Journal articles on the topic 'Uranium – Environmental aspects – Vermont'

Some aspects of environmental hazard within uranium mining areas are considered. The uranium content in the environment components (rocks, soils, underground and surface waters) of the central part of the Ukrainian Shield within and beyond the uranium mining area is analyzed on the example of the Michurinske ore field. It is emphasized that man-made sources of natural origin should be considered more broadly than just waste dumps from uranium mining and processing enterprises. These are sources of ionizing radiation of natural origin, which have been subjected to concentration or their accessibility has been increased because of anthropogenic activity. Additional irradiation to the natural radiation background is formed. Waste dumps of uranium mining are considered as sources of potential dust pollution in the surface layers of atmosphere with fine dust containing uranium, its decay products and associated elements. The area of waste dumps is calculated using space images. Uranium accumulates in the dusty fraction, where its content is 0.01-0.06%. Taking into account the geological and geochemical characteristics of uranium deposits, radioactive elements, heavy metals and other associated elements of uranium mineralization are car- ried out of the dumps by winds and atmospheric waters with their subsequent migration into environment components. A mathematical model of potential dust air pollution in the area of long-term operation of the oldest uranium mine is presented for the summer 2019. In total, 15 factors influencing the potential threat of air dust pollution are considered and analyzed. The mathematical model is developed on the basis of the method of discriminant functions. To assess the degree of the model parameters informativeness, one-factor covariance analysis is used. It allows assessing the degree of a single sign influence on the prediction result. The developed model takes into account the area of waste dumps, uranium content in the dust fraction and wind direction southeast and/or east as the most hazardous for the study area. The model allows determining correctly the level of potential threat of air dust pollution in 96.3% ± 3.6% of all cases.

This article discusses the economic benefits of uranium mining, as well as its environmental and health impacts. Sustainable development includes several aspects: energy, water, the environment, food and the economy, and ensuring each of these aspects is a serious problem. Energy is at the center of other aspects of sustainability, as it has a direct relationship with water, food, and the environment. Uranium is Kazakhstan’s top priority in the global energy market. In the world, there are different opinions on the development of uranium production, increasing the value of atomic energy. Apparently, this should be preceded by a crisis in the field of oil and gas production in recent years, in connection with which the world energy market should have a diversified course depending on various energy sources. Kazakhstan is a country rich in uranium. In addition, over the years of independence, we have increased production almost four times and maintain leadership in the world. Therefore, uranium production is the most important advantage of our global energy space today.

With the development of nuclear science, uranium-contained wastewater was heavily generated. If not properly handled, it is bound to bring environmental and human health hazards. Conventional uranium-contained wastewater treatment technologies are limited in certain aspects, such as high reagent and energy consumption, secondary pollution and so on. The microalgae-based biosorption technique for treating uranium-contained wastewater is an economical, simple, effective and feasible approach. This paper summarized the basic mechanism of the technology, and discussed the effects of different pH, algal cell biomass concentration, initial uranium ion concentration and the growth state of algal cells on the biological treatment process of uranium-contained wastewater. Finally, the study explored the future prospects of the technology.

The law respecting nuclear energy has to date been the subject of relatively few studies in Canada. Considering, however, the growing importance of nuclear energy as a new or additional form of energy, besides oil, gas, coal and hydroelectric power, and on the other hand, the increase in public concern about the possible consequences of the nuclear option, especially on health and the environment, this area of law is undoubtedly bound to experience a major development. The purpose of the present article is to study existing federal legislation on the matter, as well as its effects on certain provincial jurisdictions, more particularly in Quebec. The author, after recalling certain technical data concerning components and functions of nuclear reactors, proceeds to analyse the main intervenors in the nuclear field, as contemplated by the Atomic Energy Control Act. One cannot help but acknowledge that the Atomic Energy Control Board, by means of its important supervisory and regulatory powers, intervenes at all stages of the nuclear cycle. The author also studies the constitutional basis for the federal intervention in this field of activity. After eliminating the national defence power, the national dimension theory and the emergency power as possible alternatives, he concludes that while Parliament may perhaps invoke its residuary power, its declaratory power appears as the surest constitutional basis for asserting its legislative authority over that particular matter. In the last part of the article, the author attempts to emphasize the effects of federal intervention on provincial property rights over uranium mines, and on provincial jurisdictions over labour relations, health and safety at the workplace and environmental protection. This analysis points out that provincial legislative authority over the management and development of their natural resources is not only inapplicable in respect of uranium, but that their property rights over uranium mines are rather precarious. It seems clear, further, that jurisdiction over labour relations within nuclear undertakings lies exclusively with the federal authority. One could argue that such is also the case with those aspects of nuclear undertakings which are connected with workers' health and safety as well as environmental protection, since those matters are intimately linked with the control of atomic energy. Two main conclusions can be drawn from this study. Firstly, it appears certain that Parliament, in legislating as it did, intended to regulate the whole nuclear energy cycle, from the extraction of uranium ore to the ultimate disposal of nuclear waste. Secondly, that authority could hardly be challenged by provinces or any other interested party, at least on constitutional grounds.

A geoenvironmental assessment methodology was developed to estimate waste quantities and disturbances that could be associated with the extraction of undiscovered uranium resources and identify areas on the landscape where uranium and other constituents of potential concern (COPCs) that may co-occur with uranium deposits in this region are likely to persist, if introduced into the environment. Prior to this work, a method was lacking to quantitively assess the environmental aspects associated with potential development of undiscovered uranium resources at a scale of a uranium resource assessment. The mining method of in situ recovery (ISR) was historically used to extract uranium from deposits in the Goliad Sand of the Texas Coastal Plain. For this reason, the study’s methodology projected the following types of wastes and disturbances commonly associated with ISR based on historical ISR mining records: the mine area, affected aquifer volume, mine pore volume, water pumped and disposed during uranium extraction and restoration, and radon emissions. Within the tract permissive for the occurrence of undiscovered uranium resources, maps and statistics of factors were derived that indicate the potential contaminant pathways. The percentage of days meeting the criteria for air stagnation indicate the potential for radon accumulation; the geochemical mobility of COPCs in groundwater in combination with effective recharge indicates the potential for infiltration of surface-derived COPCs; the geochemical mobility of COPCs in groundwater combined with hydraulic conductivity indicates the propensity for transmitting fluids away from contaminated or mined aquifers; and finally, geochemical mobility of COPCs in surface water combined with the factor for climatic erosivity (R factor) indicates the potential for COPCs to persist in surface waters due to runoff. This work resulted in a new methodology that can be applied to any undiscovered mineral resource to better understand possible wastes and disturbances associated with extraction and identify areas on the landscape where COPCs are likely to persist.

