Page 14 of 21

Re: THE Oceans & Seas Thread pt 3

Unread postPosted: Sat 26 May 2018, 09:15:39
by Tanada
Newfie wrote:Russians build a floating nuclear power plant.

http://gcaptain.com/russias-first-float ... he-arctic/


You may not be aware but back in the 1960's they built about a dozen to serve as power stations for cities on the coast of the Arctic Ocean. Back then they basically took a submarine reactor plant, installed it on a barge attached to an electric generating turbine instead of propulsion, and parked it in the far north. Now those old stations have exceeded their 'useful lifespan' so a replacement is needed. At least this time they are starting with a fresh sheet design instead of just adapting something they already have to do something it was never designed to do.

Re: THE Oceans & Seas Thread pt 3

Unread postPosted: Sat 26 May 2018, 09:51:34
by Newfie
Interesting, thanks.

Re: THE Oceans & Seas Thread pt 3

Unread postPosted: Sat 26 May 2018, 09:59:59
by jef
"Now those old stations have exceeded their 'useful lifespan'..."

Do they de-commission them by sinking them in the same nuc-sub graveyard?

Re: THE Oceans & Seas Thread pt 3

Unread postPosted: Sat 26 May 2018, 10:15:04
by onlooker
From 1946 through 1993, thirteen countries (fourteen, if the USSR and Russia are considered separately) used ocean disposal or ocean dumping as a method to dispose of nuclear/radioactive waste. The waste materials included both liquids and solids housed in various containers, as well as reactor vessels, with and without spent or damaged nuclear fuel.[1] Since 1993, ocean disposal has been banned by international treaties. (London Convention (1972), Basel Convention, MARPOL 73/78)

However, according to the United Nations, some companies have been dumping radioactive waste and other hazardous materials into the coastal waters of Somalia, taking advantage of the fact that the country had no functioning government from the early 1990s onwards. 
One can also say the Oceans have been used as a dumping area for many types of organic and inorganic compounds. And in large quantities
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_d ... tive_waste

Re: THE Oceans & Seas Thread pt 3

Unread postPosted: Sat 26 May 2018, 11:07:49
by Tanada
Newfie wrote:Interesting, thanks.


The USA has had its own versions as well. Unfortunately the old links I had about the Russian reactors are no longer functional but here is one about the USA program in brief.

USA floating nuclear power

Sadly it seems that for the younger generation writing most articles on the Internet today if they didn't see it in their lifetimes then it never happened. This ranges from moon hoax nutters all the way down to believing whatever they just learned about never happened before whatever event caused them to learn about it.

Re: THE Oceans & Seas Thread pt 3

Unread postPosted: Sat 26 May 2018, 11:38:51
by KaiserJeep
In spite of popular misconceptions caused by a lifetime of poorly conceived "creature features" from the 1950s onwards, radioactivity in the oceans is relatively harmless compared to the chemical pollutions that are of huge concern.

"Properly treated sewage" effluents from municipal plants are responsible for discharging wastes where the bacteria count has been altered and much reduced. However the treated wastes contain the entire modern pharmacology of everything humans consume, from human growth hormones to elaborate organic chemicals to oddball vitamin supplements from everywhere on Earth. Agricultural runoffs contain a huge abundance of fertilizers and pesticides and herbicides, as does human wastes from food crops grown with such chemicals.

Most of it causes widespread algae blooms, and huge unbalances in plankton growth. Eventually, these chemicals end up in the flesh of the "filter feeders", the fresh and salt water shellfish, which in turn are a major human food source the world over.

Places like China and other Eastern countries have long used human wastes as fertilizers to grow rice. The recycling of chemicals is even shorter there, and humans who have never received or consumed antibiotics for example have measurable levels of common antibiotics and when they develope infections, these are antibiotic resistent strains. Here in the Western World we are beginning to practice "sustainable agriculture" in many forms, including typically a compost pile that serves up a witches brew of everthing that was ever used on the soils being fortified with organic composts.

