Environment
Nuclear Critics Say Containment Cracking May Be Cause for Public Concern - Press Conference Held in Toledo, OH
A growing Coalition of groups that opposes a 20-year operating license extension for the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant near Port Clinton says it is closely watching developments since the discovery last week of a 30-foot-long crack in the plant's reactor containment building. The cracking, which is being investigated by the utility and U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has prompted critics to widen their opposition to the continued operation of Davis-Besse for the generation of electricity.
A growing Coalition of groups that opposes a 20-year operating license extension for the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant near Port Clinton says it is closely watching developments since the discovery last week of a 30-foot-long crack in the plant's reactor containment building. The cracking, which is being investigated by the utility and U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has prompted critics to widen their opposition to the continued operation of Davis-Besse for the generation of electricity.
Terry Smith wrote a thoughtful and provocative article in the Oct. 6 issue of The Athens News with the title “Can our region really afford to say no to ‘fracking’.” Terry’s analysis sides with those who want regulation of fracking but he is also concerned that Athens needs jobs and revenue. He speculates reasonably that the gas companies will make great profits on their investments in the Wayne National Forest and elsewhere in Athens City and County. Therefore, government and taxpayers should expect they should” pay more to protect local water supplies.” The implication of Terry’s stance is that, given the concerns of local folks and the ongoing economic distress of the area, gas companies be required to put some of their profits into a fund to pay for any damage they do to the environment.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- The worst floods in decades have killed 261 people, swamped an export manufacturing zone, and caused millions of dollars in damage to crops and property while government officials publicly prayed to Buddha and prepared Bangkok for a destructive deluge.
Some fleeing residents in the central city of Ayutthaya climbed aboard an elephant and clung to their valuables, including an electric fan and plastic bags stuffed with household goods, while riding the huge pachyderm through tusk-deep floodwater.
In Bangkok, multi-story public parking areas at shopping malls were turned into emergency shelters for automobiles, where people could park their cars for free -- as long as need be -- if their residential areas faced flooding.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who was elected as Thailand's first female prime minister in July, announced on Sunday (Oct. 9) that she was canceling her visits to Singapore and Malaysia, scheduled for Oct. 11 and 12, so she could command emergency assistance.
Some fleeing residents in the central city of Ayutthaya climbed aboard an elephant and clung to their valuables, including an electric fan and plastic bags stuffed with household goods, while riding the huge pachyderm through tusk-deep floodwater.
In Bangkok, multi-story public parking areas at shopping malls were turned into emergency shelters for automobiles, where people could park their cars for free -- as long as need be -- if their residential areas faced flooding.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who was elected as Thailand's first female prime minister in July, announced on Sunday (Oct. 9) that she was canceling her visits to Singapore and Malaysia, scheduled for Oct. 11 and 12, so she could command emergency assistance.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Two months of typhoons and heavy monsoons have flooded Southeast Asia, killing nearly 500 people, forcing thousands of survivors to flee including prison inmates and hospital patients, plus drenching the region with fresh storms on Thursday (Oct. 6).
"Meteorologists have indicated that flooding in some of these countries is the worst in 50 years," the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said on Wednesday (Oct. 5), describing the devastation in Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, Laos, and Vietnam.
Successive storms, born in the South Pacific, have battered their way westward, first hitting the Philippines and continuing on to slam Vietnam's long, S-shaped coastline.
Some of those storms also traveled further west to flood Cambodia before soaking northern Thailand.
Meanwhile, a separate batch of powerful rainstorms during the past six weeks have emerged from the Bay of Bengal, whipping northeast to punish Thailand on a second saturated front.
The loss of life and damage across Southeast Asia has included:
-- Thailand:
"Meteorologists have indicated that flooding in some of these countries is the worst in 50 years," the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said on Wednesday (Oct. 5), describing the devastation in Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, Laos, and Vietnam.
Successive storms, born in the South Pacific, have battered their way westward, first hitting the Philippines and continuing on to slam Vietnam's long, S-shaped coastline.
Some of those storms also traveled further west to flood Cambodia before soaking northern Thailand.
Meanwhile, a separate batch of powerful rainstorms during the past six weeks have emerged from the Bay of Bengal, whipping northeast to punish Thailand on a second saturated front.
The loss of life and damage across Southeast Asia has included:
-- Thailand:
Republicans up in arms about the infamous failed federal $535 million loan guarantee for the Solyndra solar panel producer are finally tasked to apply the same standards to nuclear power.
If that happens, there will be no more commercial reactors built in the United States.
Unlike solar power, atomic energy cannot attract private capital. So if the GOP succeeds in dragging down the entire federal energy loan program, the "Nuclear Renaissance" could be definitively done.
The Solyndra story is complex, and full of opportunity---for the Chinese. The Bush-era loan didn't add up from the start. Though it was for a solar company involved in cutting-edge technology, there was much reason to question the corporate numbers.
