Events Anniversary for 2024-04-20

On 20 April 2016, German Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks submitted an official request to the Belgian government that two nuclear reactors – referred to as Tihange 2 and Doel 3 – be taken offline until further safety checks can be completed.

The Indian monsoon’s yearly onset and withdrawal can now be forecasted significantly earlier than previously possible. A team of scientists developed a novel prediction method based on a network analysis of regional weather data, and will propose this approach to the Indian Meteorological Department. The heavy summer rains are of vital importance for millions of farmers feeding the subcontinent’s population. Future climate change will likely affect monsoon stability and hence makes accurate forecasting even more relevant. “We can predict the beginning of the Indian monsoon two weeks earlier, and the end of it even six weeks earlier than before – which is quite a breakthrough, given that for the farmers every day counts,” says Veronika Stolbova from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the University of Zurich, the lead-author of the study to be published in the Geophysical Research Letters.

Thailand seized 3 tons of ivory hidden in tea leaf sacks from Kenya in the second-biggest bust in the country's history, one week after the biggest seizure, customs officials said on 27 April 2015. The 511 elephant tusks worth $6 million, bound for Laos, were seized upon arrival Saturday at a major port in Chonburi province in eastern Thailand. The bust came one week after Thai customs officials seized 4 tons of tusks that were smuggled from Congo and also destined for Laos in what they said was the nation's biggest seizure. Thailand is one of the top destinations for African ivory smuggling in Asia and could face international sanctions soon if it doesn't show progress in combatting the problem.

On 20 April 2015, Kyocera Corporation and Century Tokyo Leasing Corporation announced that Kyocera TCL Solar LLC, a joint venture established by the two companies, has completed construction of two floating mega-solar power plants at Nishihira Pond and Higashihira Pond in Kato City, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. The plants, inaugurated in late March, will generate an estimated 3,300 megawatt hours (MWh) per year in total-- enough electricity to power approximately 920 typical households.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is the largest marine oil spill in history, and was caused by an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil platform about 80km off the coast of Louisiana on 20 April 2010. On 22 April 2010 the Deepwater Horizon sank in about 5,000 feet (1,500 m) of water. After a series of failed efforts to plug the leak, BP said on 15 July 2010 that it had capped the well, stopping the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time in 86 days. Five million barrels of oil were released by the Macondo well, with roughly 4.2 million barrels pouring into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Two thirds (66 percent) of the German population want to continue with the nuclear phase-out as adopted by the government or even accelerate it. This was the result of a representative poll on the safety of nuclear power plants and the phasing out of nuclear energy, carried out by the FORSA polling institute on behalf of the Federal Environment Ministry (survey period: 20-22 April). The majority of the population (57 percent) consider nuclear energy a great hazard or a very great hazard to themselves and their families. This opinion is shared by a majority in almost all age groups, although in the age group 18 to 29, only 49 percent consider the hazard as very great or great.

The Renewable Energy Day is a German-wide initiative launched on the occasion of the anniversary of the Chernobyl reactor disaster and aimed at presenting the different utilisation possibilities offered by sustainable energy management. This event was initiated by the city of Oederan (Saxony) on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1996. On 20 April 1996, 27 house owners in the federal state of Saxony presented their wood heating systems as well as their solar, wind and water energy systems to the public. In the following years, activities within the scope of the day of renewable energy sources spread throughout Germany.