BBC: A report from Japan’s nuclear emergency task force asserts that Japan was insufficiently prepared for a nuclear accident on the scale of the one at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, and states that poor oversight may have been a factor. Authorities have pledged to make NISA, the country’s nuclear regulatory agency, independent of the industry ministry, which promotes nuclear power. The report will be submitted to the International Atomic Energy Agency later this month. NISA has doubled its initial estimate of leaked radiation from the plant; the revised estimate of 770 000 terabecquerels is about 15% of the total amount of radiation released in the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
The finding that the Saturnian moon may host layers of icy slush instead of a global ocean could change how planetary scientists think about other icy moons as well.
Modeling the shapes of tree branches, neurons, and blood vessels is a thorny problem, but researchers have just discovered that much of the math has already been done.
January 29, 2026 12:52 PM
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