Numerous other loans for Solartopian technologies have succeeded admirably. No matter what Tea Party Republicans may wish, the future of the world's energy is with the sun, wind, tides, waves, sustainable bio-fuels, geothermal, ocean thermal, increased efficiency, conservation, and the like.
If that happens, there will be no more commercial reactors built in the United States.
Unlike solar power, atomic energy cannot attract private capital. So if the GOP succeeds in dragging down the entire federal energy loan program, the "Nuclear Renaissance" could be definitively done.
The Solyndra story is complex, and full of opportunity---for the Chinese. The Bush-era loan didn't add up from the start. Though it was for a solar company involved in cutting-edge technology, there was much reason to question the corporate numbers.
Numerous other loans for Solartopian technologies have succeeded admirably. No matter what Tea Party Republicans may wish, the future of the world's energy is with the sun, wind, tides, waves, sustainable bio-fuels, geothermal, ocean thermal, increased efficiency, conservation, and the like.
Those in the peak oil, deep ecology and anarcho-primitivism movements say we can't use technology to solve our environmental crises. Local activist Chuck Lynd disagrees.
“I believe in what E.F. Schumacher called ‘appropriate technology' ...That’s true in agriculture, in industry, and in high technology. We’re creative and innovative. We just need to apply it in healthy, sustainable ways.”
But the fossil and fissile fuel industry is getting in the way of that, said Lynd, during a protest against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline project during Obama's visit to Columbus on Sept 12.
“We can move now to solar, wind, and geothermal energy. There are technologies that are just in the waiting. We just have policies that support and subsidize what Harvey Wasserman calls King CONG---coal, oil, nuclear, and (natural) gas.”
The horrible news from Japan continues to be ignored by the western corporate media.
Fukushima's radioactive fallout continues to spread throughout the archipelago, deep into the ocean and around the globe---including the US. It will ultimately impact millions, including many here in North America.
The potentially thankful news is that Fukushima's three melting cores may have not have melted deep into the earth, thus barely avoiding an unimaginably worse apocalyptic reality.
But it's a horror that humankind has yet to fully comprehend.
Fukushima's radioactive fallout continues to spread throughout the archipelago, deep into the ocean and around the globe---including the US. It will ultimately impact millions, including many here in North America.
The potentially thankful news is that Fukushima's three melting cores may have not have melted deep into the earth, thus barely avoiding an unimaginably worse apocalyptic reality.
But it's a horror that humankind has yet to fully comprehend.
Just about everyone who has followed he local and national news on horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, knows that oil and gas corporations are putting immense resources into campaigns, lobbying, advertising, front groups, faux grassroots groups, and just about anything you can imagine, all in opposition to any new regulations, especially at the federal level of government.
Before going on, consider that fracking should not be viewed in isolation from the more extensive process of which it is one part. The Secretary of Energy Advisory Board’s extensive review of the evidence, released by the Shale Gas Production Subcommittee 90-Day Report on August 18, offers its assessments and recommendations. Here’s one that applies to how we should think about fracking as a multi-stage process:
Before going on, consider that fracking should not be viewed in isolation from the more extensive process of which it is one part. The Secretary of Energy Advisory Board’s extensive review of the evidence, released by the Shale Gas Production Subcommittee 90-Day Report on August 18, offers its assessments and recommendations. Here’s one that applies to how we should think about fracking as a multi-stage process:
What entitlement! I hit the gas, power off to my destination. No one asks me whether the trip is serious or banal, necessary or foolish, conscious or impulsive. I just go, ripping up the miles as though they were daydreams. The engine purrs. My name is Everyman, and I have the power of gods.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not addicted or anything. I can get off oil whenever I want to. On the other hand, I may be willing to sacrifice 740,000 acres of pristine boreal forest in Northern Canada — part of one of the largest intact ecosystems left on the planet — along with, oh, 166 million birds, and all the remaining caribou in Alberta, before I do. Tough call.
“The tar sands are a huge pool of carbon, but one that does not make sense to exploit. When other huge oil fields or coal mines were opened in the past, we knew much less about the damage that the carbon they contained would do to the Earth’s climate system and to its oceans.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not addicted or anything. I can get off oil whenever I want to. On the other hand, I may be willing to sacrifice 740,000 acres of pristine boreal forest in Northern Canada — part of one of the largest intact ecosystems left on the planet — along with, oh, 166 million birds, and all the remaining caribou in Alberta, before I do. Tough call.
“The tar sands are a huge pool of carbon, but one that does not make sense to exploit. When other huge oil fields or coal mines were opened in the past, we knew much less about the damage that the carbon they contained would do to the Earth’s climate system and to its oceans.
Columbus could soon join the growing list of cities, states and countries banning non-biodegradable, single-use plastic bags. A citizens’ initiative is now underway and gathering signatures to present to Columbus City Council along with a petition requesting a ban in Columbus.