Hungarian Towns Being Cleanup of Nightmarish Red Sludge

          Many people are being displaced from their homes and the environment is on the brink of disaster. The toxic sludge has caused for the evacuation of several surrounding towns near the source of the leak. The source came from a break in a toxic waste reserve. Many factories around Europe dump their toxic and possibly radio-active waste into man made lakes. Yet even after being inspected a month prior to the incident, a pipe managed to burst, releasing decades worth of sludge through out several Hungarian towns. The main issue with this disaster is the toxic red sludge that has already injured hundreds and killed off every living species in the surrounding water systems. The henna tinted sludge is flowing down tributaries of the Danube itself. Many scientists fear that if the sludge reaches this vital river; the end results could be devastating. It would cause an ecological disaster, killing almost all of the wildlife in the river.

          One important thing I learned in this article is that the clean up effort is far more difficult than stopping the leak itself. Some speculate that it might take years before the villages are restored. One major concern for many is who will assume responsibility for the damages and pay for the clean up. Many of these companies in order to consolidate funds, dump their byproducts into these potentially unsafe lakes. They most likely do not have the funds to conduct a clean up effort of this magnitude. “These old factories were supposed to maintain the sludge ponds and keep them safe, but it is a huge problem in Eastern Europe because these companies didn’t set aside enough money for that” claims Csaba Vaszko, the C.E.O of the conservation group WWF-Hungary. These companies merely do not have the means to pay for this. It the companies cannot fund this; it will be left up to the government to provide relief to those affected by the disaster. Whether this was a complete accident or an act of responsibility is another looming question. It is not fair that the potential irresponsibility of these companies rely on the government to clean up their mess.

          When first reading about this issue the first thought that came to mind was its resemblance to the recent BP oil spill. Unlike the BP oil spill, which is still spewing from the ground today, the sludge disaster was quickly stopped. Both will require serious clean up. Which disaster is worse can be left up to debate. Although both tragically altered the wild life, the sludge in Hungary burned hundreds of victims and left four dead. It also displaced thousands from their homes. It is safe to say the results in Hungary were less economically burdening. The oil spill in the gulf coast cost BP millions of dollars. Not only in lost revenue, but now they have to find millions to stop the leak and clean the surrounding areas. Serious environmental issues stemmed from both incidents. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/world/europe/07hungary.html

posted for N. Malik

New Doubts About Turning Plutonium Into a Fuel

          On government regulated land next to the Savannah River in South Carolina, workers are building what is said to be one of the biggest nuclear power plants in years. The plant is hoping to create a minimum of 43 tons of plutonium based weapons by mixing fuel with every day power reactors. The project started as a result of hearing about Russia’s plan to reduce nuclear weapons after the cold war. This site would make the highly dangerous amount of American weapons to an end. In the past 11 years since the project was granted by the government it has sky rocketed up to 5 billion dollars. One of the stricken Japanese reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant uses the mox fuel. And while there has been no evidence of dangerous radiation from plutonium in Japan, the situation there is volatile, and nuclear experts worry that a widespread release of radioactive material could increase cancer deaths. Now people who were potential buyers are not nearly as interested. People are very worried that the plutonium can easily be put into the hands of terrorists. As a result of everything that has happened in Japan people are just too afraid to become involved in the South Carolina plant. Obama administration officials say that mox is safe, and they remain confident that the project will attract customers once it is further along and can guarantee a steady fuel supply. Anne Harrington who oversees nuclear nonproliferation programs for the Energy Department, noted that six countries besides Japan had licensed the routine use of mox fuel.

          I liked this article because it gave a thorough explanation and detailed response to how the tragic event that happened in Japan is effecting our society. While our president and many others belive that the power plant will still be a success it has been undoubtedly slowed down in its building process and funding because of the events in Japan.

          I thought this was a good article and had a lot of strong aspects to it such as good details and length. The only thing that I would think to make better is possible give a little bit more background information. In the beginning of the article it is a little confusing to keep track of what is going on but as you get into it is unfolds itself.


Becker , Jo. "New Doubts About Turning Plutonium Into a Fuel." NY Times.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2011.

From Ancient Giants, Finding New Life to Help the Planet

          This article was about how Michael Taylor is trying to clone the California redwood trees. The point of this article was to show how we might be able to clone many trees and decrease the amount of CO₂ in our environment. What they want to do is find the biggest and best genetic trees and make clone millions of these trees. The reason he is doing this is so that he can “halt and reverse climate change”. He wants to find a variety of interesting species of trees and clone tons of them and reforest the land. One of the problems is that many of these trees reproduce when they are young and he is trying to clone many of the older trees. Another problem will be if these trees will be able to adapt to the environment and disease as easily as real trees that are reproduced naturally do.

