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NNadir
NNadir's Journal
NNadir's Journal
March 10, 2024
A few excerpts:
I added the bold to reflect the title on the tab for the article and the credulous, ignorant, vicious orange freak who once sullied the White House..
In the old days of paper dictionaries, pictures often accompanied the definitions of words. Were there still paper dictionaries, the word "failure" could do far worse than putting up a picture of Trump.
Trump, Covid, Hydroxyquinone, Ethics, and Fraud at a Major "Failure at Every Level" in France.
I believe the news article in Science that I'll discuss in this post is open to the public, and I won't excerpt a lot of it, but recall that the orange idiot was pushing hydroxyquinone as a "cure" for Covid, and led to Magats and family members screaming for it while dying from failures to vaccinate.
The article is here: The Reckoning CATHLEEN O’GRAD Cathleen O'Grady, Science March 7, 2024.
Subtitle:
Didier Raoult and his institute found fame during the pandemic. Then, a group of dogged critics exposed major ethical failings.
A few excerpts:
With six studies published in the 2010s, French microbiologist Didier Raoult added to his already vast publication record. He and his colleagues conducted a wide range of investigations into infectious diseases and their treatments. They took stool samples from patients on long-term antibiotic treatment, looking for alterations in their gut microbiome. They swabbed the throats of pilgrims leaving France for Mecca, searching for evidence of a bacterium that causes brain abscesses. And they studied samples of heart valves and blood clots from patients with heart inflammation to refine tests for the bacteria that cause the condition.
But in January, the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) journals that published the papers announced they were retracting all six, along with a seventh by Raoult’s colleagues. Aix-Marseille University had investigated the research, which was done at its affiliated Hospital Institute of Marseille Mediterranean Infection (IHU), a research hospital that Raoult led until his retirement in 2021. The investigation found the work had not been reviewed by one of France’s highly regulated national ethical committees...
...In a written statement sent to Science, Raoult says ASM retracted the papers without accounting for his team’s rebuttals to the critiques. But to Lonni Besançon, the retractions are vindication of concerns that he and others have been voicing since Raoult and the IHU burst into the media spotlight in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, downplaying its severity and touting prospects for a successful treatment...
...The Linköping University computer scientist and his fellow critics—a gaggle of dogged individuals, many of them academic outsiders—originally set out to challenge poor-quality research coming out of the IHU, especially the claim that COVID-19 could be treated with the antimalaria drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). But they soon embarked on an all-consuming attempt to raise the alarm about ethical failings in the institute’s research, going back at least 15 years...
...ON 11 MARCH 2020, French health minister Olivier Véran invited Raoult to join the Scientific Council advising the government on its pandemic response. A few days later, Raoult and his team published a bombshell paper in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, reporting that the IHU had found HCQ combined with the antibiotic azithromycin to be an effective COVID-19 treatment.
Although the results were preliminary and other researchers doubted Raoult’s conclusions, HCQ hype surged, with then–U.S. President Donald Trump touting its promise and Raoult enthusing over it on YouTube. “Raoult was saying, ‘I understand everything, I have a solution,’ and people want that kind of information in troubled times,” Bristielle says...
...Besançon and others say France’s institutional response has been unacceptably weak. There has been “failure at every level,” Garcia says: at the health ministry; in the justice system; within the university and regional hospital board, which had oversight of the IHU; and at ANSM, which only conducted a full inspection after media investigations brought the problems to light. Journal editors have also been too slow to react, Besançon says. “More often than not, it seems that they don’t give a damn about integrity...”
But in January, the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) journals that published the papers announced they were retracting all six, along with a seventh by Raoult’s colleagues. Aix-Marseille University had investigated the research, which was done at its affiliated Hospital Institute of Marseille Mediterranean Infection (IHU), a research hospital that Raoult led until his retirement in 2021. The investigation found the work had not been reviewed by one of France’s highly regulated national ethical committees...
...In a written statement sent to Science, Raoult says ASM retracted the papers without accounting for his team’s rebuttals to the critiques. But to Lonni Besançon, the retractions are vindication of concerns that he and others have been voicing since Raoult and the IHU burst into the media spotlight in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, downplaying its severity and touting prospects for a successful treatment...
...The Linköping University computer scientist and his fellow critics—a gaggle of dogged individuals, many of them academic outsiders—originally set out to challenge poor-quality research coming out of the IHU, especially the claim that COVID-19 could be treated with the antimalaria drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). But they soon embarked on an all-consuming attempt to raise the alarm about ethical failings in the institute’s research, going back at least 15 years...
...ON 11 MARCH 2020, French health minister Olivier Véran invited Raoult to join the Scientific Council advising the government on its pandemic response. A few days later, Raoult and his team published a bombshell paper in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, reporting that the IHU had found HCQ combined with the antibiotic azithromycin to be an effective COVID-19 treatment.
Although the results were preliminary and other researchers doubted Raoult’s conclusions, HCQ hype surged, with then–U.S. President Donald Trump touting its promise and Raoult enthusing over it on YouTube. “Raoult was saying, ‘I understand everything, I have a solution,’ and people want that kind of information in troubled times,” Bristielle says...
...Besançon and others say France’s institutional response has been unacceptably weak. There has been “failure at every level,” Garcia says: at the health ministry; in the justice system; within the university and regional hospital board, which had oversight of the IHU; and at ANSM, which only conducted a full inspection after media investigations brought the problems to light. Journal editors have also been too slow to react, Besançon says. “More often than not, it seems that they don’t give a damn about integrity...”
I added the bold to reflect the title on the tab for the article and the credulous, ignorant, vicious orange freak who once sullied the White House..
In the old days of paper dictionaries, pictures often accompanied the definitions of words. Were there still paper dictionaries, the word "failure" could do far worse than putting up a picture of Trump.
March 9, 2024
As I've indicated repeatedly in my DU writings, somewhat obsessively I keep a spreadsheet of the data at the Mauna Loa Carbon Dioxide Observatory, which I use to do calculations to record the dying of our atmosphere, a triumph of fear, dogma and ignorance that did not have to be, but nonetheless is, a fact.
Facts matter.
When writing these depressing repeating posts about new records being set, reminiscent, over the years, to the ticking of a clock at a deathwatch, I often repeat some of the language from a previous post on this awful series, as I am doing here with some modifications. It saves time.
This is a regrettable add on to my post of last week, which referred to the regrettable add on to the post of the previous week:
The Disastrous 2024 CO2 Measurements at the Mauna Loa Observatory Continue.
I've been at this for a long time, and I've never seen anything quite like the beginning of 2024.
Let's cut to the chase with some statistics on what is already shaping up to be a mind blowing disaster in terms of accumulations of the dangerous fossil fuel waste carbon dioxide.
The data from week 9 of 2024, which, if it is continues as it has been going through the first 8 weeks, will certainly go down in history as a landmark disaster:
Week beginning on March 03, 2024: 425.51 ppm
Weekly value from 1 year ago: 421.44 ppm
Weekly value from 10 years ago: 398.78 ppm
Last updated: March 09, 2024
Weekly average CO2 at Mauna Loa (Accessed 3/9/2024)
This week's increase from week 9 of 2023 compared to week 8 of 2024 is 4.07 ppm.
There are 2510 weekly data points recorded on the Mauna Loa Observatory's pages; this is the 20th highest ever recorded. It is one of only 25 readings out of 2510 to exceed an increase of 4.00 ppm over the reading of the same week of the previous year. Of the fifty highest such readings out of 2510, five have taken place in the first 9 weeks of 2024, included the two highest ever recorded included, 5.75 ppm higher in week 5 of 2024 in comparison to week 5 of 2023, and 5.53 higher in week 7 of 2024 compared to week 7 of 2023. Week 5 and week 7 of 2024 represent two of only three such week to week comparators with readings of the previous year to exceed a 5.00 ppm increase. The only other such an increase to exceed 5.00 ppm occurred in 2016, the previous "worst year ever" in CO2 accumulations, 5.04 ppm recorded in the week beginning July 31, 2016, week 28 when compared with week 28 of 2015.
