[en] Environmental problems in Nigeria are mainly petroleum prospecting pollution problems such as spills, oil-well blow out; ballast discharges, improper disposal of drilling muds, gas flaring and acid rain etc., but accept that pollution must take place if all life activities in a modern day environment must go on. But the world as a whole is being persuaded to minimize the extent of pollution because environmental degradation affects all parts of the world. For instance, if oil is spilled by a sinking tanker in the Indian Ocean, definitely, with time it will flow into the Atlantic Ocean devastating the flora and fauna in its wake. In recognition of this, the environment that is polluted must be adequately compensated, by way of remediation and restoration. The enactment of environmental protection laws and regulations themselves do not restore order. Enforcement does. In reaction to the endless complaints of oil communities, FEPA has directed that all oil companies which operate in Nigeria must submit to it within 60 days, an inventory of all dumpsites in their areas of operation since they started. This will help the organisation to determine the level of compensation and liability, he added. The General Manager, Relations and Environment of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd. (SPDC), Mr. Basil Omiyi, said that the third Nigeria Economic Summit (NES-3) recognized the fact that There Is No Alternative (TINA) and in recognizing this the legal framework of Nigeria in the Oil Industry should in turn recognize this so that the laws could be modified to accommodate other fiscal arrangements. Mr. Omiyi advised that all stakeholders in the industry should cooperate instead of antagonizing one another

[en] Energy is important for the sustenance of life and can be derived from various sources. All energy systems have both beneficial and adverse effects on the environment. The study examined the consumption pattern of the main sources of energy among households in the study area taking into due consideration the fragile semi-arid ecosystem. The model information was collected through a survey of 322 households. It was found that households spent a substantial part of their income on energy. Fuelwood was consumed by both rural and urban households. Fuel wood in addition served as a source of income. It was concluded that the present economic realities being experienced in the country will put in unbearable pressure on the fragile semi-arid ecosystem of the area. It was therefore suggested that there is the need for a deliberate and committed government policy to protect and conserve the ecosystem

[en] The results of a TNO-study on 8 different types of biomass to produce energy are briefly discussed. The biomass types and conversion techniques (23 combinations) are compared on the basis of a life cycle analysis. Special attention is paid to the environmental effects of the use of those biomass/technique combinations

[en] To find a useful and environment-friendly fuel is difficult. Lead and benzene already were replaced by methyl tertiary butylether (MTBE), but this fuel additive too appears to be hazardous for man and the environment. When MTBE will be banned the chances for so-called green petrol (made from biomass) are rising. A brief overview of the developments in the field of fuel additives so far is given

[en] Full text of publication follows. Actinides recycling still remains a controversial issue for many countries which do not yet have make a definite and clear choice about the back-end of their nuclear fuel cycles. In particular, recycling is often questioned about its effective impact on the overall nuclear energy sustainability. In order to address this key issue, we developed a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool, referred to as NELCAS, based on the current French nuclear energy system. Thanks to the Nuclear Safety and Transparency annual reports, detailed quantitative data were available for each of the fuel cycle plants. The whole fuel cycle from ore-mining to geological repository was considered as well as data for construction, deconstruction of any plants as well as the contribution of the transport. All the matter and energy fluxes were considered and normalised versus the electric production. Key environmental indicators as well as potential impact indicators were hence assessed and validated with comparison with the few existing LCA results. NELCAS was also used to derive other fuel cycles by correcting when necessary the relevant flux of matter and energy all along the fuel cycle. A particular focus was put on the once-through cycle with no recycling at all and the effect of the introduction of fast neutron reactors which allow actinides multi-recycling. For the very first time, it hence allows a direct and robust assessment of the effect of recycling operations on the most widely used environmental indicators. Among others, it clearly demonstrates the beneficial effect of Pu and U recycling on most of the indicators. This improvement increases with any recycling increase and is directly related to the very high contribution of the front-end operations in the overall environmental footprint. Most of the indicators are very significantly decreased with the implementation of long-term recycling strategies. This presentation will therefore detail how actinides recycling help to improve the environmental footprint and sustainability of the overall nuclear energy. (authors)

[en] This report strives to define the various environmental effects associated with HVDC lines, discusses the current knowledge of their potential effects on biological and non-biological systems, and compares these effects associated with ac lines where appropriate

[en] The present project-by-project approach of conventional environmental impact assessment (EIA) study as it is being practised in the oil and gas sector has been described as inadequate and as such not capable of supporting prudent environmental management

No abstract available

[en] Formation of THMs (CHCl_3, CHCl_2Br, CHClBr_2 and CHBr_3) due to chlorination of cooling water though unintended is unavoidable. Discharge of these chlorination byproducts (CBPs) into the sea is a concern over its toxicity to the marine organism and consequently to human through food chain process. In view of this, formation of trihalomethanes in the cooling seawater discharge of MAPS, Kalpakkam, India was investigated. Chlorination experiments were carried to evaluate the expected THMs load in the discharge water during different operational scenario. Effect of temperature (20 °C, 30 °C and 40 °C), chlorine dose (1, 3, 5, 10 ppm) and contact time (0.08-168 hrs) on the formation characteristics of THMs was studied for seawater. Instantaneous oxidation of seawater bromide to Br_2 by Cl_2 (K_2_9_8 = 2.95*10"-"3 sec"-"1) ensued the former to be dominant participatory oxidant species which affected the distribution and load of CBPs. Bromoform was the single largest THM comprising more than 95% of total THMs formed under all investigated chlorination conditions. As expected, THM load increased, however, halogen incorporation ratio decreased from 12 % (for 1ppm Cl_2) to 5% (for 10 ppm Cl_2). Temperature coefficient was determined for THMs formation for chlorine dose ranging from 1-10 ppm. Formation of small amount of CHCl_2Br and CHClBr_2 were noticed at higher temperature with high chlorine dose after a long contact time. Periodical monitoring of MAPS cooling seawater discharge during the last four year revealed THMs content varied between BDL- 51μg/l which was mostly comprised of CHBr_3 and CHCl_3, CHCl_2Br and CHClBr_2 were remained undetected most of the time. (author)

[en] The Ardekul (Zirkuh) earthquake (May 10, 1997) is the largest recent earthquake that occurred in the Ardekul-Ghaen region of Eastern Iran. The greatest destruction was concentrated around Ardekul, Haji-Abad, Esfargh, Pishbar, Bashiran, Abiz-Qadim, and Fakhr-Abad (completely destroyed). The total surface fault rupture was about 125 km with the longest un-interrupted segment in the south of the region. The maximum horizontal and vertical displacements were reported in Korizan and Bohn-Abad with about 210 and 70 cm, respectively; moreover, other building damages and environmental effects were also reported for this earthquake. In this study, the intensity value XI on the European Macroseismic Scale (EMS) and Environmental Seismic Intensity (ESI) scale was selected for this earthquake according to the maximum effects on macroseismic data points affected by this earthquake. Then, according to its macroseismic data points of this earthquake and Boxer code, some macroseismic parameters including magnitude, location, source dimension, and orientation of this earthquake were also estimated at 7.3, 33.52° N–59.99° E, ~ 75 km long and ~ 21 km wide, and ~ 152°, respectively. As the estimated macroseismic parameters are consistent with the instrumental ones (Global Centroid Moment Tensor (GCMT) location and magnitude equal 33.58° N–60.02° E, and 7.2, respectively), this method and dataset are suggested not only for other instrumental earthquakes, but also for historical events.