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AP uranium mine may be world’s largest: DAE
Estimates of reserves revised to 49,000 tonnes
The Tummalappalle uranium mine in the Cuddapah district of Andhra Pradesh has the potential to become the largest uranium mine in the world, according to the Department of Atomic Energy.
The earlier estimated reserves at the mine were 14,000 tonnes, but it has since been revised to 49,000 tonnes, said Dr Srikumar Banerjee, Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, on Monday, during an interaction with the media at a function to mark the start of construction of two nuclear-power reactors at Rawatbhata in Rajasthan.
Excavation
Dr Banerjee said the survey work was ongoing and that the reserve estimates may even Read more…
Why China Wants South China Sea
By Tetsuo Kotani
Beijing is interested in more than just energy and fishery resources. The area is also integral to its nuclear submarine strategy.
In an effort to underscore its importance to Asia, geostrategist Nicholas Spykman once described it as the ‘Asiatic Mediterranean.’ More recently, it has been dubbed the ‘Chinese Caribbean.’ And, just as Rome and the United States have sought control over the Mediterranean and Caribbean, China now seeks dominance over the South China Sea.
It’s clear that China’s claims and recent assertiveness have increased tensions in this key body of water. Yet while most attention has focused on Beijing’s appetite for fishery and energy resources, from a submariner’s perspective, the semi-closed sea is integral to China’s nuclear strategy. And without understanding the nuclear dimension of the South China Sea disputes, China’s maritime expansion makes little sense.
Possessing a credible sea-based nuclear deterrent is a priority for China’s military strategy. China’s single Type 092, or Xia-class, nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, equipped with short-range JL-1 submarine-launched ballistic Read more…
$5,000 Gold Later This Decade?
Gold bullion may reach $5,000 per ounce later this decade, bolstered by rising demand from India and China and slowing production growth, according to Standard Chartered Plc.
Yan Chen, head of metals and mining for the firm, stated that “We are looking for the gold price to reach about $2,000 by 2014,” in a Bloomberg television interview. ”There’s a chance that the gold price can be as high as $5,000 by 2020,” as income growth in China and India fuel demand for the yellow metal.
Chen’s comments came in the wake of yet another new all-time record high for gold prices, which this morning reached $1,603.80 per ounce. Gold has been supported of late by the ongoing sovereign debt crisis in Europe, the uncertainty over the debt ceiling in the United States, and the prospects of a third round of quantitative easing (QE3) by the Federal Reserve.
The Standard Chartered strategist went on to say that “The gold market will be in deficit in the next couple of years. The central banks are now back buying gold massively, turning from net seller of gold into net buyer.”
World Population to Hit Seven Billion by October
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 7, 2011 (IPS) – The United Nations commemorates World Population Day next week against the backdrop of an upcoming landmark event: global population hitting the seven billion mark by late October this year.
According to current projections, and with some of the world’s poorest nations doubling their populations in the next decade, the second milestone will be in 2025: an eight billion population over the next 14 years.
Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), told IPS seven billion represents a challenge, an opportunity and a call to action.
On World Population Day Jul. 11, he will be Read more…
New Force Driving Earth’s Tectonic Plates: ‘Hot Spots’ Of Plume From Deep Earth Could Propel Plate Motions Around Globe Discover Scripps Researchers
Bringing fresh insight into long-standing debates about how powerful geological forces shape the planet, from earthquake ruptures to mountain formations, scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have identified a new mechanism driving Earth’s massive tectonic plates.
Reconstruction of the Indo-Atlantic Ocean 63 million years ago, during the time of the superfast motion of India which Scripps scientists attribute to the force of the Reunion plume head. The arrows show the relative convergence rate of Africa (black arrows) and India (dark blue) relative to Eurasia before, during and after (from left to right) the period of maximum plume head force. The jagged red and brown lines northeast of India show two possible positions of the trench (the subduction zone) between India and Eurasia depending on whether the India-Eurasia collision occurred 52 million years ago or 43 million years ago.
