<p>The European Commission released a draft safety law last week that adds mandatory reviews for nuclear plants every six years. The proposal follows a series of stress tests enacted after the Fukushima disaster in 2011 and builds on the tests' conclusions, which found that plants need anywhere from $13 to $33 billion in repairs. The rule also proposes that reactors be designed so that they <span>will not have any consequences outside the plant. </span>"<span>There are 132 nuclear reactors in operation in Europe today.

<p>European coal power causes 22,300 premature deaths a year and costs government and companies billions in health costs, according to a new study. The study also suggests that an additional 2,700 people can be expected to die prematurely each year due to 50 planned new coal fired power plants. Analysis of emissions shows that coal is linked to as many or more deaths than road accidents in many countries, and in 2010 Europe lost 240,000 "life years" as a result of coal-related air pollution.

<p>Deforestation data opened up by the Peruvian government shows that the rate of forest clearing has slowed in recent years, though Peru's Amazon has lost more than 100,000 hectares annually since 2005. Overall, the area has gone from 80 to 78 percent forested from 2000. Peru's monitoring system, in development since 2009, is based mostly on satellite imagery and can detect changes as small as .09 hectares. "This is a big deal," said Greg Asner, a research at the Carnegie Institution for Science who has been working on the project.