NewsTrust - Nuclear Power - Most Recent Stories: News (Independent)

Water leaks found at stricken Japan nuclear plant

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

MSN.com - Jan. 30 (News Report) - "The cooling water is from a filtrate tank for fire extinction and doesn't contain radioactive materials," Tepco said of the incident at reactor No. 4. It added that some water from the other leakage had flowed into a drain and "we are examining whether this water has flowed into the ocean or not."

NewsTrust Rating: 3.4 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Panel: Start now to replace Nevada nuke site

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

tri-cityherald.com - By Matthew Daly - Jan. 28 (News Report) - The Union of Concerned Scientists said construction of an interim storage facility for nuclear waste poses a stiff political challenge and could distract from the more important goal of finding a permanent repository site.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Bill Clinton: Solar and wind energy are "both cheaper than nuclear right now."

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

PolitiFact - By Louis Jacobson - Nov. 11 (Fact Check) - During a Nov. 8, 2011, appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, former President Bill Clinton touted the prospects for adopting renewable energy. "Solar energy and wind energy ... would already be competitive with coal if you had to pay the extraneous costs of coal -- the health care costs and other things. And ... wind within two years and solar within five will be competitive in price with coal. They're both cheaper than nuclear right now."

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The "scientization" of Yucca Mountain | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

thebulletin.org - Oct. 12 (Special Report) - Let's stop pretending that choosing a nuclear waste repository site is all about science: Government officials are often guilty of politicizing science. Egged on by business or religious interests, they cast doubt on the scientific evidence for a connection between tobacco and lung cancer, or between fossil fuels and climate change, or even between humans and our primate ancestors. Some scientific findings are suppressed, while others are manipulated or distorted beyond recognition. But in the case of Yucca Mountain, the reverse happened: Government officials "scientized" politics. They made decisions that were largely political but cloaked them in the garb of science.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Almost everything is getting better

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Long Now Foudation - By Kirk Citron - Aug. 10 (News Report) - Last week The Millennium Project released its 02011 State Of The Future report, looking at trends for the past twenty years and projecting ahead for the next decade. (Not the 10,000 year future, but still of interest.) You can read an executive summary of the report here. While the report finds many things to worry about – global warming, terrorism, corruption – overall the trends are surprisingly hopeful, as shown in their chart called “Where we are winning”

NewsTrust Rating: 3.1 average - 4 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Atomic Cover-Up: The Hidden Story Behind the U.S. Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, George Weller - Aug. 09 (Special Report) - As radiation readings in Japan reach their highest levels since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdowns, we look at the beginning of the atomic age. Today is the 66th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki, which killed some 75,000 people and left another 75,000 seriously wounded. It came just three days after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing around 80,000 people and injuring some 70,000. By official Japanese estimates, nearly 300,000 people died from the bombings, including those who lost their lives in the ensuing months and years from related injuries and illnesses. Other researchers estimate a much higher death toll.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

United States Hit With a Triple Nuclear Threat – How Dangerous is it?

Sat, 02 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

dianuke.org - By Michio Kaku - Jul. 02 (News Report) - The Los Alamos fire is an immediate problem, with forest fires raging at its doorstep... there are at least 6 metric tons worth of plutonium used in the weapons program stored there. Of immediate concern is Area G, containing up to 30,000 fifty five gallon drums of plutonium-contaminated nuclear waste. These drums are not secured, but are simply stored above ground in an ordinary building and the fire is about 3 miles from these drums.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.3 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

New Exposé Reveals Nuclear Regulatory Commission Colluded with Industry to Weaken Safety Standards

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jun. 29 (News Report) - Three U.S. senators have called for a congressional probe on safety issues at the nation’s aging nuclear plants following a pair of new exposés. In a special series called “Aging Nukes,” the Associated Press revealed that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the nuclear power industry have been working in tandem to weaken safety standards to keep aging reactors within the rules. Just last year, the NRC weakened the safety margin for acceptable radiation damage to reactor vessels.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Fukushima: World's Worst Industrial Disaster Reveals How Nation States Are Powerless to Protect Us from Advanced Technology | | AlterNet

