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Japan stops leaks from nuclear plant
TOKYO (Reuters) – Engineers have stopped highly radioactive water leaking into the sea from a crippled Japanese nuclear power plant, the facility’s operator said on Wednesday, a breakthrough in the battle to contain the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.
However, Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) still needs to pump contaminated water into the sea because of a lack of storage space at the facility.
“The leaks were slowed yesterday after we injected a mixture of liquid glass and a hardening agent and it has now stopped,” a TEPCO spokesman told Reuters.
Desperate engineers had been struggling to stop the leaks and had used sawdust, newspapers and concrete as well as liquid glass to try to stem the flow of the highly-contaminated water.
Japan is facing its worst crisis since World War Two after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit its northeast coast, leaving Read more…
UPDATE 2-Oil could hit $200-$300 on Saudi unrest-Yamani
LONDON, April 5 (Reuters) – Oil prices could rocket to $200- $300 a barrel if the world’s top crude exporter Saudi Arabia is hit by serious political unrest, former Saudi oil minister Sheikh Zaki Yamani told Reuters on Tuesday.
Yamani said he saw no immediate sign of further trouble following protests last month calling for political reforms but said that underlying discontent remained unresolved.
“If something happens in Saudi Arabia it will go to $200 to $300. I don’t expect this for the time being, but who would have expected Tunisia?” Yamani told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference of the Centre for Global Energy Studies (CGES) which he chairs.
“The political events that took place are there and we don’t expect them to finish. I think there are some surprises on the horizon,” he said in a speech.
Saudi King Abdullah offered $93 billion in handouts in March in an effort to stave off unrest rocking the Arab world.
So far, demonstrations in the Kingdom have been small in scale and police were able to easily disperse a Shi’ite protest in the oil-producing eastern province last month.
But Yamani said that the reluctance of people to participate in popular protests was merely concealing underlying discontent.
“Some people relax about the situation in Saudi Arabia because the Saudi Islamic brand prohibits people to go to the street and to talk,” he said in a speech.
SAUDI TIME BOMB
Oil traded at two-and-a-half-year highs above $121 a barrel LCOc1 on Tuesday. Libya’s rebellion has shut its oil exports, stoking fears of disruptions in other major producers.
U.S. wants to use India in missile shield against Russia, China
The United States has been trying to rope in India for its plans to build a global missile defence system threatening Russia and China, the Komsomoloskaya Pravda, a popular Russian daily published from Moscow reported on Thursday.
In a story based on the WikiLeaks releases, the report said the U.S. has not only been planning to deploy a missile shield against Russia in Europe, but had also been negotiating with countries along Russia’s borders, such as Japan and India, to jointly build missile defences that would also target Russia.
“The noose [around Russia] is tightening,” the newspaper said. “Thanks to WikiLeaks, it has become known that Washington has been simultaneously conducting talks with countries in other parts of the world for building U.S. missile defences on their territories. Those are different countries, but they form a chain around Russia.”
A 2007 confidential cable from the U.S. embassy in New Delhi carried by the daily refuted media reports that India had abruptly turned its back on a 2005 agreement with the U.S. to cooperate on missile defences. The cable said the Indian media had misinterpreted remarks by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee after the Russia-India-China trilateral meeting in Harbin, China, on October 24, 2007. Mr. Mukherjee had dismissed as “groundless” the idea that India was going to join a U.S.-led missile defence system.
Misconstrued
“MEA contacts confirm this did not mean India was not interested in continuing to cooperate with the U.S. on missile defence technology and that there has been no change from the current level of bilateral missile defence cooperation,” the U.S. embassy cable said.
The “MEA contacts” explained that Mr. Mukherjee’s comments were “misconstrued” by the Indian press. When Mr. Mukherjee said that “India does not take part in such military arrangements,” the officials said, he had had in mind the U.S. plan to install a missile-detection system in Europe, which his Russian and Chinese counterparts referred to in the same press interaction. Read more…
Is this the first ever portrait of Jesus? The incredible story of 70 ancient books hidden in a cave for nearly 2,000 years
The image is eerily familiar: a bearded young man with flowing curly hair. After lying for nearly 2,000 years hidden in a cave in the Holy Land, the fine detail is difficult to determine. But in a certain light it is not difficult to interpret the marks around the figure’s brow as a crown of thorns.
The extraordinary picture of one of the recently discovered hoard of up to 70 lead codices – booklets – found in a cave in the hills overlooking the Sea of Galilee is one reason Bible historians are clamouring to get their hands on the ancient artefacts.
If genuine, this could be the first-ever portrait of Jesus Christ, possibly even created in the lifetime of those who knew him.