Groundwater contamination is one of the most concerning issues from uranium mining activities. Radionuclides cannot be destroyed or degraded, unlike some organic contaminants (and similar to metals). Besides, sites, where radionuclides may be found, are mainly radioactive and mixed waste disposal areas, and therefore many other contaminants may also be present in groundwater. The state-of-the-art of environmental technology is continually changing, and thus a review on technologies application is of utmost relevance. This work gives an overview of the available remediation technologies for groundwater contaminated with radionuclides resulting mainly from uranium mining. For each technology, a theoretical background is provided; the state of development, limitations, efficiency, and potential adverse effects are also approached. Examples of application and performance monitoring of remediation progress are described, and criteria for the selection of the appropriate remediation technology are given. The most effective remediation technology will always be site-specific as a result of the multitude of geographic and operational factors that influence the effluent quality and impact the technical feasibility of treatment methods. Ion exchange, chemical precipitation, and membrane filtration have been considered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) as best demonstrated available technologies for radium and uranium removal. Several factors have been demonstrated to influence the selection of a remediation technology (technological aspects and non-technical factors), but even for the technologies demonstrated or industrial proven, two important challenges remain; the (still) mobile radionuclides and the generation of secondary wastes. Besides, remediation technologies are constantly evolving, but future advancement depends on rigorously monitored, documented efficiency, and results achieved. Therefore, the technologies approached in this paper are by no means exhaustive.

Neptunium and uranium are important radionuclides in many aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle and are often present in radioactive wastes which require long term management. Understanding the environmental behaviour and mobility of these actinides is essential in underpinning remediation strategies and safety assessments for wastes containing these radionuclides. By combining state-of-the-art X-ray techniques (synchrotron-based Grazing Incidence XAS, and XPS) with wet chemistry techniques (ICP-MS, liquid scintillation counting and UV-Vis spectroscopy), we determined that contrary to uranium(VI), neptunium(V) interaction with magnetite is not significantly affected by the presence of bicarbonate. Uranium interactions with a magnetite surface resulted in XAS and XPS signals dominated by surface complexes of U(VI), while neptunium on the surface of magnetite was dominated by Np(IV) species. UV-Vis spectroscopy on the aqueous Np(V) species before and after interaction with magnetite showed different speciation due to the presence of carbonate. Interestingly, in the presence of bicarbonate after equilibration with magnetite, an unknown aqueous NpO2+ species was detected using UV-Vis spectroscopy, which we postulate is a ternary complex of Np(V) with carbonate and (likely) an iron species. Regardless, the Np speciation in the aqueous phase (Np(V)) and on the magnetite (111) surfaces (Np(IV)) indicate that with and without bicarbonate the interaction of Np(V) with magnetite proceeds via a surface mediated reduction mechanism. Overall, the results presented highlight the differences between uranium and neptunium interaction with magnetite, and reaffirm the potential importance of bicarbonate present in the aqueous phase.

This paper begins with a brief historical overview of the Australian movement against uranium mining, before focussing on two major campaigns: Roxby and Jabiluka. It describes the reasons the activists gave at the time for their blockades of the Roxby Downs uranium mine in South Australia in 1983 and 1984. These reasons – such as perceptions that the industry is unsafe - have changed little over time and were the basis for the campaign against the proposed Jabiluka mine in the Northern Territory in 1998. They continue to be cited by environmental groups and Aboriginal Traditional Owners to this day as new situations arise, such as the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident.The paper then describes how the movement evolved between the Roxby and Jabiluka blockades, with changes to the movement’s philosophy, strategy, tactics and internal dynamics. This analysis includes a comparison between two anti-nuclear bike rides, one a year after the 1984 Roxby blockade and involving some of the same activists, and another at the time of the Jabiluka blockade. This author was present at all these events, and provides an emic (insider) perspective within a longitudinal participant-observation methodology. Although this perspective obviously has a subjective element, the paper fills a gap in that there is little written history of these blockades (particularly Roxby) and more generally of Australian resistance to uranium mining, let alone the aspects of nonviolence and movement evolution. It is an introductory history of these campaigns, examining the direct action components, the practicalities of nonviolent campaigning, and the evolution of Australian anti-uranium activism.

Nuclear power in its present form was created during the Cold War and is its heritage. The main objective of nuclear energy at that time, along with energy, was the creation and accumulation of nuclear materials. To this aim a existing nuclear power plants based on uranium-plutonium cycle. Everything else - the processing of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel, storage, recycling themselves nuclear power plant after its end of life, the risks of proliferation of nuclear materials and other environmental issues - minor. It was also believed that the nuclear power plant - the most reliable and safe plant. During the last twenty years all over the world the number of new orders for nuclear aggregates has decreased. That happens for a number of reasons, including public resistance, that the construction of new NPP and the excess of energy utilities in many markets, which is mainly connected with high market competition in energy markets and low economic indicators of the current nuclear utilities. The technology that consists of low capital costs, a possibility for quick construction and guarantied exploitation quality is on the winners side, but currently this technology is absent. However, despite abovementioned downsides, as the experience of state corporation "Rosatom"has shown, many developing countries of the South-east Asia, The middle East, African regions express high interest in the development of nuclear energy in their countries. The decision whether to develop nuclear energy or to continue to develop is, in the end, up to the choice of the tasks that a country faces. The article describes these "minor" issues, as well as geopolitical and economic problems of the further development of nuclear energy.

Uranium (U) is a heavy metal used in military and industrial settings, with a large portion being mined from the Southwest region of the United States. Uranium has uses in energy and military weaponry, but the mining process has released U into soil and surface waters that may pose threats to human and environmental health. The majority of literature regarding U’s human health concern focuses on outcomes based on unintentional ingestion or inhalation, and limited data are available about its influence via cutaneous contact. Utilizing skin dermis cells, we evaluated U’s topical chemotoxicity. Employing soluble depleted uranium (DU) in the form of uranyl nitrate (UN), we hypothesized that in vitro exposure of UN will have cytotoxic effects on primary dermal fibroblasts by affecting cell viability and metabolic activity and, further, may delay wound healing aspects via altering cell proliferation and migration. Using environmentally relevant levels of U found in water (0.1 μM to 100 μM [UN]; 23.8–23,800 ppb [U]), we quantified cellular mitosis and migration through growth curves and in vitro scratch assays. Cells were exposed from 24 h to 144 h for a time-course evaluation of UN chemical toxicity. The effects of UN were observed at concentrations above and below the Environmental Protection Agency threshold for safe exposure limits. UN exposure resulted in a dose-dependent decrease in the viable cell count; however, it produced an increase in metabolism when corrected for the viable cells present. Furthermore, cellular proliferation, population doubling, and percent closure was hindered at levels ≥10 μM UN. Therefore, inadvertent exposure may exacerbate pre-existing skin diseases in at-risk demographics, and additionally, it may substantially interfere in cutaneous tissue repair processes.

