"China eyes role as world’s power supplier" - James Kynge e Lucy Hornby

Beijing promotes global electricity network to absorb huge power surpluses

1979 - "Nuclear accident at Three Mile Island"

At 4 a.m. on March 28, 1979, the worst accident in the history of the U.S. nuclear power industry begins when a pressure valve in the Unit-2 reactor at Three Mile Island fails to close. Cooling water, contaminated with radiation, drained from the open valve into adjoining buildings, and the core began to dangerously overheat.

The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant was built in 1974 on a sandbar on Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna River, just 10 miles downstream from the state capitol in Harrisburg. In 1978, a second state-of-the-art reactor began operating on Three Mile Island, which was lauded for generating affordable and reliable energy in a time of energy crises.

After the cooling water began to drain out of the broken pressure valve on the morning of March 28, 1979, emergency cooling pumps automatically went into operation. Left alone, these safety devices would have prevented the development of a larger crisis. However, human operators in the control room misread confusing and contradictory readings and shut off the emergency water system. The reactor was also shut down, but residual heat from the fission process was still being released. By early morning, the core had heated to over 4,000 degrees, just 1,000 degrees short of meltdown. In the meltdown scenario, the core melts, and deadly radiation drifts across the countryside, fatally sickening a potentially great number of people.

As the plant operators struggled to understand what had happened, the contaminated water was releasing radioactive gases throughout the plant. The radiation levels, though not immediately life-threatening, were dangerous, and the core cooked further as the contaminated water was contained and precautions were taken to protect the operators. Shortly after 8 a.m., word of the accident leaked to the outside world. The plant’s parent company, Metropolitan Edison, downplayed the crisis and claimed that no radiation had been detected off plant grounds, but the same day inspectors detected slightly increased levels of radiation nearby as a result of the contaminated water leak. Pennsylvania Governor Dick Thornburgh considered calling an evacuation.

Finally, at about 8 p.m., plant operators realized they needed to get water moving through the core again and restarted the pumps. The temperature began to drop, and pressure in the reactor was reduced. The reactor had come within less than an hour of a complete meltdown. More than half the core was destroyed or molten, but it had not broken its protective shell, and no radiation was escaping. The crisis was apparently over.

Two days later, however, on March 30, a bubble of highly flammable hydrogen gas was discovered within the reactor building. The bubble of gas was created two days before when exposed core materials reacted with super-heated steam. On March 28, some of this gas had exploded, releasing a small amount of radiation into the atmosphere. At that time, plant operators had not registered the explosion, which sounded like a ventilation door closing. After the radiation leak was discovered on March 30, residents were advised to stay indoors. Experts were uncertain if the hydrogen bubble would create further meltdown or possibly a giant explosion, and as a precaution Governor Thornburgh advised “pregnant women and pre-school age children to leave the area within a five-mile radius of the Three Mile Island facility until further notice.” This led to the panic the governor had hoped to avoid; within days, more than 100,000 people had fled surrounding towns.

On April 1, President Jimmy Carter arrived at Three Mile Island to inspect the plant. Carter, a trained nuclear engineer, had helped dismantle a damaged Canadian nuclear reactor while serving in the U.S. Navy. His visit achieved its aim of calming local residents and the nation. That afternoon, experts agreed that the hydrogen bubble was not in danger of exploding. Slowly, the hydrogen was bled from the system as the reactor cooled.

At the height of the crisis, plant workers were exposed to unhealthy levels of radiation, but no one outside Three Mile Island had their health adversely affected by the accident. Nonetheless, the incident greatly eroded the public’s faith in nuclear power. The unharmed Unit-1 reactor at Three Mile Island, which was shut down during the crisis, did not resume operation until 1985. Cleanup continued on Unit-2 until 1990, but it was too damaged to be rendered usable again. In the more than two decades since the accident at Three Mile Island, not a single new nuclear power plant has been ordered in the United States.

Daqui

Portugal na imprensa estrangeira - "The World’s First Power Plant To Combine Hydro And Solar Opens In Portugal"

The first-of-its-kind project could be a model for states like Washington and Oregon, and countries like Brazil, that depend heavily on hydroelectricity.

Livro recomendado - "Vozes de Chernobyl"

De Svetalana Alexievich

Portugal na imprensa estrangeira - "Portugal runs for four days straight on renewable energy alone"

Zero emission milestone reached as country is powered by just wind, solar and hydro-generated electricity for 107 hours

"Nuclear Past, Radioactive Future: In Chernobyl, 30 Years Later"

Forest, nothing but forest, as far as the eye can see. Dense, thick and impenetrable forest. On either side of a stretch of asphalt scarred by potholes, ominous-looking pine trees stand tall while frost-covered birch trees make a ghostly view. Among the branches, overtaken by sprouts of weeds, bramble and underbrush, are a couple of abandoned red-brick houses, with their tiled roofs sunken, their windows wide open like empty eye sockets and their faded shutters flapping about in the wind. Here, at the start of spring, a shroud of snow covers the ground, frozen beneath a pale sun. Welcome to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

"FIVE YEARS AFTER: ‘Don’t abandon us,’ victims of Fukushima nuclear accident say"

Miyako Kumamoto longs for the days of sharing fresh home-grown produce with her friends in the clean mountain air of Fukushima Prefecture.

But now, the 73-year-old fears she will be forced to live alone on the streets of Tokyo under government policies concerning evacuees from the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

"Quão velho é velho demais para um reator nuclear?" - Richard Martin

Os esforços da indústria nuclear para manter as plantas operando depois de velhas levanta questões sobre o futuro da energia nuclear nos EUA.

