Radioactive Ball

I thought they were talking about a dance, not a deadly pile of Cs137:

Officials told the BBC that they had detected what may be the missing Caesium-137, adding that it may have been melted down...The BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Beijing says China has an appalling record on industrial safety - there are around 30 cases of radioactive material being lost every year.

Earlier I posted about how radioactive sources are used in construction sites and old factories. I think this instance is interesting because the Chinese government controls the media, and I'm confused why they would admit something like this. I don't think an incident like this is very dangerous, but people panic when they hear the term radiation. Did the government decide it wasn't all that dangerous, and it would gain the trust of its citizenship if it gave out the information? Was there a leak? Are they worried about keeping quiet and something blowing up in their face? If you controlled the media, would you admit that someone lost a "ball" of radioactive material?

[Insert snarky joke about radioactive balls here]

On a Few Things Sewage

The city of Oslo plans to run 200 of its buses on biomethane created from sewage. If this sounds interesting to you, I suggest you check out Rose George's book, The Big Necessity. In one of its chapters, the book goes over a similar use of sewage in China. The Chinese use "digesters" to create biomethane from pig and human excrement. Farmers use the biomethane for cooking and heating, and use the processed manure as fertilizer. Previously the farmers had spread the manure directly onto their crops, spreading disease. During the processing stage, the pathogens are partially broken down and the disease risk is mitigated. Not only does the digester create methane to heat homes, it also creates safer fertilizer for crops. The costs are the one-time construction time and materials of the digester, along with the recurring human cost of running the digester.

Footnote: The biogas link is via /. via EarthFirst via WorldChanging via IWA. Perhaps the blogosphere needs to come up with better linking customs.