Of the top 50 highest readings out of the 2510, 14 have taken place in the last 5 years, 35 in the last 10 years, and 42 in this century. Of the eight readings from the 20th century, four occurred in 1998, when huge stretches of the Malaysian and Indonesian rainforests caught fire when slash and burn fires designed to add palm oil plantations to satisfy the demand for "renewable" biodiesel for German cars and trucks as part of their "renewable energy portfolio" went out of control.
In the week to week comparisons with readings 10 years ago, week 9 of 2024 compared to week 9 of 2014 the reading is 26.73 ppm higher. The top four of all such ten year comparators all occurred in the first nine weeks of 2024. All of the top fifty such readings have taken place since 2019.
A 52 week running average of 10 year week to week comparators has now reached 24.74 ppm/10 years, the highest level ever recorded. In the ninth week of 2001, that running average was 15.30 ppm/10 years.
As I've been reporting over the years in various contexts, the concentrations of the dangerous fossil fuel waste carbon dioxide which is killing the planet fluctuate sinusoidally over the year, with the rough sine wave superimposed on a roughly quadratic axis:
Monthly Average Mauna Loa CO2
There is some statistical noise in these readings, but the overall trends are clear enough, inescapable, dire, terrifying, even as they are largely ignored or swept from attention by cheap diversions:
In spite of these ever worsening and ever more astounding numbers - people lie to each other and to themselves but numbers don't lie - you will still find people mindlessly cheering for fantasies about bourgeois toys that do nothing to address climate change, be they electric cars, solar cells and/or wind turbines, all of which are exercises in promoting the use of fossil fuels, the destruction of wilderness, and the demand for mining. We also have people here and elsewhere selling fossil fuels by rebranding them as "hydrogen," the production of hydrogen, which overwhelmingly made from fossil fuels, involving exergy destruction and thus driving climate change faster along with all of the other public fantasies.
The big lie people tell themselves and each other that this pixilated reactionary scheme, electric cars, solar cells, wind turbines, hydrogen blah, blah, blah is "doing something" about climate change. This is nonsense. That it is nonsense is clearly shown, again, by the numbers. The reactionary scheme of carrying on about so called "renewable energy" that led us here was never about climate change or any other environmental issue and the claim that it is is an afterthought. It was always about attacking the only realistic alternative to fossil fuels, nuclear energy.
The antinukes won and humanity, and in general the rest of the biosphere lost.
We're clueless.
If there is an argument that as a long time advocate of nuclear energy I am engaging in Schadenfreude, I remind anyone who confuses my distress with smirking that I am a member of humanity myself, as are all of the members of my family.
History will not forgive us, nor should it, but I am a part of that history, the shame falls on me as much as on anyone else and if I differ in any way in that state of shame, it only inasmuch as I am aware of it.
As John Donne famously had it:
Have a nice weekend.
At the Mauna Loa CO2 Observatory, the 2024 Terror Continues.
Note the minor update in the data described in post #4.As I've indicated repeatedly in my DU writings, somewhat obsessively I keep a spreadsheet of the data at the Mauna Loa Carbon Dioxide Observatory, which I use to do calculations to record the dying of our atmosphere, a triumph of fear, dogma and ignorance that did not have to be, but nonetheless is, a fact.
Facts matter.
When writing these depressing repeating posts about new records being set, reminiscent, over the years, to the ticking of a clock at a deathwatch, I often repeat some of the language from a previous post on this awful series, as I am doing here with some modifications. It saves time.
This is a regrettable add on to my post of last week, which referred to the regrettable add on to the post of the previous week:
The Disastrous 2024 CO2 Measurements at the Mauna Loa Observatory Continue.
I've been at this for a long time, and I've never seen anything quite like the beginning of 2024.
Let's cut to the chase with some statistics on what is already shaping up to be a mind blowing disaster in terms of accumulations of the dangerous fossil fuel waste carbon dioxide.
The data from week 9 of 2024, which, if it is continues as it has been going through the first 8 weeks, will certainly go down in history as a landmark disaster:
Week beginning on March 03, 2024: 425.51 ppm
Weekly value from 1 year ago: 421.44 ppm
Weekly value from 10 years ago: 398.78 ppm
Last updated: March 09, 2024
Weekly average CO2 at Mauna Loa (Accessed 3/9/2024)
This week's increase from week 9 of 2023 compared to week 8 of 2024 is 4.07 ppm.
There are 2510 weekly data points recorded on the Mauna Loa Observatory's pages; this is the 20th highest ever recorded. It is one of only 25 readings out of 2510 to exceed an increase of 4.00 ppm over the reading of the same week of the previous year. Of the fifty highest such readings out of 2510, five have taken place in the first 9 weeks of 2024, included the two highest ever recorded included, 5.75 ppm higher in week 5 of 2024 in comparison to week 5 of 2023, and 5.53 higher in week 7 of 2024 compared to week 7 of 2023. Week 5 and week 7 of 2024 represent two of only three such week to week comparators with readings of the previous year to exceed a 5.00 ppm increase. The only other such an increase to exceed 5.00 ppm occurred in 2016, the previous "worst year ever" in CO2 accumulations, 5.04 ppm recorded in the week beginning July 31, 2016, week 28 when compared with week 28 of 2015.
Of the top 50 highest readings out of the 2510, 14 have taken place in the last 5 years, 35 in the last 10 years, and 42 in this century. Of the eight readings from the 20th century, four occurred in 1998, when huge stretches of the Malaysian and Indonesian rainforests caught fire when slash and burn fires designed to add palm oil plantations to satisfy the demand for "renewable" biodiesel for German cars and trucks as part of their "renewable energy portfolio" went out of control.
In the week to week comparisons with readings 10 years ago, week 9 of 2024 compared to week 9 of 2014 the reading is 26.73 ppm higher. The top four of all such ten year comparators all occurred in the first nine weeks of 2024. All of the top fifty such readings have taken place since 2019.
A 52 week running average of 10 year week to week comparators has now reached 24.74 ppm/10 years, the highest level ever recorded. In the ninth week of 2001, that running average was 15.30 ppm/10 years.
As I've been reporting over the years in various contexts, the concentrations of the dangerous fossil fuel waste carbon dioxide which is killing the planet fluctuate sinusoidally over the year, with the rough sine wave superimposed on a roughly quadratic axis:
Monthly Average Mauna Loa CO2
There is some statistical noise in these readings, but the overall trends are clear enough, inescapable, dire, terrifying, even as they are largely ignored or swept from attention by cheap diversions:
In spite of these ever worsening and ever more astounding numbers - people lie to each other and to themselves but numbers don't lie - you will still find people mindlessly cheering for fantasies about bourgeois toys that do nothing to address climate change, be they electric cars, solar cells and/or wind turbines, all of which are exercises in promoting the use of fossil fuels, the destruction of wilderness, and the demand for mining. We also have people here and elsewhere selling fossil fuels by rebranding them as "hydrogen," the production of hydrogen, which overwhelmingly made from fossil fuels, involving exergy destruction and thus driving climate change faster along with all of the other public fantasies.
The big lie people tell themselves and each other that this pixilated reactionary scheme, electric cars, solar cells, wind turbines, hydrogen blah, blah, blah is "doing something" about climate change. This is nonsense. That it is nonsense is clearly shown, again, by the numbers. The reactionary scheme of carrying on about so called "renewable energy" that led us here was never about climate change or any other environmental issue and the claim that it is is an afterthought. It was always about attacking the only realistic alternative to fossil fuels, nuclear energy.
The antinukes won and humanity, and in general the rest of the biosphere lost.
We're clueless.
If there is an argument that as a long time advocate of nuclear energy I am engaging in Schadenfreude, I remind anyone who confuses my distress with smirking that I am a member of humanity myself, as are all of the members of my family.
History will not forgive us, nor should it, but I am a part of that history, the shame falls on me as much as on anyone else and if I differ in any way in that state of shame, it only inasmuch as I am aware of it.
As John Donne famously had it:
...every man is a piece of the continent,
a part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less,
as well as if a promontory were.
as well as if a manor of thy friend’s
or of thine own were.
