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A nuclear waste repository in New class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Mexico was ordered by the state on Tuesday to craft a plan to hasten the sealing off of underground vaults where drums of toxic, plutonium-tainted refuse from Los Alamos National Laboratory may have caused a radiation release. The directive by state Environment Secretary Ryan Flynn said the drums, buried half a mile below ground at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near the town of Carlsbad, "may present an imminent and substantial endangerment to health or the environment". The repository, the only facility of its kind in the United States, has been shut since Feb. 14, when unsafe radiation levels were detected there. The leak of radiation, a small amount of which escaped to the surface and exposed 22 workers at the plant, ranks as the facility's worst accident and one of the few blemishes on its safety record since it opened in 1999. Flynn ordered managers of the U.S. Energy Department facil

The operator of Japan's destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant began releasing groundwater that it said is within legal radiation safety limits into the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday, in a bid to manage huge amounts of radioactive water built up at the site. _0"> Tokyo Electric Power, or Tepco, has been fighting a daily battle against contaminated water since the Fukushima nuclear station was wrecked by a massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. The controversial release, which was agreed by local fishermen after extended talks, coincides with a breakdown of a water treatment system for the highly contaminated water held in makeshift tanks.   true       It also comes amid revelations this week in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper that the majority of workers at the plant fled during the height of the meltdowns after the quake and tsunami knocked out cooling and backup power. Groundwater flows down from nearby hills and 400 metric tonnes (440 tons) enters basements of the wrec

Singapore is approaching its yearly "haze" season, when smoke from forest clearing in class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Indonesia chokes the air, with this year likely to be worse than 2013's record pollution thanks to lack of action in Jakarta and an expected El Nino weather pattern. The prosperous city-state, which prides itself on its clean air, was shrouded in heavy smog from slash-and-burn clearances on the neighboring Indonesian island of Sumatra last June which sent its air pollution index to a record high. One year on, and an election-distracted government in class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Indonesia has still not ratified the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) 2002 Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, and fires continue to burn in Sumatra. That is despite outrage in Singapore as well as environmental groups putting pressure on Jakarta. Fires are used to clear land on plantations and can burn for weeks because of peat depos

Brazil’s government, the World Wildlife Fund and various partners are expected to unveil an agreement on Wednesday that would establish a $215 million fund for conservation of protected jungle in the Amazon rainforest. The fund, which seeks to ensure conservation of over 90 protected areas in the Amazon, comes as renewed developmental pressures mount in the region, resulting last year in an uptick in deforestation figures after years of record lows. Under the terms of the agreement, partners in the fund will make annual contributions to help class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Brazil meet financing needs for the protected lands, whose combined area totals more than 60 million hectares, or an area 20 percent larger than class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Spain . Contributions, partners said, will be contingent upon conditions required of class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Brazil , including audits of the government body that will administer the fund and continued

EU policymakers took the first steps towards regulating emissions from lorries through greater fuel efficiency on Wednesday, but stopped short of the targets that have forced car manufacturers to make their vehicles pollute less. As part of wider efforts to cut the need for imported energy, especially from class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Russia , the European Commission is seeking to improve energy efficiency across all sectors. It has introduced carbon dioxide limits, based on improved fuel efficiency for cars and vans, but emissions from what the Commission refers to as heavy-duty vehicles are unregulated.   true       The Commission, the EU executive, put forward a strategy to start monitoring the amount of carbon dioxide new trucks emit and said it would propose legislation next year. European Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said that in time, the measures would "cut the CO2 emissions of these vehicles, save operators money and make the EU less dependent o

A Japanese court on Wednesday ruled against restarting a class="mandelbrot_refrag"> nuclear power plant in a rare victory for anti-nuclear activists after the Fukushima disaster, and dealing a blow to government efforts to end a nationwide nuclear freeze. The ruling against the restart of a western power station run by Kansai Electric Power Co was a scathing critique of the Japanese nuclear industry's risk management, but does not block a restart under Japanese law as it is not a final ruling. The utility, the country's second-largest, which supplies electricity to a key manufacturing region, said it would appeal the ruling against restarting reactors 3 and 4 at the Ohi nuclear plant in Fukui prefecture, 500 km (310 miles) west of Tokyo. All 48 of Japan's nuclear reactors have been idled for safety checks after an earthquake and tsunami triggered triple meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima Daiichi plant, forcing more than 150,000 reside

The U.N. funding vehicle for helping developing nations tackle climate change has set a November goal to receive its first round of cash pledges, a move hailed as a major step towards a global pact in 2015. _0"> The 24-strong board of the Green Climate Fund, set up to help channel at least $100 billion a year by 2020 from governments and the private sector, set a loose deadline after agreeing several procedural steps during four days of talks in Songdo, class="mandelbrot_refrag"> South Korea . Getting money flowing towards schemes such as building solar power plants or deploying flood management systems is seen as crucial to getting over 130 developing nations to sign a U.N. climate pact in late 2015.   true       But rich nations such as those in the European Union, class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Japan and the United States had been reluctant to donate without clear rules to ensure the cash would be spent wisely. Environmental campaigners and inv