Norfolk Southern CEO dodges question on support for railway reform bill

BY ZACK BUDRYK - 03/22/23 


Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw testifies before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing to examine protecting public health and the environment in the wake of the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, Thursday, March 9, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

Norfolk Southern Railway CEO Alan Shaw said Wednesday that he supports certain aspects of a bipartisan railroad safety bill introduced after a train operated by the company crashed in East Palestine, Ohio, but declined to endorse the bill as a whole.

Shaw, testifying before the Senate Commerce Committee, told Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) that there are “many provisions” in the bill, sponsored by Ohio Sens. Sherrod Brown (D) and J.D. Vance (R) “for which we give our full-throated endorsement.” Asked by Klobuchar if he supported the bill itself, Shaw repeated, “I support a number of provisions within the bill.”

When the Minnesota Democrat followed up by asking which provisions in the legislation he did not support, Shaw instead began listing off provisions he endorsed, including funding for first-responder hazardous materials training and expansion of advanced notification.

Klobuchar vowed to submit the question in writing, saying, “I don’t want this to be one of those moments where we take two years to pass a bill.”

Vance, a member of the committee, also made witness remarks in which he urged colleagues to support the bill. As in his opening remarks at an earlier hearing of the Environment and Public Works Committee, Vance blasted the argument that the legislation would constitute interference in the free market.

“The most outrageous and the most ridiculous thing that I’ve heard from industry groups and other activists in response to this bill is that it’s somehow a kind of Bolshevism to require the railroads to engage in proper safety standards,” he said. He referenced the rail industry successfully lobbying Congress to pass a bill breaking a looming rail strike in late 2022.FAA calls on airline industry to take action following series of close callsCDC: Tainted eye drops linked to three deaths, vision loss

The Ohio Republican, who testified before Shaw, blasted what he said have been Norfolk Southern’s “blurry legalisms” in descriptions of their corrective actions. “Phrases from their announcement, ‘develop a plan,’ ‘anticipates adding,’ and ‘where practical’ are not enough, not when towns across America are at stake.”

Brown and Vance’s measure would transfer oversight of certain safety procedures from rail operators to the federal government, tighten requirements for trains carrying hazardous materials and introduce more modern tank cars. President Biden has endorsed the measure and Brown told The Hill last week that he believes it can secure a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority in the Senate.

The Norfolk Southern train, which was carrying several cars of the hazardous chemical vinyl chloride, derailed in East Palestine on Feb. 3. The Environmental Protection Agency has taken over cleanup effort and has said Norfolk Southern will be held financially liable for all relief.

Fed hikes rates despite concerns over banking crisis

BY TOBIAS BURNS - 03/22/23 

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is seen before discussing his semiannual Monetary Policy Report to Congress before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday, March 8, 2023.

The Federal Reserve hiked interest rates by 0.25 percentage points on Wednesday after numerous failures in the banking sector had prompted some analysts on Wall Street to call for a pause.

The quarter-point hike is the ninth consecutive rate increase by the Fed since March of last year as part of the U.S. central bank’s program of quantitative tightening undertaken in response to high inflation. The Fed’s baseline interest rate range is now set to 4.75 to 5 percent.

The move shows that the Fed’s first priority remains bringing down elevated price levels, even as the bank’s rate increases have strained portfolios in the banking sector, triggering some poorly managed banks to collapse.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell discusses his semiannual Monetary Policy Report to Congress before the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee on Tuesday, March 7, 2023.

Inflation has been falling but is still high

Price growth as measured in the consumer price index (CPI) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index have been coming down since the middle of last year but are still well above the Fed’s target rate of 2 percent.

The PCE ticked up to 5.4 percent annually from 5.3 percent for the first time in several months in January, leading some analysts to call for a larger 0.5 percentage point increase this month by the Fed.

Concerns about the banking industry took the larger hike off the table earlier this month.

Inflation in the economy hasn’t occurred across the board in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic but has been concentrated in different sectors at different times.

An initial inflation in durable goods and autos has since dissipated, along with commodity inflation following the escalation of the war in Ukraine, while inflation in the housing sector remains a primary driver of the elevated headline numbers.

“These things have really had their own separate timing and their own separate dynamics. It’s very hard to argue that any of these are just your standard demand-driven inflation,” economist J.W. Mason of the City University of New York said during an event earlier in March

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Traders on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange watch Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s news conference after the Federal Reserve interest rate announcement in New York, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023.

Bankers had been calling for a pause

Some Fed policy prediction algorithms put the chances of a 0.25 percentage point rate hike as high as 86 percent on Tuesday, but many analysts had still been calling for a break in the hikes ahead of the Fed’s decision this week.

“Bank stress calls for a pause,” analysts for Goldman Sachs wrote in a Monday research letter to investors, arguing that banking is more important than other sectors of the economy.

“Banking is not just another sector of the economy because financial intermediation is vital to every sector. As a result, addressing stress in the banking system is the most immediate concern and must take priority over other less urgent goals for the moment. We expect that policymakers and staff economists at the Fed will have the same view,” they wrote.

Other influential commentators agreed.

“The banking mess is, as far as I can tell, sufficient reason for the Fed to pause until we know more,” economist Paul Krugman wrote online.

Backdrop of failed banks

The Fed decision comes after a series of bank failures over the past week-and-a-half prompted government intervention to prop up the banking sector and placate volatile markets.

The spark was lit by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), where a run by rich depositors largely from the venture capital sector led to insolvency. The bank couldn’t pay depositors because their money was tied up in longer-term bonds that hadn’t yet come to maturity and are sensitive to interest rate hikes.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Fed and Treasury responded by insuring all deposits at the bank above the standard $250,000 limit, using money from the FDIC’s deposit insurance fund as well as a new line of credit from the Fed backed up by $25 billion of taxpayer money.

Markets responded positively to the move last Monday but were falling fast by the middle of the week on fears of yet more failures.

Another California-based bank, First Republic, was poised to collapse before Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reportedly leaned on JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon to organize a private-sector bailout, corralling a consortium of 11 banks to pony up $30 billion.

Security admits a man to the lobby as customers queue up outside the collapsed Silicon Valley Bank in Santa Clara, Calif., on March 13, 2023. President Biden assured Americans that the U.S. banking system is safe.

While technically a deposit executed at a market rate, the move drew criticism from some investors as ostensibly an act of charity compelled by pressure from the government.

“The [systemically important banks] would never have made this low return investment in deposits unless they were pressured to do so and without assurances that [First Republic Bank] deposits would be backstopped if it failed,” billionaire investor Bill Ackman wrote online last Thursday. It isn’t known if Ackman held a commercial position with regard to First Republic.

Meanwhile, European giant Credit Suisse failed after Saudi investors declined to increase their investment in bank, leading to an appeal to the Swiss National Bank and eventually a shotgun sale to rival UBS

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JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon answers questions during a House Financial Services Committee oversight hearing of the largest U.S. banks on Wednesday, September 21, 2022.

Fed’s balance sheet has spiked

Independent of the move on rate hikes, the Fed’s balance sheet has rocketed up over the past week, already potentially stalling the Fed’s tightening program.

The balance added more than $300 billion in assets over the course of last week, jumping up from $8.34 trillion to $8.64 trillion.

“Amid the failures, banks borrowed $153 billion from the primary credit discount window … and another $12 billion via the new Bank Term Funding Program,” analysts for Deutsche Bank wrote in an analysis last week.

They pointed out the Fed also provided $143 billion of liquidity to the 2 FDIC-owned bridge banks set up after the closures of SVB and Signature Bank.

“By district breakdown, San Francisco (+$233 billion ) and New York ($55 billion) had the biggest increases in securities and loans portfolios. Despite record activity at the discount window, total Fed liquidity borrowed was still a fraction of peak liquidity provided during the [global financial crisis] and Covid,” they wrote.

The public is disapproving of bank bailouts

Fed projects jobless rate to reach 4.5 percent by end of 2023

Sens. Rick Scott, Elizabeth Warren join forces for Federal Reserve oversight bill

While the Fed’s actions over the past week may prove enough to save the banking industry from a wider collapse, Americans overwhelmingly agree that taxpayers should not have to bail out banks that can’t properly manage themselves.

A new public opinion poll by Ipsos found that 84 percent of Americans agree – and 56 percent agree strongly – “that taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for irresponsible bank management.” The frustration is bipartisan, with 85 percent of Democrats and 86 percent of Republicans in agreement.

Less than half of Americans are in favor of government bailouts of U.S. financial institutions at 49 percent, the poll found.

Removal of Koeberg steam generators gets under way

22 March 2023

The first of Koeberg 1's steam generators has been removed in a project that will see all three of the South African unit's steam generators replaced in anticipation of its extended operation. The steam generators of unit 2 at the plant, near Cape Town, are also to be replaced.

The steam generator being extracted from the containment building (Image: Eskom)

The replacement of the steam generators at unit 1 had originally been planned to take place between February and June 2021, with those of unit 2 scheduled for replacement between January and May 2022. However, this has been delayed due to concerns about the tight supply of electricity while the units are offline.

The first steam generator has now been removed from the containment building of unit 1 - which entered a refuelling and maintenance outage on 10 December last year - and placed in the storage building that was built to house the steam generators, owner Eskom announced on 21 March.

"This is a significant accomplishment for the Koeberg team, the contractor and the numerous local and international subcontractors involved in the project," the company said. "It is a great relief to have reached this milestone as the steam generator replacement project has experienced numerous false starts in previous outages and some unexpected challenges during the execution in the current outage to get to this point in the project."

The steam generator being manoeuvred into the storage building (Image: Eskom)

Eskom noted that once all three steam generators have been removed and the new ones installed, it still needs to complete the maintenance activities scheduled for the outage, commission all the systems, refuel the reactor and return the unit to service.

The company had earlier said the unit was expected to remain out of service until June 2023.

"Due to the delays that have already been experienced, the original return to service date for the unit is no longer achievable," Eskom noted. "Although every effort is being made to reduce the impact, we are currently running a few weeks late. The generation production plan is being optimised to minimise as far as possible the impact of the projected delay on the system."

Koeberg 2 will then undergo a similar outage for refuelling, maintenance and steam generator replacement starting in "the later part of this year". This is expected to last 180-200 days.

In 2014, Eskom signed a ZAR4.4 billion (USD240 million) contract with Areva - now Orano - to design, manufacture and install the replacement steam generators, which each weigh over 320 tonnes and are 22 metres long. They have been made in China under subcontract by Shanghai Electric Power Equipment Company.

The work being done at Koeberg is part of activities to enable the plant to operate for another 20 years beyond its current licence, which expires in 2024-2025. The formal application to extend the operating licence was submitted to South Africa's National Nuclear Regulator in 2021, and Eskom submitted the safety case for long-term operation in support of the application in July 2022. The regulator has two years to conclude the review and provide an outcome, but no safety concerns have been identified that would preclude long term operation, and the company anticipates receiving the licence to operate beyond 2024.

"In accordance with the safety analysis that was performed and submitted to the National Nuclear Regulator in support of the application to extend the plant life by 20 years, the steam generators are the last large component replacements that are needed to ensure Koeberg can operate safely for the requested additional period of operation," Eskom said. "Thus, Eskom sees this milestone as an important step on the path to safely extending the life of Koeberg."

The twin 930 MWe (net) pressurised water reactors at Koeberg were built by Framatome, with unit 1 beginning commercial operation in 1984 and unit 2 the following year. They generate about 5% of the country's electricity.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News

Hot functional testing begins at Vogtle 4

21 March 2023

Georgia Power has announced that the last series of major tests ahead of initial fuel load is under way at the second new nuclear unit at the site near Waynesboro, Georgia.

Vogtle 4 pictured in February (Image: Georgia Power)

Hot functional testing verifies the successful operation of reactor components and systems together and confirms the reactor is ready for fuel load.

Tests are carried out under the temperatures and pressures that the reactor systems will be subjected to during normal operation, but without nuclear fuel inside the reactor. Heat generated by the unit's four reactor coolant pumps will be used to raise the temperature and pressure of plant systems to normal operating levels, Georgia Power said. Once these are achieved and sustained, the unit's main turbine will be raised to normal operating speed using steam from the plant. During the series of tests, nuclear operators will be able to exercise and validate procedures as required ahead of fuel load.

Construction of Vogtle 4 - the second of two Westinghouse AP1000 units at the Vogtle site, already home to two operating pressurised water reactors - began in November 2013. Timelines issued by the company earlier this year have suggested that fuel loading is envisaged in June, and the company says it is projected to enter service in "late fourth quarter 2023 or first quarter 2024".

Vogtle unit 3 reached first criticality earlier this month.

Southern Nuclear will operate the new units on behalf of co-owners Georgia Power, Oglethorpe Power, MEAG Power and Dalton Utilities.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News

Deep borehole disposal suitable for some UK wastes, report finds

21 March 2023

Deep borehole disposal cannot replace the UK's need for a geological disposal facility (GDF) but may nevertheless have a helpful role to play in the disposal of some of the country's nuclear waste inventory, according to a study conducted by Deep Isolation on behalf of the UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).

Deep Isolation's concept for the disposal of nuclear fuel and high-level waste (Image: Deep Isolation)

The purpose of the study is to provide NDA with information that enables it to assess the potential suitability of
Deep Isolation's directional borehole disposal solution for elements of the UK's radioactive waste inventory.

Deep Isolation's solution for the management of used nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste involves emplacing it in corrosion-resistant canisters placed in deep horizontal drillholes. The technology uses existing directional drilling technology. The waste can be retrieved during a determined time frame or permanently secured. In 2019, Deep Isolation publicly demonstrated its concept when it successfully placed and then retrieved a prototype nuclear waste canister hundreds of metres underground via a borehole.

The study found that 63% by volume of the UK's Inventory for Geological Disposal (IGD) is intrinsically not compatible with borehole disposal. A further 26% can in principle be transferred to Deep Isolation disposal canisters for borehole disposal, but the existing plans for disposal in a mined repository are likely to be more cost-effective. This leaves 11% of the IGD that, based on this preliminary study, is operationally and commercially suitable for disposal in a deep borehole repository. This comprises all the UK's high heat generating waste (HHGW) - accounting for 96% of NDA's forecast for radioactivity levels of the IGD in 2200.

Deep Isolation developed 15 scenarios, which show its estimated, unvalidated cost of disposing all the UK's
HHGW and also selected sub-sets. These describe how costs vary across geological environments, and between single site and multi-site approaches. The scenarios for disposing 100% of HHGW show estimated costs between GBP2.98 billion and GBP4.45 billion (USD3.64 billion and USD5.44 billion). More narrowly focused scenarios show that all the UK's legacy used fuel can be disposed of for GBP1.0-1.4 billion and all high-level waste for GBP256-288 million.

"Further work is needed to evaluate the impact of such an approach on the overall costs, benefits and risks of the UK's integrated waste management strategy," the study concludes.

Deep Isolation's recommendations to NDA include: undertaking more detailed business case work to assess the possible role for the technology as part of the NDA's integrated waste management strategy; and engagement in international collaboration on demonstration of deep borehole technology.

Nuclear Waste Services (NWS), which is responsible for the delivery of the UK's GDF, said it "recognises the insight afforded by Deep Isolation's study and will continue to engage with such developments, while recognising that a GDF will still be required for the majority of the UK higher activity waste inventory, even when Deep Isolation's directional borehole technology is developed to sufficient maturity for potential implementation".

It added: "In line with government policy, NDA and NWS continue to review new and emerging technologies which could have the potential to improve the long-term management of some of the UK's higher activity radioactive wastes."

"We are excited to have delivered this project for the UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority," said Deep Isolation CEO Elizabeth Muller. "NDA is a global leader, and I welcome their commitment to exploring the benefit of new and innovative options for nuclear waste disposal."

Researched and written by World Nuclear News

Finland, Sweden and Ukraine consider Rolls-Royce SMRs

21 March 2023

Britain's Rolls-Royce SMR has signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) to explore the deployment of its small modular reactor (SMR) in Finland and Sweden, as well as to help post-war recovery in Ukraine.

Energoatom President Petro Kotin and Rolls-Royce SMR's Sophie Macfarlane-Smith signing the MoU (Image: Energoatom)

Under an MoU signed with Ukraine's state-owned nuclear energy utility Energoatom, the companies will work together to explore future opportunities to deploy Rolls-Royce SMR reactors in Ukraine as it begins to rebuild. Rolls-Royce SMR commits to supporting Ukraine's recovery by deploying an SMR plant "capable of generating enough carbon-free electricity to power one million homes for over 60 years".

The MoU was signed on 20 March by Energoatom President Petro Kotin and Sophie Macfarlane-Smith, head of customer engagement at Rolls-Royce SMR.

"Cooperation between Energoatom and Rolls-Royce SMR has reached a new level," Kotin said. "Today we signed an agreement that will allow Ukraine not only to start a high-quality post-war reconstruction of the energy infrastructure, but also to become one of the first countries in the world to attract promising technologies of small modular reactors for this purpose."

Rolls-Royce SMR CEO Tom Samson added: "Thanks to our own British nuclear technologies, we can potentially help the people of Ukraine to quickly rebuild and restore energy security and independence."

In May last year, Kotin said that construction work on two new Westinghouse AP1000 units at the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant "will begin as soon as the war is over". He said an agreement signed with Westinghouse covered the construction of five units in total, with the other three units to be distributed at the country's other existing nuclear power plants.

Nordic deployment to be investigated

Rolls-Royce SMR has also signed an MoU with Finnish utility Fortum to jointly explore the opportunities for the deployment of SMRs in Finland and Sweden.

From left to right: Fortum Technical Director Olli Kymäläinen, Rolls -Royce SMR Head of Business Development, Nordics Tuomo Huttunen, Fortum Head of New Build Feasibility Study Laurent Leveugle, and Rolls-Royce SMR Head of Customer Engagement Sophie Macfarlane-Smith (Image: Rolls-Royce SMR)

Fortum, an energy giant which includes the Loviisa nuclear power plant in Finland in its operations, announced in October last year a project to explore the prerequisites for new nuclear power in Finland and Sweden, including potential partner networks and cooperation arrangements. It said it sees SMRs as part of nuclear power's future and is "interested in the possibilities of nuclear in heat and hydrogen production".

"Fortum is happy to start a collaboration with Rolls-Royce SMR which is one of the forerunners in the small modular reactor industry," said Laurent Leveugle, Fortum's Head of New Build Feasibility Study. "We are especially interested in learning more about Rolls-Royce SMR's delivery model considering Rolls-Royce's historical industrial experience."

"Rolls-Royce SMR is honoured to be collaborating with Fortum, as one of the most respected nuclear operators in the Nordics, and we see great benefit in the co-operation between our two organisations," said Alan Woods, Director of Strategy and Business Development for Rolls-Royce SMR. "The importance of energy security has increased dramatically and we see our unique approach to nuclear new build - focusing on delivery capability and cost effectiveness - as the best solution to providing low-carbon energy for generations to come. We look forward to working with Fortum during their feasibility study."

The two companies noted that "any potential investment decision will be made at a later stage".

In addition to Rolls-Royce SMR, Fortum has signed cooperation agreements with EDF of France, Kärnfull Next of Sweden and Helen of Finland.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News

China and Russia sign fast-neutron reactors cooperation agreement

22 March 2023

Russia's Rosatom and China's Atomic Energy Authority (CAEA) have signed a Comprehensive Programme for Long-Term Cooperation in the field of fast-neutron reactors and closing the nuclear fuel cycle.

The two countries agreed to deepen cooperation in a wide range of areas (Image: www.kremlin.ru)

The document was signed by Rosatom Director General Alexei Likhachev and Zhang Kejian, head of the CAEA, on the sidelines of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Russia.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin referred to the agreement, when the two presidents spoke to the media, saying: "Interaction on peaceful nuclear power is progressing successfully. Russia is helping build nuclear power plants in China: the construction of units 7 and 8 at the Tianwan NPP and units 3 and 4 of the Xudabao NPP is on track, to be completed as scheduled. The implementation of the Long-term Cooperation Programme that was signed during the visit by Rosatom and the China Atomic Energy Authority will help strengthen partnerships in this area."

Rosatom said the document was "comprehensive" and covers a wide range of areas "expanding cooperation in current projects, as well as implementing new projects related to fast neutron reactors such as production of uranium-plutonium fuel and handling of used nuclear fuel".

It said the programme "provides for the preparation of a road map for its implementation by the end of 2024. In essence, we are talking about cooperation for decades to come and the formation of vectors for the development of nuclear energy at the global level".

China and Russia are both expanding their nuclear energy sectors, with already established links, including for the supply of fuel from Russia for the CFR-600 sodium-cooled pool-type fast-neutron nuclear reactor at Xiapu in China's Fujian province.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News

BWXT to manufacture BWRX-300 reactor vessel

22 March 2023

Cambridge, Ontario-based nuclear engineering firm BWX Technologies (BWXT) has been contracted by GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) to provide engineering analysis, design support, manufacturing and procurement preparations for the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) for the BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR).

A cutaway of a plant based on the BWRX-300 (Image: GEH)

The RPV - which contains the reactor core and associated internals - comprises the largest component within the BWRX-300.

"Intricate design projects like the RPV for GEH's BWRX-300 are well-suited for BWXT's engineering capabilities, as BWXT excels in supplying design solutions for complex nuclear components that BWXT can efficiently manufacture," said John MacQuarrie, president of BWXT Commercial Operations. "We are grateful to GEH for their confidence in our experience and are thrilled to be one of the first to execute an SMR design contract for a North American deployment."

The contract follows the signing of a teaming agreement by GEH and BWXT in October 2021 to cooperate on engineering and procurement to support the design, manufacturing and commercialisation of the BWRX-300. That agreement built on a memorandum of understanding signed by GEH and BWXT Canada in June 2020.

The BWRX-300 is a 300 MWe water-cooled, natural circulation SMR with passive safety systems. It leverages the design and licensing basis of GEH's ESBWR boiling water reactor, which has been certified by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and is the tenth evolution of GE's first boiling water reactor design.

Last month, Estonia's Fermi Energia selected the BWRX-300 for potential deployment in the Baltic country by the early 2030s. It will now sign a project development and preliminary works contract with GEH.

In January, GEH, Ontario Power Generation (OPG), SNC-Lavalin and Aecon signed a contract for the deployment of a BWRX-300 SMR at OPG's Darlington site. In August last year, Tennessee Valley Authority began planning and preliminary licensing for potential deployment of a BWRX-300 at the Clinch River Site in Tennessee. Canada's SaskPower announced in June 2022 that it selected the BWRX-300 for potential deployment in Saskatchewan in the mid-2030s.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News

DR FRANKENSTEIN I PRESUME
German Doctors Are Attempting to Reverse Death and Resurrect Humans

Story by Tim Newcomb •

German doctors are attempting to reverse death and bring dead bodies back to life, starting with 10 humans. Will it work?© gremlin - Getty Images

A company called Tomorrow Biostasis is focusing on human cryopreservation in the hopes it can eventually reverse death.

The new Berlin startup has already preserved the bodies of about 10 deceased humans.

Liquid nitrogen is the main ingredient used to ensure cryopreservation.

The waiting list for Tomorrow Biostasis, a cryopreservation startup based in Germany, is in the hundreds. And the company already has about 10 cases with some bodies preserved in a lab. What comes next is the real issue.

According to a report from Tech.Eu, the company’s “standby ambulance” has already been busy, with cofounder Emil Kendziorra working to launch Europe’s first cryogenics company (there are already a handful of them in the United States). Kendziorra’s goal: As soon as somebody dies, Tomorrow Biostasis immediately responds to preserve the person’s body and/or brain in a state of stasis. Then, once future advances materialize, the company will treat and reverse the person’s original cause of death and bring them back from the dead to enjoy a life extension.

Kendziorra says his company has “about 10 people” already cryopreserved for training purposes and hundreds more on the waiting list. The company’s typical clientele are 36 years old on average and tend to work in tech, which is perhaps the least surprising development of all. A few of these people just want their brain preserved, thinking their future selves may prefer a new 3D-printed body... or maybe not even a body at all.

When the bodies get transported to Rafz, Switzerland for long-term storage at the European Biostasis Foundation—the process is technically considered a scientific body donation, to make it legal—they get cooled to -196 degrees Celsius and placed inside an insulated tank with liquid nitrogen to lock in the preservation.

Of course, waiting for medical advancement to progress to the point it can reverse what caused your death isn’t the only hurdle in this entire cryopreservation concept. There’s still the small issue of nobody knowing how to actually revive a dead cryopreserved human. Sure, they can freeze the brain to preserve cells and tissues, but bringing a previously dead brain back to life with regular function and memories isn’t quite a thing in our world—yet.

And those are just the big questions. There are also plenty of smaller issues, such as who makes the decision on the revival, because, well, you can’t freeze up on the right timing.

Scientists confirm long held theory about what inspired Monet

Story by Jacopo Prisco • Yesterday 

In a letter to his wife in March 1901, pioneering French painter Claude Monet lamented the bad weather that prevented him from working, as well as another conspicuous impediment to his creativity.

“Everything is as good as dead, no train, no smoke, no boat, nothing to excite the inspiration a little,” he wrote.

Monet, now celebrated as a founder of Impressionism, was in London during one of three trips he took to the city between 1899 and 1901, which yielded over 100 paintings. His reference to smoke — which would have come abundantly from the steam engines of boats and trains — as a potential creative spark seems to support a theory long held by some art historians about what was behind the distinctive dreamy haze in Monet’s work. Now a recent study by climate scientists has found new evidence to confirm it.

“I work on air pollution and while seeing Turner, Whistler and Monet paintings at Tate in London and Musée d’Orsay in Paris, I noticed stylistic transformations in their works,” said Anna Lea Albright, a postdoctoral researcher for Le Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique at Sorbonne University in Paris, in a phone interview. Albright coauthored the study with Peter Huybers, a professor of Earth and planetary sciences at Harvard University.

“The contours of their paintings became hazier, the palette appeared wider and the style changed from more figurative to more impressionistic: Those changes accord with physical expectations of how air pollution influences light,” she added.

The team looked at over 100 paintings by Monet and British painter Joseph Mallord William Turner, who was active before Monet, with the goal of finding an empirical basis to the hypothesis that the paintings capture increasingly polluted skies during the Industrial Revolution.

The focus was on these two artists because they prolifically painted landscapes and cityscapes, often with repeated motifs, according to the study authors.

A visual chronicle of atmospheric change

In the period covered by the paintings, 1796 to 1901, a huge amount of coal was mined to support industrial manufacturing and steam engines. Britain alone went from producing 2.9 million tons of coal per year in 1700 to 275 million tons by 1900, leading to visible air pollution that caused widespread health problems. The soot from the coal created a thick, dark fog, and the number of foggy days in London rose threefold between 1850 and 1890, from 25 to 75 per year, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.

“In general, air pollution makes objects appear hazier, makes it harder to identify their edges, and gives the scene a whiter tint, because pollution reflects visible light of all wavelengths,” Albright said.

The team looked for these two metrics, edge strength and whiteness, in the paintings — by converting them into mathematical representations based on brightness — and then compared the results with independent estimates of historical air pollution.

Scientists confirm long held theory about what inspired Monet© Provided by CNNA woman walks through a Claude Monet exhibition at the Staedel Museum in Frankfurt, Germany, in 2015. Paintings (L-R): "Waterloo Bridge, Sonne," "Waterloo Bridge, Nebelmorgen" and "Charing Cross Bridge." - Boris Roessler/picture alliance/Getty Images/FILE

“We found that there was a surprisingly good match,” Albright said.

The paintings chronicle the historical changes in the atmospheric environment, according to the researchers, and particularly the rise in emissions of sulfur dioxide, a coal-derived pollutant that causes acid rain and respiratory issues. The connection goes beyond artistic evolution and style, they note, because London and Paris, where Turner and Monet were respectively based, industrialized at different times and at different rates, which is reflected in the works.

Further proof, according to Albright, comes from the artists’ backgrounds, specifically Turner’s interest in the growing scientific understanding of the sky at the time, and Monet’s letters, highlighting the influence of air pollution on his creativity. In another one, he tells his wife he was “terrified” by the lack of fog, but was comforted when “the fires were lit and the smoke and haze came back.”

Science vs. style

Jonathan Ribner, a professor of European art at Boston University, was among the first art historians to suggest a connection between the two artists’ work and pollution, in a 2004 essay written for “Turner Whistler Monet,” an exhibition of 100 Impressionist paintings that toured Toronto, Paris and London.

“When I saw the study, I was delighted because it really suggests a vindication of what I had been writing about almost two decades ago, which was that air pollution is a significant contextual factor for some 19th century paintings,” Ribner said in a phone interview.

“Turner and Monet are both artists who had to go to places to see certain conditions,” he added. “There was this phenomenon of fog tourism, where French visitors like Monet went to London deliberately to see the fog, because they loved the atmospheric effects. He didn’t like it when the fog was so thick that he just couldn’t see anything, but he hated it when there was no fog and it was blue skies, because it didn’t look like London. Apparently he destroyed some of those canvases with a clear sky.”


Monet’s dreamy haze was actually pollution© Provided by CNNA painting by J.M.W. Turner titled "Rain, Steam and Speed — the Great Western Railway" in an exhibition at the Tate Britain gallery in 2014 in London, England. - Oli Scarff/Getty Images/FILE

However, art critic Sebastian Smee has lambasted the study, saying that it confuses “internal creative choices with external stimuli.” He argued that increased pollution can’t be used to explain the artists’ stylistic evolution, and that some of their works are “mythological,” rather than a picture of objective reality.

Regarding that point of view, Albright said it was never the intention of the study to discount any art historical approach, or reduce the paintings to just a number or a scientific analysis, but rather to expand the understanding and the appreciation of these works by offering another angle from which to study them.

“What I think is really wonderful about these works is that Monet creates beautiful atmospheric effects from something as ugly and dirty as smoke and soot,” she added.

“He and Turner, they don’t turn away from the pollution, but they were able to transform these negative environmental changes into a source of creative inspiration.”

Top image: A woman poses by a painting of the Houses of Parliament by French artist Claude Monet during a 2017 preview for the exhibition “French Artists in Exile” at Tate Britain in London.

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COLOUR OUT OF SPACE

An Alarming Fungal Infection Is Spreading Across America... and Resisting Meds

Story by Tim Newcomb • Yesterday 



An infectious fungus is spreading at an alarming rate across healthcare facilities in the United States. Here's what you need to know.© KATERYNA KON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY - Getty Images

The CDC says the spread of Candida auris is an “urgent threat” for those in healthcare facilities.

The fungus isn’t a hazard for healthy people, but for those who are sick or staying in healthcare facilities, the danger is mounting.

C. auris has proven resistant to current antifungal medications.

Just what we all want to hear: an infectious fungus is spreading at an alarming rate across healthcare facilities in the United States. That’s the latest news from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which warns that Candida auris is on the move across the country, and that cases that proved resistant to antifungal medicine have tripled.

It all adds up to “an urgent antimicrobial resistance threat.”

 Video  Cheddar News CDC: Deadly Fungus Spreading at an 'Alarming Rate' in U.S. Hospitals  

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“The rapid rise and geographic spread of cases is concerning and emphasizes the need for continued surveillance, expanded lab capacity, quicker diagnostic tests, and adherence to proven infection prevention and control,” CDC epidemiologist Meghan Lyman says in a paper on the subject.

The C. auris spread started with the first report of the fungus in 2016. And while C. auris does not generally pose a threat to healthy people, those who are very sick, using invasive medical devices, or frequently staying in healthcare facilities are at risk for catching the fungus. Infections can be severe and, unfortunately, the fungus carries with it a high death rate.

Calling it a “global threat,” the CDC says the concern over C. auris is mainly due to its multidrug-resistance, the fact that it's difficult to identify with standard laboratory methods, and that it has led to outbreaks in healthcare settings.

Clinical cases have increased every year since 2016, with the most rapid rise in case load occurring from 2020 to 2021. In 2021 alone, over 1,450 clinical cases were reported, and the increase in case counts continued for 2022. The CDC says the count of additional cases could have jumped due to poor general infection prevention and control practices in healthcare facilities, but may also be due to enhanced screening efforts to detect cases, even when signs of an infection or symptoms aren’t present.

The CDC believes the spread could have been worsened by the strain that the COVID-19 pandemic has put on healthcare and public health systems.

India's plastic problem: No easy fix for trash mountains that provide profit and pain

Story by Salimah Shivji • Today

LONG READ

As he wound his way through the alleys that curve around the massive garbage dump, Rajesh Prajapati pointed out the ways in which countless waste pickers get through to the sprawling, imposing mountain on the edge of the slum that colours their entire way of life.

"It looks like a mountain," the local doctor said. "But it's not a proper mountain, it's a waste mountain, which is made up of plastic bags and papers and lots of waste from all of Mumbai."

The mountain is a source of misery for residents of the area because of the numerous health hazards associated with breathing in fumes wafting from decomposing waste, but it's also a major source of income.

Jahana Shaikh, 45, and two of her teenaged children, Reshma, 13, and Sohail, 12, are part of a group of waste pickers sorting through the mounds of plastics and other scraps of wire and metal rummaged from the mountain, which they will later try to sell.


Jahana Shaikh, middle, pictured with two of her children, 13-year-old Reshma, left, and Sohail, 12, live steps from the Deonar waste mountain and spend their days going back and forth. If they skip one day of picking for plastics, they starve that day.© Salimah Shivji/CBC

"How much we make depends on what we have gathered. But it's just barely enough to get by," she told CBC News in Hindi. "If we don't go to the landfill for one day, there will definitely be no food at home that day."

Deonar, located in east Mumbai, is one of the largest and oldest landfills in India — entrenched for nearly a century. It's not just one single mountain but eight different massive mounds, amalgamated.

The landfill's dimensions are unfathomable for those unfamiliar with it: some 18 storeys high, with more than 16 million tonnes of garbage, spreading over 121 hectares — roughly the size of 227 football fields.

The colossal dump is walled off, with barbed wire topping the perimeter, since public access is prohibited, but people get in anyway, darting through countless tunnels and holes in the concrete wall.



The Deonar landfill, and its 16 million tonnes of waste, is walled off to restrict access, but those living in homes nearby duck in through holes in the wall or tunnels, to pick through the garbage looking for plastics and other materials to sell.© Salimah Shivji/CBC

Dr. Prajapati, a medical doctor who works near Deonar, stood watching three men whip through a co-ordinated sorting process of recyclable materials just outside one of the tunnels, as he spoke to CBC.

The pickers will sell them later to small businesses that compile the waste, the doctor explained, after which what's salvaged is transferred to local scrapyards and other outlets. It's a whole ecosystem that supports the livelihoods of some 100,000 people at the Deonar waste mountain alone. But it comes at a cost.

"All the plastic waste, without any gloves, without any masks," Prajapati, 35, pointed out, dejectedly. "Of course it's going to affect your lungs. But to earn their bread and butter, they're doing it."



Rizwan, 11, has never attended school. He has only ever scrounged for plastics and scrap metal at Mumbai's Deonar garbage mountain, to sell to help his single mother support the family.© Salimah Shivji/CBC

Festering waste releases toxic fumes

In his five years assigned to the neighbourhood near the Deonar dump, Prajapati has seen an alarming number of cases of tuberculosis and other respiratory ailments, often in the late stages because residents assume their chronic cough or wheezing is nothing to worry about.

"We can smell the fumes, always, we also can't breathe properly because of [it]," he said, when asked to describe life in Deonar, with plastic everywhere.

The decomposing waste releases noxious gases such as methane, hydrogen sulphide and carbon monoxide.

Jahana Shaikh and her family know the hazards first-hand, working on the front lines of the informal garbage economy. Three of her six children died suddenly, she said, including her eldest daughter of tuberculosis four years ago, at 16. Shaikh's five-month-old boy died of pneumonia, while another baby girl died of unknown causes.

Jahana blames their deaths on the filth they live beside and breathe in.

Related video: Mumbai’s mountain of garbage and the livelihoods that depend on it (cbc.ca) Duration 5:15  View on Watch


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She tries to avoid sending her remaining children onto the actual waste mountain to scrounge for treasures, preferring that they sort and sell the plastics instead, but still, there's not much choice when they live steps from a giant landfill.

"What other work can we do?" Shaikh said quietly, with a sigh.


Jahana Shaikh lost three of her six children to sudden illnesses, one of them to tuberculosis-related complications. 'I miss them a lot,' she told CBC News, blaming the filth that they sort through to find plastics to sell, with no other options to eke out a living.© Salimah Shivji/CBC
'An everyday danger'

Rates of tuberculosis and other diseases are far higher in the area, made worse by cramped housing, according to experts in waste management and planning.

"You are living with waste as an everyday thing, it's an everyday danger," Amita Bhide, professor with the Centre for Urban Policy and Governance, at the Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

"This is the ward [which has] the highest proportion of tuberculosis and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis at that. The proportion of urinary tract infections is very high amongst women. There are several skin diseases that you can see," Bhide added.



Rates of tuberculosis are higher in the Deonar area, attributed to the toxic fumes that emanate from the decomposing waste mountain that's been expanding for nearly a century.© Salimah Shivji/CBC

The professor noted that there is also recent evidence of an increase in respiratory disorders near Deonar, after a bio-medical waste incinerator was installed in the area.

While the scale of Mumbai's infamous dump site sets it slightly apart, similar health problems plague the neighbourhoods surrounding all of the country's trash mountains.

According to a 2020 report compiled by the Delhi-based think tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), India had 3,159 waste mountains which stored about 800 million tonnes of trash.

A newly-released update this year concluded that of the country's 3,184 garbage mountains, 234 have been reclaimed and cleared. Another eight are classified as scientific landfills, meaning no further waste is dumped and leakage or emissions are checked by accredited labs to make sure the space doesn't become toxic.



Dr. Rajesh Prajapati is diagnosing more and more cases of tuberculosis and other respiratory diseases in the Deonar area, often, he said, with patients not realizing that the fumes they inhale from living so close to a massive garbage mountain are making them deathly ill.© Salimah Shivji/CBC News

The hundreds of remaining landfills continue to fester, periodically catching fire and burning for days. The fires are often caused by the combustible gases emanating from the decomposing garbage, which, once ignited, releases even more fumes into the air.

The most recent example was in the southern Indian city of Kochi, in Kerala in early March. Toxic fumes spewed into the air for around two weeks as the fire smoldered, blanketing the city in a thick haze and forcing school closures and N95 mask-wearing advisories.

Successive governments have tried to tackle the problem of waste management, including India's current prime minister. Narendra Modi, who released a sweeping cleanliness plan in Oct 2021 that included a promise that "the garbage mountains in cities will be processed and eliminated completely". The idea is to turn them into waste treatment plants.

A goal that is beyond complex for many experts, who are skeptical.



Smoke billows during an ongoing fire at the Bhalswa landfill in New Delhi in June 2022. Fires commonly break out at some of India's more than 3,000 waste mountains, and they can be triggered by combustible gases from the decomposing waste.© Prakash Singh/AFP via Getty Images

Bhide called it a "very important statement" that demonstrated "a political will to create some change" while also softly scoffing at the thought that decades of legacy waste could be wiped out so easily.

"We move slowly," the professor said, comparing change in a country like India to "moving a mammoth elephant [with] multiple parts which are not necessarily moving in harmony with each other".

Not a single Indian city has been successful in implementing all of the requirements laid out in a set of solid waste management rules implemented more than 20 years ago in 2002, she said.

Deonar is also the focus of a court case that has dragged on for 27 years, aiming to shut down the landfill.



A waste picker sorts through the mounds of plastics and other scraps of wire and metal rummaged from Mumbai's Deonar waste mountain, one of the largest in India, which he will later try to sell. Rates of respiratory illnesses are higher in the area because of the toxic fumes from decomposing waste.© Salimah Shivji/CBC

"The orders for closure of the Deonar dumping ground have been given more than 10 years ago and there is still no success," said Bhide.

And so, more waste keeps getting dropped off at the Mumbai landfill, and people like Shaikh and her family members climb through gaps in the wall every day to get to the garbage on the mountain.

It's the only option, Shaikh said.

"Otherwise we go hungry."



Piles of plastic are seen everywhere in the cramped neighbourhoods hugging Mumbai's sprawling Deonar landfill, considered to be one of the largest and oldest in India.© Salimah Shivji/CBC