A blast

The WHO on Thursday slammed Europe's "unacceptably slow" vaccine rollout, warning of a worrying surge in cases as France became the latest country to impose new restrictions to combat mounting infections. As European nations scrambled to contain third waves across the continent, Brazil marked a grim milestone with more than 66,000 deaths in March -- by far the highest since the beginning of the pandemic. On the vaccine front there was a glimmer of hope as Pfizer/BioNTech said their jab was highly effective against the South African variant, and Israel vowed to inoculate children after promising trial data among youngsters. Governments are hoping vaccines will be the route to a return to normal more than a year into the pandemic that has now killed more than 2.8 million people and subjected much of humanity to punishing restrictions. But Europe has struggled with its vaccine drive, and the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday the sluggish pace is prolonging the pandemic. "Vaccines present our best way out of this pandemic... however, the rollout of these vaccines is unacceptably slow," said WHO director for Europe Hans Kluge. "We must speed up the process by ramping up manufacturing, reducing barriers to administering vaccines, and using every single vial we have in stock." Vaccine hesitancy The EU has blamed supply problems on its sluggish rollout, but several nations are also facing high rates of vaccine hesitancy, even in the face of rising infections. Italy has fallen dramatically short of its vaccine targets after receiving almost 30 percent fewer doses than expected, data showed Thursday. Only 10 percent of Europe's total population have received one vaccine dose, and four percent have received two, WHO said. By comparison, world leader Israel has already given two shots to more than half of its population, while in the US close to 16 percent of the population has received both. Israel said Thursday it plans to expand its …

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Deputy director of the Thai Nguyen Department of Natural Resources and the Environment Nguyen The Giang said the department was not informed about the amount of furnace dust left at Tisco. Giang on March 10 signed a document to answer questions raised by VietNamNet about the mountain of furnace dust left outdoors in the middle of Thai Nguyen City. The document says the owner of waste source has to register with the local department of natural resources and the environment and sign contracts with licensed units to treat hazardous waste, or treat the waste itself if it has equipment satisfyingrequirements and has licenses to do this. The local environment department affirmed that the furnace dust generated during the iron and steel refining is hazardous waste, which must be managed strictly in accordance with the stipulated procedure. According to the Thai Nguyen Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, two mills are branches of Tisco have furnace dust - Luu Xa steel refining mill and the pig iron mill. The volume of furnace dust from Luu Xa mill is 3,600 tons a year. Luu Xa collects and stores furnace dust in Tisco’s areas and dumping grounds, including the 1,900 square meter dust yard at the energy enterprise and the 540 square meter dust yard at the pig iron mill. The mill reported that more than 2,500 tons of furnace waste were generated in 2020. Of this, 1,500 tons have been carried away for treatment, while the remaining is still kept at the yards. As for the pig iron mill, the local environment department estimates that 4,800 tons of furnace dust is generated a year. It is allowed to treat dust in the blast furnace. In 2020, it treated 6,000 tons of dust. However, it stopped the treatment in January, and plans to transfer the dust to licensed companies to treat it. The volume of furnace dust left is gathered at the 500 square meter warehouse and the outdoor yard covered with canvas. However, VietNamNet in late February …

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WASHINGTON -- The House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said on Monday it is investigating a SpaceX commercial space launch that regulators determined violated U.S. safety requirements and its test license. The Federal Aviation Administration said in February that SpaceX’s December launch of Starship SN8 proceeded without the company demonstrating that the public risk from “far field blast overpressure” was within regulatory criteria. The FAA says far field blast overpressure may be a hazard to the public if the launch vehicle explodes on impact, potentially creating a shock wave that damages windows in areas relatively far from the impact site. House Transportation Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio and Representative Rick Larsen, who oversees the aviation subcommittee, said in a letter last Thursday to the FAA that “given the high-risk nature of the industry, we are disappointed that the FAA declined to conduct an independent review of the event and, to the best of our knowledge, has not pursued any form of enforcement action.” The letter said committee staff had been examining for two months “SpaceX launch activities that, taken together, raise serious questions.” SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment and the FAA declined to comment on the letter. The letter was reported earlier by Politico. In February, the FAA said it had required SpaceX to investigate the incident, including a comprehensive review of its safety culture, “operational decision-making and process discipline.” The FAA ordered some testing suspended at the Boca Chica, Texas, launch site until the investigation was completed and it approved the company’s corrective actions. The FAA said SpaceX’s corrective actions were incorporated into a February launch and that it anticipated “taking no further enforcement action on SN8 matter.” SpaceX owner and Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday about a “possible Starship flight tomorrow …

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