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Clear majority backs restarting Maanshan reactor but doesn’t reach legal threshold, as president says nuclear power may be reconsidered if it becomes safe A referendum to push for the reopening of Taiwan’s last nuclear plant has failed to reach the legal threshold to be valid, though the president said the island could return to the technology in the future if safety standards improved. The plebiscite on Saturday, backed by the opposition, asked whether the Maanshan power plant should be reopened if it was “confirmed” there were no safety issues. The plant was closed in May as the government shifts to renewables and liquefied natural gas. Continue reading...

Rhode Island and Connecticut officials say project, slated to power 350,000 homes, is essential to their climate goals The Democratic governors of Rhode Island and Connecticut promised on Saturday to fight a Trump administration order halting work on a nearly complete wind farm off their coasts that was expected to be operational next year. The Revolution Wind project was about 80% complete, with 45 of its 65 turbines already installed, according to the Danish wind farm developer Ørsted, when the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management sent the firm a letter on Friday ordering it to “halt all ongoing activities”. Continue reading...

The close call in Tracy Arm 50 miles south of Juneau on 10 August is the latest sign that as glaciers melt, risks may rise The landslide that triggered a powerful tsunami in Alaska’s Inside Passage early on 10 August was a close call, say scientists, tour operators and agency officials, with the risk of such events apparently increasing as glaciers retreat because of climate change. “It’s a historic event,” said scientist Dennis Staley from the US Geological Survey of the slide, which occurred in the Tracy Arm fjord 50 miles (80km) south of Juneau. Continue reading...

Toxic ‘forever chemicals’ were found at a level 10 times higher than people who did not work in contaminated zone New research shows alarming levels of Pfas in the blood of people living or working near a US air force base responsible for polluting drinking water with high levels of the dangerous “forever chemicals”, a new state regulatory report has found. The levels are high enough in those who lived and worked near the Cannon air force base in Curry county to raise health concerns – about 10 times above the levels of those in the region who did not work in the contaminated zone. The pollution stems from a type of Pfas-laden firefighting foam the military has used across the nation, and the types of compounds found at high levels in participants’ blood were also commonly used in foam. Continue reading...