collapse

A strike arrives at its airports to collapse European air traffic

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“Today we had to go home and the first flight available is July 8. We don’t have a floor, we don’t find a hotel, a car, or train. We found nothing.” The comment He is from Mariano Mignola, an Italian tourist who last week suffered in his flesh the effects of the France’s air controllers strike just when he was preparing to take a flight in Orly with his children. Its case is not unique and reflects an alarming reality that has shaken the sector, both in France and in the rest of Europe, including of course Spain: The capacity of Gauling drivers to knock out the traffic European. What happened? That French air controllers have demonstrated their pressure capacity. And big, inside and outside your country. On Thursday 3 and Friday 4, just when thousands of Europeans made their bags to start their vacations, the collective He summoned a break that put the air traffic above the continent. The strike was organized UNSA-ICNA (The USAC-CGT union also added) after two unsuccessful meetings with the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC) and a clear purpose: improve workers’ conditions. According to Precise I mondeextended to 270 from a total template of 1,400 controllers. Was it affected traffic? Yes. On Thursday the break had already felt in 11 airports From the French network and some of the most relevant in the country were forced to suppress 25% of all its programming. To tackle the problem and adjust the operation to the number of controllers available, on Friday the DGAC even asked to airlines that canceled about 40% of their flights in the three main Paris terminals. Nor for those avoided the intense chorreo of complaints of tourists, Companies And even Professional associations. Can the impact be measured? Yes. The sector has not taken to share figures that give an idea of ​​the impact that the strike in air traffic had, both French and other nations. “The European skies are unnecessarily paralyzing during Le Grand Départone of the most busy weekends for trips “, He denounced Thursday Airlines For Europe (A4E)an association that includes Ryanair, Air France-KKM, Lufthansa, British Airways and Easyjet. To prove it, I shared Some figures: More than 1,500 canceled flights, almost 300,000 affected passengers and more than 500,000 minutes in delays (equivalent to a whole year). And that, he stressed, when the strike had not yet ended. Is there more data? Yes. A4E was not the only one to alert the consequences of the strike for the European sector. In its latest weekly Eurocontrol report Recognize that the network was “significantly affected” by the break and speaks of delays that directly blames what happened in the France control towers. According to your calculationsthe strike accumulated important delay in traffic management, both directly and indirectly. Regarding operations, Your balance It is resounding: “3,343 flights less from/to French airports compared to the previous week and (…), 1,206 less overflows with Gallic airspace.” Was Spain affected? Yes. And clearly. The Association of Airlines (Wing) He took stock Yesterday of what happened and concluded that “one in three flights operated in Spain” on Thursday and Friday was affected by the strike. In traffic that is equivalent to almost 2,000 flights with departure or arrival Spain with delays and thousands of harmed passengers. The collective estimates that during the stop days the average delay of the flights affected in our country was around 42 minutes. “On Thursday 1,082 flights operated in Spain (31% of the flights) suffered delays due to the strike in Gallic air control, with an average of 49 minutes per flight. On Friday, 873 flights were affected (23%) with an average of 33 minutes per flight,” he says. With those figures on the table, ClarifySpain would be the second most affected country, behind France. There he estimates that direct operation (take -off and landings) descended 32% due to protests. What does the sector think? Alert impact on air traffic and tourism. In fact wing claims that are protected with “urgency” the over -uelos in France when the controllers of the country declare themselves on strike to “avoid damage to passengers and airlines.” It would be nothing new, remember: it is already done in Italy, Greece or Spain. “Citizens cannot be captive to the strikers’ strikes in France, whose affectation extends beyond their borders, impacting worryingly in our country,” Crows Its president. Very critical The general director of Ryanair, Michael O’Lery, has also been shown, who recalled that much of the affected passengers did not fly with origin or destination France, but that they crossed the country’s airspace. “It makes no sense and is extremely unfair for passengers and EU families who go on vacation,” emphasize The manager, who has already asked Ursula von der to adopt “urgent measures” to protect the flying. “It is unacceptable that flights that survive France and that could operate without interruptions are unnecessarily canceled, simply because the European Commission does not protect overflow flights or defends the single market.” Images | Charles (Flickr) and Vincent Desjardins (Flickr) In Xataka | We have been binding to the suitcases to identify them at the airport for years. Your employees warn that it is a bad idea