Any man’s death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind;
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
it tolls for thee.
a part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less,
as well as if a promontory were.
as well as if a manor of thy friend’s
or of thine own were.
Any man’s death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind;
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
it tolls for thee.
Have a nice weekend.
March 8, 2024
About that funny story I told my son some years ago about the plutonium/gallium phase diagram.
I don't recall exactly where I read it, but for about 15 or more years after the announcement of the discovery of plutonium - the announcement being the destruction of Nagasaki, more or less - scientists embarked on a vast investigation of the metallurgy of plutonium.
By its nature, pure plutonium has one of the most complex phase diagrams of any element in the periodic table, with multiple allotropes, more in fact, than any pure element other than carbon. (An example of allotropes is graphite, diamond, and "Buckminsterfullerene" which are all pure carbon but have very different properties such as hardness, density, compressibility, etc.)
This "connected phase diagram" of the actinide elements shows the complexity of plutonium:
Hecker, Number 26 2000 Los Alamos Science pg 305.
My joke to my son, which I read somewhere - where I don't remember - is that when scientists began publishing the phase diagrams of alloys of plutonium, a scientific issue, they published every possible metallic element except that of gallium.
The reason: The plutonium/gallium phase diagram stabilizes the delta phase, which is generally not stable at room temperature but is when alloyed with gallium, the delta phase being necessary for use in nuclear weapons.
All of the nuclear weapons states, either through spying or from independent discovery were aware of this, and so no one published this diagram since all nuclear weapons states regarded it as a "classified state secret."
Eventually, around the mid 1960's everyone knew about why the phase diagram wasn't published, and confessed as much at an international scientific meeting designed to increase scientific exchanges.
My son gave a talk at a conference this week where one of the announced talks was a discussion of this phase diagram. Intrigued my son went to the room where it was scheduled. The moderator announced, without giving a reason, that the talk was cancelled.
Probably the long term behavior of this alloy is still a "state secret" and apparently the speaker got his talk quashed by security, even as late as 2024.
It's esoteric, but we were both amused when he told me about it.
March 7, 2024
Here's what I said in my most recent post on this topic, the one linked above discussing weekly data:
I repeat: Clueless
To repeat...
At the Mauna Loa CO2 Observatory, February 2024 Is the Worst Month Ever Reported.
Recently in this space, I've been reporting on the unprecedented growth rate for accumulations of the dangerous fossil fuel waste CO2 in the planetary atmosphere as they are being observed in 2024, which surely, I'm convinced already, will prove to be a seminal year in the ongoing disastrous collapse of the planetary atmosphere.
The most recent such post is here: At the Mauna Loa CO2 Observatory, Yet Another Terrifying, Startling Week in 2024.
I keep spreadsheets of the annual, monthly, weekly data at the observatory, and have recently begun tracking the daily data as well.
The data for February 2024 has just been posted on the Mauna Loa website:
February 2024: 424.55 ppm
February 2023: 420.30 ppm
Last updated: Mar 05, 2024
Monthly Average Mauna Loa CO2
The monthly average data goes back to 1958, and thus increases have been available since 1959. In terms of increases over the month of the previous year, this increase of 4.25 ppm over the average reading recorded in February 2023 is the highest increase ever recorded for any month since 1959.
There have only been, in the entire history of records at the Mauna Loa Observatory, three months in which the average for that month has exceeded an increase of 4.00 ppm over that of the previous year, out of 780 months in the data files, the other two having been recorded in 2016, April (4.16 ppm increase over April 2015) and June (4.01 ppm over June of 2015).
Here's the standard language I use in these posts on the often unremarked tragedy in the planetary atmosphere:
As I've indicated repeatedly in my DU writings, somewhat obsessively I keep a spreadsheet of the data at the Mauna Loa Carbon Dioxide Observatory, which I use to do calculations to record the dying of our atmosphere, a triumph of fear, dogma and ignorance that did not have to be, but nonetheless is, a fact.
Facts matter.
When writing these depressing repeating posts about new records being set, reminiscent, over the years, to the ticking of a clock at a deathwatch, I often repeat some of the language from a previous post on this awful series, as I am doing here with some modifications. It saves time.
A recent post of this nature is here: At the Mauna Loa CO2 Observatory, 2024 Starts With a Fairly Disgusting Bang.
As I've been reporting over the years in various contexts, the concentrations of the dangerous fossil fuel waste carbon dioxide which is killing the planet fluctuate sinusoidally over the year, with the rough sine wave superimposed on a roughly quadratic axis:
Monthly Average Mauna Loa CO2
The Observatory posts on its data pages curated and reviewed averages for daily, weekly, monthly, and annual data. I maintain spreadsheets for the latter three to use in calculations.
Facts matter.
When writing these depressing repeating posts about new records being set, reminiscent, over the years, to the ticking of a clock at a deathwatch, I often repeat some of the language from a previous post on this awful series, as I am doing here with some modifications. It saves time.
A recent post of this nature is here: At the Mauna Loa CO2 Observatory, 2024 Starts With a Fairly Disgusting Bang.
As I've been reporting over the years in various contexts, the concentrations of the dangerous fossil fuel waste carbon dioxide which is killing the planet fluctuate sinusoidally over the year, with the rough sine wave superimposed on a roughly quadratic axis:
Monthly Average Mauna Loa CO2
The Observatory posts on its data pages curated and reviewed averages for daily, weekly, monthly, and annual data. I maintain spreadsheets for the latter three to use in calculations.
Here's what I said in my most recent post on this topic, the one linked above discussing weekly data:
In spite of these ever worsening and ever more astounding numbers - people lie to each other and to themselves but numbers don't lie - you will still find people mindlessly cheering for bourgeois toys that do nothing, be they electric cars, solar cells and/or wind turbines, to address climate change, all of which are exercises in promoting the use of fossil fuels, the destruction of wilderness, and the demand for mining.
The big lie people tell themselves and each other that this pixilated reactionary scheme, electric cars, solar cells, wind turbines, blah, blah, blah is "doing something" about climate change. This is nonsense. That it is nonsense is clearly shown, again, by the numbers. The reactionary scheme of carrying on about so called "renewable energy" that led us here was never about climate change or any other environmental issue and the claim that it is is an afterthought. It was always about attacking the only realistic alternative to fossil fuels, nuclear energy.
The antinukes won and humanity, and in general the rest of the biosphere lost.
We're clueless.
The big lie people tell themselves and each other that this pixilated reactionary scheme, electric cars, solar cells, wind turbines, blah, blah, blah is "doing something" about climate change. This is nonsense. That it is nonsense is clearly shown, again, by the numbers. The reactionary scheme of carrying on about so called "renewable energy" that led us here was never about climate change or any other environmental issue and the claim that it is is an afterthought. It was always about attacking the only realistic alternative to fossil fuels, nuclear energy.
The antinukes won and humanity, and in general the rest of the biosphere lost.
We're clueless.
I repeat: Clueless
...to repeat, repeated
as a day will repeat
its color, the tired sounds
run off its bones...
as a day will repeat
its color, the tired sounds
run off its bones...
To repeat...
March 5, 2024
In fission products, isotopes with a mass number of 151 represent about 0.8% as a mole fraction, and in theory, non-radioactive isotopically 151Eu can be obtained by isolating radioactive 151Sm, and leaching it out as the 151Sm decays.
The paper sited at the outset discusses the separation of the main actinides in used nuclear fuel using the historical Purex process, a solvent extraction process that I personally think should be replaced with fluoride volatility approaches. Both processes will leave behind both europium and americium, f-element congeners, as a residue. Since all europium isotopes are strong absorbers of neutrons, in order to utilize americium as a fuel to exploit some rather spectacular approaches to weapons nonproliferation, the congeners must be separated.
The method in the paper cited at the outset of this post strikes me as pretty cool, since it's more or less flow chemistry. From the introductory paragraphs of that paper:
A crude schematic of the preparation of the solid phase extraction matrix:
The caption:
The separation factors as a function of pH of the eluents.
The caption:
Depending on the mechanical system used, the solid phase exhibits good performance over multiple cycles.
