Huge 7.4 Magnitude Quake Just Hit Near Fukushima Days After Disaster Anniversary

Authorities lifted a tsunami advisory and electricity was restored after a powerful 7.4-magnitude quake jolted northeastern Japan on Wednesday night in waters near the site of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.   At least one person died in the coastal city of Soma and dozens more were injured in the quake, local news agency Kyodo reported, … Read more

Fix the Planet newsletter: Carbon capture power stations are back

Will gas power stations equipped with carbon capture and storage be the future of power plants in the UK? Environment 11 March 2022 By Adam Vaughan Keadby 2 gas-fired power station David Soulsby / Alamy This is Fix the Planet, the weekly climate change newsletter that reminds you there are reasons for hope in science … Read more

Solar power: Static electricity can keep desert solar panels free of dust

Dust drastically lowers the output of solar panels, but applying an electric field to the panels can make dust particles repel each other and disperse Technology 11 March 2022 By Chen Ly Illustration of dust removal from a solar panel using static electricity Sreedath Panat and Kripa Varanasi Static electricity could remove dust from desert … Read more

What the EPA’s New Plans for Regulating Power Plants Mean for Carbon

HOUSTON—EPA unveiled its plans yesterday for regulating the power sector, with greenhouse gas rules in a supporting role to limits on conventional pollution. Describing his agency’s regulatory blueprint at the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference here, EPA Administrator Michael Regan argued that regulations that would be rolled out in the coming year for mercury, ozone, … Read more

Elon Musk’s SpaceX sends more Starlink terminals, power supplies to Ukraine

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has sent a second shipment of Starlink terminals to Ukraine,  generating grateful thank-yous from senior Ukrainian government officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. SpaceX delivered its first batch of Starlink terminals to Ukraine after Russia’s invasion of that country on Feb. 24 caused widespread communications outages across the country. That lack of connectivity … Read more

Here’s What You Need to Know About Power Cuts at Two Ukrainian Nuclear Plants

The catastrophic disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986 was caused by an explosion at the Reactor 4 Unit. This expelled a sizeable quantity of radioactive material into the surroundings, alongside a partial meltdown of the reactor core. The last few decades have seen substantial international efforts to safely contain and decontaminate the … Read more

Immense power of monster 7-story waves in Portugal spotted in satellite image

NASA has released a stunning image of Portugal’s coastline showing the immense power of massive, seven-story-high waves as they crashed toward the shore. The image, taken in 2020, was captured on the same day that an 18-year-old surfer reportedly rode a record-breaking 101.4-foot-high (30.9 meters) wave in the area. The photo, which was captured by … Read more

Russia-Ukraine war: Chernobyl power cut sparks fears of potential for radiation leaks

Vital cooling systems for controlling nuclear waste at the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant are offline, leading to concerns that radioactive waste might escape Physics 9 March 2022 By Matthew Sparkes A drone image of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Pripyat, Ukraine, taken on 7 March 2022 Russia MOD/EYEPRESS/Shutterstock Fears of a potential radiation … Read more

Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Reported to Have Lost Electricity. Here’s What That Means

Chernobyl’s nuclear power plant and all the facilities in the Chernobyl exclusion zone have been completely disconnected and are now without electricity, Ukraine’s state energy company has announced.    Russian forces attacked the defunct nuclear facility on the very first day of the invasion (Feb. 24), seizing it after heavy fighting and taking its roughly 210 staff hostage, Live Science … Read more

Radical Plan to Make Earth’s Deepest Hole Could Unleash Limitless Energy

Since its launch in 2020, a pioneering energy company called Quaise has attracted some serious attention for its audacious goal of diving further into Earth’s crust than anybody has dug before.   Following the closure of first round venture capital funding, the MIT spin-off has now raised a total of US$63 million: a respectable start … Read more