Fukui Gov Issei Nishikawa will soon give his consent for the restart of two nuclear reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co’s Takahama plant

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JAPAN TODAY

Fukui governor to give consent for nuclear plant restart

National Dec. 21, 2015 - 07:00AM JST ( 7 )

 

FUKUI —

Fukui Gov Issei Nishikawa will soon give his consent for the restart of two nuclear reactors in the prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast, sources close to the matter said Sunday, as the central government seeks to bring more reactors back online after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis.

The governor will visit the site of the Nos. 3 and 4 reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co’s Takahama plant on Monday to check safety measures before expressing his consent, they said. The governor’s consent is necessary to restart the reactors.

Earlier in the day, industry minister Motoo Hayashi, in charge of the country’s energy policy, met with Nishikawa at the Fukui prefectural office and sought the Fukui governor’s consent for the restart of the two nuclear reactors.

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Mystery fireball falling from sky reported in Brevard

 

 Wikimedia.org     Leonid meteor shower.

Image is a depiction, not intended as the factual image referred to in this report

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Search near I-95 turns up empty

 

Posted: 7:44 AM, December 17, 2015 Updated: 8:40 AM, December 18, 2015

PALM BAY, Fla. - A mysterious, fiery object falling from the sky was reported in Brevard County, prompting authorities to launch a search, officials said.
Nothing was found after 911 callers reported seeing a fiery object falling to the ground.
The calls were received about 7 a.m. Thursday, with reports of the mysterious object striking the area near the Interstate 95 onramp on the southbound side of Palm Bay Road.

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A volcano in Russia's Kamchatka region has spewed ash cloud, covering a local village with a thin layer of soot

 

 Village Covered in Film of Soot After Kamchatka Volcano Spews Ashes

 

• The Moscow Times
• Dec. 16 2015 15:22
• Last edited 15:22

 

NASA / JSC / Wikicommons

 

 

A volcano in Russia's Kamchatka region has spewed ashes, covering a local village with a thin layer of soot, the Emergency Situations Ministry said on Wednesday, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

The ash cloud from the Shiveluch Volcano reached 6,500 meters above sea level, the ministry said in a statement, RIA Novosti reported. The volcano is 3,283 meters high.

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Philippines - 5.2 Magnitude earthquake registered near the town of San Juan in Ilocos Sur

5.2-magnitude quake hits Ilocos Sur, aftershocks expected - Phivolcs

By Mikas Matsuzawa, CNN Philippines

Updated 08:32 AM PHT Fri, December 18, 2015

51

The earthquake struck near the town of San Juan, Ilocos Sur, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology says.

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — A 5.2-magnitude earthquake struck near the town of San Juan in Ilocos Sur on Thursday evening (December 17), according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).

Aftershocks are expected, it added.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS), however, said the quake that struck at 8:44 p.m. had a magnitude of 5.4.

Strong quake felt in one town

Based on Phivolcs' earthquake intensity scale, an Intensity 5 or a strong quake was reported in the town of Sinait, more than 30 minutes drive from the town of San Juan.

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A “larger than normal” dust storm billowed through the Australian outback town of Boulia

Must See: 5 unearthly shots of massive outback dust storm

Daksha Rangan
Digital Reporter

 

SOURCE: Jan Norton/Facebook | Brisbane Times

Wednesday, December 16, 2015, 11:23 AM - A “larger than normal” dust storm billowed through the Australian outback town of Boulia Tuesday, creating an otherworldly spectacle.

Local photographers jumped at the opportunity to capture the Martian-like moment, where visibility was reportedly limited to just a few metres.




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brisbanetimes

Huge dust storm hits Central West Queensland

Date

December 16, 2015

 

Kristian Silva

Brisbane Times journalist

A major dust storm swept over the Queensland town of Boulia on Tuesday. Photo: Kerry Hutchins/Instagram

Photographers have captured incredible images of a major dust storm which hit central west Queensland on Tuesday.

The outback town of Boulia, located about 500 kilometres west of Longreach, bore the brunt of the storm which blanketed everything in its path in red dust.

Ann Britton was on her cattle station when she saw the storm approaching.
"The winds were very strong and the dust blew for a few hours. If you were driving through it you had to stop," she said.

Ms Britton, a local photographer, said visibility was down to a few metres.

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Cosmic dance party: Tiny dwarf star influencing monster planet's unusual orbit

Cosmic dance party: Tiny dwarf star influencing monster planet's unusual orbit

Published time: 17 Dec, 2015 13:50

 

 

© NASA

 

 

A huge planet is having quite the party in space, dancing between its cosmic companions rather eccentrically – all thanks to a tiny dwarf star which influences its bizarre movements. The new finding makes for a rather peculiar planetary system.

 

Measuring about eight times the mass of Jupiter, the enormous planet was discovered in 2011. At the time of its discovery, it was found to be orbiting a sun-like star called HD 4779 with high eccentricity. That is, its movements were far from perfectly circular - the further from a circle the trajectory is, the more eccentric it is.

But the eccentric orbit led a team made up almost entirely of current and former Carnegie scientists to speculate that something else may be influencing the monster planet's movements. They tested that theory with the Magellan adaptive optics (MagAO) instrument suite, which allowed them to take extremely high-resolution images and gave them a sharper look at the night sky than ever before. Their speculation was then confirmed.

"At the telescope, we saw the object within seconds, and that told us it had to be a dwarf star," said lead author Timothy Rodigas in a press release. The dwarf star was tiny, measuring at only 20 percent of the mass of our sun.

 

© Carnegie Institute

 

 

 

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Mexico - Magnitude 6.6 earthquake registered - 9km ENE of Tres Picos

THE WATCHERS

M6.4 earthquake hits Chiapas, Mexico

 

Posted by Adonai on December 17, 2015 in category Seismic activity

A strong earthquake with recorded magnitude of M6.4 (USGS) hit Chiapas, Mexico at 19:49 UTC on December 17, 2015. The agency is reporting a depth of 96.9 km (60.2 miles). EMSC is reporting M6.4 at a depth of 120 km (74.5 miles). 
According to the USGS, the epicenter was located 11 km (7 miles) ENE of Tres Picos, 30 km (19 miles) NW of Pijijiapan, 40 km (25 miles) ESE of Tonala, 62 km (39 miles) SE of Arriaga, Mexico and 342 km (213 miles) WNW of Guatemala City, Guatemala.
There are about 743 880 people living within 100 km (62 miles) radius.

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M 6.6 - 9km ENE of Tres Picos, Mexico

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USGS

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weather.gov

 NOAA's National Weather Service

Tsunami.gov

DOC > NOAA > NWS > Tsunami.gov

Current date and time is: Dec 18, 2015 03:28 UTC

No Tsunami Warnings, Advisories or Watches are in effect

 

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