Britain’s huge plutonium stockpile makes it a vast energy resource.combined.While most of the world’s civilian plutonium waste is still trapped inside highly radioactive spent fuel, much of that British plutonium is in the form of plutonium dioxide powder. It has been extracted from spent fuel with the intention of using it to power an earlier generation of fast reactors that were never built. This makes it much more vulnerable to theft and use in nuclear weapons than plutonium still held inside spent fuel, as most of the U.S. stockpile is.The Royal Society, Britain’s equivalent of the National Academy of Sciences, reported last year that the plutonium powder, which is stored in drums, “poses a serious security risk” and “undermines the UK’s credibility in non-proliferation debates.”
Photo courtesy of U.S. Army.
Republicans have been going after the Navy’s biofuel program, the “Green Fleet,” as I covered here and here. As I’ve said, I have mixed feelings about military biofuels. Apart from the details of that program, though, I expect that this is the first sortie in what will become a broader conservative campaign against the military’s efforts to move beyond fossil fuels. So let’s have a reminder of just why the military is doing what it’s doing.
In 2008, the Defense Science Board Task Force on Department of Defense Energy Strategy released its findings in a seminal report called “More Fight — Less Fuel.” Here, from a slideshow summary [PDF] of the report, are the “two primary energy risks to DoD.”
So: too much liquid fuel needed in the field and too much reliance on unsteady power grids at the bases.
Let’s turn to recent news.
First, a couple weeks ago, “a bomb planted by the Taliban in northern Afghanistan destroyed 22 NATO fuel tankers carrying supplies to coalition forces.” Luckily the bomb went off fairly early in the morning, so there weren’t many casualties to add to the more than 3,000 Americans killed protecting fuel convoys in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is all it took: “the device was attached under one of the trucks, which were parked close together.”
As I wrote in Outside last year:
THE TACTICAL NEED to reduce reliance on fossil fuels is not new to the Pentagon. In 2003, at the outset of the second Iraq war, General James Mattis commanded the 1st Marine Division during the initial drive to Baghdad. He found himself repeatedly outrunning his own fuel resupply lines, forcing him to slow down to remain fully powered. In a post-combat report that has since become a touchstone for military analysts, he called on the Department of Defense to “unleash us from the tether of fuel.”
Mattis’s plea served to highlight the extraordinary costs of fuel to the military in Afghanistan and Iraq—in dollars and lives. By some estimates, fully 70 percent of the convoys crisscrossing the theater of war are involved in “liquid logistics,” the delivery of fuel and water. In Afghanistan, fuel reaches the front lines via tankers and planes that cross the ocean, trucks from Tajikistan or Russia, and (sometimes) helicopters from forward bases. By the time it gets there, the fully burdened cost can reach anywhere from $30 to an astounding $400 per gallon. Then there are the casualties: one for every 24 fuel convoys, according to a 2009 report by the Army Environmental Policy Institute.
Reducing fuel use in the field is about saving lives, pure and simple.
Second, recent research has shown that power outages are becoming more common in the U.S. In 2008, “there were 2,169 power outages in the U.S. affecting 25 million people. In 2011, there were more than 3,000 outages affecting 41.8 million people.” Absent enormous investments in the grid, this trend is expected to continue as power lines get older and weather gets weirder. Meanwhile, there are 64 bases in the U.S. that operate drones by remote control. A power outage at a base during a drone mission would be … awkward.
And it’s not just U.S. bases that need to learn how to generate their own power and handle their own (micro)grids. The U.S. is building drone bases all over the world, often in places with even worse grids than ours. A blackout just yesterday in India left 300 million people in the dark. Autonomous power generation will become more and more mission critical.
India suffered one of its worst blackouts in a decade this Monday morning when high demand for electricity cut off power to seven northern states and over 360 million people. India’s electricity demand during the hot, dry summer has greatly increased this year, especially in urban areas. Without a good monsoon and due to unusually arid weather, the nation’s electricity grid has been under a lot of strain.
Read the rest of 350 Million People in India Lose Power Due to Scorching Summer Weather
The Amish are best known for their simple living, their plain dress and their reluctance to adopt many of the technological luxuries we take for granted. In many regards, they are among the greenest and most sustainable communities in the US given their farming methods, their recycling of resources, their reliance on horse power and a prohibition on automobiles. However, a new report from Ohio State University on the Amish population in the US has found that a new Amish community is founded, on average, about every 3 1/2 weeks. This would suggest that the Amish are the most rapidly growing community (and religion) in the US!
