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Japan Predicts 40 Years for Nuke Plant Cleanup


CBS News
Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:08 UTC
The crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi
© Getty
The crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station is seen through a bus window in Okuma on November 12, 2011.
Tokyo - Japan's government said Wednesday that it could take 40 years to clean up and fully decommission a nuclear plant that went into meltdown after it was struck by a huge tsunami.

Nuclear crisis minister Goshi Hosono suggested that the timetable was ambitious, acknowledging that decommissioning three reactors with severely melted fuel plus spent fuel rods at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant was an "unprecedented project," and that the process was not "totally foreseeable."

"But we must do it even though we may face difficulties along the way," Hosono told a news conference.

Under a detailed roadmap approved earlier Wednesday following consultation with experts and nuclear regulators, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. will start removing spent fuel rods within two to three years from their pools located on the top floor of each of their reactor buildings.
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X

New England, US: Flu is blamed for mysterious seal deaths

Kay Lazar
The Boston Globe
Tue, 20 Dec 2011 09:50 UTC
Image
© New England Aquarium
Dead harbor seals were seen on New Hampshire beaches earlier this year.
A flu virus similar to one found in birds but not previously detected in harbor seals was the cause of five of 162 recent deaths of the marine animals off the New England coast, federal and state officials said yesterday.

The influenza virus, known as H3N8, appears to have a low risk for transmission to humans, they said. But officials are urging the public to be cautious about approaching stranded seals to reduce the potential risk of spreading the infection to people or their unleashed dogs.

"Influenza that poses a risk to people are human strains of influenza. . . . but there have been documented cases in people of transmission from other species,'' said Dr. Catherine M. Brown, public health veterinarian for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

Other viruses that caused global disease outbreaks in years past, such as avian and swine flu, jumped from birds and pigs to humans, usually through the animals' caretakers, Brown said. She said there has been an increasing number of instances in the past decade of flu viruses jumping from one species to another.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Geologists Wonder if the Pacific Northwest is up Next for a Giant Earthquake

Joe Rojas-Burke
OregonLive.com
Wed, 21 Dec 2011 20:15 UTC
town of Onagawa
© Motoya Nakamura /The Oregonian
The tsunami triggered by the magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck Japan in March devastated coastal areas. This photo of the town of Onagawa as taken April 8, 2011. The Pacific Northwest sits atop a fault zone much like the one that ruptured the sea floor off Japan, killing thousands.
Since the magnitude 9.1 earthquake in Sumatra in 2004, five more giant earthquakes have struck the continents ringing the Pacific Ocean. And some experts speculate that the planet has entered a period of increased seismic activity that could trigger giant earthquakes in vulnerable regions including the Pacific Northwest.

A somewhat reassuring new study suggests otherwise.

University of California researchers examined the timing of earthquakes worldwide from 1900 and found no evidence of a domino effect in which one great earthquake triggers others on distant continents. It could be random chance.

"We don't want people to assume that our conclusion means the ongoing risk is small," says study co-author Peter Shearer, a professor of geophysics at the University of California San Diego. "There is a significant risk of big earthquakes in all subduction zones." It's just that the run of very large earthquakes most likely does nothing to change the risk in distant locations, Shearer says.
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Info

Christmas Staple Frankincense 'Doomed,' Ecologists Warn

Remy Melina
Live Science
Tue, 20 Dec 2011 17:01 UTC
Frankincense
© Santje09 | shutterstock
Researchers warn that Boswellia trees, which are tapped to make frankincense, are declining at a troubling rate.
The biblical Christmas story of the three kings may need a rewriting, or at least a tweak to one of the gifts - frankincense. Production of the fragrant resin, which is used in perfume and incense, could decline by half over the next 15 years, a new study finds.

Tapped from various species of the Boswellia tree that grow in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, frankincense has been traded internationally for thousands of years. However, researchers warn that the trees are declining at a troubling rate.

Ecologists from the Netherlands and Ethiopia monitored Boswellia trees growing in 13 plots of about 65 acres (2 hectares) each located in northwest Ethiopia, near the source of the Blue Nile river. The plots contained trees that were tapped for frankincense, as well as some that were left untapped. The researchers studied the survival, growth and seed production of more than 6,000 Boswellia trees over the course of two years.

Based on their finding, the researchers created demographic models to predict the fate of Boswellia populations. They estimate that the production of frankincense could drop to half over the next 15 years, and the number of Boswellia trees could decline by 90 percent in the next 50 years.
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Igloo

Cold Wave in North India, Toll 39


Press Trust of India
Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:59 UTC
Cold Wave in UP, India
© Times of India
The entire north India shivered on Monday as 11 more people succumbed to the cold sweeping the region pushing the death toll to 39.
New Delhi: The entire north India shivered on Monday as 11 more people succumbed to the cold sweeping the region pushing the death toll to 39. Dense fog and dipping temperatures threw normal life out of gear at several places as nine deaths occurred in Punjab and two in Uttar Pradesh since last evening.

The death count from the harsh weather has risen to 30 in Uttar Pradesh where Fatehgarh with a minimum temperature of 3.9 degrees was the coldest place in the state. The national capital woke up to a thick blanket of fog which reduced the visibility to almost zero in some areas and disrupted rail and air traffic.

Dense fog also hit rail services in the region with over 40 trains running behind schedule, a railway spokesperson said.

