BP challenges settlements in Gulf Oil spill – ‘The litigation over this issue has not in any way changed our commitment to the Gulf’

25 June 2013 NEW ORLEANS (AP) – BP is placing full-page advertisements in three of the nation’s largest newspapers on Wednesday as the company mounts an aggressive campaign to challenge what could be billions of dollars in settlement payouts to businesses after its 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The ad, scheduled to […]

Rising sea temperatures call for new insurance models: Insurance think tank report

Contact: Anthony Kennaway, Head of Communications, The Geneva Association, +41 22 707 66 00 24 June 2013 GENEVA (The Geneva Association) – In some high-risk areas, ocean warming and climate change threaten the insurability of catastrophe risk. This is one of the conclusions of a research report [pdf] issued today by the climate risks and […]

Another contaminated water leak at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant

By Mari Saito, Risa Maeda, and Kenichiro Hamada; Editing by Ron Popeski5 June 2013 TOKYO (Reuters) – The operator of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant said it had found another leak of contaminated water on Wednesday, piling pressure on the utility to curb the problem as it seeks permission to release water to the sea. […]

Arkansas pipeline spill casts shadow over Keystone XL – ‘If it got into a major river, it could create a plume hundreds of miles long’

By Neela Banerjee, Washington Bureau5 June 2013 MAYFLOWER, Arkansas – On warm spring evenings, North Starlite Drive buzzed with children. They cycled around the cul-de-sac at the end of the wide, block-long road, shot baskets in driveways and inevitably wound up on the swing set and trampoline behind the Bartletts’ large brick house. These days, […]

Soil around Fukushima to be frozen to stop groundwater leaking in – Disaster poses ‘an unprecedented challenge in the world’

By Mark Willacy31 May 2013 (ABC) – The Japanese government has ordered the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant to freeze the soil around its crippled reactor buildings to stop groundwater seeping in and becoming contaminated. Every day another 400 tonnes of groundwater forces its way into the plant, becomes contaminated with radioactivity and needs […]

Strict radiation reference levels shunned to stem Fukushima exodus – ‘The prefectural government could not function with population drain under the 5-millisievert scenario’

By SHINICHI SEKINE25 May 2013 (Asahi Shimbun) – The government avoided setting stringent radiation reference levels for the return of Fukushima evacuees for fear of triggering a population drain and being hit by ballooning costs for compensation, an Asahi Shimbun investigation shows. The revelation could rekindle debate over the government’s safety standards as many evacuees […]

Flood alarms threatened by U.S. budget cuts – ‘Without these observations, our forecast and warning operations will be impaired, reduced, or discontinued on a location-by-location basis’

By Jennifer Liberto10 May 2013 WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) – The U.S. flood alarm system is about to get smaller. On May 1, the U.S. Geological Survey began turning off some 150 stream gauges that monitor water levels on the nation’s rivers and streams, thanks to the federal spending cuts, also known as sequester. It’s a one-two […]

Superstorm Sandy aid center on Staten Island fights order to leave – ‘Six months later, we're still feeding people’

By Tina Susman6 May 2013 NEW YORK (Los Angeles Times) – It has been six months since Donna Graziano packed a barbecue into her car, drove 15 miles from her Brooklyn home to Staten Island, and began cooking for residents of a neighborhood ravaged by Superstorm Sandy. Her one-woman effort in a seaside park expanded […]

Fukushima groundwater contaminated with leaking radioactive water – Japan reconstruction minister to visit Chernobyl site

27 April 2013 (JIJI) – Samples of groundwater taken from monitoring holes around the sunken reservoirs at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant are proving radioactive, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Saturday. Strontium and other radioactive elements were detected in samples taken from 13 of the 22 observation holes dug around the reservoirs, which were […]

Radioactive mud in Fukushima school pools tops 100,000 becquerels

By MASAKAZU HONDA22 April 2013 FUKUSHIMA (Asahi Shimbun) – Radioactive cesium levels exceeding 100,000 becquerels per kilogram were measured in mud accumulated at the bottom of swimming pools at two high schools in and around Fukushima city. Mud in the pool of a third high school in Minami-Soma, which is closer to the crippled Fukushima […]

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