Ouigo excuses himself from the collapse in the bird and believes to know who is the culprit

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They were “13 hours trapped in the middle of a plain”. And, since then, the Government, Ouigo and Adif are trapped in a major battle. Specifically, to find a culprit to the collapse of high Andalusian speed last week. Thousands of affected travelers, many unknowns and only a safe thing: nobody wants to peeled. “A Sinking”. “How to attribute responsibility in the sinking of a road to stuck cars, something frequent and habitual.” This is how Ouigo has described in a statement, collected by Europa Pressthe report derived from the collapse of the high speed that was lived on June 30 when hundreds of travelers from the Andalusian corridor their trains were stopped But, above all, when the passengers of one of those trains spent the night in the bird, No water and without being rescued. That report has elaborated Adif And he points out that an Ouigo train was to blame for the collapse of the network. According to the infrastructure manager, the French company train “lost the check with the signal systems standing on the road.” That caused four other trains to stop, causing the dominated effect already conspired. Adif points to Ouigo … The report, collected by The worldHe points out that the French train stop accumulated up to five trains in seven kilometers of tracks. The manager explains that the catenary tension is designed to feed a train in motion but not to keep five trains active at the same point. In that case, there is a risk of over -overtime. When this happens, the train is disconnected from the catenary to avoid greater risks but causes a tension drop in the line. It is something like lowering the leads at home so that appliances do not shrink with a voltage rise. The whole system is controlled by the pantograph. This manages the electricity between the train and the catenary and is the one that is supposed to be in the Avant de Renfe that remained in the middle of nowhere. That is, Adif points to Ouigo as the seed that ended up creating chaos. … ouigo blames Adif … “This cannot be used as an alleged cause of the tension drop in the catenary. The infrastructure must normally contemplate this type of situations.” Ouigo said in the aforementioned statement to subsequently underpin the phrase with the previous metaphor. The company emphasizes that Alstom’s MEPs, the trains with those operating in Spain, are one of the “most reliable and insurance models in Europe” while emphasizing that they will collaborate in any request for information that is requested from ADIF to clarify what happened. … And the government puts the eye in ouigo. The mention of trains safety is not accidental. Last Wednesday (July 2), at a meeting between Addar and the PSOE, María Jesús Montero, Vice President of the Government and Minister of Finance, was hunted by an open microphone. There he could say that the maintenance of “the ouigos these” was not correct. “We from Renfe remove them, which do not remove the trains from the tracks,” Montero was heard to tell various representatives of adding, in words collected by the media, among which is 20 minutes. “Apparently there is a problem too, well, of those operators, and I plan to raise it. I do not know if there is a certain sabotage, I cannot understand it, I am a user of that bird, it is my usual means of transport,” Montero insisted. More investment with canons flying In addition to defending themselves, from Ouigo they have insisted to Adif on taking into account their demands of greater investment in the maintenance of the infrastructure. They point out that the situation lived last week is “unpublished and unacceptable”, in the words of Helene Valenzuela, CEO of the company in Spain, during the IV Mobility Forum organized by The economist. They ensure that the projected image directly affects high speed and believes that The ADIF Plan It is not enough because “you cannot identify all the weak points of the network.” That is why they demand a greater investment at the time that the canons that the manager wants to apply to the operators for the use of the infrastructure. Until now, Ouigo has pointed to the canons as the main reason why they are not profitable on their arrival in Spain. That absence of profitability has been denounced by the Government who even warned that would denounce Ouigo against Europe for unfair competition. Photo | Olivier PRT In Xataka | Ouigo has partially retired from Madrid-Barcelona. Then, prices have struck in Andalusia

Israel has been bombing the nuclear facilities that build other countries around its surroundings. This is the real risk of collapse

