World #Nuclear Electricity Generation Down 5 Percent Since 2006

World nuclear electricity-generating capacity has been essentially flat since 2007 and is likely to fall as plants retire faster than new ones are built. In fact, the actual electricity generated at nuclear power plants fell 5 percent between 2006 and 2011.

In 2011, following Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, 13 nuclear reactors in Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom were permanently taken offline. Seven new reactors, three of them in China, were connected to the grid. The net result was a two percent reduction in world nuclear capacity to 369,000 megawatts by the end of 2011. In 2012, the world has added a net 3,000 megawatts of nuclear capacity, with new additions in South Korea and Canada partly offset by more U.K. shutdowns.

© Earth Policy Institute

The United States, with 104 nuclear reactors generating some 19 percent of the country’s electricity, leads the world in nuclear generating capacity. France is a distant second in installed capacity, but its 58 reactors meet more than three quarters of the country’s electricity demand. (President François Hollande has pledged to reduce this dependence to 50 percent by 2025.)

© Earth Policy Institute

China, Russia, South Korea, and India account for 48 of the 64 nuclear reactors the International Atomic Energy Agency lists as under construction worldwide. Although these 64 reactors add up to some 62,000 megawatts of potential new capacity, fewer than one in four has a projected date for connecting to the electrical grid. Some reactors have been listed as “under construction” for over two decades.

© Earth Policy Institute

Plagued by cost overruns, construction delays, and a dearth of private investment interest, the world’s nuclear reactor fleet is aging quickly as new reactor connections struggle to keep up with retirements. The average age of nuclear reactors operating today is 27 years; the 142 reactors that have already retired were just 23 years old on average when they closed. Many nuclear reactors have been granted operating extensions, usually for 20 years, beyond their typical design lifetime of 40 years. But since Fukushima, where the four retired reactors averaged 37 years in operation, this option has become less attractive.

© Earth Policy Institute

In contrast to the decline in nuclear power, electricity generation from the wind and the sun has grown 27 percent and 62 percent, respectively, per year since 2006. Four German states now get close to half of their electricity from wind. By 2015, China plans to increase its current estimated 60,000 megawatts of grid-connected wind power capacity to 100,000 megawatts. More solar photovoltaic capacity was added in the European Union in 2011 than any other source of electricity generation. The list of exciting developments in renewable energy goes on. As this story unfolds, it is becoming increasingly clear that we can design an energy economy that is at once low-carbon and low-risk.

By J. Matthew Roney

 

French parliament eyes plan for govt to pay for all abortions

AFP Photo / Alain Jocard

French lawmakers have passed legislation that will fully finance abortions for women and provide free contraception to minors. The bill is part of President Francois Hollande’s new social security budget and will come into effect in 2013.

On Friday, the French lower house of parliament passed a bill stipulating, “women who want to stop an unwanted pregnancy have the right to be covered.” The legislation will now go through to the Senate, where it is likely to be passed in November.

French Health Minister Marisol Tourine championed the legislation, and hailed its passage as a “historic move,” adding that the “act of abortion is never a trifling matter” for women.

Under the new bill, the French state will also provide minors with free contraception in the hopes of “lifting the financial barrier impeding girls younger than 18 from access to contraception.”

Under current French law, minors are the only group that receives full reimbursement from the National Health Service for abortions, while adult women are refunded up to 80 percent of abortion costs, often amounting to over 450 euros ($580). The new measures are estimated to cost the French taxpayer an extra 31.7 million euros ($50 million).

Feminist groups hailed the step as a significant advance for women’s rights in France.

“This is a very important move, especially for women who are in the most precarious position without health coverage,” family planning secretary Marie-Pierre Martinet said. She pointed to a general indifference to abortion by French doctors and hospitals as worrying, saying that there was a shortfall of medical centers offering abortion.

One prominent critique of the new bill was the government’s failure to address access to abortion services in France. President Hollande has pledged to eliminate the issue by obliging “every medical institution to open an abortion clinic.”

