U.S. Army Corps rejects 180 miles of California levees as ineligible for flood repairs

By Alex Breitler, Record Staff Writer23 August 2012 Dozens of miles of levees slicing through urban Stockton and rural east San Joaquin County are no longer eligible for federal rehabilitation dollars should a flood occur, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will formally announce today. That means local agencies would be on the hook for […]

Balkan drought highlights years of farm neglect – Serbia corn yield halved – Croatia corn ‘rare as gold’

By Daria Sito-Sucic, with additional reporting by Zoran Radosavljevic in Zagreb and Matt Robinson in Belgrade; Editing by Matt Robinson and Pravin Char20 Aug 2012 KALESIJA, Bosnia (Reuters) – As crops wilt and die in the Balkans, farmers struck down by a particularly harsh drought this year are ruing the region’s failure to upgrade irrigation […]

Record radiation levels found in fish near Fukushima nuclear plant

21 August 2012 (AFP) – A pair of greenlings have shown the highest level of radioactive caesium detected in fish and shellfish caught in waters off Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, its operator said Tuesday. The fishes, captured 20 kilometres (12.5 miles) off the plant on August 1, registered 25,800 becquerels of caesium per […]

Asian Development Bank: Increased flooding threatens 750 million people in Asia by 2025

Daniel Schearf15 August 2012 BANGKOK – Recent flooding disasters in Asian capitals are a warning of worse problems to come for city planners.  The Asian Development Bank says rapid urbanization is straining city infrastructure, leading to worse pollution, and putting millions in Asia at risk. Heavy monsoon rains this month left a third of the […]

Water shortages hit U.S. power supply

By Sara Reardon 15 August 2012 As the United States’ extended heat wave and drought threaten to raise global food prices, energy production is also feeling the pressure. Across the nation, power plants are becoming overheated and shutting down or running at lower capacity; drilling operations struggle to get the water they need, and crops […]

Wild mushrooms contaminated with radioactive cesium in Japan have highest ‘official’ measurement ever

By arevamirpal::laprimavera 6 August 2012 As one of the readers noted in the other post, the radiation contamination in Tochigi and Gunma Prefectures (northern Kanto) has been little noted. The highest official measurement for wild mushrooms was last year, when 28,000 Bq/kg of radioactive cesium was found in wild mushrooms in Fukushima Prefecture. The reason […]

Nearly 2 million evacuated as Typhoon Haikui hits China – Reservoir collapse kills at least 10

By Shanghai Newsroom and Kazunori Takada; Editing by Jason Subler and Robert Birsel8 Aug 2012 SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Typhoon Haikui struck China on Wednesday, packing winds of up to 110 km per hour (68 mph), prompting officials to evacuate nearly 2 million people and grounding hundreds of flights to and from Shanghai and other cities. […]

Prosecutors open criminal probes over ‘man-made’ Fukushima meltdown disaster

2 August 2012 (Japan Times) – Prosecutors opened converging criminal probes Wednesday into the March 2011 triple-meltdown disaster at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, looking to hold people in positions of power accountable, including then Prime Minister Naoto Kan. The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office and two other district prosecutor’s offices […]

Jellyfish swarms in danger of clogging thermal power plants on Ise Bay, Japan

By Chunichi Shimbun4 August 2012 Large numbers of jellyfish have been swarming near nine thermal power plants on Ise Bay. Chubu Electric Power Co. estimates that there are close to 24,000 tons of the sea creatures swimming around the area, twice the usual level and the second-most recorded in the past decade. Measures are being […]

Ooi nuclear plant: 200 cubic meters of jellyfish caught on water intake screen

By arevamirpal::laprimavera3 August 2012 I’ve written about 137 alarms at Ooi Nuclear Power Plant Reactor 4 and the jellyfish protesting the restart (again) in my previous post. Yomiuri Shinbun tells us the scale of the jellyfish attack this time. 200 cubic meters worth of jellyfish forced the plant to reduce the water intake by 30%. […]

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