TOKYO (AP) ? Japan's nuclear regulator says radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima power plant is probably leaking into the Pacific Ocean, a problem long suspected by experts but denied by the plant's operator.
Officials from the Nuclear Regulation Authority said a leak is "strongly suspected" and urged plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. to determine where the water may be leaking from and assess the environmental and other risks, including the impact on the food chain. The watchdog said Wednesday it would form a panel of experts to look into ways to contain the problem.
The watchdog's findings underscore TEPCO's delayed response in dealing with a problem that experts have long said existed. On Wednesday, the company continued to raise doubts about whether a leak exists.
TEPCO spokesman Noriyuki Imaizumi said the increase in cesium levels in monitoring well water samples does not necessarily mean contaminated water from the plant is leaking to the ocean. TEPCO was running another test on water samples and suspects earlier spikes might have been caused by cesium-laced dust slipping into the samples, he said. But he said TEPCO is open to the watchdog's suggestions to take safety steps.
The Fukushima Dai-ichi plant was ravaged by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and TEPCO has used massive amounts of water to cool the damaged reactors since then. Repeated leaks of the contaminated water stored on site have hampered decommissioning efforts.
Marine biologists have warned that the radioactive water may be leaking continuously into the sea from underground, citing high radioactivity in fish samples taken near the plant.
Since May, TEPCO has reported spikes in cesium levels in underground water collected from a coastal observation pit, while the water-soluble element strontium showed high levels in seawater samples taken in areas just off the coast of the plant. The company says most of the contamination has been there since the 2011 accident.
TEPCO has said it has detected "no significant impact" on the environment. It says cesium tends to be absorbed in the soil, and denies water contaminated with that element reached the sea.
But the Nuclear Regulation Authority said Wednesday that samples from both the pit water and coastal seawater indicated that contaminated underground water likely had reached the sea.
Watchdog chairman Shunichi Tanaka said he thinks that the seawater contamination has been happening since the accident, but that it was worst early in the crisis.
"What's most important is to minimize the leak to the outside and reduce the impact on the human society," he said.
TEPCO says it has taken steps to prevent seawater contamination but that it is impossible to completely prevent the contamination from spreading.
Atsunao Marui, underground water expert at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, said there is a possibility of new leaks from reactor buildings. He said TEPCO will have to expand its seawater sampling and its investigation of the underground water system to assess the extent of possible contamination.
"It is important to apply several layers of protection," he told NHK television.
The plant still runs on jury-rigged systems to cool the reactors, and managing the contaminated water and its storage has been a chronic headache.
"When something unexpected happens, we can only take stopgap measures, which shows how unstable Fukushima Dai-ichi still is," Tanaka said. "Given the situation, we can only use the best of our wisdom and do what we can."
Denver-based SM Energy Co. announced Wednesday it will seek to market all of its Anadarko Basin properties, including its interest in the Granite Wash.
The company has hired an advisor to market assets that include approximately 56,000 net mineral acres and production of just over 9,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, including 75 percent natural gas. The production from these assets represents approximately 8 percent of the company?s total production in first quarter 2013.
?SM Energy regularly reviews its asset portfolio to identify opportunities to high grade and concentrate its inventory through divestitures such as this planned sale, the proceeds of which the company expects to fund strategic projects in its portfolio,? the company said in a press release.
The marketing process is expected to take approximately six months.
The assets for sale are believed to include at least 34,000 Granite Wash acres, according to a July 10 analyst note from GHS Research. GHS views the sale as the company?s first step in its asset sales efforts that management planned as a focus in the second half of 2013.
Karen Boman has more than 10 years of experience covering the upstream oil and gas sector. Email Karen at kboman@rigzone.com.
Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.
While Hertz offered the Shelby GT350H through the Hertz Rent-A-Racer program in 1966 and again in 2006, the rental company is now offering a special-edition Mustang through a partnership with Penske Racing called the ?Hertz Penske GT? ? a modified Ford Mustang GT ? as part of the Hertz Adrenaline Collection.
Performance upgrades for the Penske-inspired Ford Mustang GT include an air intake, quad-tip exhaust, ECU tuning, 3:55 differential gear, retuned suspension, and Brembo brakes. Inside, the special-edition Mustang features black Recaro seats, a Laguna Seca gauge pod, custom floor mats and door sills, and the MyFord Touch infotainment system with navigation and backup camera. Exterior highlights include black paint with Hertz yellow racing stripes, Boss 302 front splitter, Shelby GT500 rear valance, special graphics package, and faux Hertz gas cap.