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On February 28, 2022, just four days after the start of The Russian Invasion of Ukrainethe country’s troops led by Vladimir Putin bombarded the vicinity of The Zaporiyia nuclear power plantlocated in the southeast of the country. Shortly after, during the night of March 3 to 4, the Ukrainian and Russian soldiers They fought together with the buildings of this nuclear installation. This scenario has been repeated several times since then, which has represented at some times a threat to the integrity of the nuclear reactors of this central. Unfortunately, the Ukraine War is not the only war conflict that has endangered one or more nuclear facilities. During the last five decades Israel has repeatedly bombarded Iraq nuclear plants, Syria and Iran with the purpose, according to the Israeli government, to prevent these countries from developing nuclear weapons. This is the same scenario as presumably triggered The last episode of the conflict between Israel and Iran on June 13. However, not all nuclear facilities are the same. Israel and the US argue that the plants of Fordo, Isfahán and Natanz, all in Iran, who have recently bombarded several thousand Uranium centrifugers. These machines contain uranium hexafluoruro (UF₆) inside, a corrosive gas that if it came to filter to the environment could trigger a radiological and chemical emergency, although there would be no nuclear explosion. In any case, in this article we propose to explore what would happen if one missile or other large -capacity projectile impact on the building of a nuclear reactor. Nuclear reactors cannot explode as an atomic bomb Nuclear centrals in operation used by many countries to generate electricity have been designed to offer A very high security level and hold your operation over time. The first protection barrier that nuclear reactors have external threats is the containment enclosure. This concrete structure is watertight and is designed to keep the primary circuit of the environment completely isolated (we will immediately see what this circuit consists of). This framework is designed not to be degraded by dilation, to support the energy of an earthquake, and even to resist very important collisions, such as the impact of an airplane. However, in addition to protecting the nuclear reactor from external aggressions, it is responsible for preventing the radioactive material to be lodged in the primary circuit Remove and get in touch with the atmosphere. Anyway, the first thing that a missile or a pump would have to damage to damage a nuclear reactor is to destroy, or, at least, penetrate the containment enclosure. The containment enclosure is designed to withstand very important collisions, such as the impact of a plane The other element of the installation that has a crucial role in the proper functioning of a nuclear reactor is the cooling circuit. Although, in reality, a nuclear reactor works side by side with three different circuits. The primary circuit consists of the vessel, which is the deposit that contains Fuel bars and the water that must remain in contact with them to absorb their thermal energy; For the heat exchanger, which is a second tank to which the hot water comes from the vessel; and by a pump that facilitates the circulation of water between the vessel and the heat exchanger. The primary circuit must be closed because the water it contains being in direct contact with the fuel bars is contaminated. And therefore, It is radioactive. The heat exchanger acts as a steam generatorso a second circuit is responsible for introducing the cold water inside that when it comes into contact with the hot water of the primary circuit, it enters the boiling. From there the necessary steam proceeds to transfer to the turbine the kinetic energy that will make it possible to obtain electricity thanks to the action of the alternator. Once the fluid crosses the turbine the water vapor cools and condenses inside an additional tank to promote the appearance of water in a liquid state that will be introduced again in the heat exchanger, thus giving rise to a second closed circuit known as secondary circuit. Again a pump is responsible for the water to circulate between the condensation tank and the heat exchanger. So far we have described two different closed circuits, the primary and the secondary, but we have left a loose end. In order for the water vapor of the secondary circuit to be condensed inside the condensation tank it is necessary to introduce in the latter cold water. And to do so it is necessary to resort to a third circuit known as cooling circuit. The water of this last installation comes from the sea or from a river near the nuclear power plant, hence it is necessary to accommodate this type of centrals near one of these two natural resources. The thermal energy exchange that occurs between these circuits allows us to obtain the electrical energy we need, which is the ultimate goal of nuclear power plants, but also seeks to keep the fuel bars housed in the reactor core within its optimal range of working temperature. The most serious scenario implies the fusion of the reactor core If the thermal energy generated by the fuel material of the fuel bars as a result of the sustained fission over time exceeds, for whatever reason, the capacity of the refrigeration systems of transporting that energy and maintaining the core of the reactor within the optimal range of working temperature, the fuel could be degraded. And if this happens, it could happen from the solid state in which it is initially to the semi -solid state, or even a liquid state. This phenomenon is known as the fusion of the nucleus, and can cause a part of the radioactive material to end up coming out of the vessel. This was, in broad strokes and without entering the causes of the accident, which happened In Chernobil reactor 4 In 1986, but There are very important differences between the nuclear power plant that … Read more