Jacqueline Fraysse, a member of the French Communist Party, decried the frequent delays for abortion services in French hospitals. He cited waiting lists of up to five weeks for the procedure, well beyond the recommended five days.

Moreover, some politicians have argued that tackling the lack of education among minors concerning safe sex would reduce abortion rates.

“The 100 percent reimbursement of abortion is a quick-fix solution, what needs to be improved is the accessibility to medical facilities and professionals because girls of 15 to 18 years don’t need contraception, what they need is information,” a general delegate of The National Network of Student Relations explained to French newspaper Le Figaro.

­

‘An explosion of abortions among minors’

In the run-up to the French presidential election in May of this year, then-candidate Hollande pledged to introduce the abortion amendments to the social security budget. Presidential rival Marine Le Pen of the right-wing Front National Party attacked the legislation, arguing it would lead to an “explosion of abortions among minors.”

However, according to data collected by the French Ministry of Health, the number of abortions for minors in France has steadily decreased over the few years. In 2011, 11,670 abortions for minors were carried out, compared to 11,930 in 2008 and 12,855 in 2006.

France is currently one of the only countries in the European Union that allows minors to have abortions without any parental consent and was also the first country to permit the use of RU-486, which terminates pregnancy by causing the embryo to detach from the uterine wall.

Spain unemployment hits record levels

Unemployment in Spain has hit a record high, official figures released Friday show, hours after rating agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded the country’s sovereign debt for the second time this year.

 

Unemployment in Spain has hit a record high, official figures released Friday show.

The news comes hours after rating agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded Spain’s sovereign debt for the second time this year.

The number of jobless in Spain reached 5,639,500 at the end of March, with 365,900 people having lost their jobs in the first three months of the year, according to the country’s national statistics agency.

Unemployment in Spain now stands at 24.4 percent, the highest in the European Union, and is expected to rise further this year, the BBC reports.

Earlier this week, the Bank of Spain announced that the economy had shrunk by 0.4 percent in the first quarter of 2012, after contracting by 0.3 percent in the final three months of last year.

Official figures due to be published on Monday are expected to confirm that Spain has slipped back into recession.

According to the Associated Press, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo told Spanish National Radio: “The figures are terrible for everyone and terrible for the government. Spain is in a crisis of enormous magnitude.”

Friday’s news is another blow to the conservative government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, which has angered unions by pushing through severe spending cuts and labor reforms to try to reduce Spain’s spiralling debt levels.

Late Thursday Standard & Poor’s dropped Spain’s long-term credit rating from A to BBB+, adding that the outlook on the rating is negative and warning that a further downgrade is possible.

There are now concerns that the Spanish government will not meet deficit targets agreed with the European Union and be forced into seeking a bailout as Greece, Ireland and Portugal have done before, The Daily Telegraph reports.

Related articles

• Spanish Unemployment Hits 24.4% (wallstreetpit.com)

Top 10 Banned Foods around the World

While we are usually allowed to pick what we choose to eat, a few foodstuffs have been deemed so controversial that they have been banned from sale. An astonishing number of these items have been banned because of believed negative effects on the health, safety and welfare of customers and to protect the particular species of animal concerned. Here is a list on some of the foods that have been banned in some or the other part of the world.

Foie Gras

A delicacy made from duck or goose liver is banned in Turkey, the European Union, and Israel because of a process called force-feeding. The birds are force-fed corn mash or some other type of fatty food about 8 days before they are slaughtered to enlarge the liver and give it a fatty consistency to make Foie Gras.

Citing cruelty to animals, as these birds are not habituated to consuming so much food, many countries have banned this food item. Nevertheless, Foie Gras is readily available in many of these countries.