Credit: Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Scientists who study tectonic motions have known for decades that the ongoing “pull” and “push” movements of the plates are responsible for sculpting continental features around the planet. Volcanoes, for example, are generally located at areas where plates are moving apart or coming together. Scripps scientists Steve Cande and Dave Stegman have now discovered a new force that drives plate tectonics: Plumes of hot magma pushing up from Earth’s deep interior. Their research is published in the July 7 issue of the journal Nature.
Using analytical methods to track plate motions through Earth’s history, Cande and Stegman’s research provides Read more…
Drone strikes are police work, not an act of war?
Launching an air strike in another nation would normally be considered an act of aggression. But advocates of America’s rapidly expanding unmanned drone programme don’t see it that way.
They are arguing, as Tom Ricks writes on his blog The Best Defense over at Foreign Policy, that the campaign to kill militants with missile strikes from these unmanned aircraft, is more like police action in a tough neighborhood than a military conflict.
These raids conducted by sinister-looking Predator or Reaper aircraft in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen – and since last month in Somalia – should not be seen as a challenge to states and their authority. Instead they are meant to supplement the power of governments that are Read more…
Gold treasure at India temple could be the largest in the world
NEW DELHI (Commodity Online) : The value of treasure consisting of thousands of kilos of gold, diamonds, gems and Silver ornaments, found concealed in different cellars at Sree Padmanabha swamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram, capital of South Indian state of Kerala, is estimated to cross over a mind-blowing Rs 1,00,000 crore ($10 billion).
As per expert accounts, this could be the largest treasure of Gold found anywhere in India and possibly in the world. Two more cellars are to be opened on Monday which could add more value to the already whopping amount.
Analysts said the estimated amount is nearly three times the annual budget size of Kerala. Experts are yet to find out the antique value of the rare Read more…
Britain in list of countries ‘most at risk’ if an asteroid strikes
Britain has been identified among a host of countries scientists believe would be worst affected in the event of an asteroid strike.
Experts at Southampton University have drawn up a league table of countries most likely to suffer severe loss of life or catastrophic damage should a large asteroid hit Earth.
The list is largely made up of developed nations including China, Japan, the United States and Italy, on the basis that the size of their populations would mean millions of deaths.
The US, China, Indonesia, India and Japan are most in danger on this basis. Canada, the US, China, Japan and Sweden are rated most at risk in terms of potential damage to their infrastructure.
The report comes after a rock the size of a house came within 7,500 miles of Earth earlier this Read more…
Global diabetes cases double to 347 million in less than 30 years, study shows
The number of adults with diabetes in 2008 doubled to 347 million globally since 1980, a study in the journal Lancet says. That is about 10 percent of the world’s adults, and the prevalence of the disease is rising rapidly.
Researchers from Imperial College London and Harvard University in the U.S. looked at data from 2.7 million people worldwide, using statistical techniques to project a global number, according to BBC News. The study found that found that the diabetes rate had either risen or stayed the same in virtually every country.
Although most of the increase was due to population growth and a larger number of elderly people, increased obesity and inactivity, already strong trends in the U.S. and other wealthy western countries, are contributing to the increase in the disease in developing nations including India and countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and the Middle East, according to the Washington Post.
The study, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Health Organization, is a more comprehensive calculation of diabetes prevalence than some previous estimates, according to Read more…
Land splitting creates panic in Uttar Pradesh State of India
Indian scientist in the United States has cautioned that mysterious long widespread cracks observed in several places in the Indo-Gangetic plains could be due to motion of a massive granitic body underneath. Ramesh Singh, who had extensively studied the seismology in that region, said in a statement as concern mounted over cracks being formed in several districts of Uttar Pradesh.
“It is my sincere appeal to the government of India to monitor seismic activities in the area before any major disaster takes place.” Ramesh Singh said.”If the orientations of such long cracks are in the east-west direction, then the cracks could be due to stress on the surface of the earth due to motion of this massive craton (granitic body) which is exposed near Jhansi.”
Singh, who was a senior professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT-K), is now Read more…
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