Environment Canada has for over 15 years operated a network of water quality stations in the NWT. The objectives of the network were to provide a baseline of water quality data against which future changes could be measured. Contemporary monitoring must now address the biological component of the aquatic environment, the effects of development on the aquatic environment, and the formulation and application of in-stream water quality objectives. Interjurisdictional water quality at the Territorial-Provincial border, and issues associated with precious metals, base metals, hydrocarbons, uranium exploration and long-range air pollution constitute new challenges for water quality monitoring programs. The paper considers aspects of an updated monitoring program, focusing on the delineation of ambient variability and the needs for particular research in the development of aquatic water quality criteria, guidelines and use-specific water quality objectives for northern watercourses.

Abstract. On 11 March 2011 a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and resultant tsunami caused a full meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant located on the island of Honshu, on the east coast of Japan. It took 4 weeks for the radionuclides to circumnavigate the Earth and descend into the Southern hemisphere. Although scholarly activity has continued apace in relation to different aspects of Fukushima as an event and site, very little of this work has examined the implications of Australian uranium being found inside several of Fukushima Daiichi's reactors at the time of the disaster. This paper explores Fukushima as a central, yet heretofore neglected, artefact of Australia's cultural and environmental heritage.

The present investigation deals with the removal of the lower portion of a glued laminated column in an existing uranium industrial processing plant in Saskatchewan, Canada. The lower 8 m of the column was eliminated to avoid transmission of high dynamic magnification forces created from installing a new rod mill in the crushing area of the plant. The construction details of transferring and securing the building column loads to the adjacent concrete wall and new steel trestle are examined. Some design aspects of a new built-up girder and other supporting elements are discussed. A summary of the construction procedure employed is given, which would be extremely valuable in similar structural alteration or rehabilitation jobs for old industrial plants. The construction of a new mill and the structural alterations were carried out during the spring of 1984. Since then, the new mill and the existing structure have performed satisfactorily. Key words: shearing existing column, rod mill, rehabilitation, built-up girder, structural alteration.

BNFL is an international company offering a nuclear fuel service. BNFL owns and operates facilities for the storage and reprocessing of irradiated fuel, and treatment of wastes arising, at the Sellafield site in West Cumbria. In 1974, BNFL announced its intention to undertake the Company's largest ever project, the provision of a new, integrated, reprocessing facility known as THORP (Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant). The purpose of THORP is to recover uranium and plutonium from spent oxide fuel that has been irradiated in nuclear reactors used for the generation of electricity. The plant has been designed to high standards to avoid jeopardising the safety of any person on or off site as a result of its operation. This paper provides an overview of the project outlining some of the major aspects, encompassing the history of the project, environmental impact, safeguards/accountancy, commercial information, the use of the products in mixed oxide fuel and the development of the THORP workforce. It concludes that the large investment made in plant, equipment and people, will ensure that the radiological impact of THORP's operations on the environment is insignificant, and that as the radioactive commissioning of THORP is proceeding successfully, that there is increasing confidence within, and external to, BNFL that THORP will be a commercial and environmental success for Britain.

Produced water is accompanied with the production of oil and gas especially at the fields producing by water drive or water injection. The quantity of these waters is expected to be more complicated problem with an increasing in water cut which is expected to be 3-8 barrels water/produced barrel oil.Produced water may contain many constituents based on what is present in the subsurface at a particular location. Produced water contains dissolved solids and hydrocarbons (dissolved and suspended) and oxygen depletion. The most common dissolved solid is salt with concentrations range between a few parts per thousand to hundreds parts per thousand. In addition to salt, many produced waters also contain high levels of heavy metals like zinc, barium, chromium, lead, nickel, uranium, vanadium and low levels of naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM).This study will highlight the main aspects of the different international experiences with the produced water treatment for subsequent reuse or disposal. These different treatment methods vary considerably in effectiveness, cost and their environmental impacts. Samples of produced water from Al-Mishrif formation in ten wells belongs to five fields southern Iraq were taken and analyzed chemically to define the basic features of these waters and to have guide lines for the best strategy that required handling the increased water cut in these fields.

Early-life exposure to environmental toxicants can have detrimental effects on children’s neurodevelopment. In the current study, we employed a causal modeling framework to examine the direct effect of specific maternal prenatal exposures on infants’ neurodevelopment in the context of co-occurring metals. Maternal metal exposure and select micronutrients’ concentrations were assessed using samples collected at the time of delivery from mothers living across Navajo Nation with community exposure to metal mixtures originating from abandoned uranium mines. Infants’ development across five domains was measured at ages 10 to 13 months using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire Inventory (ASQ:I), an early developmental screener. After adjusting for effects of other confounding metals and demographic variables, prenatal exposure to lead, arsenic, antimony, barium, copper, and molybdenum predicted deficits in at least one of the ASQ:I domain scores. Strontium, tungsten, and thallium were positively associated with several aspects of infants’ development. Mothers with lower socioeconomic status (SES) had higher lead, cesium, and thallium exposures compared to mothers from high SES backgrounds. These mothers also had infants with lower scores across various developmental domains. The current study has many strengths including its focus on neurodevelopmental outcomes during infancy, an understudied developmental period, and the use of a novel analytical method to control for the effects of co-occurring metals while examining the effect of each metal on neurodevelopmental outcomes. Yet, future examination of how the effects of prenatal exposure on neurodevelopmental outcomes unfold over time while considering all potential interactions among metals and micronutrients is warranted.

One of the most problematic aspects of underground block leaching (UBL) of metals from ores is the possibility of pollution of water and air in the affected zone. Therefore, proving the possibility of mitigating environmental impact of metal leaching from ores by managing production processes with the implementation of nature- and resource-saving technologies is an important objective. The purpose of this study is to justify underground development effectiveness of ore deposits by traditional and integrated methods with leaching of metals from substandard and off-balance ores. This will allow the raw material base for extraction of metals from off-balance ores to be expanded and the environmental impact on subsoil and groundwater (hydrogeological systems) to be mitigated. A distinctive feature of a UBL (underground site for leaching of metals from shrunk ores) is that leaching solutions are supplied from sorption column placed in mining workings of the leaching level in the immediate vicinity of the extracting block. The pregnant solutions in the form of resin are discharged from the sorption column, placed in the leaching level mine workings, then winded in mine cars and further supplied to hydrometallurgical plant in tanks. A still rare attempt to justify the efficiency and environmental safety of underground metal leaching (UBL) from off-balance and substandard rock ores in installations mounted in mine workings, on the basis of monitoring and evaluation of subsoil and groundwater conditions was investigated. The average value of uranium concentration by level was established: 210 m – 3.6 mg/L; 225 m – 3.58 mg/L; 280 m – 0.91 mg/L. At the same time no contamination of underground mine waters was detected. Levels of sulfuric acid aerosols and radon decomposition products did not exceed the maximum allowable concentration (MAC) values. It is recommended that the hydrogeological environment be protected through silting the bottom of the stope for collection of pregnant solutions with clay mud and construct semi-active water-permeable chemically active barriers. The mentioned BIL process was implemented during the development of pilot block 5-86 and recommended for blocks 5-84-86 and 5-88-90 of Michurinskoye deposit of SE VostGOK, Ukraine, as well as during for development of ore deposits in Russia, Kazakhstan, and other developed mining countries.

