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Overnight News Digest Sept 11, 2022 [1]

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Date: 2022-09-11

NPR

The last reactor at Zaporizhzhia, Europe's largest nuclear power plant, has stopped

KYIV, Ukraine — The nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, controlled by Russia and at the center of much international concern, has announced they are powering down the final working reactor. In a message Sunday morning, the nuclear operator Energoatom said that power lines had been restored to the Zaporizhzhia power plant but that they were powering down Reactor No. 6, preparing it to be cooled and transferred to a safer state. Because of shelling in and around the area, the entire plant has been cut off from the electricity grid for several days, with the one working reactor, on "island mode," essentially powering the rest of the plant's crucial cooling systems. The owners have been discussing shutting down the plant — because of the power issues and the condition of the Ukrainian workers. NPR understands that its felt the powering down solution is the "best available, but temporary" option. It's feared that powerlines accessing the grid could be damaged again.

The Guardian

At least 20 passengers burned to death when a bus collided with another vehicle and caught fire in south-west Nigeria, police and an official have said. The accident at Lanlate in the Ibarapa area of Oyo state on Friday, is the latest road crash in the vast west African nation of 210 million people. “It was a fatal accident. We counted more than 20 human bodies burnt completely,” said Gbenga Obalowo, the chair of Ibarapa district. “They had a head-on collision and the two vehicles … which were both conveying passengers, caught fire and got burnt beyond repair,” he said. He said two people “with severe burns” survived the crash and they had been taken to the hospital. A senior police officer in the state confirmed the crash, saying that “20 people lost their lives in the accident”, without giving details. Obalowo blamed the accident on speeding and reckless driving.

Reuters

Russian nationalists rage after stunning setback in Ukraine

LONDON, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Russian nationalists called angrily on Sunday for President Vladimir Putin to make immediate changes to ensure ultimate victory in the Ukraine war, a day after Moscow was forced to abandon its main bastion in northeastern Ukraine. The swift fall of Izium in Kharkiv province was Russia's worst military defeat since its troops were forced back from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in March. As Russian forces abandoned town after town on Saturday, Putin was opening Europe's largest ferris wheel in a Moscow park, while fireworks lit up the sky over Red Square to celebrate the city's founding in 1147.

Deutsche Welle

How the Russian invasion is changing Ukrainian farmers' crops

War has made wheat farming and export difficult. So local farmers are turning to oil-producing plants instead. Their government plans to build an innovative pipeline into Poland to help them. In seven regions of Ukraine, agricultural workers have just begun to sow winter wheat, rye, barley and rapeseed for the first time since the Russian invasion started. However, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food expects that the amount of land dedicated to the cultivation of grain will fall by up to 35% this year. "As regards rye, no decrease in the area is anticipated because cultivation caters to the domestic Ukrainian market," Taras Vysotsky, the deputy agrarian minister, told DW. "The situation for winter wheat and barley is different though. There is still inventory from last year due to the blockade of the harbors, and this year's harvest will be generous."

Deutsche Welle

Switzerland plans controversial nuclear waste storage facility near German border

Switzerland has announced plans to build a nuclear waste storage facility on the border with Germany, leaving communities concerned about the issues of safety and clean drinking water supply. The National Cooperative for the Disposal of Radioactive Waste (Nagra) is behind the proposal. It suggested the region of Nördlich Lägern, north of Zurich and close to the border with Germany, the Swiss Federal Office of Energy said. The waste would be embedded in opalinus clay several hundred meters underground according to Patrick Studer, an official at Nagra. "The required confinement time is around 200,000 years for high-level waste and around 30,000 years for low-level and intermediate-level waste," Nagra's website stated. The waste will be sourced from five Swiss nuclear power plants. Medical and industrial sectors will also be allowed to contribute their waste. At the moment, four nuclear power plants are active in Switzerland. They may continue their operation as long as their safety is guaranteed. This would mean into the 2040s.

Al Jazeera

Ethereum blockchain set for ‘monumental’ overhaul

An army of computer programmers scattered across the globe is set to attempt one of the biggest software upgrades the crypto sector has ever seen this week to reduce its environmentally unfriendly energy consumption. Developers have spent years working on a more energy-efficient version of the Ethereum blockchain, a digital ledger that underpins a multibillion-dollar ecosystem of cryptocurrencies, digital tokens (NFTs), games and apps. Ethereum, the second most important blockchain after Bitcoin, burns through more power each year than New Zealand. Experts say the changeover, expected to take place between Tuesday and Thursday, would slash energy consumption by more than 99 percent.

New York Times

‘Very Dire’: Devastated by Floods, Pakistan Faces Looming Food Crisis

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