Disasters

Officials: 4.0 Quake in Northeast Ohio Related To Injection Well

"McDONALD, Ohio - Officials said Saturday they believe the latest earthquake activity in northeast Ohio is related to the injection of wastewater into the ground near a fault line, creating enough pressure to cause seismic activity.

The brine wastewater comes from drilling operations that use the so-called fracking process to extract gas from underground shale. But Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director Jim Zehringer said during a news teleconference that fracking is not causing the quakes."

Source: AP, 01/02/2012

Prime Minister Declares 'Cold Shutdown' of Fukushima Reactors

"TOKYO -- Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda of Japan today declared that the damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have been brought to a state of cold shutdown, turning a corner in the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

'The nuclear reactors have reached a state of cold shutdown and therefore we can now confirm that we have come to the end of the accident phase of the actual reactors,' Prime Minister Noda told a news conference.

Source: ENS, 12/20/2011

"Aging Pipes, Deadly Hazards"

"Despite a long history of accidents, and a stack of warnings from safety investigators, there are still thousands of miles of antiquated, leak-prone, cast-iron pipelines running under the streets of Pennsylvania cities and towns. Some are more than 100 years old."

Joseph Tanfani and Craig R. McCoy report the last of a four-part "Battle Lines" series for the Philadelphia Inquirer's Deep Drill reports December 18, 2011.

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, 12/20/2011

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