Thar She Blows!

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RSOE REPORT | MAP|Volcano List

About the Chi-lung Port there (black square on the map).

About the nuke plants:

Chin Shan NPP – built in 1978

Kuosheng NPP – it’s a Mark III – what could go wrong?  Bonus:accident simulation paper

Lungmen NPP – a GE-Toshiba-itachi brainchild

Meanwhile in Japan …

Hope we don’t have more updates here!

See May 27 post –7.2 Quake South Sandwich Is. + 6.6 Quake in Fiji (after the 6.4 Quake) + 4.5 Quake Off N. Calif.

Science and Technology:

¶ The currents of the Bay of Fundy would easily generate enough power for all of Atlantic Canada’s needs, but have been too monstrously strong to be tamed. Now, Cape Sharp Tidal is betting on two turbines it will start installing in June. Each 2-MW turbine weighs 1,000 tonnes. [Globalnews.ca]

A turbine being built for the Cape Sharp Tidal project. Andrew Vaughan / The Canadian Press.

¶ UK-based company Renovare Fuels Limited has co-invented technology which can convert landfill gas into high-quality clean energy in the form of liquid diesel and gasoline fuel suitable for all motor vehicles. This would allow landfill operators to sell the fuel for vehicles. [Renewable Energy Focus]

World:

¶ Battery storage technology has the potential to reshape not just the energy sector but also Australian elections. An Australia Institute report includes polling indicating that 71% of Australians would…

Join Us in Keswick – on Tuesday 31st May 2-4 outside the Skiddaw Hotel

Lets Expose the Sham CONsultation

Ruskin, Beatrix Potter and Wordsworth are Lake District icons.   Not one of these icons would have separated the West Coast of Cumbria from the Lake District as we have been taught to do in the nuclear age.  Why?  The Lake District spread across the boundaries of three counties: Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire.  The Lake District National Park is an artificial construct which does itself or us no favours in its readiness to publicly disown West Cumbria rather than publicly oppose the diabolic nuclear developments in the Lake Counties.  This is what they said in 2012 about the plan for a geological dump for heat generating nuclear waste …..”It remains a concern that significant media interest highlights the potential location of the geological disposal facility in the ‘Lake District’ rather than ‘West Cumbria.”

The Lake District…

Opinion:

¶ “State Senate energy bills threaten many, starting with solar workers” • If you like clean energy, you won’t like the two energy bills the Michigan Senate Energy & Technology Committee sent to the floor last Wednesday, especially if you want your own solar energy. [Crain’s Detroit Business]

Power plant at Michigan State University. Photo by Michael P
Kube-McDowell. CC BY-SA 3.0 unported. Wikimedia Commons.

World:

¶ Saudi Arabia’s planned privatizations represent the biggest investment banking opportunity in emerging markets, according to Citigroup. The shakeup of the biggest Arab economy has been unprecedented, as the country seeks to reduce its reliance on oil after prices went low in 2014. [Bloomberg]

¶ The Dlouhe Strane pumped storage plant in the Czech Republic was built to balance electricity demands between day and night, but as renewable sources of energy have taken an increasing share of electricity…

US Congressman Jim McGovern recently got an amendment through the House which would create an “Atomic Veterans Service Medal”, but it seems to still exclude those involved in removing radiation testing filters from surveillance aircraft; mechanics; and most cleanup crews. Congressman Takai is trying to get health-care parity for Enewetak Atoll cleanup crews. Why this piecemeal approach? The law in place gives the run-around to many Atomic Veterans who have the “wrong” type of cancer or disease. Ionizing radiation has been long known to cause skin cancer. And, yet it is not on the list of the “right” cancers. It is increasingly realized, including by the ICRP, that radiation exposure can cause heart disease too. Why give elderly veterans the bureaucratic run-around? Apart from ethical considerations, bureaucratic run-around itself costs money. Give them blanket coverage.

The US Government must stop throwing away billions per year as hand-outs to the nuclear…

One of the justifications for fracking is the use of natural gas as a bridging fuel between coal and a low-carbon future. However natural gas is mostly methane, which has strong global warming impacts in its own right. Natural gas therefore only provides climate benefits over coal if the leakage is no more than 2-3%.

We cannot measure leaks from every pipe joint. One alternative is to measure the sum of lots of leaks from a distance. Flights over US shale gas fields reveal large methane sources, but these areas also have cattle farms that produce methane and the two sources need to be separated.

Source: How fracking can contribute to climate change | Environment | The Guardian