Kosovo bans cryptocurrency mining after blackouts:
The government says security services will identify and clamp down on sources of cryptocurrency mining.
The mining is energy intensive and involves verifying digital transactions to get cryptocurrencies as a reward.
While all of Europe faces sharp price rises, Kosovo is enforcing rolling blackouts amid an electricity shortage.
The Balkan state's largest coal-fired power plant was shut down last month over a technical issue, forcing the government to import electricity at high prices.
A 60-day state of emergency, declared in December, gave the government powers to allocate more money for energy imports and impose stricter restrictions on power usage.
The blackouts have sparked protests and calls for the resignation of Economy Minister Artane Rizvanolli.
Energy prices are skyrocketing across Europe for various reasons, including low supplies from Russia and high demand for natural gas as economies recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The spike has been fuelled by geopolitical tensions with Russia, which supplies one third of Europe's gas. Russia has rejected European accusations that it has limited gas deliveries while tensions are raised
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 08 2022, @02:31PM (2 children)
In the middle of winter, how did Germany become less scientific rational-minded than France?
https://www.plantservices.com/industrynews/2022/germany-closes-3-of-its-remaining-6-nuclear-power-plants/ [plantservices.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 09 2022, @12:30AM (1 child)
France's nuclear program is very safe. It has no Level 7 nuclear incidents [wikipedia.org] until it does. Is the assumption that the number of such incidents tends to 1 over time rational or irrational? Is a 30 meter tsunami foreseeable? Yes. Is an 8.0 European earthquake imaginable? Terrorist infiltration? Yes. Planned for? Planned for properly. What's "rational" when it comes to nuclear?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 09 2022, @03:30AM
Not you, obviously.
If you have a 30 metre tsunami a little bit of radiation is a minor problem. An 8.0 earthquake is survivable if the plant is properly built and located.
And you forgot that if a mile wide asteroid hits a nuclear plant then the radioactive material will get scattered. Also, if the Sun goes nova then the increased neutron flux will trigger a meltdown.