Green Energy News. - Page 5

"House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, wrote to Obama to urge him to approve a controversial oil pipeline and fulfill a promise of an "all of the above" approach to ease dependence on foreign oil.

Republicans have intensified their attacks on the Democratic president's energy policies in recent days, blaming them for higher pump prices that could hurt his re-election prospects in the November 6 face-off against the eventual Republican presidential nominee.

However, the White House said it was wrong to suggest TranCanada Corp's proposed Keystone XL crude oil pipeline could quickly help bring down prices at the pump.

"He, being honest with the American people, makes clear that there are no silver bullets here, there are no quick fixes," White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters."
~ http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...81R1N920120228


And so what did we have for the last ten years.... http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/...1.00.37-PM.png

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS INFORMATION THAT MAY CAUSE NUCLEAR POWER ADVOCATES TO CHANGE THEIR THOUGHTS-

"The damage to the core of at least one of the meltdown-stricken reactors at Fukushima could be far worse than previously thought, raising fresh concerns over the plants stability and gravely complicating the post-disaster cleanup, a recent internal investigation has shown.

The low water levels also raise concerns that radioactive water may be leaking out of the reactor at a higher rate than previously thought, possibly into a part of the reactor known as the suppression chamber, and into a network of pipes and chambers under the plant or into the ocean. At the No. 2 reactor, workers still pump about 9 tons of water an hour into the core to keep it cool.

The investigation also found current radiation levels of 72.0 Sieverts inside the containment vessel, enough to kill a person in a matter of minutes, as well as for electronic equipment to malfunction.

Kazuhiko Kudo, a professor of nuclear engineering at Kyushu University in southwestern Japan, said it was now suspect whether the nuclear fuel was being adequately cooled. And if some parts of the fuel remained above water, there was a risk the fuel could again heat up and melt. That could trigger a dangerous spike in the pressure inside the containment vessel, and lead to more radiation escaping the reactor, he said.

The high levels of radiation would greatly complicate work to locate and remove the damaged fuel and decommission the plants six reactors a process that is expected to take decades.

With levels of radiation extremely high, we would need to develop equipment that can tolerate high radiation, Junichi Matsumoto, an executive at Tokyo Electric Power, said Tuesday.

Two other badly-damaged reactors Nos. 1 and 3 could be in even worse condition. Hydrogen explosions blew out the outer walls of those reactors, and officials believe that more nuclear fuel has breached the containment vessel at the No. 1 reactor than the others.

Experts also worry about a fourth reactor that was not operating at the time of the accident, but nevertheless poses a risk because of the large number of spent nuclear fuel rods stored in a water coolant tank there. The No. 4 reactor was also hit by a hydrogen explosion in the early days of the crisis, possibly due to hydrogen that leaked into the reactor from the adjacent No. 3 unit.

The spent fuel rods stored at the No. 4 reactor pose a particular threat, experts say, because they lie unprotected outside the units containment vessel. Tokyo Electric has been racing to fortify the crumpled outer shell of the reactor, and to keep the tank fed with water. But should a problem also arise with cooling the spent fuel, the plant could run the risk of another colossal radiation leak, experts say.

The many aftershocks that continue to hit the Fukushima region are also a source of worry.

The plant is still in a precarious state, said Mr. Kudo of Kyushu University. Unfortunately, all we can do is to keep pumping water inside the reactors, he said, and hope we dont have another big earthquake."
~ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/wo...s.html?_r=1&hp

Nice short video on US oil production- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn6w7...eature=related

Oh my, what a perfect ANALogy.