Here is the latest on Fukushima, and it is tragically sad. Remember that radiation contamination sourced at the site continues to pollute Japan, Japanese waters, and the world ocean. Note the last paragraphs. In American nuclear accidents the government has been similarly duplicitous. That's because nuclear accidents are so horrible governments everywhere don't want the information to get out. That alone is an argument against nuclear power. !
Fukushima’s Children are Dying
HARVEY WASSERMAN – Eco Watch
Some 39 months after the multiple explosions at Fukushima, thyroid cancer rates among nearby children have skyrocketed to more than forty times (40x) normal.
More than 48 percent of some 375,000 young people-nearly 200,000 kids-tested by the Fukushima Medical University near the smoldering reactors now suffer from pre-cancerous thyroid abnormalities, primarily nodules and cysts. The rate is accelerating.
More than 120 childhood cancers have been indicated where just three would be expected, says Joseph Mangano, executive director of the Radiation and Public Health Project.
Here is some very good news. It is wonderful to watch the speed with which solar technology is advancing, now that it is getting decent funding. This is exciting news about the trend of transitioning out of the carbon energy age. I find stories like these also very poignant because if we had started seriously focusing on non-carbon energy in the 70s, when President Jimmy Carter put solar panels on the White House, imagine where we would be today. How much pain we would have saved ourselves. But profit was and remains for a critical mass more important than wellness. Click through to see the very useful diagrams and the video or the facility in operation.
World First: Australian Solar Plant has Generated ‘Supercritical” Steam That Rivals Fossil Fuels’
Science Alert
A solar thermal test plant in Newcastle, Australia, has generated ‘supercritical” steam at a pressure of 23.5 mpa (3400 psi) and 570°C (1,058°F).
CSIRO is claiming it as a world record, and it’s a HUGE step for solar thermal energy.
“It's like breaking the sound barrier; this step change proves solar has the potential to compete with the peak performance capabilities of fossil fuel sources,” Dr Alex Wonhas, CSIRO’s Energy Director, told Colin Jeffrey for Gizmag.