It's just one more symptom of an overcrowded planet. I actually think that most people get obsessed with radioactivity for two reasons. The first being the afore-mentioned "creature features", popular since the end of WW2 and the bombing of Japan (which of course afflicted that country with Godzilla). The second is to avoid thinking about the huge range of persistent organic and inorganic chemicals that now circle the planet in an unavoidable, all pervasive shroud of death. It is the message from Silent Spring, writ large and incrementally worse as the years pass by and we add more and more chemicals to our bodies.

Re: THE Oceans & Seas Thread pt 3

Unread postPosted: Sat 26 May 2018, 11:43:19
by onlooker
Very well spoken Kaiser!

Re: THE Oceans & Seas Thread pt 3

Unread postPosted: Sun 27 May 2018, 18:21:15
by dohboi
Upthread, T mentioned using seaweed for cattle fodder. Apparently, there are some other benefits to this idea:

https://www.independent.co.uk/environme ... 68911.html

Feeding cows seaweed cuts gas emissions by 90%

Re: THE Oceans & Seas Thread pt 3

Unread postPosted: Sun 27 May 2018, 21:39:34
by Tanada
dohboi wrote:Upthread, T mentioned using seaweed for cattle fodder. Apparently, there are some other benefits to this idea:

https://www.independent.co.uk/environme ... 68911.html

Feeding cows seaweed cuts gas emissions by 90%


I can't take credit for the idea. Years ago I read an article about abandoned feral cattle on an island somewhere in the Pacific. The government scientists who eventually studied the place were astounded so many cattle lived on an island with limited grazing land until they figured out that the abundant seaweed that washed ashore every day made up a large percentage of their total diet.

If I could remember the name of the island I would post it, but this was at least a decade ago and my memory isn't as solid as it used to be.

Re: THE Oceans & Seas Thread pt 3

Unread postPosted: Sun 27 May 2018, 21:50:02
by Newfie
I don’t think saragosum counts as seaweed, it’s an alge apparently.

Re: THE Oceans & Seas Thread pt 3

Unread postPosted: Sun 27 May 2018, 22:17:25
by Tanada
Newfie wrote:I don’t think saragosum counts as seaweed, it’s an alge apparently.


All seaweed, including the kelp used to wrap sushi, are species of Algae.

Brittanica wrote:Seaweed, any of the red, green, or brown marine algae that grow along seashores. Seaweeds are generally anchored to the sea bottom or other solid structures by rootlike “holdfasts,” which perform the sole function of attachment and do not extract nutrients as do the roots of higher plants. A number of seaweed species are edible, and many are also of commercial importance to humans. Some are used as fertilizers or as sources of polysaccharides.

SEAWEED

Re: THE Oceans & Seas Thread pt 3

Unread postPosted: Mon 28 May 2018, 06:55:38
by Newfie
OK.

But does that mean saragosum is edible? Or even edible by cows? On Montserrat they brought in professional hunters to reduce wild cows. Didn’t see a lot of cows elsewhere, ones and twos. But also it’s not like there is a lot of beach, there are a LOT of cliffs and very steep land at waters edge.

I’ve tried to eat some seaweed they collect in Nova Scotia, nasty.

The only positive I saw of it was maybe stopping some beach erosion.

Re: THE Oceans & Seas Thread pt 3

Unread postPosted: Mon 28 May 2018, 14:07:56
by Tanada
Newfie wrote:OK.

But does that mean saragosum is edible? Or even edible by cows? On Montserrat they brought in professional hunters to reduce wild cows. Didn’t see a lot of cows elsewhere, ones and twos. But also it’s not like there is a lot of beach, there are a LOT of cliffs and very steep land at waters edge.

I’ve tried to eat some seaweed they collect in Nova Scotia, nasty.

The only positive I saw of it was maybe stopping some beach erosion.



