DOOMSDAY CLOCK - Nuke Plants - Climate Change - etc. . . .

DOOMSDAY CLOCK - Nuke Plants - Climate Change - etc. . . .

Postby Oscar » Sun Mar 29, 2015 4:25 pm

Doomsday Clock Moves Closer to Midnight As California’s Last Active Nuke Plant Puts Millions at Risk

[ http://ecowatch.com/2015/03/24/doomsday ... f-85909581 ]

Greg Schwartz | March 24, 2015 12:26 pm | Comments

Humanity’s clock is ticking but few in power seem to recognize how late it’s getting. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has been keeping time though with their “Doomsday Clock,” established in 1947 to convey threats to humanity and the planet in the new atomic age launched by the Manhattan Project two years before. [ http://thebulletin.org/overview ] Widely recognized as an indicator of the world’s vulnerability to catastrophe from nuclear weapons, global climate change and other emerging technologies, the Doomsday Clock was moved forward two minutes in January to 11:57 p.m. It’s the closest the clock has been to midnight since the height of the Cold War in 1984.Widely recognized as an indicator of the world’s vulnerability to catastrophe from nuclear weapons, global climate change [ http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/ ] and other emerging technologies, the Doomsday Clock was moved forward two minutes in January to 11:57 p.m. It’s the closest the clock has been to midnight since the height of the Cold War in 1984.

“The clock ticks now at just three minutes to midnight because international leaders are failing to perform their most important duty—ensuring and preserving the health and vitality of human civilization,” the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board stated in their announcement. “The probability of global catastrophe is very high, and the actions needed to reduce the risks of disaster must be taken very soon.” [ http://thebulletin.org/three-minutes-and-counting7938 ]

Global climate change and the nuclear weapons industry were listed as the primary threats, but the Bulletin’s analysis also cited “the leadership failure on nuclear power.” [ http://ecowatch.com/news/energy-news/nu ... gy-energy/ ] The Bulletin noted that “the international community has not developed coordinated plans to meet the challenges that nuclear power faces in terms of cost, safety, radioactive waste management, and proliferation risk.” The triple meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant in 2011 brought the issue to global attention after an unpredictable earthquake stronger than the plant was built to withstand overwhelmed the reactors in conjunction with a massive tsunami. This unprecedented disaster even led the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to establish a Fukushima Lessons Learned Division. [ http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/o ... board.html ] But the situation at California’s last remaining active nuclear plant [ http://ecowatch.com/2015/02/24/court-ru ... es-demise/ ] has generated widespread concern about whether the NRC has learned anything at all from Fukushima. [ http://ecowatch.com/?s=fukushima ]
Oscar
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