At least 13 killed in China factory explosion (21 May 2013)
A massive blast at an explosives factory in eastern China killed at least 13 people with another 20 missing and others buried in debris on May 21, State media reported. Another 19 people were injured in the explosion on Monday at a three-storey workshop owned by Poly Explosives (Jinan), a state-owned company in the eastern province of Shandong.
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India chemical plant explosion kills one, injures four (13 May 2013)
On May 13, an explosion destroyed the Chemistar plant at Dombivli near Mumbai, killing one and injuring four. According to the Times of India, police suspect that lack of maintenance was responsible for the blast, although an investigation is still taking place and the exact cause of the incident is not yet known.
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China mine explosion kills 28 (13 May 2013)
An explosion killed at least 28 workers at the Taozigou mine in Luxian County, Sichuan Province, with a further 16 taken to hospital with injuries of whom three are in a critical condition. According to local Chinese media, 81 miners were rescued from the blast. According to Xinhua, the mining operation was illegal.
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Five killed in South Korea steel plant incident (13 May 2013)
Yonhap says five workers suffocated to death on May 10 at a steel plant in Dangjin after gas leaked from a furnace. The workers, employed by a subcontractor of Hyundai Steel Co., were found dead inside the 8-metre-deep rotating furnace in Dangjin, some 123 kilometers south of Seoul, after argon gas leaked from the furnace, according to local authorities.
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Japan prepares to revive nuclear generation (09 May 2013)
After new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won a landslide victory in last December’s Lower House election, his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has methodically set about reversing the ousted Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) administration’s policy of abandoning atomic power.
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Japan announces first gas production from seabed methane hydrate (09 May 2013)
On March 12, a Japanese state-owned oil and gas company said it had successfully extracted natural gas from methane hydrate deposits from under the seabed off Japan. Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) said an exploration vessel had successfully drilled 300 metres below the seabed into deposits of methane hydrate, an ice-like solid that stores gas molecules but is difficult to extract safely.
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China coal mine safety improves, but fatalities still high (09 May 2013)
A coal and gas outburst killed 21 miners at a colliery in Guizhou Province, Xinhua reported, adding that 58 more had managed to get to the surface safely. Four others were missing after the March 12 incident at the Machang coal mine, which is part of Guizhou Water & Mining Group.
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Firework factory blast kills five in Southern India (30 April 2013)
On April 28 a blast near Sivakasi in a factory owned by S S Vijayakumar, president of the Tamil Nadu Fireworks and Amorces Manufacturers’ Association, killed at least five workers and injured seven.
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Indian newspaper says Wikileaks cables show US government contradicts Dow on Bhopal deaths (17 April 2013)
The Times of India (ToI) claims leaked cables made public by Wikileaks show the US government’s assessment of the casualties caused by the leak of methyl isocyanate (MIC) from the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal in 1984 is way above that claimed by Dow Chemical Company (Dow), which now owns UCIL.
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Taiwan petrochemical plant explosion shuts unit (16 April 2013)
Taiwan’s state-owned refining firm CPC was forced to shut its 500,000 tonne/year No 5 cracker at its Kaohsiung complex on April 5 following a pipeline leak that led to an explosion at the site, a company official said, believed to be at a crude butadiene tank at the site. The subsequent fire was extinguished in about two hours and there were no casualties, the official said.
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