The Hertz Penske GT was introduced July 5 at the Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway, and will be available for rent from select airports. Earlier this year, Hertz signed on as the primary sponsor of the No. 22 Penske Racing car in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series. On July 13, the No. 22 Hertz Ford Mustang will race in a special livery mirroring the Hertz Penske GT in the New England 200 in Loudon, N.H.
Other cars in the Hertz Adrenaline Collection include the Ford Mustang Premium, Chevrolet Camaro SS coupe and convertible, Chevrolet Corvette convertible, and Dodge Challenger R/T. If a lightly modified Mustang GT isn?t enough, Hertz also offers the Dream Cars Collection that includes the Aston Martin V8 Vantage coupe, Ferrari F430 Spider, Lamborghini Gallardo, Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG, E63 AMG, and SLS AMG, Nissan GT-R, and Porsche 911, Boxster, Cayenne, and Panamera.
Many survivors of Saturday's plane crash in San Francisco have a surprising pattern of spine injuries that a doctor says shows how violently they were shaken despite wearing seat belts.
So far, two people are unable to move their legs ? doctors don't yet know if the damage is permanent ? and several others have needed surgery to stabilize their spines so they can move, said Dr. Geoffrey Manley, neurosurgery chief at San Francisco General Hospital who is overseeing their care.
Among the worst injuries are crushed vertebrae that compress the spinal cord, and ligaments so stretched and torn that they can't hold neck and back joints in place, Manley said in an interview Monday.
That 305 of the 307 passengers and crew of the Asiana jet survived the crash is remarkable, and a testimony to improvements in airline safety in recent years. More than 180 people went to hospitals with injuries, but only a small number were critically injured.
Still, Manley said even among those who suffered mild spine trauma, he is struck by a pattern that shows how their upper bodies were flung forward and then backward over the lap belts that kept them in their seats and undoubtedly saved their lives.
The injuries are somewhat reminiscent of the days before shoulder belts in cars, although much more severe, said Dr. David Okonkwo of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, who isn't involved with the survivors' care.
Does that mean shoulder belts in airplanes would prevent such injuries? Okonkwo said that's simplistic considering how much more speed and force are involved in a plane crash. Shoulder belts might just transfer that force to the neck, he cautioned.
"If you put in the shoulder belt, it might just move the injuries up further. Your head weighs a tremendous amount," agreed San Francisco's Manley. He hopes to study the issue, comparing survivors' injuries to where they sat.
The airline industry says adding three-point seatbelts to airplanes would require major changes to seat design that would mean higher airfares and less comfort.
Some business class seats have added a type of shoulder restraint, but those seats are more like beds and often don't face forward.
Meanwhile, Okonkwo said assuming the "crash position" ? leaning forward with the head as far down as possible and arms over it ? can limit the spine jolting back and forth and offer some protection. It's not clear if any survivors of Saturday's crash had time to do so.
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AP Airlines Writer Scott Mayerowitz contributed to this report.
By Marge McGee New York Daily Record
Posted: 8:29 pm Sun, July 7, 2013
8:29 pm Sun, July 7, 2013
Marge McGee
A recent Conference Board study found that CEOs across industry ranked talent management second only to business growth as their top priority. This business goal seems on target, based on another report released mid-June. Gallup recently published its 2013 State of the American Workplace: Employee Engagement Insights for U.S. Business Leaders report, and the results are troubling.
The report finds that, across the country, over 70 percent of employees are either ?not engaged? or ?actively disengaged? from their work. The men and women surveyed were from all industries, organizational levels, age groups and educational levels. Gallup estimates the cost disengaged workers have on the economy is between $450 billion and $550 billion.
Being engaged is not the same as being happy
Some supervisors and managers complain that they weren?t hired to make employees happy. That is correct. As a business leader, the goal is to develop a workforce of fully engaged, productive employees in order to realize business goals. A happy and satisfied employee can be sitting in the back room doing nothing; that is not good business. Engagement, however, is the key to sustained productivity and high performance and has a significant, positive impact to the bottom line.
Cost of disengagement
To clarify, engaged employees are characterized by being excited and interested in their jobs and the company. There is a personal commitment to the work. They feel like they are a part of the organization. These employees are focused on the goal and work to achieve a certain result. They feel connected. They want to contribute. This is the group in which you find your high performers. It?s interesting to note that engaged employees usually report they are also happy/satisfied; but not all happy/satisfied employees are engaged.