Abstract Background Environmental pollution is a well-known cause of disease worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, air pollution kills an estimated seven million people worldwide every year. Over the past decade, increasing attention has been drawn to the impact of environmental pollution on mental health. In 2016, our research team (Attademo et al., 2016) performed a literature review focusing on the association with psychotic disorders. The aim of this presentation is to give an update of the science, given the marked increase in the body of literature on this topic. Methods We repeated a search using the Pubmed electronic database for all articles from February 20, 2016 (date of out last search for the previous review) to November 20, 2019, using the same terms that we used in the first review. The search included all languages. Thirty-eight articles were identified. We selected 9 studies related to pollution’s effects on human subjects: seven were research reports and two were review articles. We excluded 29 articles, on the basis of the following exclusion criteria: a) studies unrelated to the topic, and b) letters or commentaries not reporting research findings. For this update, we focus only on research reports. Results Six of the seven research reports (Bai et al., 2019; Duan et al., 2018; Eguchi et al., 2018; Liang et al., 2019; Ma et al., 2018; Newbury et al., 2019; Qiu et al., 2019) focused on air pollution. Only one (Ma et al., 2018) explored the association between serum concentration of six typical toxic metals and risk of schizophrenia in a earth mining area in China and found higher serum levels of antimony, uranium, and lanthanum in patients with schizophrenia. All studies focusing on air pollution considered the following pollutants: particulate matter (PM) 10, PM2.5, and nitrogen dioxide. Some of them also included carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitric oxide, and carbon dioxide. All the studies found significant associations between pollutant concentrations and psychosis-associated outcomes (adolescent psychotic experience, hospital admissions, and higher Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale scores). Five of the six studies investigating air pollutants also looked into the lag effect between pollutant concentrations and the outcome of the study, supporting the hypothesis of short-term effects (same day or within the first 2–3 days after high concentrations of pollutants). Discussion During our previous review, we found 13 research reports from 1964 to 2016, while in this update in the past 2.5 years, there has been a marked increase in publications on the topic. The association between air pollutants and different aspects of psychotic disorders presentation and manifestation is gaining support and the approaches of looking into this phenomenon are becoming more sophisticated. Nevertheless, further research is needed both at the molecular level to determine the mechanisms that mediate the effects of these pollutants, and at clinical and environmental levels to improve health and well-being of patient with psychotic disorders.

Summary The Wafra field is located in the partitioned neutral zone between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The field produces oil from the Ratawi oolite reservoir, which has been under production since 1956. Barriers to fluid movement have severely restricted aquifer support to the overlying carbonate grainstone reservoir, leading to production-induced pressure depletion and low recovery rates. Creative integration of three-dimensional seismic aspects, well log stratigraphy, and engineering analysis revealed an unexploited reservoir extension that is more open to aquifer pressure support. Wells drilled along this extension are expected to yield higher initial production rates and longer sustained production. The model was used to drill two successful step-out wells that have increased field production by over 12,000 BOPD. Eight of ten additional wells have now been drilled as a follow-up to this success. This paper reviews the case history with a focus on the multidisciplinary integration that led to opportunity identification and exploitation. Introduction The Wafra field, jointly operated by Saudi Arabian Texaco and the Kuwait Oil Company, is located in the partitioned neutral zone (PNZ) between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia (Fig. 1). The field has produced from the Lower Cretaceous Ratawi reservoir since 1956. Liquid withdrawal over the years has depleted reservoir pressures in some parts of the field, leading to a decline in production. Based on prior reservoir characterization and simulation studies in 1995,1 a peripheral water injection and an extension development program have been undertaken in order to arrest the decline and increase the production by over 40,000 BOPD.2 In 1996, a 104 sq mile three-dimensional (3D) seismic survey was acquired to help design and implement these programs. Structural and Stratigraphic Framework The Wafra field is a large anticline approximately 6 by 10 miles in dimension (Fig. 2). The field is composed of a main NW-SE trending structural feature called the Main area, and a lower amplitude extension area east of the Main area called East Wafra. The Ratawi oolite reservoir is found at a depth of 6,135 ft subsea at the structural crest and had an original oil-water contact at about 6,520 ft subsea. Most of the structuring occurred in Middle Cretaceous time as sediment draped over deep-seated horst blocks. Oil migration and accumulation are thought to have occurred primarily in Early Eocene time. The Ratawi formation consists of a marine transgressive sequence of carbonate rocks deposited during Early Cretaceous time. The formation is composed of three distinct intervals: the lower-most Ratawi oolite reservoir, and the overlying Ratawi Limestone and Ratawi Shale cap rocks (Fig. 3). The Ratawi oolite reservoir was formed by a prograding carbonate sand shoaling sequence deposited on a low-angle carbonate ramp or detached platform. The commercially productive reservoir interval is composed primarily of porous grainstones and packstones. Less porous packstone, mudstone, and wackestone facies resulted from a more-restricted lagoonal environment in the central part of the field, and deeper marine shelf facies on the platform boundaries. Stratigraphic analysis of well log data provides an understanding of the depositional framework and serves as a basis for modeling facies distribution within the reservoir. Fig. 4a is a well log cross section traversing the Main area and East Wafra along the path A-B in Fig. 2. The gamma ray (GR) log curves are flattened on the base of the Ratawi limestone (cap rock) and span the interval of the Ratawi oolite reservoir. The GR curves indicate a remarkable character similarity from well to well that is almost exclusively related to the presence of uranium minerals.1 This determination is supported by x-ray analysis of core data that found an absence of clay. Additional evidence is found in comparisons of the GR (uranium, potassium and thorium) with the computed GR (potassium and thorium) from spectrometry gamma ray logs. The computed GR data show a largely diminished log character, implying that the GR log character is largely a function of uranium content. Hence, the correlative nature of the GR curves indicates that the uranium was present at the time of deposition—probably due to regional-scale climatic or environmental influences such as atmospheric fall-out from volcanic activity. This explains the consistent levels of uranium, independent of lithology and porosity, and allows detailed chronostratigraphic correlations to be made. Fig. 4b is an east-west stratigraphic cross section through the reservoir along the same path as in Fig. 4a, showing porosity logs with GR depositional time lines superimposed. The thick solid lines mark lithostratigraphic boundaries between an interval consisting primarily of porous grainstone, which for purposes of this paper will be referred to as the "upper reservoir," a tight interval of predominantly mudstone and packstone, referred to as the "Basal barrier," and a porous grainstone interval called the "lower reservoir." Almost all of the Ratawi oil production is from the upper reservoir grainstones. The chronostratigraphic facies heterogeneity evident in Fig. 4b owes its origin to a transgressive sequence of prograding grain shoals deposited in relatively shallow water.3 During the early stages of transgression, as the shoals prograded over the Wafra paleo-high, muds and finer grain carbonates were deposited in intershoal lagoons. As the sea level rose, carbonate sediment productivity and accumulation surpassed the rise in sea level, resulting in an overall shallowing with time. Evidence of this can be seen in the general coarsening upward character of the porosity logs. With progressively shallower water depths and associated higher depositional energy, the grain shoals became spatially more extensive while the lagoonal areas retreated, ending in fairly expansive grain shoals in the later stages of reservoir development. At the end of Ratawi oolite time, a rapid increase in relative sea level drowned the shoaling sequence, and deposited the deeper marine Ratawi limestone and shale members.

