a speech at an international science forum in Kyoto in western Japan. “We are wide […]
Nuclear Fusion Milestone Passed at U.S. Lab
October 7th, 2013Via: BBC: Researchers at a US lab have passed a crucial milestone on the way to their ultimate goal of achieving self-sustaining nuclear fusion. Harnessing fusion – the process that powers the Sun – could provide an unlimited and cheap source of energy. But to be viable, fusion power plants would have to produce more […]
Jellyfish Force Nuclear Plant Shutdown in Sweden
October 2nd, 2013Via: AP: It wasn’t a tsunami but it had the same effect: A huge cluster of jellyfish forced one of the world’s largest nuclear reactors to shut down — a phenomenon that marine biologists say could become more common. Operators of the Oskarshamn nuclear plant in southeastern Sweden had to scramble reactor number three on […]
World Record Solar Cell with 44.7% Efficiency
September 24th, 2013Via: PhysOrg: German Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, Soitec, CEA-Leti and the Helmholtz Center Berlin announced today that they have achieved a new world record for the conversion of sunlight into electricity using a new solar cell structure with four solar subcells. Surpassing competition after only over three years of research, and entering the […]