Disengaged employees may show up to work as scheduled but they tend to do the minimum amount of work needed. Accident rates are higher in this group. Absenteeism is higher as well. Quality of work suffers. Turnover is often high. One of the most significant costs to an organization is often missed when calculating the cost of doing business: the lost productivity and lost opportunity when someone isn?t working to his or her potential.
Disengagement is a symptom of bigger issues
During all my years in the work world, rarely ? if ever ? have I seen someone who wasn?t excited, energized and eager to work when they start a new job. So why do these traits often fade in a short period of time?
Although there is a chance businesses may hire individuals who are negative and disgruntled before accepting the job, the good news is that employers are generally skilled at screening out candidates with attitude and performance problems. The bad news is that there is a strong likelihood that the disengaged employees are being developed on-the-job.
Disengagement, then, is a symptom of larger, organizational issues.
Reasons someone may ?shut down? or give up and become resigned and cynical about work are as varied as the employees themselves. A few common themes include:
? Lack of respect (from/for supervisor/leaders);
? Lack of trust (from/for supervisor/leaders);
? Poor communication; disconnected from business/strategy;
? Opinion not important; not being involved; not able to grow professionally;
? Too many demands; too few acknowledgements; and
? Poor fit with company culture and/or job.
The actual experiences that alienate members of the workforce are too numerous to list. Every business is unique and the reasons need to be thoroughly investigated before effective solutions can be developed.
The employment relationship is changing
Spherion?s 10-year study on ?Emergent and Transitional Workers? found that candidates and employee values and priorities are changing and suggests that businesses should consider monitoring and updating their behaviors and expectations in order to hire and retain great talent. Their findings: 86 percent of workers report work fulfillment and work/life balance as top career priorities and only 35 percent reported that being successful/climbing the career ladder was top priority.
If businesses are still relying on traditional career ladders and primarily focus on compensation to win over top candidates, they may be increasingly challenged to attract and retain good talent. Making career decisions for employees without their input and agreement can backfire. Allowing supervisors and managers to behave disrespectfully is just bad business.
Due to the sluggish economy, many companies incorrectly believe they have all the power when it comes to staffing. ?Be happy you have a job,? is not the path to high productivity and will quickly lead to disengagement, lost productivity and a bad employment brand.
Candidates, however, are very aware of the value of their work and contributions. Poor job choices can significantly impact one?s career long-term and employees realize they need to be careful to align themselves with an employment situation that balances value to them ? beyond the paycheck ? with the value they give to the employer. They are actively involved with managing their own careers. The war for talent is real and hiring a preferred candidate is only going to get more difficult.
Career Architect Consulting Service?s individual career clients (individual who are in transition and currently working professionals) consistently report that they are looking for four basic things in a job:
1. An opportunity where they can truly contribute to the business success;
2. Acknowledgement for their contributions;
3. Appropriate compensation (it has to be enough, given their experience and the position, but doesn?t have to be top dollar); and
4. Some work-life balance to have time with family and friends outside of work.
The list seems reasonable, yet individuals state the elements are not easy to find in an employment opportunity. Employers who can fulfill these basic requirements will position themselves as an Employer of Choice.
When there isn?t aligned value for both the employer and the employee, the relationship fails for both.
What can an employer do to build a high performing workforce?
Ad hoc retention programs do not work. When there is dysfunction in the workplace, the dysfunction needs to be corrected. Generally, throwing parties, buying pizza, or similar ?low or no-cost? attempts to improve morale are not going to fix the problems and may actually cause more damage. Increasing wages or giving bonuses is only a very temporary fix.
To create a work environment that engages the workforce and optimizes their skills and knowledge, a comprehensive, systemic Talent Management Strategy and formal program is essential and should be the primary focus of Human Resources and all business leaders.
If the workforce is currently performing well, conscious action should be taken to keep productivity at high levels. If the business is not working at optimum levels, there are steps to improve the situation. Inattention will result in performance deterioration.
There are five key components to the strategic Talent Management Lifecycle:
? Selection (why the chosen candidate will be successful);
? On-boarding (starting the new employee with momentum and to reinforce his/her choice to join the company);
? Development and optimization of talent (coaching, training, performance management);
? Retention and succession planning (employee input is critical); and
? Outplacement (providing transition assistance if business need changes or employment is not a fit).