Shark Finns

Still in the process of being banned worldwide, Shark Fin delicacies and slicing of shark fins are now banned in the Scottish and U.K. waters. The practice has been banned entirely in Hawaii as 60,000 sharks were killed off the waters of Hawaii every year. To protect the dwindling species an outright ban has been put against the unnecessary barbaric act. Shark Fins are usually used in shark fin soup, which was considered a luxury meal in many Asian countries.

Uncertified Chilean Sea Bass (Patagonian Tooth fish)

Banned in 24 countries for the fact that it was extremely popular in restaurants and houses and many feared it would become endangered. Known for being extremely delicious due to the flaky white flesh and a high fat content, the Chilean Sea Bass are sometimes caught and sold for extremely high prices illegally and are also raised in fish farms. Many countries have a limit on who can import the fish.

Sassafras

A widely used plant in treating ailments, aromatherapy, cure a cold and as a cure for syphilis by Indian tribes, Sassafras was banned in the 1960s. All uses of sassafras and any ingredient made out of it, especially Safrole- colourless or slightly black oil extracted from the root bark or the fruit- was banned as it was possibly carcinogenic. Rats given sassafras during lab experiments contracted liver cancer determining its possibility of being carcinogenic.

Stevia

Commonly known as sweet leaf or sugar leaf, Stevia is a plant based sweetener banned in America, European Union, Singapore andHong Kong. It was banned on the belief that it was an “unsafe food additive”. Stevia is believed to have positive health effects like weight loss and lowered blood sugar levels. The ban on Stevia was later removed under the provision that it would be labeled a dietery supplement instead of a food additive. It is also said to apparently cause cancer but was failed to be backed with scientific evidence.

Absinthe

Gradually banned around the world in the 1800s due to a large increase in violence, mental illness and hallucinations, Absinthe made its comeback in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The 20th century researchers looked at absinthe and considered it to be extremely unsafe.
Though traditional absinthe is no longer made, the spirit is still distilled in many countries, particularly the Czech Republic, Switzerland, France, and Spain. In 2008, about 200 different types of absinthe were available.

Red Fish

New Orleans Chef Paul Prudhomme publicized his recipe for blackened redfish in 1980 sparking a redfish craze during the time. The recipe became so popular (still very popular till date!), that it threatened the redfish stock and in July 1986, a ban was placed on selling of the fish and all fisheries were shut down to allow the fish to naturally rebuild their population in U.S.A. The only state exempt from the federal law banning the selling of the fish for profit is Mississippi.

Puffer Fish

Known as Fugu in Asian countries ad blowfish otherwise is banned in many countries as the internal organs and a few body parts are highly poisonous. If you eat a wrong part of this fish or consume a poisonous part of the fish, you are likely to die from tetrodotoxin- a neurotoxin that destroys body’s nerve tissue paralyzing the body and causing asphyxiation.
In 1603-1868 the Tokugawa shogunate prohibited the consumption of Fugu, but this law died down as the shogunate’s power decreased. In the European Union, selling or consuming this fish is strictly prohibited. In the U.S., it is illegal to sell, harvest, or serve the fish without having a license to do so. This was enacted in 2002.

Beluga Caviar

Much like the redfish listed, the Beluga sturgeon was becoming endangered, and a ban was imposed on the import of Beluga Caviar from the Caspian Sea in 2005 by the United States. The ban was lifted in 2007 with restrictions, allowing 96 tons of caviar to be sold worldwide. Although, spotting this caviar I just as difficult as spotting the sturgeon fish itself.

 Beluga Caviar can be found sold online from many vendors or in one of those expensive restaurants serving a tiny spoon of the caviar for a huge amount.

Horse Meat

Considered a taboo food in countries like the U.S., Ireland, Australia, Canada,and throughout various cultural groups around the world, Horse meat, though banned, horse slaughter goes on everyday in the U.S. as well as the U.K. The southern states in America are known for their slaughterhouses where the meat is sold to other countries. The slaughter and consumption of horse meat was banned as they are seen as companions and sports animals.