Although over the long term, for various reasons, mainly connected with isotope separation of radioactive and non-radioactive species, for instance the isotopes of palladium, I favor the rapid recycling of hot fuels, initially we will want to learn about these processes using relatively old fuels, of which we have a great deal as a unexpectedly happy circumstance. Because Am arises from the long term decay of 241Pu, older fuels will have more americium than younger fuels, and europium's long lived radioactive isotope 152Eu, will have also largely decayed to stable gadolinium.
I have previously discussed the critical masses of the major americium isotopes elsewhere:
Critical Masses of the Three Accessible Americium Isotopes.
Regrettably I won't have time to go deeper into this paper, nor will I have time to discuss the wonderful properties of americium as a nuclear fuel.
Have a nice day tomorrow.
Fast Clean Separation of Americium and Europium.
The paper I'll discuss in this post is this one: First Report on a 1-Cycle Solid-Phase Extraction Method for Selective Separation of Am3+ and Eu3+: Use of BTP-Grafted Silica Decorated on Activated Carbon Seraj A. Ansari, Rajesh B. Gujar, Arunasis Bhattacharyya, Bharathkumar Thangaraj, Karthikeyan Natesan Sundaramurthy, Cingaram Ravichandran, Subba Rao Toleti, and Prasanta K. Mohapatra
Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 2024 63 (7), 3256-3264.
Europium, possibly because of its ready reduction to its divalent state, is one of the rarest and and most expensive of the lanthanides.
This point is made in another paper in the same issue of Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research as the above mentioned paper appears, this one: Selective Separation of Europium from Lanthanum, Cerium, and Iron Using Porous and Functionalized Polymer, Maha A. Youssef, Emad H. Borai, Abeer El-khalafawy, and Mahmoud G. Hamed Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 2024 63 (7), 3152-3162
From that paper:
One of the most important rare earth elements is europium (Eu), with just 0.05–0.10% w/w in the RE content of the monazite and bastnaesite ores found in different countries such as China. Eu is the rarest and one of the most expensive REs available. (3) Commercially, it is regarded as one of the principal industrial sources to make phosphors, which are primarily employed in fluorescent lighting, computer monitors, mobile phones, and fluorescent lamps. They are also used in very sensitive biomedical investigations, intensive mercury vapor lights, X-ray intensification devices, medications, and neutron scintillation. (4)
In fission products, isotopes with a mass number of 151 represent about 0.8% as a mole fraction, and in theory, non-radioactive isotopically 151Eu can be obtained by isolating radioactive 151Sm, and leaching it out as the 151Sm decays.
The paper sited at the outset discusses the separation of the main actinides in used nuclear fuel using the historical Purex process, a solvent extraction process that I personally think should be replaced with fluoride volatility approaches. Both processes will leave behind both europium and americium, f-element congeners, as a residue. Since all europium isotopes are strong absorbers of neutrons, in order to utilize americium as a fuel to exploit some rather spectacular approaches to weapons nonproliferation, the congeners must be separated.
The method in the paper cited at the outset of this post strikes me as pretty cool, since it's more or less flow chemistry. From the introductory paragraphs of that paper:
1. Introduction
ARTICLE SECTIONSJump To
Nuclear power is rapidly emerging as the most reliable alternative power source to conventional sources because of its low carbon emission burden on the environment and sustainability due to the in situ production of fissile materials, viz., 239Pu. (1?3) One of the major challenges faced in the nuclear industry is the safe handling of the highly radioactive mass known as fission and the activation products. (4) Recycling of the unspent fissile 235U by the closed fuel cycle along with the thus generated 239Pu is one of the most accepted strategies for the sustainable growth of nuclear power. (5,6) The widely used technology for spent fuel reprocessing is the PUREX (Plutonium Uranium Redox EXtraction) process, (7) which involves the selective extraction of U and Pu from the fission products as well as the activation products consisting of the minor actinides, viz., Np, Am, and Cm. The PUREX raffinate is concentrated and acid-killed, resulting in a high-level liquid waste (HLLW) whose management has attracted the attention of scientists and technologists working on the back-end processes. While the present practice of the HLLW management involves conversion of the waste oxide to vitrified glass blocks, which can be kept under surveillance after burial in deep geological repositories, R&D efforts have indicated eased surveillance period by a fast-evolving strategy termed as “actinide partitioning” followed by the transmutation of the long-lived minor actinides. (8?11) However, the extractions of trivalent minor actinides have serious interference from the trivalent lanthanides, requiring an effective method for the separation of the trivalent f-cations.
The separation of trivalent actinides and lanthanides is one of the most difficult tasks in separation chemistry due to their similar chemical properties. (12?16) Although much progress has been made concerning the development of extractants, the liquid–liquid extraction process has certain drawbacks, such as excess utilization of volatile organic compound (VOC)-based solvents, secondary waste accumulation, emulsion formation between phases, and multistage extraction processes, which will affect the economic performance of the process in large-scale practical applications. Alternatively, solid-phase extraction technique (17) has been considered as a relatively “green” separation method with high separation efficiency due to the possibility of column mode operation and easy scale-up options. Extraction chromatography, which uses solid adsorbents whose pores contain the selective organic extractant for selective extraction of the metal ion of interest, has attracted the attention of researchers working in the area of nuclear fuel cycle processes due to simplicity, ease of operation, recovery of elements, stability and reusability of absorbent, safety with respect to hazardous reagents/samples, and consumption of less organic solvents, which have a positive impact on the economics and safety toward extraction of spent nuclear fuel radionuclides. (18)
A large number of reports on solid absorbents using alumina, zeolites, polymers, impregnated resins, silica, magnetic nanomaterials, and carbon-based materials (graphene oxide, CNT, and activated carbon) have appeared in the literature. (19?21) Activated carbon (AC) is a popular choice of absorbent among all those commonly used owing to its high surface area, porous structure, nontoxic nature, low cost, adsorption capacity, surface reactivity, thermal as well as chemical stability, and unlimited availability of natural carbon sources (agricultural waste). (21?23) Conceivably, the chemical modification of AC materials is an adaptable method to enhance their selectivity toward specific analytes. (24?26) Most frequently, –OH, –CHO, –COOH, and –COOR groups are utilized in the modification procedures.
In our previous studies, we synthesized a few hydrophilic BTP ligands (SO3PhBTP, SO3PhBTBP, and SO3PhBTPhen) and investigated their efficacy for Am3+ and Eu3+ separation via solvent extraction as well as supported liquid-membrane (SLM) studies. (12) Encouraged by these results, and in order to evaluate the scope and limitations of the solid-supported BTP, a novel BTP-embedded activated carbon AC–Si–BTP was prepared for the first time. In this approach, R–BTP was synthesized and anchored onto an AC surface using silica (Si–R) as a linker. The surface aryl groups of AC have been exploited, and surface-anchored BTP can contribute to extraction; hence, a potential enhancement in minor actinide separation is expected. As represented in Figure 1, the aim of the present work is to selectively load Am3+ onto the AC–Si–BTP composite material making it a direct 1-cycle separation process with the BTP-based compound in the same way Cyanex 301-based solid-phase extraction materials reported in the literature. (27) The only BTP-based solid-phase extraction method for Ln–An separation was extraction chromatography using a tripodal diglycolamide (T-DGA), which used an aqueous soluble BTP (SO3PhBTP) as the complexing eluent, making it a 2-cycle separation process. (28)...
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Nuclear power is rapidly emerging as the most reliable alternative power source to conventional sources because of its low carbon emission burden on the environment and sustainability due to the in situ production of fissile materials, viz., 239Pu. (1?3) One of the major challenges faced in the nuclear industry is the safe handling of the highly radioactive mass known as fission and the activation products. (4) Recycling of the unspent fissile 235U by the closed fuel cycle along with the thus generated 239Pu is one of the most accepted strategies for the sustainable growth of nuclear power. (5,6) The widely used technology for spent fuel reprocessing is the PUREX (Plutonium Uranium Redox EXtraction) process, (7) which involves the selective extraction of U and Pu from the fission products as well as the activation products consisting of the minor actinides, viz., Np, Am, and Cm. The PUREX raffinate is concentrated and acid-killed, resulting in a high-level liquid waste (HLLW) whose management has attracted the attention of scientists and technologists working on the back-end processes. While the present practice of the HLLW management involves conversion of the waste oxide to vitrified glass blocks, which can be kept under surveillance after burial in deep geological repositories, R&D efforts have indicated eased surveillance period by a fast-evolving strategy termed as “actinide partitioning” followed by the transmutation of the long-lived minor actinides. (8?11) However, the extractions of trivalent minor actinides have serious interference from the trivalent lanthanides, requiring an effective method for the separation of the trivalent f-cations.