Every Talent Management program has one primary goal, to ensure: Every ?people? decision must be a coordinated, strategic decision that moves the organization toward optimum performance.
The tactical objectives must be customized to a company?s culture and specific needs of the employer as well as the employees/candidate pool. Duplicating a program implemented by another employer (sometimes even another location of the same employer) will likely fail.
Contrary to common practice, the HR functional initiatives (benefits, compensation, training, performance management, etc.) must be strategically connected and focused on supporting the talent management goals and objectives; not administered in silos and operated as stand-alone programs.
Other operational policies and processes should also be integrated with the talent management program. The strategies are systemic and are truly business initiatives. They are most effective when seen as business goals and when managers and supervisors are held accountable for their success.
A company may have the best ideas and products, but will never maximize its full potential without recognizing, valuing, and harnessing the power of its people.
Marge McGee is the president and founder of Career Architect Consulting Services ? a Rochester career and talent management consulting firm. Through aligning culture, talent and goals, clients become the designers and builders ? the architects ? of sustainable, effective work environments and exciting and satisfying individual careers. Visit her website at www.career-architect.com. This article is brought to you by the Rochester affiliate of the National HR Association, a local professional HR organization focused on advancing the career development, planning and leadership of HR professionals. Visit www.humanresources.org for more information.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Revelations by former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden will make it harder for the United States to confront China at talks this week over the alleged cyber theft of trade secrets worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year.
Snowden's disclosures of American electronic surveillance around the world give China an argument to counter U.S. complaints that it steals private intellectual property (IP) from U.S. companies and research centers.
Cyber security is at the center of high-level talks between the two countries in Washington that will show whether a positive tone struck by President Barack Obama and new Chinese President Xi Jinping at a summit last month can translate into cooperation on difficult issues.
Top U.S. officials, from Obama down, have long tried to convince China to recognize a clear line between the kind of cyber espionage by spy agencies revealed by Snowden and the theft of technology.
"This Snowden thing has muddied the waters in a terrible way," said James McGregor, author of a book on China's authoritarian capitalism and industrial policy.
"China would rather have the waters muddy, because they can say 'You do it. We do it. What's the big deal?' and the cyber theft from companies will go on and on," he said by telephone from China, where he is senior counselor for APCO Worldwide, a U.S. business consultancy.
At the talks, U.S. officials will press China on cyber theft, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said last week, describing the problem as "just different from other kinds of issues in the cyber area.
Many countries spy on each other, but U.S. officials say China is unique in the amount of state-sponsored IP theft it carries out as it tries to catch up with the United States in economic power and technological prowess.
Last week the U.S. Department of Justice charged Chinese wind turbine maker Sinovel Wind Group Co and two of its employees with stealing software source code from U.S.-based AMSC worth $800 million.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce hopes "to see a clear indication that China recognizes thefts of trade secrets, whether by cyber or other means, is stealing property and will bring the full force of its laws to curb this," said Jeremie Waterman, the group's senior director for Greater China.
Beijing parries complaints about Chinese hacking into the computers of U.S. businesses by saying China is itself a major victim of cyber espionage. Chinese officials have dismissed as unconvincing recent U.S. official and private-sector reports attributing large-scale hacking of American networks to China.
China's official Xinhua news agency said last month the Snowden case showed the United States was "the biggest villain in our age" and a hypocrite for complaining about Chinese cyber attacks.
On Tuesday, the Communist Party's People's Daily attacked the United States for a hypocritical internet policy of defending hacking in the name of national security when it suited Washington's purposes.
"Differentiating hacking attacks as 'good' and 'bad' is a double standard when it comes to internet security," the newspaper's overseas edition said in a front page comment.
China's stance seems to be stiffened by Snowden's revelations of widespread surveillance by the National Security Agency and his assertion that the agency hacked into critical network infrastructure at universities in China and Hong Kong.
Snowden fled to Hong Kong before his leaks to newspapers became public last month, and then went to Moscow, where he is believed to be holed up in the transit area of the Sheremetyevo airport, trying to find a country to give him sanctuary.
'OUT OF BOUNDS' SPYING
Now in their fifth year, the annual U.S.-Chinese talks, known as the Strategic and Economic Dialogue, will cover topics from U.S. concerns about North Korea's nuclear weapons and expanding military ties to climate change and access to Chinese financial markets.
China's exchange-rate policy is on the agenda, although it has receded as an issue with the gradual strengthening of the yuan and a reduction of huge current account imbalances.
