By Veronika Melkozerova 18 April 2020 KYIV, Ukraine (NBC News) – Wind-whipped wildfires have in recent days raged perilously close to the exclusion zone at Chernobyl, the site of what is considered to have been the world’s worst nuclear disaster. But these fires were no accident — they were set by villagers who were clearing their land for […]
By Aaron Sheldrick 31 January 2020 TOKYO (Reuters) – A panel of experts advising Japan’s government on a disposal method for radioactive water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant on Friday recommended releasing it into the ocean, a move likely to alarm neighboring countries. The panel under the industry ministry came to the conclusion after […]
By Trevor Houser and Hannah Pitt 7 January 2020 (Rhodium Group) – After a sharp uptick in 2018, we estimate that US greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions fell by 2.1% last year based on preliminary energy and economic data. This decline was due almost entirely to a drop in coal consumption. Coal-fired power generation fell by […]
By William Wilkes and Megan Durisin 24 July 2019 (Bloomberg) – Europe’s latest summer heatwave broke heat records just weeks after the continent had its hottest ever June, fueling concern that a shifting climate is triggering more extreme weather. Germany probably set a new all-time temperature record of 42.6 degrees Celsius (108.7 Fahrenheit) in the […]
By Alan Neuhauser 1 July 2019 (US News) – There’s a reason nuclear plants are built close to water. Harnessing the enormous power of nuclear fission, plants generate steam, which shoots through pipes to spin a turbine that generates massive amounts of electricity. To keep from getting dangerously hot, the plants suck up surrounding water […]
By Mary Ilyushina 30 June 2019 Murmansk, Russia (CNN) – Next month, a floating nuclear power plant called the Akademik Lomonosov will be towed via the Northern Sea Route to its final destination in the Far East, after almost two decades in construction. It’s part of Russia’s ambition to bring electric power to a mineral-rich region. The 144-meter […]
By Neil Katz and Joe McCarthy 9 May 2019 (The Weather Channel) – Last month, a thousand well-heeled bankers, scrappy startups and energy CEOs sat down at the Bloomberg New Energy Finance conference in a swanky New York hotel to discuss the billions they would spend over the next 20 years to build cleaner energy […]
3 May 2011 (Desdemona Despair) – It’s hard for Desdemona to believe, but it’s been 25 years since the “worst technogenic accident in history.” Des heard the news at the front desk of the MacGregor House dorm, and has had a morbid fascination with the event ever since. The 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl explosion […]