U.S. Will Build Five New Nuclear Reactors by 2020, New Energy Finance Says
The U.S. will build five new nuclear reactors by 2020 and ignore calls to scale back plans in the wake of Japan’s nuclear accident, said Chris Gadomski, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
“We’ll see a reassessment and reevaluation and then stay the course,” Gadomski said today at a conference in New York today. Plans to build the five reactors are already underway, he said, and “We don’t see that changing.”
No new nuclear plants have been built in the U.S. since the 1979 near-meltdown at Three Mile Island. Interest in atomic energy has gained as a way to curb greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming, and the Obama administration has offered loan guarantees to developers of reactors, which account for a fifth of total U.S. electricity.
“We are looking first and foremost at keeping our current fleet operating safely,” said Andrea Sterdis, senior manager of nuclear expansion at Tennessee Valley Authority, a federal power supplier that operates four reactors in the U.S. South. She spoke at the conference hosted by New Energy Finance.
The biggest threat to new nuclear power plants may be the low cost of natural gas, which can be used to fuel power stations that are quicker and cheaper to build than atomic- fueled facilities, said said Edward Kee, vice president of NERA Economic Consulting.
“Everything in the U.S. is challenged by cheap natural gas,” Kee said at the conference.
NASA admits all previous warming trends caused by sun
I wonder what Al Gore’s rebuttal is going to sound like…
Under mounting pressure from scientists that reject the politically popularized man-made global warming and climate models—the Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) theory—the American space agency NASA has admitted that all past warming trends were driven by solar activity.
A victory for the man-made ‘global warming deniers’
As more scientists have joined the outcry over the politicization of Earth’s climate cycles—the current number exceeds 20,000—promoters of the AGW model have denounced the “global warming deniers” countering that little evidence supports the view that the sun is driving the observed warming trend.
Now, however, new study released from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland measuring the global temperature variance during the past 100 years has found the sun’s heat and variable cycles have indeed made a significant, measurable impact and greatly influenced Earth’s climate.
In fact, the influence extends as far back as the Read more…
Can You Anticipate Gold To Hit $1,500 & Silver $50 Quite Soon, Probably As Early As Summertime?
Yes, I believe that you can anticipate gold to hit $1,500 and silver to hit $50 extremely quickly, perhaps as early as this summertime. Now would be an excellent time for you for making investments in gold and silver. Buy precious metals now.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Governments have in turn cherished it, hated it and now are beginning to adore it again. It’s what it is purported to signify that leads to all the fuss. Just take a look at the factors put forward by some regarding why it’s rising in price and Read more…
ELEnin Things to come in 2011-12
April 4th, two earthquakes with a strength of greater than 6 took place.
Data from USGS site
6.7 2011/04/03 20:06:42 -9.786 107.749 24.0 SOUTH OF JAVA, INDONESIA
6.4 2011/04/03 14:07:09 -17.649 -178.578 551.9 FIJI REGION
China Sees New Emerging Markets Bloc Consensus
An upcoming meeting of the leaders of the world’s leading emerging economies should boost consensus and cooperation among them, although members of the group have yet to decide on whether to establish a permanent secretariat, a Chinese diplomat said Saturday.
The April 14 meeting in the southern Chinese resort of Sanya will include the heads of Brazil, Russia, India, China and — for the first time — South Africa. The five make up the grouping known as the BRIC countries, whose members account for 40 percent of the world’s population and 15 percent of global trade.
Discussions in Sanya will cover trade and finance, as well as major political issues, with areas of agreement to be laid out in a final statement, Assistant Chinese Foreign Minister Wu Hailong told reporters at a briefing.
“We hope through the concerted efforts of all parties that this meeting will be an important Read more…
Floods spread GM seed
Bob Mackley, who farms at Duchembegarra, north of Natimuk, said his paddocks have been over-run by genetically modified canola following summer flooding in the Wimmera.
A WIMMERA farmer whose paddocks have been infested by genetically modified (GM) canola washed down by the December floods says the spread of large chunks of GM seed highlights the inadequacy of Australia’s co-existence policy between GM and non-GM canola.
Bob Mackley, who farms at Duchembegarra, north of Natimuk, said measures such as adventitious presence (AP) levels of trace levels of GM material were designed for contamination by cross-pollination, not for the widespread transportation of viable seed pods.
“The canola was transported in the first floods, then when we got the rain in January, it germinated quite a substantial amount.
“I’d say it could easily be more than the prescribed levels of 0.9pc GM material.”
However, Monsanto corporate affairs lead Keryn McLean said Mr Mackley needed only to approach the GM canola volunteers as any other weed.
“For any farmer intending to plant a crop this season, it is best practice to control weeds in paddocks prior to sowing any seed, canola or otherwise,” she said.
“If Roundup Ready canola was transferred into the paddock, a number of other plants would Read more…
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