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Victor Kotsev - Jun. 29 (Investigative Report) - very few believed that a nuclear accident as bad as the 1986 meltdown in Ukraine would occur again. "I think that's basically impossible," said James Stubbins, an expert at the University of Illinois, and many others agreed. Yet, as we are now slowly coming to realize, Fukushima is worse than Chernobyl. In a revealing recent feature article published by al-Jazeera, Dahr Jamail conveys the comments of Arnold Gundersen, a senior former nuclear industry executive in the United States. "Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind," Gundersen asserts.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Japan Nuclear Plant A 'Ticking Time Bomb,' Says Physicist

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - Jun. 22 (News Report) - Though global fears about radiation emissions from the heavily damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility have calmed in the weeks since Japan's devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami, famed physicist Michio Kaku insists the situation remains a "ticking time bomb." A professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York and the City College of New York, Kaku discussed some recent revelations about the disaster's impact, and noted that Japanese officials still don't yet have control at the site.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Nebraska nuclear power plant at Emergency Level 4 and could become another Fukushima

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

abovetopsecret.com - Jun. 16 (News Report) - "On June 6, 2011, the Fort Calhoun pressurized water nuclear reactor 20 miles north of Omaha, Nebraska entered emergency status due to imminent flooding from the Missouri River. A day later, there was an electrical fire requiring plant evacuation. Then, on June 8th, NRC event reports confirmed the fire resulted in the loss of cooling for the reactor's spent fuel pool. The discussion includes specific details of the technical failures at Fort Calhoun, the risks of coolant loss at overcrowded "spent" fuel pools, and the national hazards of nuclear facilities along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, and other water sites during the current period of floods and climate change."

NewsTrust Rating: 3.2 average - 4 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Swiss lower house of parliament votes to phase out nuclear power

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

beyondnuclear.org - Jun. 13 (News) - In response to the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, Switzerland's National Council, the country's lower house of parliament, has voted 101 to 54 to phase out nuclear power,

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

As Japan Nuclear Crisis Worsens Citizen-led Radiation Monitors Pressure Govt to Increase Evacuations

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jun. 10 (News Report) - Almost three months after the earthquake and tsunami that triggered a nuclear disaster in Japan, new radiation "hot spots" may require the evacuation of more areas further from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility. Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency recently admitted for the first time that full nuclear meltdowns occurred at three of the plant’s reactors, and more than doubled its estimate for the amount of radiation that leaked from the plant in the first week of the disaster in March. “What they failed to mention is that they discharged an equally large amount into the ocean,” says our guest Robert Alvarez, former senior policy adviser to the U.S. Secretary of Energy. “As [the radiation] goes up the food chain, it accumulates, and by the time it reaches people who consume this food, the levels are higher than they originally were when they entered the environment.” We also go to Tokyo to speak with Aileen Mioko Smith, executive director of the group Green Action. She says citizens are leading their own monitoring efforts and calling for additional evacuations, especially for young children and pregnant women.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.2 average - 4 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

CNN's John King interviews Arnie Gundersen about the Hot Particles discovered in Japan and the US.

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

fairewinds.com - By John King, Arnie Gundersen - Jun. 08 (News Report) - Now what we're finding are hot particles....In Tokyo there are about 10 hot particles per day in what a normal person would breath...In Seattle it doesn't go down that much; it is about 5 hot particles per day. These charged particles latch on to lung tissue, or in the digestive tract, and over time they cause cancer.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Gundersen Gives Testimony to NRC ACRS

Thu, 26 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

fairewinds.com - By Arnie Gundersen - May. 26 (Special Report) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) held a special ACRS meeting Thursday May 26, 2011 on the current status of Fukushima. Arnie Gundersen was invited to speak for 5 minutes concerning the lessons learned from the Fukushima accident as it pertains to the 23 Mark 1 Boiling Water Reactors (BWR's) in the US and containment integrity.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Implications of the Fukushima Accident on the World's Operating Reactors