This year U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Lew host Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi and Vice Premier Wang Yang for the first such dialogue session since China's once-a-decade leadership change in March, when Xi took over.
The meetings follow Obama's summit last month with Xi in California, where the two men developed what aides called a productive relationship. Nevertheless, Obama demanded Chinese action to halt what he called "out of bounds" cyber spying.
Officials from the two countries discussed international law and practices in cyberspace at low-level talks on Monday. Cyber security will feature at other meetings during the week that are also likely to address U.S. accusations that Beijing gained access electronically to Pentagon weapons designs.
IP theft costs U.S. businesses $320 billion a year, a sum equivalent to annual U.S. exports to Asia, the authors of a recent report say.
China accounts for between 50 percent and 80 percent of IP theft suffered by U.S. firms, the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, a bipartisan group of former U.S. officials, said in a May report.
Cyber theft of industrial designs, business strategies and trade secrets is just a part of IP pilfering.
IP theft also involves "planted employees, bribed employees, employees who were appealed to on the basis of nationalism and all the traditional means of espionage, often accompanied by cyber," said Richard Ellings, president of the National Bureau of Asian Research think tank, who co-wrote the report.
The U.S. District Court in Manhattan charged three New York University researchers in May with conspiring to take bribes from Chinese medical and research outfits for details about NYU research into magnetic resonance imaging technology.
Arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Homeland Security Department for IP infringements rose 159 percent and indictments increased 264 percent from 2009 to 2013, a June report by the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator showed.
The Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property called for tough penalties including banking sanctions, bans on imports and blacklisting in U.S. financial markets.
(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Alistair Bell, Xavier Briand and Clarence Fernandez)
BEIJING ? A new study links heavy air pollution from coal burning to shorter lives in northern China. Researchers estimate that the half-billion people alive there in the 1990s will live an average of 5? years less than their southern counterparts because they breathed dirtier air.
China itself made the comparison possible: for decades, a now-discontinued government policy provided free coal for heating, but only in the colder north. Researchers found significant differences in both particle pollution of the air and life expectancy in the two regions, and said the results could be used to extrapolate the effects of such pollution on lifespans elsewhere in the world.
The study by researchers from China, Israel and the United States was published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
While previous studies have found that pollution affects human health, "the deeper and ultimately more important question is the impact on life expectancy," said one of the authors, Michael Greenstone, a professor of environmental economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"This study provides a unique setting to answer the life expectancy question because the (heating) policy dramatically alters pollution concentrations for people who appear to be of otherwise identical health," Greenstone said in an email. "Further, due to the low rates of migration in China in this period, we can know people's exposure over long time periods," he said.
The policy gave free coal for fuel boilers to heat homes and offices to cities north of the Huai River, which divides China into north and south. It was in effect for much of the 1950-1980 period of central planning, and, though discontinued after 1980, it has left a legacy in the north of heavy coal burning, which releases particulate pollutants into the air that can harm human health. Researchers found no other government policies that treated China's north differently from the south.
The researchers collected data for 90 cities, from 1981 to 2000, on the annual daily average concentration of total suspended particulates. In China, those are considered to be particles that are 100 micrometers or less in diameter, emitted from sources including power stations, construction sites and vehicles.
The researchers estimated the impact on life expectancies using mortality data from 1991-2000. They found that in the north, the concentration of particulates was 184 micrograms per cubic meter ? or 55 percent ? higher than in the south, and life expectancies were 5.5 years lower on average across all age ranges.
The researchers said the difference in life expectancies was almost entirely due to an increased incidence of deaths classified as cardiorespiratory ? those from causes that have previously been linked to air quality, including heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and respiratory illnesses.
Total suspended particulates include fine particulate matter called PM2.5 ? particles with diameters of no more than 2.5 micrometers. PM2.5 is of especially great health concern because it can penetrate deep into the lungs, but the researchers lacked the data to analyze those tiny particles separately.
Performance upgrades for the Penske-inspired Ford Mustang GT include an air intake, quad-tip exhaust, ECU tuning, 3:55 differential gear, retuned suspension, and Brembo brakes. Inside, the special-edition Mustang features black Recaro seats, a Laguna Seca gauge pod, custom floor mats and door sills, and the MyFord Touch infotainment system with navigation and backup camera. Exterior highlights include black paint with Hertz yellow racing stripes, Boss 302 front splitter, Shelby GT500 rear valance, special graphics package, and faux Hertz gas cap.