Researchers counting birds at 300 locations in Fukushima prefecture from 15 to 30 miles from the Fukushima nuclear power complex damaged in last year's earthquake and tsunami said they found bird communities were significantly diminished in the more contaminated areas.

They compared the findings to a similar study undertaken in Ukraine's Chernobyl Exclusion Zone from 2006 through 2009 and discovered that for 14 species of birds found in both locations, the decrease of population size was more pronounced at Fukushima than at Chernobyl, where a devastating nuclear power plant accident occurred in 1986.

The study suggests "these birds, which have never experienced radiation of this intensity before, may be especially sensitive to radioactive contaminants," co-author Timothy Mousseau, a biologist at the University of South Carolina, said.

The study suggests many similarities between the Chernobyl and Fukushima events and provides new insight into the first-generation effects of radiation exposure on animals in the wild, researchers said.

"Our results point to the need for more research to determine the underlying reasons for differences among species in sensitivity, both initially and following many generations of exposure," Mousseau said in a University of South Carolina release Tuesday.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:07:34 AEST Tokyo (UPI) Feb 8, 2012 - A steep temperature rise in the No. 2 reactor at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant has sparked new concerns about government claims that the facility has been stabilized.

A magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami l March 11 led to a meltdown at the plant.

The rise in temperature, first detected last Thursday, reached 73.3 degrees Celsius on Monday, an increase of more than 20 degrees Celsius, Kyodo News reports.

Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the plant, said the temperature had fallen to 68.5 degrees Celsius by early Tuesday evening.

The massive amounts of water injected into the reactor Tuesday to decrease the temperature was the highest level since the plant was said to have achieved cold shutdown in December.

"The temperature of the reactor pressure vessel seems to be close to peaking out," TEPCO spokesman Junichi Matsumoto told reporters Tuesday, referring to the 68.5 degree reading, Kyodo reports.

Last month, TEPCO changed pipes and the amount of coolant water in the reactor.

"This was a process to enhance stability but it has become clear that there is a possibility (the replacement work created) an unstable situation temporarily," said Goshi Hosono, state minister in charge of the Fukushima disaster. "We have to consider matters in an even more careful way."

While just five Japan's 54 nuclear reactors are currently online in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, all of the country's nuclear power plants are scheduled to be halted for servicing by the end of April.

Prior to the Fukushima disaster, nuclear energy accounted for 29 percent of Japan's electricity supply and the government aimed to increase that share to 41 percent by 2017 and 50 percent by 2030.

"If we can have a few [reactor] restarts, it will make things a bit easier -- but since we can't know if that will be possible, we have to prepare for the possibility that none are restarted," Japanese Trade Minister Yukio Edano recently told the Financial Times.

Meanwhile, the Japanese government is preparing a national energy plan that is likely to abandon swift development of nuclear power and instead place more emphasis on renewable energy.

"The handling of the continuing nuclear crisis has been problematic particularly due to the government's lack of readiness, which has generated suspicions that the disaster could have been mitigated had the government been more capable of crisis management," states an editorial in Japan's The Mainichi Daily News.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:07:34 AEST United Nations (AFP) Feb 8, 2012 - The United Nations hopes to cut one billion dollars off its peacekeeping budget this year as it seeks to close or shrink many missions, a top UN official said Wednesday.

With major powers pressing for spending cuts, the East Timor peacekeeping mission is expected to close by the end of 2012 and Haiti, Liberia and possibly Darfur could face reductions, said Herve Ladsous, the head of UN peacekeeping.

He told reporters he hopes to cut the department's budget, which dominates UN spending around the world, from $8 billion last year to about $7 billion in 2012.

"There are a number of missions that have gone through the critical stage and probably we will be able to start looking at downsizing," said the under-secretary general.

There are currently about 120,000 troops from 114 countries serving in 16 UN missions around the world. Numbers in the Haiti mission are already being cut and Ladsous said those in Liberia came down after last year's elections.

A review of the UN mission in Darfur, Sudan started this week and Ladsous said similar studies in other operations would be carried out.

Ladsous also said the UN may ban a whole country contingent from a mission if a soldier from that country is found guilty of sexual abuse.

He is seeking a new crackdown on abuse after new cases were uncovered in Haiti, he said.

"It is a matter of concluding that in a case of a particular peacekeeping operation, one contingent may not be up to the standards that we would expect of a peacekeeping contributing state," Ladsous told reporters.

He said no decision had been made yet and no country would be completely banned from UN missions, as other officials have indicated.

The United Nations ordered a "zero tolerance" clampdown after sex abuse cases involving UN troops and police in Haiti, Democratic Republic of Congo and other nations.