The separation of trivalent actinides and lanthanides is one of the most difficult tasks in separation chemistry due to their similar chemical properties. (12?16) Although much progress has been made concerning the development of extractants, the liquid–liquid extraction process has certain drawbacks, such as excess utilization of volatile organic compound (VOC)-based solvents, secondary waste accumulation, emulsion formation between phases, and multistage extraction processes, which will affect the economic performance of the process in large-scale practical applications. Alternatively, solid-phase extraction technique (17) has been considered as a relatively “green” separation method with high separation efficiency due to the possibility of column mode operation and easy scale-up options. Extraction chromatography, which uses solid adsorbents whose pores contain the selective organic extractant for selective extraction of the metal ion of interest, has attracted the attention of researchers working in the area of nuclear fuel cycle processes due to simplicity, ease of operation, recovery of elements, stability and reusability of absorbent, safety with respect to hazardous reagents/samples, and consumption of less organic solvents, which have a positive impact on the economics and safety toward extraction of spent nuclear fuel radionuclides. (18)
A large number of reports on solid absorbents using alumina, zeolites, polymers, impregnated resins, silica, magnetic nanomaterials, and carbon-based materials (graphene oxide, CNT, and activated carbon) have appeared in the literature. (19?21) Activated carbon (AC) is a popular choice of absorbent among all those commonly used owing to its high surface area, porous structure, nontoxic nature, low cost, adsorption capacity, surface reactivity, thermal as well as chemical stability, and unlimited availability of natural carbon sources (agricultural waste). (21?23) Conceivably, the chemical modification of AC materials is an adaptable method to enhance their selectivity toward specific analytes. (24?26) Most frequently, –OH, –CHO, –COOH, and –COOR groups are utilized in the modification procedures.
In our previous studies, we synthesized a few hydrophilic BTP ligands (SO3PhBTP, SO3PhBTBP, and SO3PhBTPhen) and investigated their efficacy for Am3+ and Eu3+ separation via solvent extraction as well as supported liquid-membrane (SLM) studies. (12) Encouraged by these results, and in order to evaluate the scope and limitations of the solid-supported BTP, a novel BTP-embedded activated carbon AC–Si–BTP was prepared for the first time. In this approach, R–BTP was synthesized and anchored onto an AC surface using silica (Si–R) as a linker. The surface aryl groups of AC have been exploited, and surface-anchored BTP can contribute to extraction; hence, a potential enhancement in minor actinide separation is expected. As represented in Figure 1, the aim of the present work is to selectively load Am3+ onto the AC–Si–BTP composite material making it a direct 1-cycle separation process with the BTP-based compound in the same way Cyanex 301-based solid-phase extraction materials reported in the literature. (27) The only BTP-based solid-phase extraction method for Ln–An separation was extraction chromatography using a tripodal diglycolamide (T-DGA), which used an aqueous soluble BTP (SO3PhBTP) as the complexing eluent, making it a 2-cycle separation process. (28)...
A crude schematic of the preparation of the solid phase extraction matrix:
The caption:
Scheme I. Synthesis Protocol for the Preparation of AC–Si–BTP (R = Sulfonyl Group (SO3H))
The separation factors as a function of pH of the eluents.
The caption:
Figure 3. Influence of aqueous feed acidity on the distribution coefficient (Kd) and separation factor of Am3+ and Eu3+, as observed from their uptake on the AC–Si–BTP composite.
Depending on the mechanical system used, the solid phase exhibits good performance over multiple cycles.
Although over the long term, for various reasons, mainly connected with isotope separation of radioactive and non-radioactive species, for instance the isotopes of palladium, I favor the rapid recycling of hot fuels, initially we will want to learn about these processes using relatively old fuels, of which we have a great deal as a unexpectedly happy circumstance. Because Am arises from the long term decay of 241Pu, older fuels will have more americium than younger fuels, and europium's long lived radioactive isotope 152Eu, will have also largely decayed to stable gadolinium.
I have previously discussed the critical masses of the major americium isotopes elsewhere:
Critical Masses of the Three Accessible Americium Isotopes.
Regrettably I won't have time to go deeper into this paper, nor will I have time to discuss the wonderful properties of americium as a nuclear fuel.
Have a nice day tomorrow.
March 3, 2024
I'm not entirely sure that there's a "great need" for this reagent under present conditions, for various reasons I favor the fast recycling of highly radioactive nuclear fuel, so such a polymer might prove useful under these conditions. I also favor the production of highly radioactive isotopes of iodine, 128I and 130I as a source of xenon.
As I pointed out 17 years ago, and have yet to change my mind, I don't think that the removal 129I is justified only when there is an economic or serious environmental reason for doing so, and right now there isn't such a reason, health or otherwise. There are more useful and productive ways to spend money to save human lives than worrying about 129I. However the exposure of air to intense radiation has much to recommend it though I don't have time right now to discuss why that is.
Anyway, here's a graphic about the rather simple process utilized to make this iodine capture agent from seaweed:
The caption:
Obviously the product sequesters carbon in use but this is unlikely to amount to much since the high energy to mass ratio that makes nuclear energy environmentally superior to all other forms of energy means that not all that much is required.
The authors report that their product is extremely cheap to make, very effective, and recyclable.
I hope you're having a pleasant Sunday afternoon.
Alginate-Based Ionic Polymer Composite Derived from Seaweeds for Efficient Iodine Capture
The paper to which I'll briefly refer in this post is this one: Alginate-Based Ionic Polymer Composite Derived from Seaweeds for Efficient Iodine Capture Qian Huang, Jie Fu, Yuan-Hao Wang, Shuang-Long Wang, Jia-Ying Liu, Shi-Jie Guo, Song Qin, Guo-Hong Tao, and Ling He ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 2024 12 (8), 3089-3099.
This is about the capture of radioactive iodine, including but not limited to 129I, a slightly radioactive form of iodine with a half life of over 15 million years.
I discussed this isotope, 129I, it's release by French Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing, and its appearance in the Mississippi River some 17 years ago on a website where I was ultimately banned for telling the truth: Radioactive Isotopes from French Commercial Nuclear Fuel Found In Mississippi River.
(If one is going to get banned somewhere, there's no better way to do that than telling the truth, an inconvenient truth as they say.)
I'm perfectly OK, if one must know, with the release of 129I to the environment, although I'm rather fond, for economic and technical reasons, with retaining it for use. It is, however, radioactive.
Anyway, the authors of this paper represent that 129I is problematic, and although I disagree, I do favor the use of radioiodine in settings where highly radioactive isotopes are present 131I notably.
From the introduction to the paper:
A sustainable global energy transition will entail increased use of renewable energy sources, particularly wind and solar, and nuclear energy as a low-carbon energy source. Nuclear energy is “carbon-free,” meaning that, like wind and solar, it does not directly produce carbon dioxide (CO2) or other greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. This makes nuclear energy instrumental in alleviating the global energy crisis and reducing greenhouse gases. However, the reprocessing of nuclear fuel has become an increasingly concerning issue for countries around the world today. Radioactive matter produced in the reprocessing of spent fuel is hazardous to the environment and human health, especially volatile radioactive iodine. (1) As a volatile radioactive waste, radioactive iodine has an extremely long half-life ( 129I, t 1/2 = 1.57 × 107 years) (2) with beta minus and gamma emissions (131I). (3) In addition, due to the thyroid’s enrichment of iodine, they can cause continuous damage to human health through the respiratory tract and food chains. (3,4) Therefore, there is a great need to remove radioactive iodine from the environment. (5,6)
So far, adsorption has become a widely used method of iodine capture for its versatility, effectiveness, and maneuverability. Common porous solid adsorbents include silver-containing materials, (7) metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), (8?10) conjugated microporous polymers, (11?13) covalent organic frameworks (COFs), (14?17) porous aromatic frameworks, (18,19) etc. Furthermore, ionic liquids (ILs) and deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have been used to efficiently capture and store I2 due to the halogen bonding between I2 and halides in ILs/DESs. (20?22) Although most of these adsorbents have considerable iodine adsorption capabilities, they are inevitably synthesized by expensive monomers and catalysts, complex preparation processes, or harsh conditions, which are not suitable for large-scale applications. Therefore, developing effective iodine adsorbents directly from accessible and low-cost starting materials, especially natural biomass resources, is a feasible strategy.
