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_NEW: follow the development of the new web-presence wolframscharnhorst.blogspot.com reprint The global rebirth of nuclear power was meant to be well under way by now, writes Jim Green. But in fact, nuclear's share of world power generation is on a steady long term decline, and new reactors are getting ever harder to build, and finance. The only real growth area is decommissioning , but that too has a problem: where's the money to pay for it? The UK's planned Hinkley C nuclear plant is looking increasingly like a dead duck - or possibly parrot.  As the Financial Times reports today, Parliament's Public Accounts Committee has abandoned plans to examine the 'value of money' Hinkley C offers taxpayers - because no deal has been reached and none is expected before the general election in May. In other words, all that bullish talk about Hinkley C launching Britain's ' nuclear renaissance ' has melted away like a spring...

_NEW: follow the development of the new web-presence wolframscharnhorst.blogspot.com print download: http://bit.ly/185cRt9 Sustainable urban water supply represents a key issue today as well as in the near future. Often networks are out of date, leakage or plugging is a common issue and investments need to be considered very careful. In addition, the behaviour, i.e. the demand of the consumers varies strongly. The present issue of the Quarterly Notes on Sustainable Water Management (Q04/2014) – Managing the Urban Water Supply - tries to provide an overview of innovative articles addressing the above issues in-depth. As always, a summary of news about the development of the web-portal is given. In the fifth year of its operation the platform is subject to a thorough re-design. This implies that the former _kt75 | mirror ( http://kt75-mirror.blogspot.com/ ) is now integrated into the large information portal http://wolframscharnhorst.blogspot.com . Via th...

_NEW: follow the development of the new web-presence wolframscharnhorst.blogspot.com reprint Vulnerability assessment to delineate areas that are more susceptible to contamination from anthropogenic sources has become an important element for sensible resource management and land use planning. This contribution aims at estimating aquifer vulnerability by applying the DRASTIC model as well as utilizing sensitivity analyses to evaluate the relative importance of the model parameters for aquifer vulnerability in Kakamigahara Heights, Gifu Prefecture central Japan. An additional objective is to demonstrate the combined use of the DRASTIC and geographical information system (GIS) as an effective method for groundwater pollution risk assessment. The DRASTIC model uses seven environmental parameters (Depth to water, net Recharge, Aquifer media, Soil media, Topography, Impact of vadose zone, and hydraulic Conductivity) to characterize the hydrogeological setting and evaluate aq...

-- a _kt75 | note _NEW: follow the development of wolframscharnhorst.blogspot.com and explore all _kt75 | publications via the news db... and leave your comments here Have you also been informed that your LinkedIN account has been inactivated, at least temporarily? Did you also receive an e-mail that told you that "some members accused you to either spam, perform phishing or connecting with people you don't know"? Did the same e-mail ask you to confirm in written that you will adhere to the rules of LinkedIN? If so, you are in good company with many other concerned people. The common procedure is as follows: the account is inactivated without any prior warning the only contact path is directly via some sort of help center of LinkedIN if happened for the second time or more, the individual request for re-activation of the account is processed rather slowly the accusations are as always: spam, phishing or connecting with to many peop...

-- a _kt75 | reprint _NEW: explore all _kt75 | publications via the news db... and leave your comments here Denmark, a tiny country on the northern fringe of Europe, is pursuing the world’s most ambitious policy against climate change. It aims to end the burning of fossil fuels in any form by 2050 — not just in electricity production, as some other countries hope to do, but in transportation as well. Now a question is coming into focus: Can Denmark keep the lights on as it chases that lofty goal? Let anyone consider such a sweeping transition to be impossible in principle, the Danes beg to differ. They essentially invented the modern wind-power industry, and have pursued it more avidly than any country. They are above 40 percent renewable power on their electric grid , aiming toward 50 percent by 2020. The political consensus here to keep pushing is all but unanimous. Their policy is similar to that of neighboring Germany, which has spent tens of billions pursuing ...

-- a _kt75 | reprint _NEW: explore all _kt75 | publications via the news db... and leave your comments here Approximately 40 to 60 percent of the region’s waste water is discharged into the sea when it could be stored and reused for other purposes, according to ARCADIS’ 2014 Middle East Aquifer Recharge report.“The region should use treated sewage effluent (TSE) as the precious resource it is and stop thinking of it as waste or a useless by-product,” said Titia De Mes, Water for Industry Leader, Middle East at ARCADIS. “TSE can and should be recycled, but this requires a change in thinking from being a choice and a cost to a necessity and investment – the optimal choice for the Middle East is aquifer recharge and recovery.” The report reveals that merely 60 percent of TSE could be stored in the aquifer and used at a later time through various approaches, highlighting three different methods to aquifer recharge – aquifer storage and recovery; aquifer sto...

-- a _kt75 | reprint _NEW: explore all _kt75 | publications via the news db... and leave your comments here The ECOWAS Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Status Report, produced collaboratively by REN21 and ECREEE with lead authorship from the Worldwatch Institute, provides a regional perspective on the renewable energy and energy efficiency market and industry development in West Africa. Launched on November 10, 2014, the report concludes that renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies have rapidly become cost effective solutions for overcoming the diverse energy challenges facing the ECOWAS region (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo). "It is clear that the ECOWAS Member States acknowledge the enormous potential that renewables and energy efficiency bring to accelerating energy access and meetin...