#columbiariver — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #columbiariver, aggregated by home.social.
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Water Velocity And Discharge From Tidal Freshwater Creeks In Forested And Herbaceous Wetlands
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https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-026-01690-w <-- shared paper
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#water #hydrology #tide #tidal #ecosystem #wildlife #fish #fisheries #nursery #nutrients #trophicenergy #discharge #ColumbiaRiver #Oregon #Washington #USA #fluvial #tidalfreshwater #TFW #habitat #restoration #flowregime # herbaceous #forested #wetland #marsh #aquatic #sediment #sedimentation #estuary #inundation #monitoring #measurement #velocity #discharge #volume #spatialanalysis #spatiotemporal #river #riverine #hydraulic #pluvial #precipitation #upstream #subtidal #wavelet #tidalcreek #AcousticDopplerCurrentProfiler #instrumentation #elevation #spatial #mapping -
Finished up attending a state preparedness conference this last week. The keynote speaker who has a PhD in '#AI in #EmergencyManagement'. What entailed was a nearly two hour-long ad for ai and robots. The what now feels old shtick of 'if you don't hop onto the planet-burning bandwagon, you'll be left behind. Robots will run shelters and do all #SAR.'
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The Rise and Fall of #NuScale: a nuclear cautionary tale
Kelly Campbell
October 29, 2024"A decade ago, NuScale, the Oregon-based small modular nuclear company born at Oregon State University, was on a roll. Promising a new era of nuclear reactors that were cheaper, easier to build and safer, their Star Wars-inspired artist renditions of a yet to be built reactor gleamed like a magic bullet.
"As of last year, NuScale was the furthest along of any reactor design in obtaining Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing and was planning to build the first small modular nuclear reactor in the United States. Its plan was to build it in Idaho to serve energy to a consortium of small public utility districts in Utah and elsewhere, known as #UAMPS.
"This home-grown Oregon company was lauded in local and national media. According to project backers, a high-tech solution to climate change was on the horizon, and an Oregon company was leading the way. It seemed almost too good to be true.
"And it was.
"Turns out, NuScale was a #HouseOfCards. The UAMPS project’s price tag more than doubled and the timeline was pushed back repeatedly until it was seven years behind schedule. Finally, UAMPS saw the writing on the wall and wisely backed out in November, 2023.
"After losing their customer, NuScale’s stock plunged, it laid off nearly a third of its workforce, and it was sued by its investors and investigated for investor fraud. Then its CEO sold off most of his stock shares.
"NuScale’s project is the latest in a long line of failed nuclear fantasies.
"Why should you care? A different nuclear company, #XEnergy, now in partnership with #AmazonCorp, wants to build and operate small modular #nuclear reactors [#SMRs] near the #ColumbiaRiver, 250 miles upriver from #PortlandOR. #BillGates’s darling, the #Natrium reactor in #Wyoming is also plowing ahead. Both proposals are raking in the Inflation Reduction Act and other taxpayer funded subsidies. The danger: Money and time wasted on these #FalseSolutions to the #ClimateCrisis divert public resources from #renewables, #EnergyEfficiency and other faster, more cost-efficient and safer ways to address the climate crisis.
"A recent study from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis concluded that small modular nuclear reactors are still too expensive, too slow to build and too risky to respond to the climate crisis.
"While the nuclear industry tries to pass itself off as 'clean,' it is an extremely dirty technology, beginning with #UraniumMining and #UraniumMilling which decimates #IndigenousLands. Small modular nuclear reactors produce two to thirty times the radioactive waste of older nuclear designs, waste for which we have no safe, long-term disposal site. Any community that hosts a nuclear reactor will likely be saddled with its radioactive waste – forever. This harm falls disproportionately on #Indigenous and #LowIncome communities.
:For those of us downriver, X-Energy’s plans to build at the Hanford Nuclear Site on the Columbia flies in the face of reason, as it would add more nuclear waste to the country’s largest nuclear cleanup site.