The approximate age of Planet Earth is around 4.54 billion years. This age of the earth has been determined from isotopic dating of the rock samples from the earth’s crust as well as from the soils and rocks of the moon and meteorites. Dating methods e.g., Rubidium (87R) – Strontium (87Sr) and Uranium (238U, 235U, 232U) – Lead (206Pb, 207Pb, 208Pb) are widely used for dating of the rocks pertaining to deep time. Succeeding the birth of planet earth, the origin of first life on the earth is one of the greatest enigmas. There have been a number of questions that have been asked on this issue but many of the answers are not satisfactory and absolutely verified as well as full proof. For a better understanding of this enigma, we need to focus on the several features and geochemical conditions that were congenial for the first life on Planet Earth. We need to know which were the main driving forces viz., water, chemistry, temperature cycles, etc., that facilitated the emergence of life on the earth. There are various opinions regarding the origin of first life on the earth. A group of scientists believe that RNA or RNA -like molecule first appeared on the earth that was capable to self replicate. As far as the existing knowledge is concerned, the earliest life forms were microscopic organisms (microbes) and their evidence is archived in the rocks of about 3.7 billion years ago. Evidence of microbes is also preserved in Stromatolites (lamination of lime-secreting Cyanobacteria that make calcareous mound). After the evolution of Cyanobacteria, there was a dramatic transformation by the rise in Oxygen level in the atmosphere. Gradually from the prokaryotes, the eukaryotes evolved. In the history of life on the earth there have been numerous mass extinction events when high proportions of the plants and animals became extinct both in the terrestrial and marine realms. However, the classical mass extinction events are popularly known as 'Big Five'. In accordance with the geological time scale, the 'Big Five' major mass extinction events are: Ordovician-Silurian (440-450 million years ago), Devonian-Carboniferous (360-375 million years ago), Permian-Triassic (252 million years ago), Triassic-Jurassic (205 million years ago) and Cretaceous-Tertiary (65 million years ago). Extreme climatic and catastrophic events were responsible for all these mass extinction events that took place in the history of earth. However, with every mass extinction event, radiation of flora and fauna took place and evolution as well as diversification in the plant and animal kingdom was witnessed both on the land and in the ocean. All these are linked to the change in climate and environment and there have been change in climate since the first life emerged on the earth i.e., during the past several million years. During the past few decades, the global trend of climate change has created tremendous encouragement and increased concern amongst the scientific community of the world and that have motivated the scientists to focus on different aspects of climate research. In this backdrop, the study of the past climate can provide some important clues and by virtue of that possible changes in the future climate can be predicted. Based on different instruments recorded at the meteorological stations, climate and environmental records of the past few centuries can be traced but not on a millennial and centennial scale. For this reason, we need proxies viz., biotic proxies preserved as fossils and geochemical proxies archived in the ancient rocks of the earth. These proxies are able to interpret the past changes in the climate and environment that occurred in different time slices on the Planet Earth. During the last thirty five years of my palaeobiological research hovered on the past climate and evolution of organisms both on the land and oceanic realms myself along with colleagues and research students associated with me have contributed on various extreme climatic events of the past. We have been able to decipher when and how the change in floral composition and radiation took place after the Permian-Triassic mass extinction (~252 million years ago) event (Pal et al., 1991; Pal and Ghosh, 1997; Chatterjee et al., 2014; Ghosh et al., 2014; Ghosh et al., 2016; Kar and Ghosh, 2018; Ghosh et al., 2021). My working group also attempted to identify the changes in the benthic marine flora before and after the Cretaceous- Tertiary mass extinction (~65 million years ago) event (Ghosh et al., 1997; Ghosh and Sarkar, 2013). During the last couple of decades, research of my working group mainly focused on the phytoplankton from the sedimentary rocks exposed in different islands of Andaman and Nicobar along with adjacent offshore sedimentary cores. Our investigations revealed the optimum climatic events, intensification of the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM), fluctuations in sea level, and various other climatic events since ~16 million years ago (Chakraborty and Ghosh, 2016; Chakraborty et al., 2019; Ghosh et al., 2017; Chakraborty et al., 2021; Saxena et al., 2021; Chakraborty and Ghosh, 2021; Chakraborty et al., 2021a and b; Roy et al., 2022; Saxena et al., 2022). However, according to my perspective, the contributions of mine along with my working group are meager and in further intensive research is needed that can be used as an analogue to predict the future climatic scenario. Last but not the least, I would like to express that I am associated with the Journal of Environmental Biology for the last 10 years in different capacities. I really appreciate the quality of publication in the journal, the process of peer review and the accuracy that attracts the international audience. Specifically, I must acknowledge the contribution of Dr. R.C. Dalela who solely handled the journal and to date, the standard is maintained in an era of competition when various predatory journals are mushrooming all over the world. It is still unbelievable for me that the founder, Dr. R.C. Dalela is no more with us. On December 12, 2022 he took his last breadth. I pay my deepest regards and homage to Dr. Dalela. In fact, he invited me to write this editorial note and I am really thankful to this great human being; a very honest, humble, meticulous and pleasing personality. Whenever I met him, I told him that during my graduation I took the help of the book written by Dalela and Verma on Cell Biology. He is no more in this living world as it is the law of our life, but I believe that his untiring effort, hard work, blessings and best wishes will certainly improve the quality of the journal.

The main characteristics that differentiate a developed fast reactor fuel cycle from the thermal reactor fuel cycles operating now are the higher fissile content of the fuel, the greater incentive to reprocess fuel at shorter delay times and the elimination of uranium mining. The local and global environmental impacts of a typical fuel cycle normalized to 1GW e a of output are estimated, including those from the fabrication, transport and reprocessing of fuel and from reactor operations. Radioactive emissions and radiation doses arising from these operations are compared with those from thermal reactor cycles. The risks of accidental discharges from reprocessing plants are discussed, but reactor accidents are not included. The requirements for safeguards are described. Typical inventories of radioactive wastes arising from reprocessing and from decommissioning have been calculated; the management and disposal of these wastes will pose no significant new problems. The overall result is that a transition from thermal to fast reactor fuel cycles should not result in any increase in environmental impact.