Someone in Texas of Mexico has been using Sargasso to supplement sheep feed, given what I know about their digestion if they can eat it cattle should be able to do the same.

https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/rb ... /5464/5210

https://www.allaboutfeed.net/New-Protei ... -2754803W/

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s ... irefox-b-1

Re: THE Oceans & Seas Thread pt 3

Unread postPosted: Mon 28 May 2018, 22:42:02
by Hawkcreek
KaiserJeep wrote:In spite of popular misconceptions caused by a lifetime of poorly conceived "creature features" from the 1950s onwards, radioactivity in the oceans is relatively harmless compared to the chemical pollutions that are of huge concern.

I agree with you on this, and I was slightly encouraged because of the work done on substituting chemicals with a shorter half-life for those which are capable of doing so much harm.
Some places, however, still require extensive fire retardation in household furnishings (example: California still requires a 12 second flame exposure which is still accomplished by brominated flame retardants, which are known to cause retardation in infants.
Maybe this is another case of letting a government agency legislate engineering.

Re: THE Oceans & Seas Thread pt 3

Unread postPosted: Thu 31 May 2018, 09:26:54
by dohboi
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6371/eaam7240

Declining oxygen in the global ocean and coastal waters

...Rising nutrient loads coupled with climate change—each resulting from human activities—are changing ocean biogeochemistry and increasing oxygen consumption. This results in destabilization of sediments and fundamental shifts in the availability of key nutrients... these conditions are unsustainable and may result in ecosystem collapses, which ultimately will cause societal and economic harm.

Re: THE Oceans & Seas Thread pt 3

Unread postPosted: Sat 09 Jun 2018, 11:56:18
by Newfie
Off topic but some interesting photos. Worth a look.

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2018/06/ ... -talibart/

Re: THE Oceans & Seas Thread pt 3

Unread postPosted: Tue 26 Jun 2018, 09:22:56
by onlooker
Area of Global Dead Zones Doubling Every 10 Years
https://truthout.org/articles/area-of-g ... -10-years/

The name says it all, but dead zones are areas along the sea floor where oxygen levels are so low they no longer sustain marine life. Hypoxia, which is a deficiency in the amount of oxygen reaching the tissues of organisms, is a widespread and growing problem in Earth’s oceans as industrial waste, fertilizer runoff from industrial agriculture and anthropogenic climate disruption increasingly aggravate the crisis.

Re: THE Oceans & Seas Thread pt 3

Unread postPosted: Mon 02 Jul 2018, 11:23:23
by jawagord
I’m in agreement that we should be incinerating plastics ala Boston to produce power rather than going through the energy intensive process of separating, collecting, sorting and shipping plastics overseas for processing where subsequent uncontrolled dumping into the ocean of contaminated low value plastics can occur.

Save The Oceans – Stop Recycling Plastic
 
....efforts to recycle plastic are a major cause of the marine litter problem. The report, written by public health expert Dr Mikko Paunio, sets out the case for incinerating waste rather than trying to recycle it.

https://www.thegwpf.org/new-report-recy ... ter-worse/

From the pickup point, most of Boston’s trash is sent to one of two incinerator operators, Wheelabrator Technologies in Saugus and Covanta, whose plants are in Haverhill and Rochester. Some of the waste travels by way of a transfer station in Lynn.
Once it reaches an incinerator, the waste is conveyed into a combustion chamber where it is burned at an extremely high temperature. The heat generated fires boilers whose steam drives power-generating turbines. The electricity they create feeds into the power grid to help light homes and offices.


http://newbostonpost.com/2016/03/23/whe ... -trash-go/

Re: THE Oceans & Seas Thread pt 3

Unread postPosted: Sat 07 Jul 2018, 19:39:57
by Newfie
Removing protections in marine animals

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trum ... rotections

Re: THE Oceans & Seas Thread pt 3

Unread postPosted: Mon 06 Aug 2018, 12:41:04
by dohboi
“Living in South Florida in the summer and not having the beach as option is not a great place to be.”

Red tides in the Gulf of Mexico and toxic blue-green algae in inland waters are killing animals and stoking outrage in South Florida.


https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/to ... ry-n897181