nuclear-news

Science and Technology:

¶ The energy costs of operating the world’s largest oil fields can rise dramatically as extraction rates begin dropping, according to a study published in the journal Nature Climate Change. As extraction begins to ramp down, the net energy from the process can begin to fall rapidly, so that each unit of oil becomes more carbon intensive. [CleanTechnica]

Offshore oil structure

¶ Global asset manager Schroders launched a Climate Progress Dashboard designed to provide investors “a unique insight” into the global progress towards limiting global warming to the 2°C target and the overall progress of the transition to a low-carbon global economy. It currently says we are on path for a 4°C rise in temperature. [CleanTechnica]

World:

¶ Eddie O’Connor’s Mainstream Renewable Power’s plans to develop a £2 billion ($2.59 billion) wind farm off the Scottish coast passed a significant legal milestone…

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20009yb7

“Magnitude 5.8 quake hits on Japan’s Honshu: PTWC 
Posted:Wed, 19 Jul 2017 20:27:07 -0400
SYDNEY (Reuters) – An earthquake with an initial magnitude of 5.8 hit northeast of Tokyo on Japan’s main island of Honshu on Thursday, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) reported. ” http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/environment/~3/xlWs30kCFTs/us-japan-quake-ptwc-idUSKBN1A502E

“Heavy rains lashed Fukushima Prefecture during the last few days, prompting evacuation orders in some areas amid fears of flooding. These rains transport lots of radionuclides from the mountainsides and forests down into the towns, redistributing the insoluble cesium particles, recontaminating places having being previously decontaminated. A never ending story.” (D’un renard at: https://nuclear-news.net/2017/07/19/evacuations-ordered-as-heavy-rains-lashed-fukushima )

Fukushima Nuclear mess

It gives another excuse to discharge radioactive tritiated water to sea. Tritiated water remains radioactive for well over 100 years.

According to a US Nuclear Lab (LBL), tritiated water (HTO) enters the body through breathing, ingestion, skin absorption from contaminated air and…

Frozen water.

It’s an important aspect of our world. One that is essential to maintaining a stable climate and, by extension, the health of modern civilizations. Today, due to a continued warming of the globe, every form of frozen water — be it frozen water locked in glaciers, snow, or sea ice — is under threat. And we are almost daily reminded of new losses coming from these needed collections of cold.

Recently, however, one of these subsets of global ice has taken a very serious blow. For this past year, as ocean and land surfaces warmed to above 1 C warmer than late 19th Century averages, has seen a precipitous fall in the coverage of global sea ice. And we are now in uncharted territory as the Earth’s sea ice extent, area, and volume have fallen to never before seen lows.

(Sea ice area [upper right], extent [upper…

(If you think this is satire, rather than legitimate speculation based on the personalities involved, then you’ve had your head in the sand for the last months.)

In the second undisclosed Putin conversation did Trump offer to lift sanctions against Russia (for invading Crimea) in exchange for a Sberbank Loan to build a Trump Tower Moscow and/or for leaving Melania alone? Trump fears Melania may run off with Putin? She was, after all, seated with Putin and laughing.

Trump Lawyer Kasowitz Defends Russian Gov Sberbank; Sberbank Was To Fund Trump Tower Moscow – Is Russiagate All About Another Trump Phallic Symbol?

What did Trump and Putin whisper into each other’s ear for almost one hour at the Couples Only G20 Dinner? We can only speculate as there were apparently no American witnesses; no US translator; no official US record. Putin speaks and understands at least some English anyway. And, of course…

Opinion:

¶ “Renewables on the grid: Putting the negative-price myth to bed” • A new study evaluated 2016 price data for all retiring power plants in the main wholesale electricity markets with large amounts of wind generation. It confirms that renewable policies incentivizing wind power have a trivial impact on retiring power plants. [Into the Wind – The AWEA Blog]

Oklahoma wind farm

World:

¶ German utility company EWE says it is planning to build the world’s largest battery based on flow technology in a pair of salt caves currently used to store natural gas. The caves have a total volume of 3.5 million cubic feet – enough to store up to 700 MWh of electricity with an output capacity of 120 MW, according to Digital Trends. [CleanTechnica]

¶ A major solar power project in the Middle East will provide electricity during the night. The $1…