Why Do Governments Cover Up the Truth About Environmental Disasters?
Until today, I had been impressed by what I took to be the Japanese government's candor about the unfolding nuclear crisis. Some of the statements from officials seemed surprisingly frank, with admissions from the Prime Minister on Monday, for example, that a "very high risk" of "further leakage" of radiation was possible. Tokyo Electric Power officials have also struck me as being quite forthcoming, admitting that the odds of further hydrogen explosions were likel...
CONTINUE READINGWhy Do People Care So Much About Nuclear Accidents?
Well, for obvious reasons. But Ann, citing Will Saletan, raises a good question: why are people so much more concerned about nuclear accidents than, say oil spills or other environmental disasters? If we accept Saletan's figures of "direct fatalities" being 18 times more dangerous for oil production per energy unit (and there are reasons not to - see below), then one wonders why we don't worry more about oil spills. To me, the most obvious answer concerns risk avo...
CONTINUE READINGThe Worst Supreme Court Environmental Decision?
Recently appearing in my in-box is Pepperdine Law School's latest law porn, a glossy brochure about its upcoming symposium, "Supreme Mistakes: Exploring the Most Maligned Decisions in Supreme Court History." Dan will speak, but unless he decides to talk about it, environmental law doesn't figure to get on the agenda: none of the other speakers has particular environmental expertise. That seems to make sense: even the worst environmental decision can't compare to...
CONTINUE READINGJapan: Growing Nuclear Problems
More trouble, according to the Washington Post: All but about 50 workers were evacuated from the plant, where at least three reactor cores are believed to be imperiled, and Prime Minister Naoto Kan hailed those who remained, saying they “are putting themselves in a very dangerous situation.” Explosions destroyed the tops of two buildings housing reactors at the plant, one on Saturday and another on Monday. An explosion Tuesday in another reactor, unit 2, “may have ...
CONTINUE READINGJapan Nuclear Crisis — Another Worry
As at many plants in the U.S. and around the world, the Japanese plants have on-site storage for spent fuel rods. The reason is that no one has come up with a working permanent storage solution. These spent fuel rods are now beginning to pose a serious risk at the Japanese plants, according to the Washington Post: The pools, which sit on the top level of the reactor buildings and keep spent fuel submerged in water, have lost their cooling systems and the Japanese hav...
CONTINUE READINGMelting the Ice
Real Climate has an informative post on melting in Greenland and Antarctica, which seems to be higher than projected by the last IPCC report. This could add about another 15 cm (about six inches) to sea level rise by the end of the century: [A]t the continental scale, there is a new assessment of the net mass balance of Antarctica and Greenland. Rignot et al have updated results, including those from the GRACE gravity measurement satellite, to the end of 2010 and s...
CONTINUE READINGNuclear Fears v. Fears From Other Environmental Catastrophes
As Japan struggles to contain radiation from the nuclear reactors damaged in the double whammy of a massive earthquake followed by an even more devastating tsunami, the political consequences of the accident are already being felt around the globe. Germany has apparently put on hold, at least for now, plans to extend the operating lives of its nuclear power plants. Switzerland has suspended new plant building plans. And Austria is calling for a review of the e...
CONTINUE READINGJapan’s Nuclear Reactors, Risk Assessment & Accident Theory
In the wake of Japan's developing nuclear crisis, people have begun questioning the future of US nuclear policy. Here is Sen. Lieberman, cautiously arguing for a review of nuclear power safety: I think it calls on us here in the U.S., naturally, not to stop building nuclear power plants but to put the brakes on right now until we understand the ramifications of what’s happened in Japan. One somewhat obvious conclusion from the situation in Japan is that their risk as...
CONTINUE READINGJapan Nuclear Crisis Update
The situation continues to be very dangerous. How bad are things? From the NY Times: The risk of a meltdown spread to a third reactor at a stricken nuclear power plant in Japan on Monday as its cooling systems failed, exposing its fuel rods, only hours after a second explosion at a separate reactor blew the roof off a containment building.. . . Operators fear that if they cannot establish control, despite increasingly desperate measures to do so, the reactors could ...
CONTINUE READINGThe Year of Living Preemptively
Preemption is the question of whether a state's legal rule is invalid because it conflicts with a federal statute. Environmentalists have been particularly concerned about this issue in recent years because state laws are often "greener" these days than federal ones. The Supreme Court has an unusual number of preemption cases on its docket this year. There are five altogether, two of which have already been decided: Bruesewitz v. Wyeth The Court held that design-defe...
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