Environment

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South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane speaks at the opening session of the U.N. Climate Change conference in Doha, Qatar, on Monday, Nov. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Osama Faisal)

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Inspectors stand in debris on Saturday at the site of a gas explosion that leveled a strip club in Springfield, Mass., on Friday. Probers were trying to figure out what caused the blast where the building housing Scores Gentleman’s Club once stood. (Associated Press)

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Concrete slabs that once supported a boardwalk lie exposed after the wrath of Superstorm Sandy, which washed away millions of tons of sand and devastated beaches along the New Jersey coastline. (Associated Press)

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Thomas Pietsch, site manager for Nukem Technologies, a firm contracted for decommissioning projects for Lithuania’s Soviet-era nuclear power plant, points to the unfinished nuclear fuel storage facility near the power plant in Visaginas. There is still fuel inside one of the reactors. (Associated Press)

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The temporary facilities for spent fuel and radioactive waste are four years behind schedule. Ignalina, built in the 1980s, is turning out to be a hard lesson for Europe: It’s one thing to kill a nuclear power station; getting rid of the remains is another headache entirely. (Associated Press)

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The Ignalina nuclear power plant in Visaginas, Lithuania, was two weeks away from decommissioning when this photo was taken on Dec. 15, 2009. Fuel remains in the reactor core three years later. (Associated Press)

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The new Chinese passport outlines all of the South China Sea as part of China’s territorial waters. The Philippines has protested China’s depiction of its claims. The potentially oil- and gas-rich waters also are claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia. (Associated Press)

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**FILE** Bangladeshi firefighters battle a blaze at a garment factory in the Savar neighborhood in Dhaka, Bangladesh, late on Nov. 24, 2012. At least 112 people were killed, an official said. (Associated Press)

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Oil field workers may be having more rigs to climb in the future. Energy leaders now, more than ever, are portraying oil and gas production as a key way of generating tax revenue, spurring job creation and saving the nation from going off the looming “fiscal cliff.” States such as Pennsylvania and North Dakota continue to expand fracking, creating tens of thousands of jobs and pumping millions of dollars into local economies. Any federal action to limit fracking would pour cold water on the growth in those states and give fresh ammunition to the vocal environmental opposition in New York, California and elsewhere. (Associated Press)

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Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee delivers his state-of-the-state address in the House Chamber, at the Statehouse, in Providence, R.I., Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

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Don McMahon, right, director of facilities management at the Atlantic City Rescue Mission in Atlantic City, N.J., takes the Audas family on a tour to show them all of the items people have donated for Hurricane Sandy victims on Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2012. They will return to the mission on Friday to volunteer. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

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The Audas family drops off donations at the Atlantic City Rescue Mission in Atlantic City, N.J. on Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2012. They will return to the mission on Friday to volunteer. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)