Read the rest of The Simple Living Amish Are the Fastest Growing Community In the US
Companies will have until September 1, 2013, the day the European Union’s updated biocides legislation applies, to prepare for the provisions it introduces. Effective from July 17, 2012, differences between Regulation 528/2012/EU and the previous framework under Directive 98/8/EC include streamlined requirements for approving active substances and authorizing products, including at Union level for certain biocidal products; new provisions aimed at reducing animal testing by making data sharing compulsory; and the introduction of the new European Commission nanomaterials definition. According to the EC, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), whose staff dedicated to biocides-related activities will eventually number 100 with an annual budget of EUR 25 million, “will provide a strong scientific and technical back-up to the Commission and the member states under this new regulation.” Regulation 528/2012/EU repeals and replaces Directive 98/8/EC on 1 September 2013.
Please click here to view an EC Q&A document and to access a link to the regulation. See more By Scott Stephens at http://3ecompany.com/blog/?p=89
On July 25, 2012, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed the amended version of the Safe Chemicals Act of 2011 bill (S. 847) to overhaul the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) by increasing reporting obligations of chemical manufacturers and processors and giving the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) more authority to remove harmful substances off the market. The legislation could be the first major overhaul of federal chemical law since 1976. Notable amendments to the bill include: requiring manufacturers to develop and submit safety data for each chemical produced without duplicate testing and by relying on existing information; prioritizing chemicals based on risk for EPA to focus its resources on evaluating those most likely to cause harm; requiring burden of proof on chemical manufacturers to demonstrate the safety of chemicals produced; restricting uses of chemicals without proof of safety; restricting eligibility of CBI protection; encouraging innovation and development of safe chemical alternatives and expediting the review process. The Committee vote was split along party lines, with every Republican member voting against it. The bill could go to the Senate floor for a vote. See more.
Disappointed by the lack of aggressive action by the U.S. Federal Reserve at the meeting of its powerful rate-setting committee last week, and assuming a wait-and-see posture on results from this week's European summit, pessimistic market-watchers are turning once again to guessing when the clock atop the euro zone time-bomb will finally run to 0.
The consensus? The world economy has entered a final countdown with three months left, and investors should pencil in a collapse in either August or September.
Citing a theory he has been espousing since 2010 that predicts "a future lack of policy flexibility from the monetary and fiscal side," Jim Reid, a strategist at Deutsche Bank, wrote a note Tuesday that gloated "it feels like Europe has proved us right."
"The U.S. has the ability to disprove the universal nature of our theory," Reid wrote, but "if this U.S. cycle is of completely average length as seen using the last 158 years of history (33 cycles), then the next recession should start by the end of August."
Please read on at: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/357971/20120629/economy-collapse-prediction-august-september.htm
JSOnline - A growing number of residential wells found to be polluted with gasoline from a July 17 pipeline break and dramatic increases in levels of benzene in the wells prompted state environmental officials Sunday to broaden the search for contaminated groundwater in the town.
As of Sunday afternoon, three more private wells in the Town of Jackson were found to be contaminated with gasoline, bringing the total to seven, said Scott Ferguson, spills coordinator with the state Department of Natural Resources in Milwaukee.
The three latest wells were added to the list this weekend after tests of water samples found that they contained levels of benzene exceeding the federal safe drinking water standard of 5 parts per billion, Ferguson said.
The break in the pipeline occurred in the 1800 block of Western Ave., generally midway between Maple Road and county Highway G.
The pipe is owned by West Shore Pipe Line Co. of Arlington Heights, Ill.
Two of the three latest wells are west of the pipeline break in the 1900 block of Western Ave.
A third is northwest, in the 1800 block of Mill Road.
On Sunday, the DNR pushed its search for polluted wells even farther afield, generally to the southwest, west and northwest of the break. A total of 70 residential wells have been tested at least once, and the investigation now extends north of Mill Road and south of Spring Valley Road, Ferguson said.
