Just under a week after the first nuclear power plant re-opened in Japan, critics are voicing concerns about safety. Oh, and there's a volcano. After the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011, all of Japan's nuclear reactors were shut down. To reopen, plants must pass new safety requirement. Plants must have an upgrade plan, an engineering work plan and receive pre-service … [Read more...]
Our lonely home in nature
The tornadoes that have been devastating parts of the South and Midwest USA, just weeks after a deadly mudslide in Washington, demonstrate once again the unimaginable power of nature. After each disaster, we grieve over the human lives lost, the innocent people drowned or crushed without warning as they slept in their beds, worked in their fields or sat at their office … [Read more...]
Fracking directly linked to earthquakes for the first time
Geologists in Columbus, Ohio, have for the first time linked earthquakes in a geologic formation deep under the Appalachians to hydraulic fracturing, leading the state to issue new permit conditions Friday in certain areas that are among the nation's strictest. A state investigation of five small tremors last month in the Youngstown area, in the Appalachian foothills, found … [Read more...]