Bitcoin created its third all-time high in the past week, surging past $89,900 (roughly Rs. 75.9 lakh) in the last 24 hours, amid an ongoing surge spurred by Donald Trump's victory in the recently concluded US Presidential elections.  Here's why investors are optimistic about US President-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House in January 2025.

Order sends Delaware’s climate damage & deception lawsuit back to State court WASHINGTON — Today, the Supreme Court of the United States DENIED the petition for a writ of certiorari submitted by fossil fuel companies appealing their failure to move Delaware’s climate damage and deception lawsuit out of state court and into federal court.  The question […]

JPMorgan has pledged to push clients towards aligning with the Paris Agreement

The Nigerian Guild of Editors has called on the Federal Government to urgently mitigate the negative impact of fuel subsidy removal and the exchange rate volatility on the economy. Arising from a three-day All Nigeria Editors Conference in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, the body noted the economic constraints and rising operational costs. It, therefore,

… Seek targeted relief measures to save media, nation’s economy The Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), arising from the three-day All Nigeria Editors Conference (ANEC) in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State Capital, has called on the federal government to urgently mitigate the negative impact of fuel subsidy removal and the exchange rate volatility on the economy. […]

The post Ease impact of fuel subsidy removal, exchange rate volatility, editors urge FG first appeared on Business Hallmark.

Fossil fuel demand will reduce by nearly 25 percent in the next two decades, the Secretary General of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo has said. Speaking at the SPE Kuwait Oil & Gas Show and Conference in Kuwait City, yesterday, Barkindo however said fossil fuels will remain a dominant in […]

Fossil fuel demand to by 25% by 2040 – OPEC

The promised global shift from fossil fuels remains unmet as fossil fuel continues to expand in Southeast Asia with the backing of international financiers, environmental groups said.

Aliyev criticises Western nations' stance on fossil fuels at COP29 opening speech

Holding this year’s presidency of the Group of 20 (G20) large industrial and emerging economies is allowing Brazil to push forward the dream of creating a global biofuels market without the current trade barriers. Brazil is trying, at least since the beginning of this century, to free up global trade in ethanol, but so far […]

While India continues to rely heavily on coal, the south Asian economic giant is also aggressively pushing renewable energy production, especially after the costs of renewable energy production have fallen drastically in recent years around the world. But experts say that India—the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHGs)—has to face many headwinds for […]

Toyota has teamed up with JAXA since 2019 to develop the manned lunar rover — which it dubbed the Lunar Cruiser — that they hope can be put on the moon in 2029.

Geologists think there may be vast natural stores of hidden hydrogen gas within Earth, but no one is sure how much there is or how much could be recovered for energy

An annual accounting of CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels and land use change finds no sign emissions will peak this year

Title: Nicotine Can Fuel Breast Cancer, Study Suggests
Category: Health News
Created: 8/24/2010 12:10:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 8/25/2010 12:00:00 AM

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Thirteen years since a massive earthquake and tsunami struck the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in northern Japan, causing a loss of power, meltdowns and a major release of radioactive material, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) finally seems to be close to extracting the first bit of melted fuel from the complex—thanks to a special telescopic robotic device.

Despite Japan’s prowess in industrial robotics, TEPCO had no robots to deploy in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. Since then, however, robots have been used to measure radiation levels, clear building debris, and survey the exterior and interior of the plant overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

It will take decades to decommission Fukushima Dai-ichi, and one of the most dangerous, complex tasks is the removal and storage of about 880 tons of highly radioactive molten fuel in three reactor buildings that were operating when the tsunami hit. TEPCO believes mixtures of uranium, zirconium and other metals accumulated around the bottom of the primary containment vessels (PCVs) of the reactors—but the exact composition of the material is unknown. The material is “fuel debris,” which TEPCO defines as overheated fuel that has melted with fuel rods and in-vessel structures, then cooled and re-solidified. The extraction was supposed to begin in 2021 but ran into development delays and obstacles in the extraction route; the coronavirus pandemic also slowed work.

While TEPCO wants a molten fuel sample to analyze for exact composition, getting just a teaspoon of the stuff has proven so tricky that the job is years behind schedule. That may change soon as crews have deployed the telescoping device to target the 237 tons of fuel debris in Unit 2, which suffered less damage than the other reactor buildings and no hydrogen explosion, making it an easier and safer test bed.

“We plan to retrieve a small amount of fuel debris from Unit 2, analyze it to evaluate its properties and the process of its formation, and then move on to large-scale retrieval,” says Tatsuya Matoba, a spokesperson for TEPCO. “We believe that extracting as much information as possible from the retrieved fuel debris will likely contribute greatly to future decommissioning work.”

How TEPCO Plans to Retrieve a Fuel Sample

Getting to the fuel is easier said than done. Shaped like an inverted light bulb, the damaged PCV is a 33-meter-tall steel structure that houses the reactor pressure vessel where nuclear fission took place. A 2-meter-long isolation valve designed to block the release of radioactive material sits at the bottom of the PCV, and that’s where the robot will go in. The fuel debris itself is partly underwater.