Seaweeds, mainly macroalgae that can be seen with the naked eye, are classified into three major groups: brown algae (Phaeophyceae), green algae (Chlorophyta), and red algae (Rhodophyta). (23) There are many kinds of seaweeds, and to date, tens of thousands of different seaweeds have been identified. (24) Seaweeds generally reproduce asexually, which allows for fast propagation of the species. Moreover, it has been more than 70 years since seaweeds were shown to be among Earth’s most productive organisms. (25) Due to their rapid regeneration, seaweeds grow in abundance in oceans. The annual macroalgae harvest from wild and cultivated crops was 28.4 million tons in 2014. This is a rise of 43% compared to 2010, when 19.9 million tons of seaweed were harvested. (26) On the other hand, the massive scouring of coastal shores by seaweeds has caused serious economic damage to tourism, aquaculture, and traditional fisheries. The “algal bloom” caused by seaweed flooding occurred in 126 coastal countries globally. (27) Therefore, fast-regenerated and abundant seaweeds may be biomass resources for sustainable development. The industrialization of seaweeds has a history spanning more than 300 years. Whether from aquaculture or algal blooms, seaweeds contain considerable amounts of alginic acid (HAlg). Due to their abundance, renewability, and low cost, alginic acids are widely used in food, pharmaceuticals, and biomaterials. In the laboratory, alginate’s abundance of hydroxyl and carboxyl functional groups makes it an ideal raw material for the preparation of a variety of functional adsorbents...
So far, adsorption has become a widely used method of iodine capture for its versatility, effectiveness, and maneuverability. Common porous solid adsorbents include silver-containing materials, (7) metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), (8?10) conjugated microporous polymers, (11?13) covalent organic frameworks (COFs), (14?17) porous aromatic frameworks, (18,19) etc. Furthermore, ionic liquids (ILs) and deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have been used to efficiently capture and store I2 due to the halogen bonding between I2 and halides in ILs/DESs. (20?22) Although most of these adsorbents have considerable iodine adsorption capabilities, they are inevitably synthesized by expensive monomers and catalysts, complex preparation processes, or harsh conditions, which are not suitable for large-scale applications. Therefore, developing effective iodine adsorbents directly from accessible and low-cost starting materials, especially natural biomass resources, is a feasible strategy.
Seaweeds, mainly macroalgae that can be seen with the naked eye, are classified into three major groups: brown algae (Phaeophyceae), green algae (Chlorophyta), and red algae (Rhodophyta). (23) There are many kinds of seaweeds, and to date, tens of thousands of different seaweeds have been identified. (24) Seaweeds generally reproduce asexually, which allows for fast propagation of the species. Moreover, it has been more than 70 years since seaweeds were shown to be among Earth’s most productive organisms. (25) Due to their rapid regeneration, seaweeds grow in abundance in oceans. The annual macroalgae harvest from wild and cultivated crops was 28.4 million tons in 2014. This is a rise of 43% compared to 2010, when 19.9 million tons of seaweed were harvested. (26) On the other hand, the massive scouring of coastal shores by seaweeds has caused serious economic damage to tourism, aquaculture, and traditional fisheries. The “algal bloom” caused by seaweed flooding occurred in 126 coastal countries globally. (27) Therefore, fast-regenerated and abundant seaweeds may be biomass resources for sustainable development. The industrialization of seaweeds has a history spanning more than 300 years. Whether from aquaculture or algal blooms, seaweeds contain considerable amounts of alginic acid (HAlg). Due to their abundance, renewability, and low cost, alginic acids are widely used in food, pharmaceuticals, and biomaterials. In the laboratory, alginate’s abundance of hydroxyl and carboxyl functional groups makes it an ideal raw material for the preparation of a variety of functional adsorbents...
I'm not entirely sure that there's a "great need" for this reagent under present conditions, for various reasons I favor the fast recycling of highly radioactive nuclear fuel, so such a polymer might prove useful under these conditions. I also favor the production of highly radioactive isotopes of iodine, 128I and 130I as a source of xenon.
As I pointed out 17 years ago, and have yet to change my mind, I don't think that the removal 129I is justified only when there is an economic or serious environmental reason for doing so, and right now there isn't such a reason, health or otherwise. There are more useful and productive ways to spend money to save human lives than worrying about 129I. However the exposure of air to intense radiation has much to recommend it though I don't have time right now to discuss why that is.
Anyway, here's a graphic about the rather simple process utilized to make this iodine capture agent from seaweed:
The caption:
Scheme 1. Fabrication of Alginate-Based Ionic Polymer Composite (AIP@MF)
Obviously the product sequesters carbon in use but this is unlikely to amount to much since the high energy to mass ratio that makes nuclear energy environmentally superior to all other forms of energy means that not all that much is required.
The authors report that their product is extremely cheap to make, very effective, and recyclable.
I hope you're having a pleasant Sunday afternoon.
March 3, 2024
Let's cut to the chase with some statistics on what is already shaping up to be a mind blowing disaster in terms of accumulations of the dangerous fossil fuel waste carbon dioxide.
The data from week 8 of 2024, which, if it is continues as it has been going through the first 8 weeks, will certainly go down in history as a landmark disaster :
Week beginning on February 25, 2024: 425.28 ppm
Weekly value from 1 year ago: 421.24 ppm
Weekly value from 10 years ago: 398.32 ppm
Last updated: March 02, 2024
Weekly average CO2 at Mauna Loa
This week's increase from week 8 of 2023 compared to week 8 of 2024 is 4.04 ppm.
There are 2509 weekly data points recorded on the Mauna Loa Observatory's pages; this is the 20th highest ever recorded. It is one of only 24 readings out of 2509 to exceed 4.00 ppm. Of the fifty highest readings out of 2509, four have taken place in the first 8 weeks of 2024, included the two highest ever recorded included, 5.75 ppm higher in week 5 of 2024 in comparison to week 5 of 2023, and 5.53 higher in week 7 of 2024 compared to week 7 of 2023. Week 5 and week 7 of 2024 represent two of only three such week to week comparators with readings of the previous year to exceed 5.00 ppm. The only other such an increase to exceed 5.00 ppm occurred in 2016, the previous "worst year ever" in CO2 accumulations, 5.04 ppm recorded in the week beginning July 31, 2016, week 28 when compared with week 28 of 2015.
Of the top 50 highest readings out of the 2509, 13 have taken place in the last 5 years, 34 in the last 10 years, and 41 in this century.
In terms of week to week comparators with weeks 10 years earlier, week 8 of 2024 is the second worst ever recorded, 26.96 ppm higher than week 8 of 2014.
A 52 week running average of 10 year week to week comparators has now reached 24.71 ppm/10 years, the highest level ever recorded. In the seventh week of 2001, that running average was 15.25 ppm/10 years.
Things are getting worse faster than ever.
Here's the slightly modified standard language from my Mauna Loa posts, which I am now putting near the end of these posts explaining some features of these depressing posts reporting the collapse of the planetary atmosphere:
Here's what I said last week about this situation:
This week, as usual, I had to listen here to mindless assholes whining insipidly about Chernobyl/Fukushima as if they matter in this context, along with a wood worker who doesn't give a shit if all the forests in the world burn because he, she, them or it happily runs woodworking power tools with his/her/their solar cells and thus, he, she, them or it says, "I'm doing my part."