"We are presently developing a policy which will go further, much further," Ladsous said. He said the sex abuse cases "contaminate" the image of UN peacekeeping and that once the accused troops or police have faced criminal actions the UN can send them "packing."

Last year six Uruguayan troops in the Haiti mission, MINUSTAH, were accused of raping a Haitian teenaged boy. Last month investigations were started into what the UN called "grave allegations of sexual and exploitation abuses" involving UN police in Haiti.

UN peacekeepers in Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Ivory Coast have also faced dozens of accusations of sexual abuse in recent years.

The UN peacekeeping department insists numbers have been cut in recent years because of its "zero tolerance" efforts.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:07:34 AEST Tokyo (AFP) Feb 8, 2012 - Japan's parliament on Wednesday approved a $33 billion fourth extra budget to finance subsidies for disaster-struck businesses and the auto market, as the government looks to stimulate a faltering economy.

The upper house passed the extra budget of 2.53 trillion yen ($32.88 billion) for fiscal 2011 following its passage through the lower house.

The budget will provide funds to those affected by the March quake-tsunami disaster and the resulting Fukushima nuclear accident who are trying to service loans to restart businesses but who are saddled with repayments on now worthless or non-existent assets.

It will also finance market incentives for environmentally friendly cars.

Japan in November passed a 12.1 trillion-yen extra budget, following a four-trillion-yen package in May and another two trillion yen in July.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:07:34 AEST Frankfurt (AFP) Feb 2, 2012 - Munich Re, the world's biggest reinsurer, said Thursday that profits plummeted last year due to heavy losses from both the eurozone debt crisis and a string of natural catastrophes.

Munich Re said in a statement it booked bottom-line net profit of 710 billion euros ($935 million) in 2011, a drop of 71 percent from a year earlier.

"The year was marked by a series of severe earthquakes and many weather-related catastrophes. In addition, there was the worsening of the sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone," the statement said.

"We have never experienced a year like 2011 before -- extreme burdens from natural catastrophes combined with the financial crisis, which flared up again after the slight recovery in 2009 and 2010," said chief financial officer Joerg Schneider.

"Given the huge strains these placed on results, it is a notable achievement that we still posted a profit of 710 million euros," Schneider said.

While gross premiums for the year rose by 8.9 percent to 49.6 billion euros, investment earnings dropped 21.8 percent to 6.8 billion euros, not least as a result of 1.2 billion euros in writedowns on the group's holdings of Greek government securities.

Munich Re said that losses from natural catastrophes amounted to 4.5 billion euros for the entire year, with the deadly earthquake and ensuing tsunami in Fukushima, Japan, costing it 1.5 billion euros at a pre-tax level.

The group also said it expected insurance claims resulting from the earthquakes in New Zealand to amount to around 1.5 billion euros.

And flooding in Thailand was projected to lead to claim costs of around 500 million euros.

Taking the fourth quarter alone, Munich Re's net profit rose by 33.1 percent to 630 million euros, beating analysts' expectations.

In the wake of the results, Munich Re said it planned to pay shareholders an unchanged dividend of 6.25 euros per share.

Investors welcomed the news and Munich Re shares were showing gains of around 0.64 percent on the Frankfurt stock exchange on Thursday, outperforming the general market which was up 0.05 percent.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:07:34 AEST Tokyo (AFP) Feb 1, 2012 - Some 8.5 tons of radioactive water leaked from a reactor at Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant but it had not flowed outside the reactor building, Kyodo News said Wednesday, quoting the plant's operator.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the leak occurred in the No. 4 reactor after a pipe connected to the reactor dropped off, the news agency reported.

The leak was discovered Tuesday night and was stopped shortly afterwards.

The Fukushima Daiichi plant was crippled by meltdowns and explosions caused by a massive earthquake and tsunami in March last year.

Radiation was scattered over a large area and made its way into the oceans, air and food chain in the weeks and months after the disaster.

Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes in a large area around the plant and swathes of this zone remain badly polluted, with the clean-up proceeding slowly amid warnings that some towns could be uninhabitable for three decades.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:07:34 AEST Dubai (AFP) Feb 1, 2012 - The US Navy has announced that it assisted an Iranian fishing vessel in distress in the Gulf, the fourth such incident this year in an area marked by tension between Washington and Tehran.

The Bahrain-based US Fifth Fleet said in a statement late Tuesday that forces from the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group responded to a "distressed Iranian fishing dhow" that had nine crew members on board.

The US Navy team was allowed to board the vessel and repair the engine, the statement said.