Abstract This article analyses aspects of knowledge production in situations of environmental conflicts. It focuses on the context of the environmental field established by the announcement of the uranium and phosphate mining project in the Sertão Central (Central Hinterland) of Ceará - Brazil. The aim is to describe several modus faciendi - ways of acting - that update and territorialize epistemicide and cognitive injustices in the context of neo-extractivism. It also intends to describe processes of knowledge construction put in motion by subjects who were affected, in order to defend themselves from threats to their territories and ways of life. The study also addresses interfaces of this process with the participation of researchers/advisors who, from the perspective of a science oriented by activism, engage in dialogue with local subjects for a shared production of knowledge.

The report examines aspects of the supply and use of energy and the issues which will challenge the engineer over the next 25 years. Conclusions are reached and recommendations are made with particular reference to the United Kingdom while recognizing international implications. Subject matter includes fuel supply and conversion—coal, oil, gas and uranium—and energy usage in the industrial, transport, domestic and commercial sectors. Trends in demand and supply and environmental impact are considered. The report is the product of the Energy Joint Venture Study Group of the UK Engineering Institutions which was formed at the initiative of the Engineering Council. The Institutions contributing are the IMechE, CIBSE, BNES, Institute of Energy, IEE, Institute of Civil Engineers, Institute of Measurement and Control, Institute of Mining Engineers, Institute of Road Transport Engineers, Institute of Materials, IChemE and the Institute of Gas Engineers.

AbstractSoft x-ray scanning transmission x-ray microscope (STXM) spectromicroscopy has been developed and employed to investigate several aspects of actinide chemistry and materials science at the Advanced Light Source Molecular Environmental Science (ALS-MES) Beamline 11.0.2 STXM end station. The basic approach and fundamentals of STXM experiments for radioactive materials systems is discussed. Representative results from STXM spectromicroscopy investigations of a mixed phase uranium nitride, single crystals of Eu(III)[TREN(Me-3,2-HOPO)]3 2H2O and hydrated Pu2(III)(C2O4)3(6H2O) 3H2O complexes are presented. The STXM images and soft x-ray absorption spectra illustrate the capabilities and utility of soft x-ray STXM for providing information about actinide materials, especially the light element constituents. Lastly, new and future opportunities for actinide science utilizing soft x-ray STXM are discussed in light of the planned upgrades for the STXM end stations at the ALS.

