Wednesday, May 15th
Last update06:56:01 AM GMT
Environmental Glance
What happens when the fox builds the hen house? The drilling industry helped get some of the most influential lawmakers elected with lavish donations to their campaigns. It paid millions to lobbyists to influence legislation, and it has hired many of the experienced regulators away from public service.
Now the industry will pay to train the people who set policy and enforce it.
Among the new regulations: Well operators must submit more comprehensive geological data when requesting a drill site, and the chemical makeup of all drilling wastewater must be tracked electronically.
As we approach the tragic one-year anniversary of Fukushima’s multiple nuclear reactors’ accident on March 11, that initially affected the entire Japanese population, we now know that this nightmare has engulfed all of us. Let us also not forget that this is the third nuclear attack on the Japanese (the first two were Hiroshima and Nagasaki). Given what has not been done to ensure public safety, we cannot think of it any other way. From the very first day, there were lies and a massive cover-up of the extent of the destruction and the inherent radioactive dangers –not just from Japanese officials and TEPCO corporate reports, but also from the US. The Mark 1 reactors, built by General Electric, have design flaws. There are many of these same-designed reactors in the US.
US Regulator: We've got to stop labs from testing for Fukushima radiation -- "Tell them to back off" -- Worried about them talking to press about 'consequences'
The following study appeared recently in the Journal of Environmental Radioactivity. A previous report 'New Study: Aerosolized plutonium from Fukushima detected in Europe — Spent fuel indicated' was based on the abstract available online at that time.
In the one year since the Fukushima nuclear disaster began, the Nuclear Regulator Commission (NRC) has failed to enact any safety mandate for U.S. reactors, an oversight the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) says is making 120 million Americans at an increased risk of radioactive impacts. The group's new U.S. nuclear fallout map shows the risk factors associated with the nation's plants and the radioactive plumes that would have occurred had an area been hit with a Fukushima-like disaster.
Predictions on the amount of radiation that had already been released from the crippled reactors, as well as further radiation that might escape into the atmosphere "could by no means be released to the public," says the document, according to Kyodo News.
Dated March 19, the document predicts that clouds of radioactivity could be released from the plant and spread across northern and central Japan, including Tokyo.
The world's oceans are turning acidic at what could be the fastest pace of any time in the past 300 million years, even more rapidly than during a monster emission of planet-warming carbon 56 million years ago, scientists said on Thursday.
Looking back at that bygone warm period in Earth's history could offer help in forecasting the impact of human-spurred climate change, researchers said of a review of hundreds of studies of ancient climate records published in the journal Science.
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