Melilla has been with a total collapse of its computer systems for three days. The cyber attack is there

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Those responsible for the Autonomous City of Melilla indicated last Sunday night that the city’s computer services had been interrupted by technical causes. At the moment the origin of the problem is not known, but a cyber attack is investigated. Although that hypothesis is not confirmed, there is a reality: that Spain is the second most attacked country in the world by cybercriminals. What happened. On Sunday night the City Council of Melilla reported That “due to a technical problem in our computer systems, we inform citizens that, temporarily, it will not be possible to provide services through the OIAC (Information and Citizen Attention Offices).” The cyber attack hypothesis. As they point out In the Melilla lighthousethere is no official confirmation about the origin of the problem, but working on the hypothesis of a cyber attack. In that investigation, the Autonomous City has the support of the National Intelligence Center (CNI), with which maintains a collaboration agreement in cybersecurity. Collapse (almost) total. The fall of computer systems in Melilla has made the usual tasks of the administration cannot be carried out by computer. That has forced them to recover in certain cases Traditional processing methods as the manual firm to process the most urgent files. The Minister of Development, Miguel Marín, explained in statements to the media how “obviously this slows the work.” The municipal website, which allows citizens to be done through the Internet, is also falling. Three organizations are still operational. As they point out In News from Navarraonly three public bodies have been saved from the fall: the municipal housing and land company of Melilla (Emvismesa), the Promise and Immusa Economic Development Society, on which local television depends. There is no date for the recovery of systems. Both Marín and the president of the Autonomous City, Juan José Imbroda, pointed out that the priority is to recover the operation of the services. However, the initial objective of recovering them in two days has not been met, and there is no estimated date for computer systems to work normally again. Denunciation and investigation. Although there is no confirmed cause of the problem, there has been a formal complaint due to the possibility of a possible cyber attack. “The police are alerted,” said Imbroda, “we will try to find out what has really been and where it comes from.” Image | Trevor Huxham In Xataka | Carrefour received five identical cyber attacks and did nothing. Now it has a fine of 3.2 million euros

The network did not collapse due to lack of energy, but for lack of control. Renewable continues to be connected as if they were passive

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Almost two months after the blackout that disconnected Spain and Portugal, the government has made public a technical report that focuses on a very specific problem: the lack of tension control at critical moments, especially in renewable parks. Is it possible? As the engineer and energy expert Xavier Cugat has pointed out in networks, the debate on voltage control in renewable facilities is not only a technician: There are technologies that already allow it. One of them is SMA’s ‘Q at Night’ system, which allows solar plants to provide reactive energy even during the night. The idea is clear: if a solar plant can continue to support the network even without sun, part of the stability problem can be mitigated. This does not directly solve the lack of inertia, but complements the voltage support and improves the resilience of the system. Reactive energy The principle is simple but effective. SMA photovoltaic investors, equipped with the Q at night function, They remain connected to the network even when they are not generating active energy (that is, when there is no sun). This allows them to inject or absorb reactive energy as needed, contributing to maintain tension within acceptable margins. In case of high penetration. This type of energy is key to avoiding tension instabilities. In this particular case, it is for a network with low presence of conventional plants. Although it does not contribute inertia, it allows plants to support tension balance and remain connected to critical events instead of disconnecting preventively. So the issue of inertia? This is where it is necessary to clarify. The Government report has made it clear that collapse was not a consequence of a frequency fall, but of a cascado of over -overdations. Even in a scenario of greater inertia, over -overdrafts would have also produced, according to the report. Therefore, the lack of inertia was not the direct cause of collapse; The collapse was the one that caused the fall in frequency. During the blackout, different plants were disconnected preventively when detecting overtheions. The problem is that, according to the report, several of these disconnections occurred before even the maximum limits allowed by the regulations were reached. In other words: they did not respond properly to the network conditions. A system not adapted to its own transition The problem seems structural: the electricity grid has not evolved at the same rate as the massive renewable deployment. With 82% clean generation and the least amount of operational synchronous plants throughout the year, the system faced an explosive cocktail: a lot of distributed generation, little centralized control and little response capacity against critical events. In just 12 seconds, the entire Iberian system of the rest of Europe was disconnected. A transition without security network. The blackout was a symptom, not an anomaly. Spain leads the renewable transition, but without a prepared network, each advance becomes vulnerability. The voltage control, the response to incidents and the ability to maintain stability without large machines spinning are the great challenge of the new energy paradigm. Image | Pexels Xataka | 49 days after the blackout, the government has published the official report. Against all prognosis, he points to a culprit

