Archive for the 'Energy' Category
Demand for Personal Geiger Counters Soars in Japan
May 26th, 2011Via: Reuters: With a nuclear plant just 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo still leaking radiation, demand for personal Geiger counters has skyrocketed in the Japanese capital and manufacturers are struggling to keep up with the demand. Engineers are battling to plug radiation leaks and bring the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant under control more […]
Soil Contamination from Fukushima Crisis Comparable to Chernobyl
May 25th, 2011Via: Japan Today: Radiation released by the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has caused soil contamination matching the levels seen in the Chernobyl disaster in some areas, a researcher told the government’s nuclear policy-setting body Tuesday. ‘‘A massive soil decontamination project will be indispensable before residents in those areas can return,’’ said Tomio Kawata, […]
Risk From Spent Nuclear Reactor Fuel Is Greater in U.S. Than in Japan
May 25th, 2011Via: New York Times: The threat of a catastrophic release of radioactive materials from a spent fuel pool at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant is dwarfed by the risk posed by such pools in the United States, which are typically filled with far more radioactive material, according to a study released on Tuesday by a nonprofit […]
Fukushima: Workers Suffer from Internal Radiation Exposure
May 23rd, 2011Via: Mainichi: The government has discovered thousands of cases of workers at nuclear power plants outside Fukushima Prefecture suffering from internal exposure to radiation after they visited the prefecture, the head of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said. Most of the workers who had internal exposure to radiation visited Fukushima after the nuclear crisis […]
The World’s Largest Man-Made Floating Object
May 23rd, 2011Via: Popular Science: Shell is making good on its promise to build the largest object ever to float on water, announcing Friday it would build the Prelude FLNG Project to harvest offshore natural gas fields. The gargantuan ship will suck up the equivalent of 110,000 barrels of oil per day. The floating liquified natural gas […]
Researchers Cancel SCADA Hacking Presentation After Department of Homeland Security’s ICS-CERT and Siemens Raise Concerns
May 19th, 2011Via: NSS Labs Press Release: Dillon Beresford, security researcher at NSS Labs, who was scheduled to present at TakedownCon 2011 on SCADA vulnerabilities chose to withdraw his presentation at the 11th hour after collaborative discussions with ICS-CERT and Siemens regarding the serious consequences it may have to human lives and the world at large. The […]
NATO in Libya: Besides the Oil, Is It Also a Gold Robbery?
May 17th, 2011Pookie let me know about issue #5 of The Gold Standard (.pdf), which includes an interesting comment from this Wall Street Journal piece about Gaddafi’s vast gold holdings. The comment is no longer posted at the Wall Street Journal: PvC from Belgium comments on Wall Street Journal Blog: “It seems to me that the war […]
Was Fukushima a China Syndrome?
May 16th, 2011Via: Time: The China Syndrome refers to a scenario in which a molten nuclear reactor core could could fission its way through its containment vessel, melt through the basement of the power plant and down into the earth. While a molten reactor core wouldn’t burn “all the way through to China” it could enter the […]
Fukushima: Highly Radioactive Sewer Sludge [???]
May 15th, 2011Wha?? How?? I… *mumble* *sputter* What is happening here? Is this from fallout coming down in rainwater and then getting into the sewage infrastructure? Via: Mainichi: Highly radioactive sludge found at sewage plants in Fukushima Prefecture will be temporarily kept at those plants, the central government has announced. The move came after high levels of […]
Another Synthetic Photosynthesis Breakthrough: Cuprous Oxide Stabilized for Semi Conductor Use in Water
May 15th, 2011Via: Press Release / Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne: This discovery will make it possible to improve photoelectrochemical cells. In the same way that plants use photosynthesis to transform sunlight into energy, these cells use sunlight to drive chemical reactions that ultimately produce hydrogen from water. The process involves using a light-sensitive semi-conducting material such […]
