Resolution about nuclear power plant fails two-thirds majority in Grand Council
The Grand Council of Basel-Stadt has approved a resolution calling for the nuclear power plant in Leibstadt to be put back into operation after a series of technical problems.
However, despite the 61:34 vote in favour, the resolution failed to achieve the required two-thirds majority and therefore was not passed following a parliamentary debate on Wednesday.
The resolution had been initiated by the Green Union after the operator of the plant in Leibstadt announced plans to return it to operation. In the morning, the parliament voted 60:35 in favour of putting the resolution onto the agenda. For this only a simple majority was required.
During the debate in the afternoon however the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) and the Liberal Democrats (LDP) opted against the content of the resolution, claiming it was an “unnecessary” action since the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI) was still investigating the plant and was yet to issue a permit.
The Green Union however demanded to remain consequent after the last resolution against the plant in the French village Fessenheim in 2014. The party also hinted at similar demands expressed in the German federal state of Baden-Württemberg and the Austrian federal state of Vorarlberg.
One party member reminded parliament that the resolution would strengthen the decision of ENSI against economic pressure from the operator – the cost for one day when the plant is not in operation has been put at one million Swiss francs.
Roche drug against type of lung cancer approved
The Swiss agency for therapeutic products (Swissmedic) has approved Alecensa®, which is used for the treatment of patients with a certain form of metastasising lung cancer.
In both approval studies, Alecensa reduced the size of a tumour in around half of the patients whose disease made progress when treated with the drug Crizotinib.
Offspring among the sharks at Basel Zoo
These days, shark embryos can be seen in the vivarium at Basel Zoo. Unlike chicken eggs, cat shark eggs are transparent, allowing for an undisturbed view of a shark baby as if looking through a shop window.
In aquarium 8 in the vivarium at Basel Zoo, cat shark eggs, which are just six centimetres long, can be seen – two years since the last offspring was born there. The eggs enable a view on living shark embryos which develop over a period of nine months period before hatching. The extraordinarily pretty shark eggs are also called mermaid’s purses.
They are made of a robust, horny substance with curly tendrils, including some 80 cm long threads. They work like self-hanging devices: The females lay their eggs by streaking along the closed brain corals and algae. The threads hanging from the copulatory hole get entangled with the coral, drawing the egg out of the mother. It then becomes anchored to the ground. After five to eleven months, the offspring hatches. During their development in the ‘mermaid’s purse’ the shark babies can be very well observed.