nuclear power

Political Fallout from Japan Hits Germany

According to HuffPo, BERLIN — German chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives have suffered a historic defeat in a state ballot after almost six decades in power there, partial results showed Sunday, in an election that amounted to a referendum on the party’s stance on nuclear power. The opposition anti-nuclear Greens doubled their voter share in Baden-Wuerttemberg …

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Japan Nuclear Situation Now May Be “Stable,” Not “Critical.”

There is now some reason to think that the situation in Japan has stabilized.  According to Bloomberg, Japan’s efforts to cool reactors at the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant had some success, with reports two of the six reactors are under control and a second electric cable has been connected to the station. Tokyo Electric Power …

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Multiple Failures Exposed Diablo Canyon to Higher Risk

It is a coincidence that the Union of Concerned Scientists has released  a new report on nuclear power plant safety while the Japanese nuclear crisis continues to unfold. Yet, the heightened awareness that many people now have of the importance of nuclear plant cooling systems may put us in a better position to understand the …

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Japan 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 …

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Japan’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 …

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Japan 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 …

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Japan Nuclear Update

The situation is continuing to deteriorate. The Washington Post’s coverage seems to be exceptionally good.  Here’s their summary of the current situation: Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant haven’t found a way to stabilize overheated reactors and feared the possibility of partial nuclear meltdown, which could potentially cause a further release of radioactive material, …

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Explosion at Fukushima Daiichi No. 1

The Washington Post reports on an explosion at a Japanese nuclear reactor: In what may become the most serious nuclear power crisis since the Chernobyl disaster, the explosion followed large tremors at the Fukushima Daiichi No. 1 reactor Saturday afternoon, injuring four workers who were struggling to get the quake-stricken unit under control…. The full …

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Going Nuclear in Finland

A new film explores how Finland is planning to dispose of its nuclear waste. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXif1MThJ6k]

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If not at Yucca Mountain, then where?

Cross-posted at CPRBlog. Last August, Dan announced “The Death of Yucca Mountain,” pointing to a news story in which Senator Harry Reid ( D – Nev.) declared that he had dealt a fatal blow to plans to store high-level radioactive waste in a repository there. The Department of Energy sought to pull the plug on …

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