Sun, 22 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

fairewinds.com - May. 22 (Special Report) - video

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

TEPCO 'failed to heed warnings about tsunami risks'

Mon, 16 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

todayonline.com - May. 16 (News Report) - A government body conducted analyses on the damage tsunamis of various scale would inflict on a nuclear power plant, according to documents made public yesterday, adding to allegations that Japan and its largest utility failed to heed warnings.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.3 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Fukushima - One Step Forward and Four Steps Back as Each Unit Challenged by New Problems

Fri, 13 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

fairewinds.com - May. 13 (News Analysis) - Gundersen says Fukushima's gaseous and liquid releases continue unabated.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.2 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Mishaps at 3 US Nuclear Plants

Wed, 11 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Matthew L. Wald - May. 11 (News Report) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said this week that in hindsight, a problem at the Browns Ferry nuclear plant in Alabama last fall was quite serious. And its records indicate that there have been reports in recent days of engineers' flubbing a basic calculation of reactor operation at two other plants.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average - 4 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Alabama Nuclear Plant Cited For "Significant" Safety Problems

Tue, 10 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Ray Henry - May. 10 (News) - Federal regulators ordered in-depth inspections Tuesday at a nuclear power plant run by the Tennessee Valley Authority in northern Alabama after deciding the failure of an emergency cooling system there could have been a serious safety problem....

NewsTrust Rating: 3.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

After Fukushima

Tue, 10 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

thehumanist.org - By Clay Farris Naff - May. 10 (News Analysis) - The number of eventual cancer deaths that will result from the Chernobyl nuclear accident remains in dispute among various scientific bodies, even within the UN. In an article published in the Guardian last year the number ranged from 4,000 deaths to half a million.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Nuclear Adviser to Japanese President Resigns Over Radiation Levels

Mon, 02 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

infowars.com - May. 02 (News Report) - During an emotional and teary news conference, Toshiso Kosako, a professor at the University of Tokyo, announced his resignation as senior nuclear adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan...Kosako said he could not stay on while the government set inappropriate radiation limits for elementary schools near the plant. “Japanese authorities have set a 20-millisievert limit for radiation exposure as safe. Kosako said that is 20 times too high, especially for children, who are more vulnerable to radiation than adults.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Second Nuclear Plant May Be Leaking in Japan

Mon, 02 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - May. 02 (News) - 'Radioactive substances may be leaking from fuel rods at a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, the Fukui prefectural government said Monday, noting a rise in the level of radioactive substances in the reactor's coolant water. Japan Atomic Power Co., the utility firm that operates the Tsuruga nuclear plant on the Sea of Japan coast, acknowledged 'technical difficulties' at the Unit 2 reactor and confirmed a possible leak of radioactive iodine from the reactor's nuclear fuel rods into the coolant system.' Environment News Service

NewsTrust Rating: 4.2 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

U.S. Nuke Reactor Shuts Down Unexpectedly

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - Apr. 22 (News) - A nuclear reactor at Plant Vogtle in eastern Georgia has been taken out of service until authorities determine why it unexpectedly shut down....

NewsTrust Rating: 3.2 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

As Radiation Continues to Leak From Japan Nuke Plant, Owners of Vermont Yankee Plant Sues to Stay Open

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Apr. 19 (News Report) - Workers at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility in Japan have started to pump radioactive water from a leaking reactor into a makeshift storage area—an effort they say is a crucial step toward easing the nuclear crisis. The Tokyo Electric Power Company says it will take six to nine months to achieve a “cold shutdown.” Meanwhile in the United States, the owners of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant have filed a federal lawsuit on Monday against a state law that gives the Vermont State Legislature veto power over operation of the reactor when its current license expires next March. We speak with longtime nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen in Burlington, Vermont.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer