DULUTH, Minn. — A Chicago-based environmental group warned in a new report against increased shipment of petroleum products on the Great Lakes, particularly a plan to ship oil out of Superior, Wis.

 

A report from the Alliance for the Great Lakes said U.S. and Canadian shipping fleets and ports aren't designed for large-scale crude oil transports, and that neither government's regulatory systems are prepared to deal with increased shipments across the lakes.

 

An Indiana-based company that owns a Superior refinery is planning a $30 million port terminal where oil from western pipelines would be transferred onto Great Lakes tankers and barges. An official with Calumet Special Products told the Duluth News Tribune the company is pursuing state and federal permits.

 

 

Labour claims the Government has kept secret the real risk of a major oil spill at Anadarko's proposed Kaikoura drilling site.

 

Labour Leader David Cunliffe says documents obtained under the Official Information Act show Environment Minister Amy Adams had international research 13 months ago that shows there would be a 70 per cent probability of a `reportable incident' at the 1500m-deep Kaikoura well within a year of it opening.

 

 

 

How many environmental disasters have occurred in your lifetime? Some of the more recent ones include the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the 2008 Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash spill -- and the list stretches back for decades. Unfortunately, many disasters like these aren't known for their swift cleanups, but for their long-lasting environmental impacts.

 

Just how bad are these catastrophes, after all? The infographic below from Creative Signals and Vermont Law School's Master of Environmental Law & Policy explores just how environmental disasters can affect animals, people and economies for years to come.

 

 

TOKYO (Reuters) - The operator of Japan's wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant completed on Thursday the removal of the first fuel rods from a cooling pool high up in a badly damaged reactor building, a rare success in the often fraught battle to control the site.

 

The batch of 22 unused fuel assemblies, which each contain 50-70 of the fuel rods, was transferred by a trailer to a safer storage pool, the last day of a four-day operation, Tokyo Electric Power Co, or Tepco, said in a statement.

 

The company must carefully pluck more than 1,500 brittle and potentially damaged assemblies from the unstable reactor No.4., the early stages of a decommissioning process following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that wrecked the site.