"In #Oregon, we have a state moratorium on building nuclear reactors until there is a vote of the people and a national waste repository. Every few years, the nuclear industry attempts to overturn this law at the Oregon Legislature, but so far it has been unsuccessful. This August, Umatilla County Commissioners announced they’ll attempt another legislative effort to overturn the moratorium. Keeping this moratorium is wise, given the dangerous distraction posed by the false solution of small modular nuclear reactors. Let’s learn from the NuScale debacle and keep our focus on a just transition to a clean energy future–one in which nuclear power clearly has no place."
#EnvironmentalRacism #HoltecLies
#NuclearLies #TEPCOLied
#NoNukes #NoNukesForAI #Hanford #NuclearPowerCorruptionAndLies -
#Tribes, #environmentalists gather forces against Amazon’s #Northwest #nuclear plan
Amazon’s push for small modular nuclear reactors [#SMR] is just the latest development in decades long fight over #NuclearEnergy
By Antonio Sierra (OPB)
Jan. 7, 2025"Chuck Johnson was 25 years old when he helped bring Oregon’s nuclear energy industry to a sudden halt.
"Fresh out of college, Johnson helped lead signature gathering and field organizing to pass Ballot Measure 7, which banned all new nuclear power plants in the state until the U.S. had a federally licensed permanent disposal facility. When Oregon’s only nuclear energy facility was closed in 1992, the measure effectively ensured that nothing would take its place unless major changes happened.
"For decades those changes seemed unlikely, but a new push by the power-hungry tech industry has reignited interest in nuclear energy in the region.
"Amazon announced in October that it is partnering with Energy Northwest to develop and build nuclear reactors in southeast #WashingtonState that would power its #DataCenters in #Umatilla and #Morrow counties. Amazon would work with its partners to develop and roll out a novel technology – small modular nuclear reactors – without brushing up against the limits of Measure 7 because the reactors would be north of the #ColumbiaRiver.
"For Amazon, SMRs would allow the tech and e-commerce giant to harness the immense, low-carbon [sic] power potential of nuclear energy while staying true to its climate goals, and avoiding the safety and environmental concerns that have plagued traditional reactors. More than 40 years after passing Measure 7, Johnson isn’t convinced.
"'If you can’t get rid of the waste produced by these plants, it’s irresponsible for us to – for the sake of some electricity right now – leave this legacy to future generations,' he said.
"Johnson is a part of a group of environmentalists, academics and American Indian tribes who are gathering force against a nuclear energy revival in the Northwest.
"Nuclear energy opponents argue that SMRs are simply a new coat of paint on the industry’s old problems. Like traditional reactors, they say that SMRs aren’t economically feasible and risk exposing people to #NuclearRadiation in a region still recovering from its World War II legacy."
Read more:
https://www.opb.org/article/2025/01/07/tribes-environmentalist-amazon-northwest-smr-nuclear-reactor-energy/
#NoNukesForAI #NoNukesForBezos #AmazonCorporation #NoNukesForTechBros #NoNukes #NativeAmericanActivism #AntinuclearActivism #NoNukesForBigTech #BigTech #AWS #Downwinders #CorporateColonialism -
#WashingtonState #wildfires threaten animals, homes, #crops
Story by Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, July 27, 2023
"A wildfire that started in #Klickitat County, Washington, on Friday afternoon destroyed more than 30,000 acres in less than a day and continues to grow as it feeds on brush, grass and forest vegetation.
"Fire crews are working to extinguish the #NewellRoadWildfire near #Bickleton, which has resulted in the evacuation of residents in the rural area, and is threatening #farms, #livestock, #homes and #wind and #SolarFarms, reported KOMO News.
"'It's very difficult terrain to fight fire,' said Allen Lebovitz, a spokesperson for the state's Department of Natural Resources, as Reuters reported. 'We are under a red flag warning. That's a #firefighter's worst nightmare because the #humidity is dropping precipitously. The winds are picking up. And so the fire carries extremely fast.'
"The wildfire is burning just to the north of where the #Oregon-Washington border is represented by the #ColumbiaRiver. It has destroyed several structures and is threatening a #NaturalGas #pipeline.
"Lebovitz said the fire was heading in the direction of the #Yakama Indian Reservation."
