Environment | WPN World People News

Harvard Kennedy School Associate Professor Matthew Bunn, whose research topics includes nuclear proliferation risks, the future of nuclear energy and its fuel cycle, and policies to promote innovation in energy technologies, offered these observations early Monday on the earthquake-damaged nuclear power plants in Japan.

The total energy released by the megaquake in Japan was about a thousand times the combined energy of all the world's nuclear weapons or 6.7 trillion tons of TNT.

A general overview of the 2011 Sendai 8.9 earthquake on Wikipedia. The Japan Sendai Earthquake Data Portal site was built on the model for the China Earthquake Geospatial Research Portal, which is funded by the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University.

The topography of the earthquake and tsunami-stricken city of Sendai, Japan, is revealed in this radar image from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission.

China aims to reduce energy consumption per unit of GDP by 16 percent in the five years to 2015, according to Premier Wen Jiabao.

Researchers used hatchling loggerhead turtles, like this one wearing a special harness, to see how the turtles responded to changing magnetic fields as guides for migration.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) finalized a $96.8 million Recovery Act supported loan guarantee to a project sponsored by U.S. Geothermal, Inc. to construct a 23 megawatt (net) geothermal power project in Malheur County, in southeastern Oregon. The company estimates that the project, known as Neal Hot Springs, will create approximately 150 construction jobs, over a dozen permanent jobs and many more supply chain jobs across several states, including Texas, California and Ohio.

Oil spill claims czar Kenneth Feinberg speaks about the claims process Feb. 18 at the Mississippi College Law Review Symposium in Jackson, Miss. Feinberg faces criticism from Gulf Coast residents about the slow pace and low amount of payments.