One hears these things, and one doesn't really want to believe it, but one does hear them again and again and again.
It's all bourgeois head up the ass stuff, really.
Once again, numbers don't lie.
Brace yourself for impact.
Just like I said last week:
Enjoy the rest of the weekend.
The Disastrous 2024 CO2 Measurements at the Mauna Loa Observatory Continue
This is a regrettable add on to my post of last week, which was this one:
At the Mauna Loa CO2 Observatory, Yet Another Terrifying, Startling Week in 2024.
It began like this:
Two weeks ago I interrupted my standard language for my "monitoring the collapse of the atmosphere through the Mauna Loa CO2 observatory" posts, to remark on being incredibly shocked by the numbers in 2024.
That post is here: At the Mauna Loa CO2 Observatory, a Terrifying, Startling Week and Month, New Records Everywhere.
I also had a thread with a correction to statements I made in that post: An Illuminating Error in My Recent Terrifying Mauna Loa Post....
That post is here: At the Mauna Loa CO2 Observatory, a Terrifying, Startling Week and Month, New Records Everywhere.
I also had a thread with a correction to statements I made in that post: An Illuminating Error in My Recent Terrifying Mauna Loa Post....
Let's cut to the chase with some statistics on what is already shaping up to be a mind blowing disaster in terms of accumulations of the dangerous fossil fuel waste carbon dioxide.
The data from week 8 of 2024, which, if it is continues as it has been going through the first 8 weeks, will certainly go down in history as a landmark disaster :
Week beginning on February 25, 2024: 425.28 ppm
Weekly value from 1 year ago: 421.24 ppm
Weekly value from 10 years ago: 398.32 ppm
Last updated: March 02, 2024
Weekly average CO2 at Mauna Loa
This week's increase from week 8 of 2023 compared to week 8 of 2024 is 4.04 ppm.
There are 2509 weekly data points recorded on the Mauna Loa Observatory's pages; this is the 20th highest ever recorded. It is one of only 24 readings out of 2509 to exceed 4.00 ppm. Of the fifty highest readings out of 2509, four have taken place in the first 8 weeks of 2024, included the two highest ever recorded included, 5.75 ppm higher in week 5 of 2024 in comparison to week 5 of 2023, and 5.53 higher in week 7 of 2024 compared to week 7 of 2023. Week 5 and week 7 of 2024 represent two of only three such week to week comparators with readings of the previous year to exceed 5.00 ppm. The only other such an increase to exceed 5.00 ppm occurred in 2016, the previous "worst year ever" in CO2 accumulations, 5.04 ppm recorded in the week beginning July 31, 2016, week 28 when compared with week 28 of 2015.
Of the top 50 highest readings out of the 2509, 13 have taken place in the last 5 years, 34 in the last 10 years, and 41 in this century.
In terms of week to week comparators with weeks 10 years earlier, week 8 of 2024 is the second worst ever recorded, 26.96 ppm higher than week 8 of 2014.
A 52 week running average of 10 year week to week comparators has now reached 24.71 ppm/10 years, the highest level ever recorded. In the seventh week of 2001, that running average was 15.25 ppm/10 years.
Things are getting worse faster than ever.
Here's the slightly modified standard language from my Mauna Loa posts, which I am now putting near the end of these posts explaining some features of these depressing posts reporting the collapse of the planetary atmosphere:
As I've indicated repeatedly in my DU writings, somewhat obsessively I keep a spreadsheet of the data at the Mauna Loa Carbon Dioxide Observatory, which I use to do calculations to record the dying of our atmosphere, a triumph of fear, dogma and ignorance that did not have to be, but nonetheless is, a fact.
Facts matter.
When writing these depressing repeating posts about new records being set, reminiscent, over the years, to the ticking of a clock at a deathwatch, I often repeat some of the language from a previous post on this awful series, as I am doing here with some modifications. It saves time.
A recent post of this nature is here: At the Mauna Loa CO2 Observatory, 2024 Starts With a Fairly Disgusting Bang.
As I've been reporting over the years in various contexts, the concentrations of the dangerous fossil fuel waste carbon dioxide which is killing the planet fluctuate sinusoidally over the year, with the rough sine wave superimposed on a roughly quadratic axis:
Monthly Average Mauna Loa CO2
The Observatory posts on its data pages curated and reviewed averages for daily, weekly, monthly, and annual data. I maintain spreadsheets for all four to use in calculations.
Facts matter.
When writing these depressing repeating posts about new records being set, reminiscent, over the years, to the ticking of a clock at a deathwatch, I often repeat some of the language from a previous post on this awful series, as I am doing here with some modifications. It saves time.
A recent post of this nature is here: At the Mauna Loa CO2 Observatory, 2024 Starts With a Fairly Disgusting Bang.
As I've been reporting over the years in various contexts, the concentrations of the dangerous fossil fuel waste carbon dioxide which is killing the planet fluctuate sinusoidally over the year, with the rough sine wave superimposed on a roughly quadratic axis:
Monthly Average Mauna Loa CO2
The Observatory posts on its data pages curated and reviewed averages for daily, weekly, monthly, and annual data. I maintain spreadsheets for all four to use in calculations.
Here's what I said last week about this situation:
In spite of these ever worsening and ever more astounding numbers - people lie to each other and to themselves but numbers don't lie - you will still find people mindlessly cheering for bourgeois toys that do nothing, be they electric cars, solar cells and/or wind turbines, to address climate change, all of which are exercises in promoting the use of fossil fuels, the destruction of wilderness, and the demand for mining.
The big lie people tell themselves and each other that this pixilated reactionary scheme, electric cars, solar cells, wind turbines, blah, blah, blah is "doing something" about climate change. This is nonsense. That it is nonsense is clearly shown, again, by the numbers. The reactionary scheme of carrying on about so called "renewable energy" that led us here was never about climate change or any other environmental issue and the claim that it is is an afterthought. It was always about attacking the only realistic alternative to fossil fuels, nuclear energy.
The antinukes won and humanity, and in general the rest of the biosphere lost.
We're clueless.
Enjoy the weekend.
The big lie people tell themselves and each other that this pixilated reactionary scheme, electric cars, solar cells, wind turbines, blah, blah, blah is "doing something" about climate change. This is nonsense. That it is nonsense is clearly shown, again, by the numbers. The reactionary scheme of carrying on about so called "renewable energy" that led us here was never about climate change or any other environmental issue and the claim that it is is an afterthought. It was always about attacking the only realistic alternative to fossil fuels, nuclear energy.
The antinukes won and humanity, and in general the rest of the biosphere lost.
We're clueless.
Enjoy the weekend.
This week, as usual, I had to listen here to mindless assholes whining insipidly about Chernobyl/Fukushima as if they matter in this context, along with a wood worker who doesn't give a shit if all the forests in the world burn because he, she, them or it happily runs woodworking power tools with his/her/their solar cells and thus, he, she, them or it says, "I'm doing my part."
One hears these things, and one doesn't really want to believe it, but one does hear them again and again and again.
It's all bourgeois head up the ass stuff, really.
Once again, numbers don't lie.
Brace yourself for impact.
Just like I said last week:
We're clueless.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend.
February 27, 2024
My favorite, by far, fiction writer of all time, if only for the best opening line of a book that is not an opening line:
"Listen."
Kurt Vonnegut on the Shapes of Stories.
My favorite, by far, fiction writer of all time, if only for the best opening line of a book that is not an opening line:
"Listen."
February 27, 2024
The authors passed seawater through straws of various composition, as described in the intro, photographed them and weighed them and studied the organisms growing on them.
Some graphical results:
The caption:
The caption:
From the conclusion:
Small things are big problems, and for the big problems we need people working on seemingly small things that turn out to not be all that small.
Have a nice evening.
Strategies to Reduce the Environmental Lifetimes of Drinking Straws in the Coastal Ocean
The paper to which I'll briefly refer is this one: Strategies to Reduce the Environmental Lifetimes of Drinking Straws in the Coastal Ocean. Bryan D. James, Yanchen Sun, Mounir Izallalen, Sharmistha Mazumder, Steven T. Perri, Brian Edwards, Jos de Wit, Christopher M. Reddy, and Collin P. Ward ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 2024 12 (6), 2404-2411.