            This relates to our life in many ways. One of these ways being that we are all trying to reduce the amount of pollution each of us produces. If Michael Taylor where able to be able to reproduce trees that would reduce the amount of pollution that we produce this could reverse what is happening with global warming. This would be an amazing feat to accomplish.

            I think that overall this was a very well written and informative article. They could have explained why it is much harder for them to extract genetics from the older trees though. That was a little confusing. They also could have explained how they accomplish this achievement a little bit better.

McKinely, Jesse. From Ancient Giants, Finding New Life to Help the Planet. New York, New York: New York Times, 2011. N. pag. Web. 10 Apr. 2011. 

In NASA’s Lens, Mercury Comes Into Focus

By Alli Corbat

This article discusses the planned intimate study of Mercury conducted by NASA. The Mercury Messenger spacecraft has been sent to orbit the planet for a year taking close-up photographs to help learn more about this planet. Mercury is said to be the “last frontier of planetary exploration.” According to some astronomers it has been quite a mystery causing many scientists’ attention for thousands of years. Most but not all of the other planets within our galaxy have received similar study through similar orbiters. Astronomers have had brief glimpses of this planet due to other satellites and the like but this is the first time it will be studied up close and for a long duration of time. Mercury is the smallest of the 8 planets (as Pluto is no longer considered one). It has vast temperature ranges and deep craters along with suspected ice. Over 75, 000 photos are going to be taken over the next year. In addition the spacecraft will be able to detect the minerals present on the planet and possibly help explain its magnetic field. Mercury also has tectonic plates unlike any other planet besides Earth, which can potentially help us understand the movement of ours. Many mysteries remain over this planet and hopefully NASA’s expedition can help answer these.

This article is significant because the more we learn about other planets the more it can help us understand our own. For example, the relationship between the tectonic plates on Mercury and Earth could help us predict when and where ours will shift, perhaps preventing or better predicting natural disasters. Its important to learn about the galaxy around us and it potential benefits.

Overall the article was interesting and fairly simple. It highlighted the important of NASA and space inquiry, while using engrossing visual aids. It was a straight forward article that still held my attention.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/science/space/31mercury.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Cleanup Questions as Radiation Spreads

Fountain, Henry. "Cleanup Questions as Radiation Spreads." The New York Times. 31 Mar. 2011. Web. 3 Apr. 2011. .

As Japan struggles with the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, the government is now faced by another issue brought on by the disaster: whether and how to clean up areas that have been heavily contaminated by radioactivity. A soil sample has been taken from a village near the plant, called Iitate. The sample showed very high amounts of cesium 137, which is an isotope that produces gamma rays, which are harmful and accumulates in the food chain, while persisting in the environment for hundreds of years. The levels of cesium in the village were nearly double the minimums found in the uninhabitable area around the Chernobyl plant in Russia many years ago. This raises questions about whether the Japanese government should push the evacuation zone back from 18 miles to somewhere around 25-30, but the government has showed no signs that they are going to move the zone. With cesium, decontamination “has to be done very quickly,” said Didier Champion, director of the environmental and response division of the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety. “Cesium tends to fix to materials and into soil.” The technology is there for the decontamination to be done, it’s just a question of whether the government feels its too early because once they decide its time to move in with the decontamination, it is able to be done. Dan Coyne, a vice president with CH2M-WG Idaho, which is cleaning up an Energy Department site in that state, said that given the uncertainty at Fukushima, one approach might be to spray a chemical on the soil that would prevent the cesium from migrating further. “Go and put a fixative on it, control the area, and save the remediation of that for a time when it fits your priorities,” he said. If buildings and roads need to be decontaminated, that could be accomplished by other relatively simple methods like wiping, power washing or steam cleaning, unless the cesium is deep. And because waste removal and storage are among the most expensive elements in any cleanup, Ms. Yassif said, the general goal is “to remove as much of the radioactive waste as you can in as small a volume as possible.”

This article is scientifically relevant because the radiation that is occurring in Japan because of these power plants could eventually cause severe problems for their country, such as death, birth defects, and serious illnesses. Also, their food could potentially be contaminated for years to come because their soil seems to be contaminated and their waters and slowly contaminating, which means the eating of fish and crops could have to be stopped for many years until the decontamination is complete and the water and soil is safe to produce foods without causing harm to the people. This could also seriously damage Japan’s economy because of the amount of trading they had has been diminished due to this terrible disaster.

I thought the article was very well written, giving me a good sense of what the actual situation is in Japan today. The author understands the severity of this situation and doesn’t take it lightly in his writing, by thoroughly describing the harm this terrible disaster could have on not only the Japanese people but on the rest of the world. This tsunami and its aftermath have caused Japan to be in a state of fear for the radiation and other terrible things caused by it.