Environment

Antarctic Pollution

Microplastic pollution has for the first time been found in freshly fallen snow across Antarctica’s pristine Ross Ice Shelf.

Researcher Alex Aves from the University of Canterbury says she found at least some of 13 different types of microplastics in all 19 samples collected. “It’s incredibly sad, but finding microplastics in fresh Antarctic snow highlights the extent of plastic pollution into even the most remote regions of the world,” Aves said.

Such debris has also been found from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest depth of the ocean. It has become so ubiquitous worldwide that it is in the food we eat and the air we breathe. Experts fear the Antarctic microplastics could accelerate the melting of snow and ice there.

Fukushima Quake Fears

Images taken by a robotic camera at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power station show that one of the melted-down reactors is in danger of collapse in the event of another strong earthquake in the region. Images show Reactor No. 1 is now resting precariously on a flimsy frame of corroded supports. The concrete base also appears to have melted, with only a metal frame now holding up the reactor’s pressure vessel.

Three reactors at the Fukushima plant melted down following the magnitude 9.0 temblor and subsequent tsunami in 2011 that knocked out power to the plant’s cooling system. Should the pressure vessel topple in a quake, experts say it would make the decades-long cleanup efforts, and removing the melted fuel, far more difficult.