Over the course of the last few months, there’s been a run of good news on nuclear power. The state of America’s nuclear industry — both from an environmental and an economic standpoint — is weakening; many of the nation’s reactors are at least four decades old with increasing repair problems, and a number are sited in the worst possible locations, near major...
Even before the tragedy in Fukushima, it’s been clear that America’s aging nuclear power plants are an accident waiting to happen — and desperately need to be taken off line. That’s happened far too slowly, nor has safety been the only issue. When policy makers did decommission some of the nation’s most dangerous plants, such as California’s oceanfront San...
The U.S. news media continues to largely ignore both the ongoing massive problems at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan and the lingering fallout — literally and metaphorically — from the 2011 tsunami and accident there. That’s unfortunately, because practically every week there’s one or more significant developments that show the accident exceeding...
It’s been nearly three years since the tsunami and then the horrific nuclear accident at the Fukushima plant in Japan, and I still follow the news from the disaster site on a regular basis. That makes me unusual, I guess. The truth is every day there seems to be a new, alarming development coming from that corner of Japan, yet the news gets little play in the mainstream media. It seems like...
The news out of Fukushima is becoming surreal, like a late summer apocalyptic fantasy at your local movie multiplex. First of all, if you’ve been following developments at the crippled Japanese nuclear plant, it won’t shock you to learn that reports of the radiation — and the risk — are getting worse every day. Think about the grossly underestimated spill estimates for the...
Environmental catastrophes seem to have a numbingly familiar story arc, from Louisiana all the way to Japan. From the BP oil spill all the way to the Fukushima nuclear plant, the media goes crazy for 2-3 weeks, and then the story slowly fades as the cameras move on to the next crisis. Typically, though, the problem is far from over, but later manifestations — such as ongoing oil slicks or...
French officials have reported an explosion at the Marcoule nuclear plant near the city of Nimes in southern France. Officials confirm there is a risk of a radiation leak. One person was killed and three injured in the blast that occurred in an oven used to recycle plutonium from nuclear weapons. The plant – which houses three decommissioned nuclear reactors – is owned by Socodei, a subsidiary of...
