The tsunami-destroyed nuclear reactors at Fukushima, Japan have reached a “cold shutdown”. This means the temperature in each of the three vessels is now well below a 100 degrees. From here on, the operators have more control and safety can be easily maintained. Despite the cold shutdown announcement, recirculation of water will continue to cool the reactor core; environmental concerns have been raised regarding minor leakages of this now radioactive water. Eventually, the fuel, cooling water, debris etc will be moved to another location where it can decay over the years without causing more harm. The area will then be decontaminated by removing the topsoil layer before the residents can move in. The entire process will take years, if not decades.
Failed mars-moon probe to fall back to earth
The Russian Phobos-Grunt probe was designed to travel to the larger of the two Martian moons, Phobos, collect a soil sample and bring it to earth. It took off early November this year, only to fall back two months later. Roscosmos, the Russian space agency announced last week that after losing contact with the 13.2 tonne probe, it will start crash landing next month; and most of it will disintegrate on its way down including the 11 kg of toxic fuel that is expected to burn 60 miles above the surface. Two hundred kg of random scrap from the probe might survive the re-entry, crashing into an unknown location anywhere on earth — the exact coordinates can be calculates only 2-3 days before the descend. What was to be china’s first Mars satellite, Yinghuo-1, that piggybacked on the probe, will also descend into its doom with the stranded probe.
Cocaine in the air
A group of Italian scientists collected air from different sites and tested it for illicit drugs and the usual air pollutants. They found that the airborne concentration of cocaine was linked to the number of drug seizures my the police in the area. This might form the basis of detecting comparable drug use prevalence in cities or communities.
Lovejoy survives sun’s wrath
A seemingly suicidal comet survived a close encounter with our star. Comet lovejoy, named after the amateur observer who identified it only a few weeks ago, was expected to be destroyed by the sun’s heated outer atmosphere where temperature go up to 6000 degrees and its powerful magnetic field. Lovejoy did not pass the sun unscathed, only 10 per cent of it survived the encounter and it has lost its tail.