The fight between “giants” causes Tesla to collapse and lose 100,000 million in a few hours

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The good relationship that Donald Trump and Elon Musk exhibited for months has deteriorated significantly in recent days. Although the businessman seemed to leave his position in the Doge (Department of Government Efficient) in good terms, With a farewell from the Oval Officetensions have not stopped increasing. So much so that on Thursday the president of the United States was “very disappointed” by the criticisms of the CEO of Tesla to the fiscal bill that promotes its administration. The owner of X (formerly Twitter) responded in several publications that, without his support, Trump “would have lost the elections.” The dispute rose when Trump said that “the easiest way to save billions of dollars” of the federal budget is canceling the subsidies and government contracts that benefit Musk companies. According to The New York Timesonly in 2024 the companies linked to the tycoon accumulated about 100 contracts with about 17 federal agencies. Most were for Spacex, but Tesla also is among the beneficiaries. In total, there were about 3,000 million dollars. Trump even affirmed that he had asked Musk to leave his post in the government, an affirmation that the businessman strongly denied in X: “What a lie so obvious. How sad.” The climb coincides with a delicate front for Tesla. The fiscal policies promoted by the Trump administration could be a coup of 1.2 billion dollars to the annual benefit of Tesla, according to JPMorgan (Via Bloomberg), by largely eliminating the fiscal credit of 7,500 dollars for electric vehicles. On Thursday, the stock market effects were demolving. Tesla fell up to 18 % in its worst day since September 2020. At the close, the collapse was 14.26 %. Only on that day, he lost more than 100,000 million dollars of stock market capitalization, erasing a good part of the rebound he had achieved in recent weeks. Images | The White House In Xataka | Elon Musk entered the US government with the aim of having a more favorable NASA to their interests. It has been regular

If the question is how to prevent electric car loaders from collapse in summer, China has an idea: rolling plugs

