POWER March 2013 - 12

40 times more than the World Health Organization's 24-hour
average standard of just 25 µg/m3
.
Beijing is certainly no stranger to smog. Pollution episodes
occur routinely; in July 2008, for example, the city forced half
of private cars off the road to improve air quality in advance of
the Olympic Games. But the smog that descended over the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei
area over the periods of Jan. 6-8, Jan. 9-15,
Jan. 17-19, Jan. 22-23, and Jan. 25-31 have been described
as " much more extreme " and of a longer duration. The Beijing
Meteorology Bureau attributed the spike at its worst-between
Jan 10 and 13-to " very poor " conditions of dispersal. " With
low pressure at the surface, wind speeds fell, humidity increased
and an inversion layer formed, causing pollution to accumulate, "
a spokesperson said. " It was as if someone had put a lid on the
city, " the China Dialogue commented.
Research results issued by the Chinese Academy of Sciences
(CAS) in early February suggested that surging fine particulate
contributions in January were caused almost 25% by vehicle
emissions, 20% by coal combustion, and the remainder by " cooking. "
Wang Yuesi, a CAS researcher under a group that studies
haze causes and control, called for a focus on limiting industrial
3. In a haze. As residents of Beijing and many other Chinese cities
were warned to stay inside in January due to the worst periods of air
quality in recent history, NASA's Terra satellite captured this image from
space on Jan. 14. It shows extensive haze, low clouds, and fog over
northeastern China, when fine particulates peaked at 755 micrograms
per cubic meter in Beijing. " The brightest areas tend to be clouds or
fog, which have a tinge of gray or yellow from the air pollution. Other
cloud-free areas have a pall of gray and brown smog that mostly blots
out the cities below, " NASA says. In areas where the ground is visible,
some of the landscape is covered with lingering snow from previous
storms. Source: NASA
pollution and improving the process of coal burning-enhancing
desulfurization, denitration, and dedusting in the combustion
process. Dust from construction sites should also be brought under
control, and more attention should be given to emissions
from diesel-powered cars and to fuel quality, he said.
Other experts have gone further, calling for a coal consumption
cap policy that would limit the growth of coal usage in air
pollution areas. Many cite a recent World Research Institute paper
that estimated there are proposals to build up to 558 GW of
new coal-fired capacity in China-representing a 73% increase in
the energy-intensive nation's 2011 thermal power capacity. Compared
with other Chinese cities, Beijing's record on replacing coal
with cleaner substitutes is sound, however: In 2012, it slashed
its coal consumption by 700,000 metric tons.
On the renewables front, China as a whole has also made gains.
It has established a goal of increasing its use of nonfossil energy
to 15% of primary energy consumption by 2020, and greatly increased
wind power over the last several years (see " Renewable
Energy Development Thrives During China's 12th Five-Year Plan "
in our December 2012 issue). Meanwhile, the central Ministry of
Environmental Protection has already begun planning coal consumption
cap pilots for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Pearl River
Delta, Yangtze River Delta, and Shandong city cluster as part of
its " 12th Five-Year Plan for Air Pollution Prevention and Control in
Key Areas. " That document also sets targets for reduction of key
pollutants by 2015, such as reducing PM 2.5 in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei
region and the Yangtze and Pearl River Deltas by 5%.
Over the short term, Beijing and other cities are developing air
pollution emergency response measures, such as those taken by
Beijing's Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection in January.
During the four intense bouts of smog, Beijing suspended
work at 28 construction sites, clamped down on emissions from
58 factories (that reportedly reduced particulate emissions by
30%), and took 30% of government vehicles off the road.
The haze, which made international headlines, will require
longer-term solutions, Li Keqiang, who will replace Wen Jiabao
as premier in March, admitted in a state radio broadcast
in January. Li, the most senior official to comment on the
situation to date, applauded a mandate from China's Ministry
of Environmental Protection that requires 74 major cities to
monitor and publically report data for particulates and other
pollutants based on new air quality standards that came into
effect on Jan. 1. He also highlighted China's efforts to regulate
industry, specifically through two new regulations promulgated
in February 2012 (after public outcry) that revised
ambient air quality standards, including PM2.5, and developed
a new definition of China's Air Quality index. " Pollution is
not a problem that emerged only a few days ago-it's a longterm
issue, and fixing it will take a long time. But we need to
do something about it, " he said. " Production, construction,
consumption cannot come at the price of hurting the environment. "
Hungary
Inaugurates Subsurface
Repository for Nuclear Plant Waste
Construction of a $310 million repository about 250 meters below
Earth's surface for low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste
from the operation and future decommissioning of Hungary's
power plants reached a significant milestone at Bataapati. Inaugural
ceremonies for the National Radioactive Waste Repository
(Figure 4) were held last December, opening the first disposal
chamber that will hold 4,600 drums of radioactive waste in 510
12
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