On January 18, the US Navy assisted the crew of an Iranian fishing vessel in distress in the Gulf of Oman. On January 11, the US Navy rescued six Iranian merchant marines from a sinking cargo ship. And on January 7, a Navy destroyer rescued 13 Iranian fishermen being held hostage by Somali pirates.

The rescues come at a delicate time in the West's long-running showdown with Iran over its nuclear programme, with Washington and its allies ramping up sanctions on Tehran.

Iran has reacted by threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz, which links the Gulf to the Arabian Sea, and remains opposed to the US military presence in the region.

US admiral plays down reports of floating Gulf base
Washington (AFP) Feb 1, 2012 - A top US admiral has denied media reports that an aging warship will be serving as a floating base for special forces in the Gulf, saying the vessel would instead be used to help clear mines.

The USS Ponce, a 1970s-era amphibious transport ship, is undergoing an overhaul to support naval forces in the Middle East, said Admiral John Harvey, US Fleet Forces command chief, told reporters Tuesday.

But its primary mission is not to serve as a "mothership" for elite commandos, as reported by the Washington Post and other news outlets.

"I think they put two and two together and got 22," Harvey said when asked about the reports.

"It is not going over there as a special operating forces 'Deathstar ...Galactica' coming through the Gulf," Harvey said, referring to a sci-fi television series.

The upgrades to the USS Ponce grew out of a standing request from US Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, to help with efforts against potential mines in the Gulf, Harvey said.

Iran has threatened to shut down the strategic Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for US and European sanctions. In the 1980s, Tehran relied on mines to disrupt shipping in the area during its war with Iraq.

The Ponce can carry MH-53 helicopters and support patrol craft, the admiral said. Such aircraft and vessels are often used by special forces.

Confusion about the Ponce's mission may have been the result of a call for private bids to carry out the improvements to the ship, he said.

The procurement documents included references to upgrades that would make some spaces accessible to special operations forces.

Harvey said the revamped Ponce should be ready to sail to the Gulf by June.

The Navy hopes to develop a new line of ships in the coming years that would serve as floating bases, and the altered Ponce could serve as a "bridge" to the new vessels, Harvey said.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:07:34 AEST Tokyo (AFP) Jan 30, 2012 - Japanese scientists are studying how radiation has affected plants and animals living near the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, an official said Monday.

Researchers are examining field mice, red pine trees, a certain type of shellfish and other wild flora and fauna in and around the 20 kilometre (12 mile) no-go zone surrounding the plant, an Environment Ministry official said.

"The researchers are studying the impact of high radiation levels on wild animals and plants, examining the appearance, reproductive function and possible abnormalities in chromosomes," said the official.

They will also grow seeds from plant samples and monitor the offspring of animals in the research.

The study began in November and an initial report on the findings is expected in March, he said.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, some 220 kilometres north of Tokyo, suffered blasts and fires after the March 11 quake and tsunami crippled its cooling systems, releasing radiation into the environment.

Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from the area near the plant, many abandoning pets and livestock which have since gone feral.

Parts of the exclusion zone are expected to be reclassified to allow people to move back to their homes over the next few years, but other areas are expected to be uninhabitable for several decades.

UN nuclear agency considering Fukushima office: report
Tokyo (AFP) Jan 29, 2012 - The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog said the agency is considering opening a branch office in Fukushima to monitor efforts to contain the world's worst atomic accident since Chernobyl, a report said.

The Japanese government has struggled with public trust over nuclear energy since the March 11 disaster and had asked the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to open an office, which will help share information on the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

"We have told the Japanese government that the IAEA stands ready to cooperate," the agency's chief Yukiya Amano told Kyodo News on Saturday in the Swiss resort of Davos, where the World Economic Forum is being held.

"While the headquarters in Vienna will continue to deal with issues related to the decontamination and disposal of spent nuclear fuels, we'll be able to have close contact."

A press officer for the IAEA in Tokyo, who is accompanying an ongoing mission to Japan, said no firm decision had yet been made, but that the government's request was being given "careful consideration".

The Nikkei newspaper independently reported from Davos the IAEA chief had stated his intention to open a local office.

Fuji News Network also reported Amano, who is Japanese, was intending the office would be opened, saying it could "strengthen communications with people on the spot."

Tokyo wants an international seal of approval for the energy-hungry country's nuclear industry to bolster its faltering efforts at reassuring the public it is safe to resume atomic operations.

The vast majority of Japan's 54 commercial nuclear reactors are offline because popular opposition has prevented them being restarted in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear crisis.

The disaster, triggered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, contaminated the environment and forced tens of thousands of residents around the Fukushima nuclear site, in northeast Japan, to evacuate their homes.