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The end of March 2024. Spain returns from Holy Week, one of the most mobility festivities in the country, and the images begin to run through mobile phones: Collapsed Tesla chargers. They are not many but enough for their users to have to wait for hours to fill their batteries. The images leave us two readings. The first is what We explain in Xatakathe images are without any doubt the reflection of the lack of confidence in other service stations other than Tesla. The second reading is more worrying for those who want to jump into an electric car: in Spain around 5% of electric cars were being purchased in 2024. And, despite everything, the service stations (no matter how much they were) They collapsed. It is logical that the agnostics of the electric car and also those who value make the leap in their next purchase ask themselves: what happens in a country like China? Over there, In 2024 11 million cars were sold completely electric. The figures are so overwhelming that, without a doubt, it is a challenge for load infrastructure when vacations arrive. But also a mirror where to look at the future. Its solution this year has been to put rolling points. Wheels plugs The first days of May, China celebrates as a good part of the world worker. However, over the years, the Chinese government has been expanding this holiday that now occupies the first five days of the month and, therefore, has become one of the most important rest periods in the country and one of the great moments to travel. As It happens in Spain during Holy Weekin China the feast of the first days of the year accumulates congestion and long jams On the road. With the largest electric car park in the world, this can be a problem on roads such as the one that unites Beijing and Shanghai, separated by more than 1,300 kilometers. One of the usual fears before the electric car is that if we do not manage to reduce the load times, little by little the service stations will be saturated and the 20-30 minutes of recharge can be transformed in hours as a result of a sustained jam to be able to operate in the plugs. To avoid this, this year a first test has been launched with what has been described as “plug -in aircraft carriers.” That is, trucks with huge batteries already loaded that serve as plugs to several vehicles at the same time. In the Chinese media They explain that they can serve a total of eight cars at the same time and even nurture a maximum of 100 cars per truck. The system has allowed multiplying the options that drivers had available during the Chinese New Year. They estimate that the available plugs grew by 80% on the highway between Beijing and Shanghai and that for this 238 auxiliary trucks were deployed in the 49 most busy service areas. In addition, another 246 temporary load stations were built to relieve the demand for electricity. The system was managed by the provincial Jiangsu Department of Transportation and the company Jiangsu Dlala New Energy Technology Co. Click on the image to go to the original tweet Once the truck empties all its batteries, it moves to a station where Recover energy through solar panels and load the batteries again. With yours already loaded it can move where more demand for electricity is required. In total, each truck has 3,600 kWh of energy. That is, with the calculations above, each car can load a maximum of 36 kWh of electricity. That, in an electric car with a road consumption of 20 kWh/100 km is about 180 kilometers of autonomy. Despite this, we must understand that in China the extended range. Cars that, In the background, they are plug -in hybrids and whose batteries move in that range of about 40 kWh capacity, so they could not fill the batteries more. The use of these rolling plugs is not new in China but they are generally used to get hurry to those who have not been able to reach a load point and have run out of electricity before or as auxiliary but very punctual support when a station has been filled. The power of these loaders mounted on trucks is, however, 20 times greater than the Rolling plugs of brands like Wulingdesigned for an emergency. That of this brand, for example, has a battery inside that allows you to contribute up to 141 kWh of electricity. This means that it can fill between 1.5 and 3 electric cars batteries, depending on their size. Catl is also investing In the development of this systems although, again, these are auxiliary and smaller services. Photo | Byd and @drivegreen80167 In Xataka | If the question is how we are going to load thousands of electric cars on the street, Portugal believes to have the answer: street lamps

Japan has been seeing how its birth collapse little by little. Now faces the result: the “problem 2025”

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Japan has a great great Population challenge ahead, a demographic watchmaking pump fed by a birth rate that He has won to place in historical minimumsincreased life expectancy and a weight increasing of the elderly population. That is no novelty. However, however, Japanese economists and politicians look with increasing concern A key datethe turning point from which this aging will begin to take its toll to the country. And it has already arrived. The “problem 2025”. Although there is still much 2025 ahead and it is soon to know if Japanese birth will continue The descending curve of The last decadeDemographers have long suspected that this will not be an easy year. And the reason does not reside so much in fertility and mortality rates as in what it represents. 2025 will mark the point where the Japanese born during the Baby Boom of the late 40 (1947-1949) will exceed 75 years. And that means a real challenge for several reasons. In fact, in the country they have been talking about “Problem 2025”. More than a symbol. Japan It is not the only nation that deal with the winds of demographic winter, although there they blow with more force than usual and the problem is faced from a particular perspective. From the outset, the Japanese do not perceive the elderly as most countries. For them, the usual thing is that people who have turned 65 “Genki” categorythat of healthy and active people. As I remembered The Economist A few months agomore than 50% of people between 65 and 69 years and more than a third of those of 70 to 74 are still working. Moreover, in the population group between 65 and 74, only 3% of the Japanese require nursing care. His life is so active that the country’s gerontological association has even proposed to include that cohort in a new category, that of the “pre-estatants.” The thing changes after 75. Crusade that barrier only work 12% of the Japanese and the percentages of the population that require care. They are the “advanced elders”, the horizon that the millions of Japanese are now born during the Baby Boom of the late 40s. And with them the whole of Japanese society does. Why is it a problem? Because, like They have not been warning for some time Experts, that demographic turn will submit the pension system and medical care in Japan to greater pressure. And it will also do it in an aged country, accustomed to seeing how every year it is achieved A new historical minimum of birth rate and in which the population of working age It has been descending evident since the beginning of the century. The result is what experts such as Takado Komine, of the Institute for International Policy Studies (IEPI), has called The “problem 2025”, a crisis with multiple edges and derivatives that affect society and economy. “A sudden increase”. In A recent analysis On the phenomenon, Europa Press cites some of the fronts on which the “problem 2025” will let yourself feel. The first, he remembers citing an IPEI report, will probably be geriatric care services. The organism Consider which is “almost certain” that as of this year doctors and nurses will deal with “a sudden increase” of people who need care, which will result in “a significantly greater burden for workforce.” And what will be the result? A foreseeable personnel and greater pressure deficit on social coverage systems. In 2018, the government has already made accounts and concluded that between 2025 and 2040 the general social security costs, including pensions, will shoot almost 60%. Everything while The weight of the population Over 65 years old does not stop increasing in the country. The report also indicates the challenge that will be for large urban areas, where a greater volume of elderly people is concentrated. The Government has already launched to solve the problem, but the challenge is considerable and is accompanied by threats, such as giving rise to an inequality crisis among older people. How serious is the problem? It arrives with review some figures to understand it. Last year they were born in Japan 721,000 babiesthe lowest data since the country collects statistics. Only in 1949 (in full baby boom) it is estimated that they were born 2.69 million babiesthe same ones that will now cross the 75 -year border. According to Precise The Economistthe population that exceeds that age is expected to rub the 22 million. A decade ago they were just 17. Image | Woody Yan (UNSPLASH) In Xataka | The Japanese demography debacle, illustrated in a graphic that speaks for itself