“What is the point of stories in such a moment”, asks author and critic James Bradley, writing about climate extinction: Bradley emphasises that “climatologist James Hansen once said being a climate scientist was like screaming at people from behind a soundproof glass wall; being a writer concerned with these questions often feels frighteningly similar” (“Writing”). If the impact of climate change asks humans to think differently, to imagine differently, then surely writing—and reading—must change too? According to writer and geographer Samuel Miller-McDonald, “if you’re a writer, then you have to write about this”. But how are we to do that? Where might it be done already? Perhaps not in traditional (or even post-) Modernist modes. In the era of the Anthropocene I find myself turning to non-traditional, un-real models to write the slow violence and read the deep time that is where we can see our current climate catastrophe.At a “Writing in the Age of Extinction” workshop earlier this year Bradley and Jane Rawson advocated changing the language of “climate change”—rejecting such neutral terms—in the same way that I see the stories discussed here pushing against Modernity’s great narrative of progress.My research—as a reader and writer, is in the fantastic realm of speculative fiction; I have written in The Conversation about how this genre seems to be gaining literary popularity. There is no doubt that our current climate crisis has a part to play. As Margaret Atwood writes: “it’s not climate change, it’s everything change” (“Climate”). This “everything” must include literature. Kim Stanley Robinson is not the only one who sees “the models modern literary fiction has are so depleted, what they’re turning to now is our guys in disguise”. I am interested in two recent examples, which both use the strongly genre-associated time-travel trope, to consider how science-fiction concepts might work to re-imagine our “deranged” world (Ghosh), whether applied by genre writers or “our guys in disguise”. Can stories such as The Heavens by Sandra Newman and “Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom” by Ted Chiang—which apply time travel, whether as an expression of fatalism or free will—help us conceive the current collapse: understand how it has come to pass, and imagine ways we might move through it?The Popularity of Time TravelIt seems to me that time as a notion and the narrative device, is key to any idea of writing through climate change. “Through” as in via, if the highly contested “cli-fi” category is considered a theme; and “through” as entering into and coming out the other side of this ecological end-game. Might time travel offer readers more than the realist perspective of sweeping multi-generational sagas? Time-travel books pose puzzles; they are well suited to “wicked” problems. Time-travel tales are designed to analyse the world in a way that it is not usually analysed—in accordance with Tim Parks’s criterion for great novels (Walton), and in keeping with Darko Suvin’s conception of science fiction as a literature of “cognitive estrangement”. To read, and write, a character who travels in “spacetime” asks something more of us than the emotional engagement of many Modernist tales of interiority—whether they belong to the new “literary middlebrow’” (Driscoll), or China Miéville’s Booker Prize–winning realist “litfic” (Crown).Sometimes, it is true, they ask too much, and do not answer enough. But what resolution is possible is realistic, in the context of this literally existential threat?There are many recent and recommended time-travel novels: Kate Atkinson’s 2013 Life after Life and Jenny Erpenbeck’s 2014 End of Days have main characters who are continually “reset”, exploring the idea of righting history—the more literary experiment concluding less optimistically. For Erpenbeck “only the inevitable is possible”. In her New York Times review Francine Prose likens Life after Life to writing itself: “Atkinson sharpens our awareness of the apparently limitless choices and decisions that a novelist must make on every page, and of what is gained and lost when the consequences of these choices are, like life, singular and final”. Andrew Sean Greer’s 2013 The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells also centres on the WorldWar(s), a natural-enough site to imagine divergent timelines, though he draws a different parallel. In Elan Mastai’s 2017 debut All Our Wrong Todays the reality that is remembered—though ultimately not missed, is more dystopic than our own time, as is also the way with Joyce Carol Oates’s 2018 The Hazards of Time Travel. Oates’s rather slight contribution to the subgenre still makes a clear point: “America is founded upon amnesia” (Oates, Hazards). So, too, is our current environment. We are living in a time created by a previous generation; the environmental consequence of our own actions will not be felt until after we are gone. What better way to write such a riddle than through the loop of time travel?The Purpose of Thought ExperimentsThis list is not meant to be comprehensive. It is an indication of the increasing literary application of the “elaborate thought experiment” of time travel (Oates, “Science Fiction”). These fictional explorations, their political and philosophical considerations, are currently popular and potentially productive in a context where action is essential, and yet practically impossible. What can I do? What could possibly be the point? As well as characters that travel backwards, or forwards in time, these titles introduce visionaries who tell of other worlds. They re-present “not-exactly places, which are anywhere but nowhere, and which are both mappable locations and states of mind”: Margaret Atwood’s “Ustopias” (Atwood, “Road”). Incorporating both utopian and dystopian aspects, they (re)present our own time, in all its contradictory (un)reality.The once-novel, now-generic “novum” of time travel has become a metaphor—the best possible metaphor, I believe, for the climatic consequence of our in/action—in line with Joanna Russ’s wonderful conception of “The Wearing out of Genre Materials”. The new marvel first introduced by popular writers has been assimilated, adopted or “stolen” by the dominant mode. In this case, literary fiction. Angela Carter is not the only one to hope “the pressure of the new wine makes the old bottles explode”. This must be what Robinson expects: that Ken Gelder’s “big L” literature will be unable to contain the wine of “our guys”—even if it isn’t new. In the act of re-use, the time-travel cliché is remade anew.Two Cases to ConsiderTwo texts today seem to me to realise—in both senses of that word—the possibilities of the currently popular, but actually ancient, time-travel conceit. At the Melbourne Writers Festival last year Ted Chiang identified the oracle in The Odyssey as the first time traveller: they—the blind prophet Tiresias was transformed into a woman for seven years—have seen the future and report back in the form of prophecy. Chiang’s most recent short story, “Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom”, and Newman’s novel The Heavens, both of which came out this year, are original variations on this re-newed theme. Rather than a coherent, consistent, central character who travels and returns to their own time, these stories’ protagonists appear diversified in/between alternate worlds. These texts provide readers not with only one possible alternative but—via their creative application of the idea of temporal divergence—myriad alternatives within the same story. These works use the “characteristic gesture” of science fiction (Le Guin, “Le Guin Talks”), to inspire different, subversive, ways of thinking and seeing our own one-world experiment. The existential speculation of time-travel tropes is, today, more relevant than ever: how should we act when our actions may have no—or no positive, only negative—effect?Time and space travel are classic science fiction concerns. Chiang’s lecture unpacked how the philosophy of time travel speaks uniquely to questions of free will. A number of his stories explore this theme, including “The Alchemist’s Gate” (which the lecture was named after), where he makes his thinking clear: “past and future are the same, and we cannot change either, only know them more fully” (Chiang, Exhalation). In “Story of Your Life”, the novella that the film Arrival is based on, Chiang’s main character-narrator embraces a future that could be seen as dystopic while her partner walks away from it—and her, and his daughter—despite the happiness they will offer. Gary cannot accept the inevitable unhappiness that must accompany them. The suggestion is that if he had had Louise’s foreknowledge he might, like the free-willing protagonist in Looper, have taken steps to ensure that that life—that his daughter’s life itself—never eventuated. Whether he would have been successful is suspect: according to Chiang free will cannot foil fate.If the future cannot be changed, what is the role of free will? Louise wonders: “what if the experience of knowing the future changed a person? What if it evoked a sense of urgency, a sense of obligation to act precisely as she knew she would?” In his “story notes” Chiang says inspiration came from variational principles in physics (Chiang, Stories); I see the influence of climate calamity. Knowing the future must change us—how can it not evoke “a sense of urgency, a sense of obligation”? Even if events play out precisely as we know they will. In his talk Chiang differentiated between time-travel films which favour free will, like Looper, and those that conclude fatalistically, such as Twelve Monkeys. “Story of Your Life” explores the idea that these categories are not mutually exclusive: exercising free will might not change fate; fatalism may not preclude acts of free will.Utopic Free Will vs. Dystopic Fate?Newman’s latest novel is more obviously dystopic: the world in The Heavens is worse each time Kate wakes from her dreams of the past. In the end it has become positively post-apocalyptic. The overwhelming sadness of this book is one of its most unusual aspects, going far beyond that of The Time Traveler’s Wife—2003’s popular tale of love and loss. The Heavens feels fatalistic, even though its future is—unfortunately, in this instance—not set but continually altered by the main character’s attempts to “fix” it (in each sense of the word). Where Twelve Monkeys, Looper, and The Odyssey present every action as a foregone conclusion, The Heavens navigates the nightmare that—against our will—everything we do might have an adverse consequence. As in A Christmas Carol, where the vision of a