Chernobyl - 26/04/1986

Assim vai a Europa! - Rémi Fraisse

Après la mort du militant, opposé à la construction du barrage de Sivens, le président du Conseil général du Tarn a de son côté annoncé à Europe 1 suspendre les travaux jusqu'à vendredi.

Le procureur d'Albi, Claude Derens, a présenté les premiers résultats de l'autopsie du corps du militant tué ce week end à Sivens, autopsie réalisée à l'institut médico-légal de Toulouse. Selon le magistrat , Rémi Fraisse qui a été retrouvé mort dans la nuit de samedi à dimanche sur le site du futur barrage présentait une plaie en haut du dos due "selon toute vraisemblance" à une explosion. Une explosion qui ne présentait pas de flamme et a été si violente qu'elle a jeté le jeune homme de 21 ans au sol. Sa mort a été instantanée.

Portugal na imprensa estrangeira - "Drifting off the coast of Portugal, the frontrunner in the global race for floating windfarms"

Above the inky Atlantic water and beneath a clear blue sky, the giant wind turbine turns gracefully in the steady sea breeze. But the secret of this solitary turbine, sited 5km off the Portuguese coast, lies beneath the gentle swell: it has no foundations and it is floating freely on the ocean, steadied by a triangular yellow platform and decorated by lines of crab-hunting seagulls.

Assim vai a Europa! - Ucrânia/Rússia - agora é a guerra do gás

Depuis le 16 juin à 10 heures, Gazprom a réduit ses livraisons de gaz à l'Ukraine, faute d'avoir trouvé un accord avec la compagnie ukrainienne Naftohaz sur le règlement de la dette de cette dernière... et du prix du gaz russe.

"Energy bills: Who pays the most in Europe?"

Since 2010, both gas and electricity prices have risen markedly, largely due to rises in wholesale prices on the back of the tentative global economic recovery and expectations of higher demand.

Electricity prices fell in the first half of the year, but this was simply a case of energy suppliers cutting prices after large increases in January.

The dip in gas prices has lasted longer, but even they are on the up again.
But Europe cannot be treated as a single entity, for there are massive differences between individual countries in what households pay for their power.

Artigo na íntegra aqui.

Assim vai a Europa! - "Cada um com a sua energia"

A Alemanha aposta nas energias verdes, a Polónia investe na extração de gás de xisto e o Reino Unido na construção de novas centrais nucleares: em matéria de energia, a corrente passa mal entre os europeus.

Assim vai a Europa! - "Unidos, la luz es más barata". Um bom exemplo para os portugueses que começam a ter o mesmo problema

Cartoon de Martirena

Los consumidores se asocian para comprar energía de forma colectiva y rebajar la factura

Assim vai a Europa! - "Énergie : le SOS des industriels à l'Europe"

L'énergie figure en bonne place au menu officiel du sommet européen de mercredi. Raison de plus pour y faire entendre sa voix: c'est la stratégie suivie par tous les grands énergéticiens du Vieux Continent (E.ON, GDF Suez, Enel…) qui, une fois n'est pas coutume, vont avancer groupés pour faire part de leurs revendications à la Commission.

Um novo paradigma energético?

O gás de xisto está a revolucionar o mundo da energia. Relações económicas, relações políticas e políticas internacionais podem vir a ser totalmente diferentes daqui a poucos anos. Um novo paradigma energético?

No México, o governo promove a fraturação hidráulica de forma imprudente e despreza as consequências ecológicas, entre as quais o aumento dos riscos sísmicos:

Pemex inició en febrero pasado la extracción de gas shale en Coahuila, 2.9 millones de pies cúbicos diarios, nada en comparación con los 680 billones de pies cúbicos diarios potenciales. Según la Secretaría de Energía, las reservas mexicanas de este combustible son once veces mayores que las de gas natural y su explotación podría atraer hasta 10 mil millones de dólares anuales. Los yacimientos se localizan en Chihuahua, Coahuila y Tamaulipas a lo largo de la frontera con Texas y en diversos sitios de Veracruz. Hay diez pozos de evaluación en los planes de Pemex.

Quando já não precisarem do petróleo dos estados do Golfo, os Estados Unidos talvez deixem de fazer de polícias da região. O que não será, necessariamente, uma boa notícia para a China:

A bridge is being built between the Far East and the Middle East that could change the world of oil.

Nos Estados Unidos, o boom do gás de xisto está a ser acompanhado por um renascimento industrial. Por todo o país, fábricas, petroquímicas e siderurgias relançam as suas atividades, tirando partido de uma fonte de energia abundante e barata:

The shale gas revolution is firing up an old-fashioned American industrial revival, breathing life into businesses such as petrochemicals and glass, steel and toys.

Na Rússia, alerta vermelho para a Gazprom; ao fazer cair os preços do gás natural no mercado europeu, a revolução do gás de xisto desarticula por completo a estratégia a longo prazo do gigante russo do gás:

Sur le marché international du gaz, cela fait cinq ans qu’il est question de “révolution du schiste”. Depuis l’an 2000, les Etats-Unis ont accru de façon spectaculaire leurs extractions de gaz non conventionnel. Même si cela ne représente pas encore un énorme volume à l’échelle mondiale, le phénomène est susceptible de transformer le secteur et d’avoir une influence non négligeable sur la Russie. Pourtant, Gazprom, le premier producteur de gaz de la planète et la plus importante société de notre pays, n’avait jusqu’à présent que mépris pour le gaz de schiste, et, pire, avait convaincu le pouvoir.

"The Energy Poverty Challenge"

2012 - Ano Internacional da Energia Sustentável - Energia para todos

Ano Internacional da Energia Sustentável - Energia para todos

"Na Islândia já se faz combustível a partir de CO2"