Many still do not know if or when they will be able to return.

Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba, whose parliamentary constituency is in Fukushima, told residents last week that he was pushing for an office after requests from local leaders.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:07:34 AEST Tokyo (AFP) Jan 27, 2012 - Five government teams dealing with Japan's tsunami and nuclear catastrophes kept no detailed records, an official said Friday, adding to a growing picture of chaos in Tokyo's disaster response.

Earlier this week the government said the nuclear disaster task force that ordered tens of thousands of evacuations had no written record of its decision-making process -- an essential component of disaster management.

Now the government has admitted having no minutes from a further four emergency committees, an admission likely to worsen the view of Tokyo's response to the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

The five emergency bodies include the main disaster headquarters and the disaster victims assistance team, as well as the nuclear disaster task force, which was headed by then Prime Minister Naoto Kan and included all of his ministers.

These three committees failed to keep even brief summaries of their meetings, while two other task forces have only partial summaries.

Such records are usually thought of as essential for careful and coherent planning to mitigate the impact of future disasters.

Several other emergency committees kept only summaries of their meetings, leaving blanks in the record of how top officials addressed the aftermath of the tsunami and the atomic accident it spawned at Fukushima as reactors went into meltdown, spewing radiation over a wide area.

Deputy Prime Minister Katsuya Okada has instructed ministers to create summaries of the meetings by the end of February, an official at the Cabinet Office said.

Okada plans to hold a press conference later Friday to explain how the government failed to keep the records, the official said.

Kazuhiro Hayakawa, associate professor of administrative law at Omiya Law School said the lack of a written record was "ridiculous" and almost certainly a contravention of the legal requirement to keep minutes.

"No matter how much of an emergency it was, it is absurd that they did not keep records of the meetings, which were no doubt subject to the Archive Management Law" requiring a written record, he said.

"I doubt it was intentional on the part of the government. But I suspect government officials lacked a clear chain of command to order the creation of the records.

"This failure has deprived us of the possibility of studying what exactly happened" immediately after the disaster, he said.

Opposition parties leapt on the admission, calling it an example of the inexperience of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan.

"This is symbolic of the recklessness of the government," said Hirofumi Nakasone of the leading opposition Liberal Democratic Party.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:07:34 AEST Washington DC (SPX) Jan 27, 2012 - In 2011, NOAA satellites were critical in the rescues of 207 people from life-threatening situations throughout the United States and its surrounding waters. The satellites picked up distress signals from emergency beacons carried by downed pilots, shipwrecked boaters and stranded hikers, and relayed the information about their location to first responders on the ground.

NOAA's polar-orbiting and geostationary satellites are part of the international Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking System, called COSPAS-SARSAT. This system uses a network of satellites to quickly detect and locate distress signals from emergency beacons onboard aircraft and boats, and from smaller, handheld personal locator beacons called PLBs.

Of the 207 saves last year, 122 people were rescued from the water, 14 from aviation incidents, and 71 in land situations where they used their PLBs. Other rescue highlights from the year include:

+ Alaska had the most people rescued on land last year with 39, followed by Florida with 11, and California with 8.

+ NOAA SARSAT played a critical role in the rescue of a group of student hikers from a grizzly bear attack in Alaska by directing first responders to the scene.

+ In the pitch of night, two people were rescued from a life raft after their boat sank 140 miles off the coast of Marco Island, Fla.

+ An elderly hiker was rescued 74 miles south of Colorado Springs, Colo., during a heavy snowstorm. "With each rescue, this system performs the way it was intended - as a real, life-saving network," said Chris O'Connors, program manager for NOAA SARSAT.

When a NOAA satellite finds the location of a distress signal, the information is relayed to the SARSAT Mission Control Center based at NOAA's Satellite Operations Facility in Suitland, Md. From there, the information is quickly sent to a Rescue Coordination Center, operated by either the U.S. Air Force for land rescues or the U.S. Coast Guard for water rescues.

Since 1982, COSPAS-SARSAT has been credited with supporting more than 30,000 rescues worldwide, including more than 6,700 in the United States and its surrounding waters.

By law, owners of emergency beacons are required to register them with NOAA at: http://www.beaconregistration.noaa.gov. That registration information often helps provide better and faster assistance to people in distress. It may also provide information about the location of the emergency, how many people need assistance, what type of help may be needed and other ways to contact the owner. At the end of 2011 NOAA's registration database contained over 329,000 registrations.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:07:34 AEST Subscribe to our daily selection of space, military, environment and energy newsletters responseText http://visitor.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=0016gbbKsaiGSpQFojVO8ZoHw%3D%3D