possible future prompts the protagonist to change his ways and so prevent its coming to pass, it is Kate’s foresight—of our future—which inspires her to act. History doesn’t respond well to Kate’s interventions; she is unable to “correct” events and left more and more isolated by her own unique version of a tortuous Cassandra complex.These largely inexplicable consequences provide a direct connection between Newman’s latest work and James Tiptree Jr.’s 1972 “Forever to a Hudson Bay Blanket”. That tale’s conclusion makes no “real” sense either—when Dovy dies Loolie’s father’s advisers can only say that (time) paradoxes are proliferating—but The Heavens is not the intellectual play of Tiptree’s classic science fiction: the wine of time-travel has been poured into the “depleted” vessel of “big L” literature. The sorrow that seeps through this novel is profound; Newman apologises for it in her acknowledgements, linking it to the death of an ex-partner. I read it as a potent expression of “solastalgia”: nostalgia for a place that once provided solace, but doesn’t any more—a term coined by Australian philosopher Glen Albrecht to express the “psychic or existential distress caused by environmental change” (Albrecht et al.). It is Kate’s grief, for a world (she has) destroyed that drives her mad: “deranged”.The Serious Side of SpeculationIn The Great Derangement Ghosh laments the “smaller shadow” cast by climate change in the landscape of literary fiction. He echoes Miéville: “fiction that deals with climate change is almost by definition not the kind that is taken seriously by serious literary journals; the mere mention of the subject is often enough to relegate a novel or short story to the genre of science fiction” (Ghosh). Time-travel tales that pose the kind of questions handled by theologians before the Enlightenment and “big L” literature after—what does it mean to exist in time? How should we live? Who deserves to be happy?—may be a way for literary fiction to take climate change “seriously”: to write through it. Out-of-time narratives such as Chiang and Newman’s pose existential speculations that, rather than locating us in time, may help us imagine time itself differently. How are we to act if the future has already come to pass?“When we are faced with a world whose problems all seem ‘wicked’ and intractable, what is it that fiction can do?” (Uhlmann). At the very least, should writers not be working with “sombre realism”? Science fiction has a long and established tradition of exposing the background narratives of the political—and ecological—landscapes in which we work: the master narratives of Modernism. What Anthony Uhlmann describes here, as the “distancing technique” of fiction becomes outright “estrangement” in speculative hands. Stories such as Newman and Chiang’s reflect (on) what readers might be avoiding: that even though our future is fixed, we must act. We must behave as though our decisions matter, despite knowing the ways in which they do not.These works challenge Modernist concerns despite—or perhaps via—satisfying genre conventions, in direct contradiction to Roy Scranton’s conviction that “Narrative in the Anthropocene Is the Enemy”. In doing so they fit Miéville’s description of a “literature of estrangement” while also exemplifying a new, Anthropocene “literature of recognition” (Crown). These, then, are the stories of our life.What Is Not ExpectedChiang’s 2018 lecture was actually a PowerPoint presentation on how time travel could or would “really” work. His medium, as much as his message, clearly showed the author’s cross-disciplinary affiliations, which are relevant to this discussion of literary fiction’s “depleted” models. In August this year Xu Xi concluded a lecture on speculative fiction for the Vermont College of Fine Arts by encouraging attendees to read—and write—“other” languages, whether foreign forms or alien disciplines. She cited Chiang as someone who successfully raids the riches of non-literary traditions, to produce a new kind of literature. Writing that deals in physics, as much as characters, in philosophy, as much as narrative, presents new, “post-natural” (Bradley, “End”) retro-speculations that (in un- and super-natural generic traditions) offer a real alternative to Modernism’s narrative of inevitable—and inevitably positive—progress.In “What’s Expected of Us” Chiang imagines the possible consequence of comprehending that our actions, and not just their consequence, are predetermined. In what Oates describes as his distinctive, pared-back, “unironic” style (Oates, “Science Fiction”), Chiang concludes: “reality isn’t important: what’s important is your belief, and believing the lie is the only way to avoid a waking coma. Civilisation now depends on self-deception. Perhaps it always has”. The self-deception we need is not America’s amnesia, but the belief that what we do matters.ConclusionThe visions of her “paraself” that Nat sees in “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom” encourage her to change her behaviour. The “prism” that enables this perception—a kind of time-tripped iPad that “skypes” alternate temporal realities, activated by people acting in different ways at a crucial moment in their lives—does not always reflect the butterfly effect the protagonist, or reader, might expect. Some actions have dramatic consequences while others have minimal impact. While Nat does not see her future, what she spies inspires her to take the first steps towards becoming a different—read “better”—person. We expect this will lead to more positive outcomes for her self in the story’s “first” world. The device, and Chiang’s tale, illustrates both that our paths are predetermined and that they are not: “our inability to predict the consequences of our own predetermined actions offers a kind of freedom”. The freedom to act, freedom from the coma of inaction.“What’s the use of art on a dying planet? What’s the point, when humanity itself is facing an existential threat?” Alison Croggon asks, and answers herself: “it searches for the complex truth … . It can help us to see the world we have more clearly, and help us to imagine a better one”. In literary thought experiments like Newman and Chiang’s artful time-travel fictions we read complex, metaphoric truths that cannot be put into real(ist) words. In the time-honoured tradition of (speculative) fiction, Chiang and Newman deal in, and with, “what cannot be said in words … in words” (Le Guin, “Introduction”). These most recent time-slip speculations tell unpredictable stories about what is predicted, what is predictable, but what we must (still) believe may not necessarily be—if we are to be free.ReferencesArrival. Dir. Dennis Villeneuve. Paramount Pictures, 2016.Albrecht, Glenn, et al. “Solastalgia: The Distress Caused by Environmental Change.” Australasian Psychiatry (Feb. 2007): 41–55. Atwood, Margaret. “The Road to Ustopia.” The Guardian 15 Oct. 2011 <https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/oct/14/margaret-atwood-road-to-ustopia>.———. “It’s Not Climate Change, It’s Everything Change.” Medium 27 July 2015. <https://medium.com/matter/it-s-not-climate-change-it-s-everything-change-8fd9aa671804>.Bradley, James. “Writing on the Precipice: On Literature and Change.” City of Tongues. 16 Mar. 2017 <https://cityoftongues.com/2017/03/16/writing-on-the-precipice-on-literature-and-climate-change/>.———. “The End of Nature and Post-Naturalism: Fiction and the Anthropocene.” City of Tongues 30 Dec. 2015 <https://cityoftongues.com/2015/12/30/the-end-of-nature-and-post-naturalism-fiction-and-the-anthropocene/>.Bradley, James, and Jane Rawson. “Writing in the Age of Extinction.” Detached Performance and Project Space, The Old Mercury Building, Hobart. 27 July 2019.Chiang, Ted. Stories of Your Life and Others. New York: Tor, 2002.———. Exhalation: Stories. New York: Knopf, 2019.Carter, Angela. The Bloody Chamber. London: Gollancz, 1983. 69.Croggon, Alison. “On Art.” Overland 235 (2019). 30 Sep. 2019 <https://overland.org.au/previous-issues/issue-235/column-on-art/>.Crown, Sarah. “What the Booker Prize Really Excludes.” The Guardian 17 Oct. 2011 <https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2011/oct/17/science-fiction-china-mieville>.Driscoll, Beth. The New Literary Middlebrow: Tastemakers and Reading in the Twenty-First Century. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.Erpenbeck, Jenny. Trans. Susan Bernofsky. The End of Days. New York: New Directions, 2016.Gelder, Ken. Popular Fiction: The Logics and Practices of a Literary Field. London: Routledge, 2014.Ghosh, Amitav. The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable. India: Penguin Random House, 2018.Le Guin, Ursula K. “Introduction.” The Left Hand of Darkness. New York: Ace Books, 1979. 5.———. “Ursula K. Le Guin Talks to Michael Cunningham about Genres, Gender, and Broadening Fiction.” Electric Literature 1 Apr. 2016. <https://electricliterature.com/ursula-k-le-guin-talks-to-michael- cunningham-about-genres-gender-and-broadening-fiction-57d9c967b9c>.Miller-McDonald, Samuel. “What Must We Do to Live?” The Trouble 14 Oct. 2018. <https://www.the-trouble.com/content/2018/10/14/what-must-we-do-to-live>.Oates, Joyce Carol. Hazards of Time Travel. New York: Ecco Press, 2018.———. "Science Fiction Doesn't Have to be Dystopian." The New Yorker 13 May 2019. <https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/05/13/science-fiction-doesnt-have-to-be-dystopian>.Prose, Francine. “Subject to Revision.” New York Times 26 Apr. 2003. <https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/books/review/life-after-life-by-kate-atkinson.html>.Robinson, Kim Stanley. “Kim Stanley Robinson and the Drowning of New York.” The Coode Street Podcast 305 (2017). <http://www.jonathanstrahan.com.au/wp/the-coode-street-podcast/>.Russ, Joanna. “The Wearing Out of Genre Materials.” College English 33.1 (1971): 46–54.Scranton, Roy. “Narrative in the Anthropocene Is the Enemy.” Lithub.com 18 Sep. 2019. <https://lithub.com/roy-scranton-narrative-in-the-anthropocene-is-the-enemy/>.Suvin, Darko. Metamorphoses of Science Fiction: On the Poetics and History of a Literary Genre. New Haven: Yale UP, 1979. Walton, James. “Fascinating, Fearless, and Distinctly Odd.” The New York Review of Books 9 Jan. 2014: 63–64.Uhlmann, Anthony. “The Other Way, the Other Truth, the Other Life: Simpson Returns.” Sydney Review of Books. 2 Sep. 2019 <https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/macauley-simpson-returns/>. Xu, Xi. “Speculative Fiction.” Presented at the International MFA in Creative Writing and Literary Translation, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Vermont, 15 Aug. 2019.