Extraction of natural gas from shale rock in the United States (US) is one of the landmark events in the 21st century. The combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing can extract huge quantities of natural gas from impermeable shale formations, which were previously thought to be...

The reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) have confirmed that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (NPP) survived the initial earthquake impacts, but fell victim to the following tsunami. The 14-m tsunami well...

Investigation before and after the Fukushima nuclear accident has revealed that the failures of Japan's nuclear regulatory system was also blame to the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. The Fukushima nuclear accident has served to remind us that nuclear safety regulatory failure is...

The market-oriented reform in electricity industry has become a global trend since 1980s. Although China's electricity industry has been reformed since 1978, the substantial reform has not been conducted until 1985. Before 1985, China's power industry had been absolutely monopolized by the...

Investigations before and after the Fukushima nuclear accident revealed nuclear accidents like Fukushima would have unlikely happened in a country with transparency and public participation regarding nuclear issues. However, this lack of transparency and public involvement is unique not only to...

Addressing climate change represents a governing the climate commons on a global scale. The “tragedy of the commons” might better be described as the “failure of governing the commons”. Hardin’s solutions were “centralized government” and “private property”, which have long...

The article addresses the potential role of geosciences in development of civilian nuclear power plants (NPPs). We firstly highlight the fact that the Fukushima accident of 2011 is different from previous major nuclear accidents at the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl in that the former was...