nuclear-news

Idaho [Nuclear] National Lab (INL) benefits from fat cat funding and salaries, and promotes new nuclear reactors and thus waste. Idaho Senator Crapo actively tries to undermine US Nuclear safety, while getting more nuclear pork to create more nuclear messes within Idaho and without. But, large, underpopulated, Idaho, doesn’t want that nasty radioactive waste. Nope. Whereas Idaho gets the jobs and has an appropriate geology (granite) and climate (arid and cool) they want the radioactive waste to be dumped upon hot climates (arid New Mexico and Texas, and wet South Carolina) with inappropriate geologies for nuclear waste. And, if Idaho with 1.6 million people doesn’t get their way then they will shake-down the rest of the country, as though INL isn’t a big enough shake-down: “DOE shall ship all transuranic” [that is plutonium, americium, etc.] “waste now located at INEL, currently estimated at 65,000 cubic meters…

The devastating natural disaster in Fort McMurray is “consistent” with climate change.

As the planet continues to warm, wildfires will likely only become more common and intense as spring snowpack disappears and temperatures warm. Credit: USFWS/Southeast/Flickr

An unusually intense May wildfire roared into Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, on Tuesday, forcing the largest wildfire evacuation in province history. The flames rode the back of hot, windy weather that will continue through Wednesday and could pick up again this weekend.

The wildfire is the latest in a lengthening lineage of early wildfires in the northern reaches of the globe that are indicative of a changing climate. As the planet continues to warm, these types of fires will likely only become more common and intense as spring snowpack disappears and temperatures warm.

“This (fire) is consistent with what we expect from human-caused climate change affecting our fire regime,” Mike Flannigan, a wildfire researcher…

Opinion:

¶ “Who’s Killing Renewable Energy?” • Fifteen years the Cape Wind project began, bureaucratic obstacles, high costs, and wealthy Cape Cod residents hostile to a major renewable energy project near their homes plague the endeavor. But Cape Wind is no longer alone. [TakePart]

Offshore wind farm at Copenhagen.
Photo by Martin Nikolaj Christensen from Sorø, Denmark.
CC BY-SA 2.0 generic. Wikimedia Commons.

Science and Technology:

¶ Research has found that solar farms have a positive impact on biodiversity for a range of plant and animal species when used with appropriate land management. The report tested and confirmed a growing body of anecdotal evidence that solar farms can benefit local wildlife. [Renewable Energy Focus]

¶ Many researchers believe that El Niño was not the only factor increasing the risk of a major fire in Alberta. A number of research papers have highlighted the fact that…