(Press-News.org) The People's Republic of China should improve its system for ensuring the safety of its rapidly expanding nuclear power program, experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences say. Despite having 40% of the world's proposed nuclear power plants, the country lacks an independent regulatory agency and sufficient staff to keep pace with nuclear power development, they describe in a viewpoint article in ACS's journal Environmental Science & Technology.
Qiang Wang and colleagues note that the Chinese government announced that it would suspend approvals for nuclear power plant development across the country in the wake of devastating failures at Japan's Fukushima nuclear facility. "This decision, uncharacteristic of the Chinese government usually racing ahead with ambitious infrastructure projects, was right and timely," they state. "However, the open question remains how the Chinese government is going to improve nuclear energy safety. China has almost become the nuclear industry's living laboratory for new reactor designs and the learning that comes from actual construction."
But they also note that China's nuclear administrative systems are fragmented among multiple agencies and lack a fully independent safety and regulatory agency. China also lags behind the United States, France, and Japan when it comes to staff and budget to oversee the nation's operational reactors, they said.
###
The authors acknowledge funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Foundation of Director of XJB, Chinese Academy of Sciences
China needs improved administrative system for nuclear power safety
2011-06-23
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
New delivery system for Viagra ingredient
2011-06-23
Scientists are reporting development and successful initial tests of a potential new delivery system for the biological signaling agent responsible for the effects of Viagra. It could be used to deliver the substance, called nitric oxide or NO, to treatment conditions ranging from heart disease to skin ulcers and other wounds that fail to heal, according to a report in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
João Rocha and colleagues explain that NO acts as an important agent in the body for expanding blood vessels (its role in Viagra and related medicines for erectile ...
With State-of-the-Art Mobile Unlock Servers, The Unlock Club Unlocks Over 800 Networks in Over 220 Countries
2011-06-23
The Unlock Club is an industry leader and has the most advanced mobile unlock servers on the planet. They also provide earning opportunities for mobile phone unlocking resellers.
One area of the economy that isn't suffering is the sale of mobile phones, and The Unlock Club has a terrific opportunity for anyone who is involved with phone sales. Becoming a mobile phone unlocking reseller is easy with The Unlock Club.
For mobile phone unlocking resellers who manage large numbers of daily code requests, The Unlock Club simplifies the process. You can enter all of the ...
Cancer survivors have lower employment rates and work fewer hours
2011-06-23
Cancer survivors are less likely to be employed, and they work fewer hours, than similarly aged adults without a history of cancer, even two to six years after diagnosis, according to a study by Penn State researchers.
"The finding is significant when you consider that there are nearly 12 million cancer survivors living in the United States," said John Moran, assistant professor of health policy and administration, who led the study.
Moran and his colleagues focused on a previously understudied group, cancer survivors in their prime working years -- between 28 and ...
Discards ban 'will boost fisheries', says new research
2011-06-23
Banning fisheries discards in the North Sea will promote fish stock recovery and increase fishermen's incomes, according to new research by scientists at the University of York.
In the North Sea up to 75 per cent of fish are currently dumped after being caught, with the result that many fisheries are now badly overfished. In comparison, discards were banned in Norwegian waters in the late 1980s and their fisheries are now some of the most prosperous in the world.
The research, published in the journal Reviews in Fisheries Science, involved a comparison of long-term data ...
Renaissance of 200-year old technology could ease 21st century sustainability challenges
2011-06-23
The obscure technology used in heated automobile seats, gadgets that charge iPhones from the heat of a campfire, and other devices is undergoing a renaissance and could well emerge as a new "green" substitute for traditional sources of energy and play other key roles in addressing some of society's most pressing sustainability issues. That's the conclusion of an article on the technology — termed thermoelectrics — in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) the American Chemical Society's weekly newsmagazine.
In the article, C&EN Senior Editor Mitch Jacoby ...
Strongest evidence yet indicates icy Saturn moon hiding saltwater ocean
2011-06-23
Samples of icy spray shooting from Saturn's moon Enceladus collected during Cassini spacecraft flybys show the strongest evidence yet for the existence of a large-scale, subterranean saltwater ocean, says a new international study led by the University of Heidelberg and involving the University of Colorado Boulder.
The new discovery was made during the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn, a collaboration of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. Launched in 1997, the mission spacecraft arrived at the Saturn system in 2004 and has been touring the ...
Ben-Gurion University team presents environment movement report to Israel's Knesset
2011-06-23
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL, June 22, 2011 – Ben-Gurion University of the Negev's (BGU) Prof. Alon Tal presented the most comprehensive report to date on Israel's environmental movement. It details the movement's lack of training, involvement of experts and public support, as well as its perilous dependence on foreign donations.
The report, "Israel's Environmental Movement: Trends, Needs and Potential," was presented to Knesset Speaker MK Reuven Rivlin on Tuesday as part of Environment Day at the Knesset. Prof. Alon Tal, of the Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research ...
Baylor study finds church congregations blind to mental illness
2011-06-23
Mental illness of a family member destroys the family's connection with the religious community, a new study by Baylor University psychologists has found, leading many affected families to leave the church and their faith behind.
The study shows that while families with a member who has mental illness have less involvement in faith practices, they would like their congregation to provide assistance with those issues. However, the rest of the church community seemed to overlook their need entirely. In fact, the study found that while help from the church with depression ...
Genetic finding offers hope for orphan disease
2011-06-23
New research conducted at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, offers hope for people with a rare disorder called Chuvash polycythemia.
Polycythemia is a disease characterized by excessive production of red blood cells. Symptoms include an enlarged spleen, blood clots, an increased risk of stroke, and in some cases the disease is a precursor to acute leukemia. While 95 percent of polycythemia cases are associated with a mutation in the JAK2 gene, a small number of patients have a mutation in the von Hippel-Lindau gene that produces a protein called pVHL.
"It ...
Evolution to the rescue
2011-06-23
Evolution is usually thought to be a very slow process, something that happens over many generations, thanks to adaptive mutations. But environmental change due to things like climate change, habitat destruction, pollution, etc. is happening very fast. There are just two options for species of all kinds: either adapt to environmental change or become extinct.
So, according to McGill biology professor, Andrew Gonzalez, the question arises, "Can evolution happen quickly enough to help a species survive?" The answer, according to his most recent study, published in Science, ...