Europe detected the oscillations of the blackout in Spain but did not know how to anticipate collapse

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While It is still done Analysis Committee meetings to find out what happened in the blackout of April 28. A new preliminary report of the European Network of Electricity Transportation Networks (ENTSO-E) has thrown An important focus on something that Europe could not see. Short. So far, what was known were the data of the “Black box”where second to second it has been investigated that it began to fail. But a new preliminary report of the Entso-E has confirmed That it is not only about the oscillations that were recorded in Spain: collapse was a “complex sequence of events.” In depth. The point is that the report explained that during the half an hour before the incident, two power and frequency oscillations were observed in the European electricity grid, between 12:03 and 12:07 and between 12:19 and 12:21. And of course, both Red Eléctrica in Spain and RTE in France took measures to mitigate these oscillations. However, at 12:33, the electrical system of the Iberian Peninsula He collapsed completely. The matter has more crumb. At that time, no oscillations and system variables were detected within the normal range of operation. But that did not mean that everything was under control. Europe had detected those oscillations, but when Spain and France intervened, they did not interpret it as a critical risk. This was how in southern Spain, a series of failures in electricity generation caused a loss of 2200 MW. This loss was sufficient to trigger a drop in the frequency of the system, which fell to 48 Hz. In other words, the electrical frequency must be maintained around 50 Hz. If it drops from 48 Hz, the system can enter a critical state. And that was exactly what happened. From that moment on … The blackout was inevitable. The electricity exchanges between Spain and its neighboring countries were at high levels: 1000 MW towards France, 2000mw to Portugal and 800MW to Morocco. But when the system collapsed, these connections were also lost. The transmission lines between France and Spain stopped working at 12:33:21 and automatic protection systems disconnected the entire Iberian network three seconds later. There was a figure that circulates in networks. The president of the Government in his appearance before the media said: “15GW disappeared in 5 seconds”I immediately ran this statement in the networks, but the Entso-E has specified that the loss was 2.2GW. So where did that figure come from? The 15 GW that circulated after the blackout comes from an initial REE estimate based on automatic defense systems. According to the Secretary of Energy of MitecoJoan Groizard, 10 GW were counted in automatic cuts (demand breakdown) and 5 GW in contribution of interconnections that stopped supplying energy. However, the report of the ETSO-E specifies that the loss recorded in southern Spain was 2200 MW (2.2 GW), a significantly lower figure, evidencing that the initial calculation did not reflect the loss of generation itself, but the global impact of the event on the electrical system. And now what? Entso-e has created A panel of experts to continue investigating what happened. These experts, from countries not affected by the blackout, will collect all the available data to rebuild minute by minute what happened on April 28 to prepare a technical report that will be presented to the European Commission throughout the second half of the year. In turn, the Spanish committee will continue working in parallel, analyzing not only technical failures, but also possible cyber attacks or errors in digital systems, according to has detailed The vice president, Sara Aagesen, in an interview for eldiario.es. Forecasts In the same interview, Sara Aagesen He has insisted in that the causes of the blackout are “enormously complex” and that no hypothesis is ruled out. But many unknowns are left: what centrals were disconnected exactly? What triggered the drop of 2200 MW? And why not the alert signals were detected in time? The first “green” blackout He has put Testing the Iberian Electricity and has evidenced the vulnerabilities of a system in full transition to renewables. While the full analysis of the blackout could take months, both system operators and governments They move in a field full of uncertainty. The key now is to rethink the Microredes, Energy storage and Gridorming technologies capable of stabilizing an increasingly volatile network. The road is being configured now and is in the present where you have to continue working. Image | Unspash and Eric Fischer Xataka | The other uncomfortable truth of the blackout: Spain does not yet have enough batteries for its renewable boom

