Marie Curie’s radioactive waste
Marie Curie was an outstanding researcher and an adventuress of the atom. The President of the Republic chose to pay tribute again to the one who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for having discovered radium.
A century after this discovery, dozens of areas are polluted by radium residues throughout France. The location of these sites, radiological control, and extraction of contaminated materials consume a lot of money and time and face a major liability: lack of storage sites for radioactive waste from the first generation.
“Shipbreaking” # 27
“Shipbreaking” # 27, Robin des Bois’ periodical bulletin on ship demolition is available.
This edition contains inventories on the rush towards Asia of ships to be broken up, the prices of metal by country, portraits of the ex-Exxon Valdez and of the Pacific Princess gone for demolition in India and Turkey and the presentation of a ship-breaking facility project in Senegal.
74 pages of information and photos to discover the world of sea and shipping. (pdf – 3,9 Mo)
 Pacific Princess, the Love Boat is not enternaining anymore © ABC |
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Radium Water fountains: The hunt is open in the Lyon-Villeurbanne region
Radium water fountains or radium vaporizers were used in the first half of the twentieth century to enrich the water with radon, descendant of radium. In this time period, they didn’t mistrust radioactive gas but rather boasted of its virtues.
Today these ornamental objects find themselves in attics, flea markets, and bric-a-brac sales.
Stop the Gigantics !
Costa Concordia – Press release n°3
Giglio
The Gigantic was the name with which White Star Line christened its 3rd liner. The Gigantic was even bigger than the Titanic.
After the Titanic sank, the company changed its communications strategy, launching the Gigantic under the name Britannic in 1914.
Stop the Gigantics !
Costa Concordia – Press release n°3
Giglio
The Gigantic was the name with which White Star Line christened its 3rd liner. The Gigantic was even bigger than the Titanic.
After the Titanic sank, the company changed its communications strategy, launching the Gigantic under the name Britannic in 1914.
Nightmare in the North Sea
At 12:15 on March 25th an incident occurred at the Elgin-Franklin offshore platform complex situated approximately 240km east of Aberdeen. It is estimated that a total 200,000 cubic meters of gas per day, is spreading into the atmosphere and directly impacting 4.8 km2 of the marine environment. According to Total they are currently unable to assess the exact quantity of gas which is leaking into the environment, they have stated that the size of the sheen is reducing.
The cloud of hot gas which reaches temperatures of 190°C around the Elgin platform is explosive in and around the zone. It is within this explosive zone that the emergency team will have to intervene to inject the well with mud to try to cut off the gas. No responsible employer would ever take such a high risk with their workers lives. Even if the depth of water from the well head is only 93 meters it could take up to 6 months to drill relief wells in extremely dangerous situation of explosive gas. Maybe an option could be to sit back and do nothing as has been done before, since 1990 methane gas has continued to leak into the North Sea from a drilling exploration expedition that went wrong at bloc 22/4b. The industry and the British authorities concluded that sealing the well could result in uncontrolled release from new leakage paths in the fragile geologic formation.