I try to think about every piece of plastic I handle these days, considering that each may last centuries after my death. I avoid plastics where possible, but frankly it often isn't possible. In the case of straws, and for that matter cup covers, I avoid using them at all. You can drink liquids without a straw. I also have reusable coffee cups, two given to me as promotional trinkets by an instrument company trying to sell me instruments.
Anyway, straws are a problem:
From the introductory text:
An estimated 63–142 billion drinking straws are used in the United States annually, (1) contributing to the approximately $19 billion drinking straw market. (2) Complementary to their significant usage, drinking straws are a common, visibly jarring marine litter, accounting for approximately 5% of all shoreline and nearshore debris. (3) Because of this and their potential to harm charismatic megafauna, municipalities, states, and countries have begun restricting conventional polypropylene (PP) single-use straws in favor of those made from materials marketed as more degradable. Major brands have started adopting many of these bioplastic alternatives as they increasingly require the plastics they use to be biodegradable in all natural environments (e.g., compost, soil, freshwater, and marine). Yet, these regulatory and material selection decisions have lacked robust, environmentally relevant data to support them. The environmental lifetimes of single-use drinking straws and the biodegradation rates of their materials in the marine environment are uncertain. Unsubstantiated estimates for PP straws range from 100 to 700 years. (4) To date, the environmental lifetimes of commercial drinking straws in the coastal ocean are poorly characterized, and the controls on their environmental lifetimes are unknown, including the microbial communities that degrade them.
In this initial study, we aimed to constrain the environmental lifetimes of commercial drinking straws in the coastal ocean, determine the microbial communities assembling on and presumably degrading these items, and assess engineered strategies to minimize persistence. We exposed commercial drinking straws made of cellulose diacetate (CDA), polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), coated and uncoated paper, industrially compostable polylactic acid (PLA), and PP to marine microbes in a flow-through seawater mesocosm for 16 weeks. Throughout the experiment, we measured the mass loss of the straws and collected biofilms from the straws at the end of 16 weeks for microbial community analyses...
In this initial study, we aimed to constrain the environmental lifetimes of commercial drinking straws in the coastal ocean, determine the microbial communities assembling on and presumably degrading these items, and assess engineered strategies to minimize persistence. We exposed commercial drinking straws made of cellulose diacetate (CDA), polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), coated and uncoated paper, industrially compostable polylactic acid (PLA), and PP to marine microbes in a flow-through seawater mesocosm for 16 weeks. Throughout the experiment, we measured the mass loss of the straws and collected biofilms from the straws at the end of 16 weeks for microbial community analyses...
The authors passed seawater through straws of various composition, as described in the intro, photographed them and weighed them and studied the organisms growing on them.
Some graphical results:
The caption:
Figure 1. Representative images of each straw initially and after 10 and 16 weeks in a flow-through seawater mesocosm.
The caption:
Figure 2. (A) Relative mass loss of each straw (mean ± standard deviation, n = 3; Table S3). (B) Comparison of specific surface degradation rates (kd) measured for several plastic types and formulations in the marine environment; stars represent data from this study (Table S1), whereas circles represent data from the literature (7,22?32) (Table S4).
From the conclusion:
Despite the prevalence of drinking straws as marine debris, (3) their market capitalization is projected to grow by approximately $10 billion in the next decade. (2) In the face of this forecast growth, policies limiting or restricting the use of drinking straws or the materials for which they are made are becoming commonplace. Persistence is a key variable in regulatory frameworks; however, legislators lack robust, environmentally relevant data to inform decision-making. (4) Overall, replacement products must retain functionality while achieving sustainability goals, which has been challenging for paper straws cast as solutions to plastic straws. (38,39) Our study reports that many bioplastic straws are readily fouled and degraded by distinct microbial communities in the coastal ocean and, thus, are unlikely to persist and accumulate if leaked. Moreover, we demonstrate that seemingly simple engineering approaches (e.g., foaming) can substantially accelerate the degradation of readily biodegradable products, resulting in their reduced persistence. Future products should be designed for chemistry (using polymers susceptible to biodegradation), surface area (enhancing reactivity), and selection pressures (stimulating the growth of degrading microbes), thereby minimizing the persistence and, thus, ecosystem impacts of mismanaged plastics that leak into coastal environments.
Small things are big problems, and for the big problems we need people working on seemingly small things that turn out to not be all that small.
Have a nice evening.
February 27, 2024
Some excerpts:
Supernova mystery solved: JWST reveals the fate of an iconic stellar explosion
From my Nature News feed:
Supernova mystery solved: JWST reveals the fate of an iconic stellar explosion
Subtitle:
Decades-long quest ends as the landmark observatory detects signs of the 1987 blast’s central neutron star.
Some excerpts:
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has solved a decades-old mystery about one of the most famous explosions of a star in history.
Astronomers used the observatory to finally spot signs of an ultradense ‘neutron star’ lurking in the explosion’s core in a galaxy that orbits the Milky Way. Light from the explosion reached Earth 37 years ago this week, in a supernova that revolutionized modern astrophysics by providing an up-close look at how stars die.
But despite years of studying this blast, known as supernova (SN) 1987A, astronomers had not been able to detect what was left behind: maybe a black hole, which can sometimes be formed, or perhaps a neutron star, as many predicted?
“It’s something that’s been searched for ever since the explosion,” says Patrick Kavanagh, an astrophysicist at Maynooth University in Ireland, and a member of the team reporting the discovery today in Science1. “And now we’ve found it.”
JWST did not observe the neutron star directly, because it remains obscured behind a veil of dust from the explosion. But the telescope detected light coming from argon and sulfur atoms that had been ionized, or electrically charged, by radiation blazing from the long-sought neutron star...
... One outcome of such a supernova is to leave behind a black hole. But early observations of SN 1987A, such as the wave of neutrinos, suggested that it should have given rise to a neutron star, which can be just 20 kilometres across but is so dense that a teaspoonful weighs millions of tonnes. Astronomers have found several tantalizing hints of this outcome using other telescopes, but none have yielded a solid conclusion, meaning that other possibilities were still on the table2,3.
Enter JWST, which launched in late 2021 and can observe celestial bodies at different wavelengths and higher resolution than can many other telescopes. In July 2022, in some of its first scientific observations, the powerful space telescope observed SN 1987A for nine hours. Two of its cutting-edge instruments provided unprecedented insights into what was happening at the heart of the exploded star...
Astronomers used the observatory to finally spot signs of an ultradense ‘neutron star’ lurking in the explosion’s core in a galaxy that orbits the Milky Way. Light from the explosion reached Earth 37 years ago this week, in a supernova that revolutionized modern astrophysics by providing an up-close look at how stars die.
But despite years of studying this blast, known as supernova (SN) 1987A, astronomers had not been able to detect what was left behind: maybe a black hole, which can sometimes be formed, or perhaps a neutron star, as many predicted?
“It’s something that’s been searched for ever since the explosion,” says Patrick Kavanagh, an astrophysicist at Maynooth University in Ireland, and a member of the team reporting the discovery today in Science1. “And now we’ve found it.”
JWST did not observe the neutron star directly, because it remains obscured behind a veil of dust from the explosion. But the telescope detected light coming from argon and sulfur atoms that had been ionized, or electrically charged, by radiation blazing from the long-sought neutron star...
... One outcome of such a supernova is to leave behind a black hole. But early observations of SN 1987A, such as the wave of neutrinos, suggested that it should have given rise to a neutron star, which can be just 20 kilometres across but is so dense that a teaspoonful weighs millions of tonnes. Astronomers have found several tantalizing hints of this outcome using other telescopes, but none have yielded a solid conclusion, meaning that other possibilities were still on the table2,3.
Enter JWST, which launched in late 2021 and can observe celestial bodies at different wavelengths and higher resolution than can many other telescopes. In July 2022, in some of its first scientific observations, the powerful space telescope observed SN 1987A for nine hours. Two of its cutting-edge instruments provided unprecedented insights into what was happening at the heart of the exploded star...
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