Contractors for West Shore started installing water treatment systems at each of the seven polluted wells Saturday, and the work continued Sunday, he said.
In addition, West Shore is providing the seven families with bottled water.
By Monday, a total of 11 private wells are to be equipped with water treatment systems capable of removing gasoline, Ferguson said.
(Image Source: Facebook / Earth Warrior; June 2012)
As yields and corn production declines, concerns arise about the point at which ethanol plants will be forced to curtail production because of the price of corn reaching unprofitable levels. The shutdown price is a function of the price of corn as well as the price that ethanol is being sold. Currently, the price of ethanol is rising faster than the price of corn, and the shutdown price may be nearly $1 higher than are current corn prices.
Past attempts to forecast the possible costs of climate change have been largely inadequate. They failed because of unanticipated effects on and complex interconnections among various parts of critical infrastructure.
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Ameren Missouri recently announced a proposal for a small, modular nuclear reactor. What's the problem? Well, let's begin with the folly of picking an industry that is a loser from every vantage point. Missourians know from Ameren's repeated attempts to push through a nuclear plant proposal that private investors dismiss nuclear power plants as economically unsound.
According to Forbes, "The Department of Energy will spend $452 million — with a match from industry — over the next five years to guide two small modular reactor designs through the nuclear regulatory process by 2022. But cheap natural gas could freeze even small nuclear plants out of the energy market well beyond that date." Where will industry come looking for its share of matching funds? If history is any guide, Missouri ratepayers will be called upon to provide those funds, enabling Ameren to raise our electricity rates in perpetuity.
Envisioned to create an energy hub with thousands of jobs, the small 225-megawatt nuclear reactor would have about one-fifth the capacity of a large nuclear plant, which might not come online until 2022. As a strategic energy plan, this vision delivers too little, too late.
Missouri's aging energy infrastructure is dominated by one nuclear and 15 coal-burning power plants, ranging between 2,389 megawatts and 273 megawatts, many in need of retirement. Strikingly, Missouri has a dozen natural gas plants with 100 megawatts to 700 megawatts of generation capacity, enough to supply 50 percent of Missouri's electricity needs. Many of those plants are sitting virtually idle. With natural gas prices at all-time lows, these plants could be brought online today, with no new investment. Doing so would reduce toxic and greenhouse gas releases drastically.
Wind electricity generation is coming from across the Great Plains states, spanning from Texas to the Dakotas. Electricity costs from wind generation are declining steadily. Plans are underway to construct four major new transmission corridors to deliver electricity to Eastern and Western states where it is needed. Says Clean Line Energy spokesman Mark Lawlor, "We have far more electricity than Missouri needs to meet its renewable energy standards."
Podcast here from
@SmartPlanet - Put this idea into the “killing two birds with one stone” category.
The “birds” in this case are nothing less than two great economic and environmental challenges facing the West: How to establish carbon-free, sustainable energy independence, and how to cut reliance on China for the rare earth metals vital to products ranging from missiles to mobile phones.
The “stone” is literally a stone - okay, a rock - called monazite.
As I’ve noted before on SmartPlanet, monazite is a mineral rich in rare earth elements, and also in thorium, the element that could replace uranium and usher in a future of safe, efficient nuclear power that helps cut the fossil fuel cord and that greatly reduces nuclear waste hazards including weapons proliferation.
Two problems: Most countries in the West lack policy that supports thorium nuclear. Likewise, countries like the U.S. years ago took measures that handed the rare earth business to China.
Co-operative Kennedy. Jim Kennedy speaking in Chicago recently.
Another issue: Although mining monazite in say, the U.S., could help free the country from China’s rare earth shackles, the presence of thorium in the rock discourages such initiative. That’s because - with no federal thorium nuclear approval in place - mildly radioactive thorium is a costly rare earth byproduct that someone has to safely store away.
You would think it’s high time to solve this riddle.
Jim Kennedy’s Thorium Bank to the rescue!
Kennedy, one of the organizers of the recent Thorium Energy Alliance Conference in Chicago, made a compelling case at the conference for Congress to authorize - but not fund - a “cooperative” responsible for not only taking the thorium off the hands of rare earth mining companies, but also for developing thorium uses and markets, including energy.
Harvard professor of applied physics David Keith, who is leading the project, wants to replicate the effect of volcanoes - known to spew earth cooling sulfates - by using sulfate aerosols to reflect sunlight away from earth and thus reduce the heat.
Keith says that the technique could represent an inexpensive method for slowing down global warming. Other scientists warn that “it could have unrpedictable, disastrous consequences for the Earth’s weather systems and food supplies,” the Guardian notes. And environmental groups worry it could de-emphasize attempts to reduce carbon emissions.
The project is part of a larger “geoengineering” initiative bankrolled by Gates’ Fund for Innovative Climate and Energy Research, and managed by Keith. A Guardian article in February reported that Gates had provided $4.6 million to the fund.
On July 13, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) modified the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) Section 312 Emergency and Hazardous Chemical Inventory Forms (Tier I and Tier II) to add new data elements under the facility identification and contact information sections. EPA also revised some existing data elements.
In October 2011 ACA submitted comments to EPA generally supporting revisions in the August 2011 proposed rule; however, ACA expressed concern that some of the changes and revisions in the proposal, however slight, were not warranted by the administrative record and would add additional recordkeeping burden. ACA asked EPA to abandon certain new data elements, or at least streamline the data elements to address documented problems and concerns with the current Tier I and Tier II forms.
In general, EPA heeded ACA comments on the proposed rule, and the changes aren’t very substantial. Most significantly, facilities need to keep track of a few additional things during the 2013 reporting period. The final rule is effective on January 1, 2014, and facilities must comply with the new requirements for the 2013 reporting year.
These modifications in the final rule change existing data elements and add new data elements to make the forms more useful for these emergency planning agencies and provide information to the public concerning potential chemical hazards present in their communities.
The changes and additions to the forms include the following:
Additional information, including the final rule, is available athttp://www.epa.gov/emergencies/content/epcra/.
ACA’s PaintCare program plan has been officially approved by CalRecycle, California’s Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery. The California PaintCare program will officially start Oct. 19, 2012.
In a largely symbolic vote along party lines, on July 25, 2012, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee by a 10-8 vote passed an amended version of Senator Frank Lautenberg's (D-NJ) Safe Chemicals Act of 2011 (S. 847). Despite the Committee's passage of the bill, the legislation faces a headwind of opposition from Senate Republicans and the chemical industry and is unlikely to be passed this year. Republicans criticized the scheduled markup of the Safe Chemicals Act, particularly in light of Lautenberg's earlier agreement to enter into bipartisan negotiations to create a 'fresh legislation proposal' to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), Ranking Member, entered a statement criticizing the Safe Chemicals Act as currently drafted. The amended bill is available online. An archived webcast of the Committee's hearing and Inhofe's statement are available online.
One of the pillars of the legislation is a revamped chemical evaluation process. This would be launched by an update of the TSCA Inventory of existing chemicals that supporters of the legislation believe will better refocus the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) energy on priority chemicals. Once the Inventory is updated, EPA would assess chemicals on the updated Inventory over an extended period of time by creating batches of about 6,000 chemicals for review, each over a five-year period. Within each batch, EPA would identify chemicals that are either of very high concern (which would require expedited risk management) or very low concern (which would require no further action). EPA would also identify chemicals that require additional safety information and those that require a safety standard determination. For the latter category of chemicals requiring a safety standard determination, EPA would focus its resources first on the highest priority chemicals. Risk management, such as use restrictions or labeling, would be required where necessary to ensure a chemical meets the safety standard. If a chemical cannot meet the safety standard, only critical uses of that chemical would be allowed.
Among the 21 categories of items shipped by rail, none have a tighter correlation to GDP than waste.
According to a 2010 piece on Bloomberg, economists Michael McDonough and Carl Riccadonna note that waste has an 82 percent correlation to US economic growth.
This should be pretty intuitive. The more you produce, the more you throw out.
McDonough, a Bloomberg BRIEF economist, tweeted out an update on the indicator.
And frankly, it stinks. Waste carloads are way down.
A comparison between Lake Superior's average water temperature this year so far and the longer-term average. Click on the image for a larger version. Credit: GLERL.
...OK, so the lake’s average water temperature is still a bracing 68 degrees, but it's considered downright tropical for the region. As the above chart shows, based on the 30-year average, the lake’s average water temperature should be in the mid-50s. But thanks to scant lake ice cover this past winter, along with a rare March heat wave and warmer-than-average weather since then, the lake began warming earlier than normal, and that warming has kept right on going. Wintertime ice cover on the Great Lakes was the lowest observed since such records began in 1980.
“It’s pretty safe to say that what we’re seeing here is the warmest that we’ve seen in Lake Superior in a century,” said Jay Austin, a professor at the University of Minnesota at Duluth, who has researched the lake’s water temperatures back to the beginning of the 20th century.
The lake's record temperatures are yet another consequence of the record heat so far in 2012. The contiguous U.S. had its warmest January-to-June period since records began in the late 19th century. Manmade global warming will likely result in more years with very warm water temperatures, which could have significant adverse consequences for marine life. In a rare benefit from the ongoing drought, this summer has been so dry that the warm water temperatures are not resulting in major harmful algal blooms, such as one that occurred on Lake Erie last year.
Instrument data from three buoys in Lake Superior provide a reliable record of water temperatures since about 1980, and the information also shows that, with water temperatures running in the mid-to-upper 60s (and even warmer closer to shore), “we are at record temperatures for this time of year,” according to Austin.
Austin said that water temperatures at the westernmost edge of Lake Superior are running in the mid-70s, and it was due in part to the runoff from flooding rains that struck Duluth, Minn., in late June.
When: August 22, 2012
Time: North American, Latin American, and European Time Zones
How: Register for FREE!
Come hear 3E Company’s Latin America & Mexico Regulatory Analyst, Leticia Cuevas discuss the impact of GHS adoption within the new regulatory landscape in Latin America. Leticia will cover Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and more. Attendees will learn about the latest developments, take away practical ideas for effectively managing the vast amounts of complex information related to Latin American regulations, and receive Ms. Cuevas’s firsthand comparative analysis on these topics:
América latina: Clima regulador y conformidad de GHS
Fecha: Miércoles 22 de agosto 2012
Hora:
•7:00 a. m. Zona del PacÃfico de Estados Unidos
•10:00 a. m. Zona Este de Estados Unidos
•11:00 a. m. Argentina
•9:00 a. m. Colombia/México
•11:00 a. m. Brasil/Chile
•3:00 p. m. Reino Unido
•4:00 p. m. Europa
Venga y escuche a la especialista en asuntos regulatorios de la empresa 3E Company para América Latina y México, Leticia Cuevas, en la platica sobre el impacto de la adopción del sistema SGA en el marco del nuevo entorno normativo en América Latina. Leticia se referirá a Argentina, Brasil, México, Colombia, Chile y a otros paises. Los asistentes podrán conocer los últimos avances, llevarse ideas prácticas para un manejo eficaz de la gran cantidad de informaciones complejas relacionadas con las regulaciones para América Latina y ser de los primeros en enterarse de los análisis comparativos de la Abogada Cuevas respecto a estos tópicos:
•Visión general sobre las actualizaciones en la clasificación, etiquetado y regulaciones sobre las HDS del sistema SGA
•Adopción en EUA de la nueva norma de OSHA 2012 sobre comunicación de peligros para el SGA
•Variantes de la implementación del SGA en los diferentes paÃses de América Latina
•Tendencias en América Latina respecto a las HDS y al sistema SGA
Último dÃa para registrarse: 21 de agosto 2012.
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"Offering free training programs is one of the ways our Office of Small Business Development is helping vendors gain a competitive edge and grow their businesses," said Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. in a press release. "The information and certification they receive help them demonstrate to their clients and employees that they are stable, knowledgeable and dependable."
Geared toward laborers, foremen, superintendents and project managers who work in construction, the training program was a 30-hour class held over the course of five weeks in April and May. Students got a lesson in the OSHA Act, created in 1970 by Congress to ensure safe and healthful working conditions for men and women by setting standards and providing training, outreach, education and assistance, according to the OSHA website.
Go to the Full Story at Newark Patch
Gary Varvel - The rash of stories about adults leaving their children locked in cars in 100 degree heat is so gut-wrenching. I commented on this subject years ago. Unfortunately it’s happening again. Those little “Baby on Board” signs that you sometimes see in the back window of cars should be placed in the front windshield to remind drivers there’s precious cargo in the back seat.