Spanish nuclear have been criticized for their role in the blackout. This was what they did before, during and after collapse

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On April 29, just a few hours after Total collapse of the electricity grid Spanish, Pedro Sánchez, the president of the Government of Spain, He made these statements: “Citizens should know that during this crisis nuclear power plants, far from being a solution, have been a problem Because they were turned off. And it has been necessary to divert large amounts of energy to maintain their stable nuclei. At this time there are two nuclear centrals activated, and they are not because they are needed, but because their activation was already planned. “ His words require several nuances if we want to know in some detail what was the role of Spanish nuclear facilities in this incident and what they did before, during and after the total blackout. The first thing is worth repairing is that only three of the seven nuclear reactors of the Spanish park were turned off: the Trillo because the technicians were recharging fuel barsand those of Almaraz I and chests due to the needs that the electric market had at that time. The other four nuclear reactors, those of Almaraz II, Ascó I and II and Vandellós II, were operating normally before the blackout occurred. If we have this present the statement of Pedro Sánchez in which he argues that “(…) nuclear power plants, far from being a solution, have been a problem because they were turned off (…)” is not right. As we have just seen, Four reactors were delivering electricity to the network with total normality. In any case, the most interesting is what happened just when the collapse occurred. Security systems went into action to guarantee a safe stop Nuclear reactors are prepared to stop fission reactions whenever. The procedure that is used, very broadly, consists of introducing the control bars in the active section of the vessel, which are made of metal alloys of boron, cadmium or hafnio because these chemical elements have the ability to absorb a large number of neutrons. Fission reactions stop very quickly thanks to the effect of control bars, but, and this is very important, nuclear reactors have a great thermal inertia. This simply means that once the flow of neutron has stopped completely the reactor continues to generate residual heat due to the disintegration of products derived from nuclear fission. The main consequence of this behavior is evident: It is essential to sustain core cooling of the reactor even although this machine has stopped by introducing the control bars and modifying the composition of the refrigerant By adding boric acid to the primary circuitwhich also has a very high index of neutron absorption. Active and liabilities refrigeration systems must ensure that residual heat does not compromise the integrity of the reactor Active and passive cooling systems have to ensure that residual heat does not compromise the integrity of the reactor, and, curiously, thermal inertia can last even for several days. When on April 28 there was the collapse of the Electric Red the four reactors that were in operation were automatically stopped and the security systems that have been designed to hold a safe stop were activated. The first thing that happened was that autonomous diesel generators started automatically and generated the electricity that was necessary at that time to keep the entire installation on a safe stop. Everything was executed as planned according to the Nuclear Safety Council. A few hours later, when the supply of electricity from abroad resumed, the autonomous diesel groups were disconnected and the emergency plan was deactivated. From that moment on, nuclear centrals have been resuming the production of electricity, although before doing so the technicians have carried out the security checks that are necessary. An important note once we have reached this point: the recovery of the activity of nuclear power plants and their synchronization with the electricity grid are carried out as the system operator, which is Red Eléctrica de España, and the electricity market requires it. A week after the total blackout we have no solid reason to conclude that Spanish nuclear power plants have put us in danger. Image | Nuclear forum More information | Nuclear forum In Xataka | China and Russia have an extremely ambitious plan: in 2028 they will build a nuclear power plant on the moon

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