Cold conditions prevailed in Kashmir with the minimum temperatures dropping several degrees below freezing point as the weather department forecast light to moderate snowfall at many places. Sub-zero night temperatures have resulted in freezing of water supply lines in many areas. Mercury in the skiing resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir plummeted to a minimum of minus 6.8 degrees Celsius.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Giant Tsunami-Shape Clouds Roll Across Alabama Sky

Natalie Wolchover
Life's Little Mysteries
Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:12 UTC
Tsunami Clouds
© ABC 33/40 in Birmingham
Clouds along the horizon in Birmingham, Ala., on Friday (Dec. 16).

For a morning, the sky looked like a surfer's dream: A series of huge breaking waves lined the horizon in Birmingham, Ala., on Friday (Dec. 16), their crests surging forward in slow motion. Amazed Alabamans took photos of the clouds and sent them to their local weather station, wondering, "What are these tsunamis in the sky?"

Experts say the clouds were pristine examples of "Kelvin-Helmholtz waves." Whether seen in the sky or in the ocean, this type of turbulence always forms when a fast-moving layer of fluid slides on top of a slower, thicker layer, dragging its surface.

Water waves, for example, form when the layer of fluid above them (i.e., the air) is moving faster than the layer of fluid below (i.e., the water). When the difference between the wind and water speed increases to a certain point, the waves "break" - their crests lurch forward - and they take on the telltale Kelvin-Helmholtz shape.

According to Chris Walcek, a meteorologist at the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center at the State University of New York, Albany, fast-moving air high in the sky can drag the top of slow-moving, thick clouds underneath it in much the same way.
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Igloo

US: Blizzard Conditions Blamed for at Least Six Deaths

Steve Olafson
Reuters
Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:29 UTC
Blizzard conditions that shut down highways in five states on Monday were blamed for at least six deaths, the National Weather Service said on Tuesday.
Image
© Reuters/Steven Hausler
A truck travels along Highway 40 as snow covers the highway and the surrounding plains, west of Hays, Kansas December 20, 2011.
The storm filled roadside hotels and motels from eastern New Mexico to Kansas on Monday and triggered nearly 100 rescue calls from the Texas Panhandle. It was moving deeper into the Great Plains on Tuesday, according to the NWS.

Four people died on Monday in a car wreck in New Mexico said Mark Wiley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

And in eastern Colorado, a prisoner and a corrections officer were killed when the driver of a van transporting nine prisoners lost control on Interstate 70, authorities said.

An additional five people also died in a single-engine plane crash in Central Texas on Monday, but the crash was not near the severe weather in the Texas Panhandle.
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Heart - Black

Philippines Sends Coffins as Toll Nears 1,000 Dead


USA Today
Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© The Associated Press/Bullit Marquez
Soldiers carry coffins of flash flood victims during a mass burial Tuesday at a cemetery in Iligan.
The government shipped more than 400 coffins to two flood-stricken cities in the southern Philippines on Tuesday as the death toll neared 1,000 and President Benigno Aquino III declared a state of national calamity.

The latest count listed 957 dead and 49 missing and is expected to climb further as additional bodies are recovered from the sea and mud in Iligan and Cagayan de Oro cities.

A handful of morgues are overwhelmed and running out of coffins and formaldehyde for embalming. Aid workers appealed for bottled water, blankets, tents and clothes for many of 45,000 in crowded evacuation centers.

Navy sailors in Manila loaded a ship with 437 white wooden coffins to help local authorities handle the staggering number of dead. Also on the way were containers with thousands of water bottles.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Satellite Spies Major Winter Storm Heading for Midwest


OurAmazingPlanet
Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:18 UTC
Winter Storm
© NOAA/NASA
This image was taken by NASA's GOES East satellite on Dec. 19.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in the Midwest. A fast approaching snow storm could be a doozy in the country's midsection, according to forecasters.

A developing low-pressure system is expected to spread snow across northeast New Mexico and into Kansas from today (Dec. 19) into Tuesday with possible blizzard conditions, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Areas of the country on the northern edge of the weather system will see a strong pressure gradient, causing gusty winds, blowing snow and poor visibility. There is warm air ahead of the low-pressure system so a slight risk of severe thunderstorms is forecast to move from southeastern Texas today into the lower Mississippi Valley on Tuesday.

Many places in the storm's path are expecting 6 to 12 inches (15 to 30 centimeters) of snow. The Dodge City, Kan., National Weather Service (NWS) office has issued a major winter storm warning through early Tuesday. They are forecasting up to 14 inches (36 cm) of snow. Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas could also see strong winds and heavy snow.
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Fish

Beluga Whales Trapped By Ice in Russia


redOrbit
Sun, 18 Dec 2011 15:41 UTC
Beluga Whale
© redOrbit

More than a hundred Beluga whales are trapped in frigid water surrounded by ice floes in the Chukotka region of Russia's Far East, and risk death unless they are rescued soon, local authorities said.

The flock of gentle whales was trapped in the Sinyavinsky Strait off the Bering Sea near the village of Yanrakynnot, a statement from the Chukotka Autonomous Region said, with local governor Roman Kopin calling for the government to send an icebreaker to the region to try and free them from their soon-to-be icy graveyard.

Local fishermen reported that the whales were concentrated in two relatively small ice holes, where they can at least breathe freely for the time being. But the odds of them being able to swim back out to open water are slim due to the vast fields of ice over the strait.

The statement said the whales risk becoming starved if they cannot be rescued soon. And with the advancement of the ice floes, the space where they are concentrated is growing smaller and smaller.

"Given the lack of food and the speed at which the water is freezing, all the animals are threatened with exhaustion and death," it added.

A Russian icebreaker was just two days sail away from the area, the Chukotka government noted. It could easily make the trip in time to save the whales, it added.
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