The robot arm is being preceded by a smaller telescopic device. The telescopic device, which is trying to retrieve 3 grams of the fuel debris without further contamination to the outside environment, is similar to the larger robot arm, which is better suited for the retrieval of larger bits of debris.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning and UK-based Veolia Nuclear Solutions developed the robot arm to enter small openings in the PCV, where it can survey the interior and grab the fuel. Mostly made of stainless steel and aluminum, the arm measures 22 meters long, weighs 4.6 tons and can move along 18 degrees of freedom. It’s a boom-style arm, not unlike the robotic arms on the International Space Station, that rests in a sealed enclosure box when not extended.

The arm consists of four main elements: a carriage that pushes the assembly through the openings, arm links that can fold up like a ream of dot matrix printer paper, an arm that has three telescopic stages, and a “wand” (an extendable pipe-shaped component) with cameras and a gripper on its tip. Both the arm and the wand can tilt downward toward the target area.

After the assembly is pushed through the PCV’s isolation valve, it angles downward over a 7.2-meter-long rail heading toward the base of the reactor. It continues through existing openings in the pedestal, a concrete structure supporting the reactor, and the platform, which is a flat surface under the reactor.

Then, the tip is lowered on a cable like the grabber in a claw machine toward the debris field at the bottom of the pedestal. The gripper tool at the end of the component has two delicate pincers (only 5 square millimeters), that can pinch a small pebble of debris. The debris is transferred to a container and, if all goes well, is brought back up through the openings and placed in a glovebox: A sealed, negative-pressure container in the reactor building where initial testing can be performed. It will then be moved to a Japan Atomic Energy Agency facility in nearby Ibaraki Prefecture for detailed analysis.

While the gripper on the telescopic device currently being used was able to reach the debris field and grasp a piece of rubble—it’s unknown if it was actually melted fuel—last month, two of the four cameras on the device stopped working a few days later, and the device was eventually reeled back into the enclosure box. Crews confirmed there were no problems with signal wiring from the control panel in the reactor building, and proceeded to perform oscilloscope testing. TEPCO speculates that radiation passing through camera semiconductor elements caused electrical charge to build up, and that the charge will drain if the cameras are left on in a relatively low-dose environment. It was the latest setback in a very long project.

“Retrieving fuel debris from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station is an extremely difficult task, and a very important part of decommissioning,” says Matoba. “With the goal of completing the decommissioning in 30 to 40 years, we believe it is important to proceed strategically and systematically with each step of the work at hand.”

This story was updated on 15 October, 2024 to clarify that TEPCO is using two separate tools (a smaller telescopic device and a larger robot arm) in the process of retrieving fuel debris samples.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, whose country is hosting the COP29 climate summit this week, lashed out at Western media and climate activists on Tuesday for criticizing his country’s oil and gas industries.

The post U.N. Climate Summit Host Azerbaijan: Fossil Fuels a ‘Gift from God,’ Environmentalists Engaging in ‘Blackmail’ appeared first on Breitbart.

Hurricane Milton flooded parts of the Tampa Bay region just days after Hurricane Helene made landfall nearby.

Apr 15, 2024

Stephen Walt argues that the tragic irony is that the individuals and organizations in the United States that have been the most ardent in shielding Israel from criticism and pushing one administration after another to back Israel, no matter what it does, have in fact done enormous damage to the country that they were trying to help.

Jun 12, 2024

Deploying renewable energy sources is the most promising approach to decarbonizing the power sector in China. However, the intermittency and non-dispatchable nature of wind and solar power pose significant challenges to grid stability, particularly when these sources reach high penetration rates. This study applies a unit commitment model to investigate the economic and environmental performance of load shaving strategies across different scenarios.

Visit FuelUpToPlay60.com to access new Spanish-language materials and get your school involved.

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An annual accounting of CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels and land use change finds no sign emissions will peak this year

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Delhi's air pollution has been linked to a rise in digestive disorders, with the city's air quality index (AQI) often surpassing 400. Long-term exposure to air pollution can lead to inflammatory disorders in the digestive systems, according to Dr. Harshal R Salve of AIIMS, New Delhi.

The U.S. average retail price for on-highway diesel fuel decreased to $3.88 a gallon on Monday. That's down 3.8 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for on-highway diesel fuel decreased to $3.83 a gallon on Monday. That's down 4.8 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for on-highway diesel fuel increased to $3.86 a gallon on Monday. That's up 3.5 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for on-highway diesel fuel decreased to $3.84 a gallon on Monday. That's down 2.5 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for on-highway diesel fuel increased to $3.87 a gallon on Monday. That's up 2.9 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for on-highway diesel fuel increased to $3.90 a gallon on Monday. That's up 3.2 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for on-highway diesel fuel increased to $4.11 a gallon on Monday. That's up 21.0 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for on-highway diesel fuel remained unchanged at $4.11 a gallon on Monday, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for on-highway diesel fuel decreased to $4.06 a gallon on Monday. That's down 5.1 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for on-highway diesel fuel decreased to $4.02 a gallon on Monday. That's down 3.6 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.