nuclear meltdown

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Governor Averted Public Panic Over Three Mile Island

As US attorney general, Dick Thornburgh helped win approval of the ADA

(Newser) - Dick Thornburgh, who as Pennsylvania governor won plaudits for his cool handling of the 1979 Three Mile Island crisis and as US attorney general restored credibility to a Justice Department hurt by the Iran-Contra scandal, has died. He was 88. Thornburgh died Thursday at a retirement community outside Pittsburgh, his...

Removal of Fuel From Melted Reactor Begins

Milestone reached in Fukushima cleanup

(Newser) - The operator of the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant has begun removing fuel from a cooling pool at one of three reactors that melted down in the 2011 disaster, a milestone in the decades-long process to decommission the plant. Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Monday that workers operating from a control...

Their Ancestors Abandoned at Chernobyl, These Pups Persist
Found Around Chernobyl:
Hundreds of Playful Pups
In Case You Missed It
Feb 10, 2018 2:19 PM CST

Found Around Chernobyl: Hundreds of Playful Pups

Dogs' ancestors were abandoned by residents after the nuclear plant meltdown in '86

(Newser) - Tarzan loves to fetch sticks, run after snowballs, and is, per Julie McDowall, "a playful example of global kindness and cooperation." Writing for the Guardian , McDowall explains that Tarzan is one of hundreds of stray dogs living in the 1,000-square-mile exclusion zone surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear plant,...

Site of US' Worst Nuke Meltdown Would Like a Bailout

Owner of Three Mile Island says it will shut plant down in 2019 without a rescue

(Newser) - The owner of Three Mile Island, site of the worst US commercial nuclear power accident, says it'll shut the plant in 2019 without a financial rescue from Pennsylvania. Exelon Corp.'s move comes after what it called more than five years of losses on the single-unit power plant...

Fukushima Woman First to Speak Out About Her Cancer

'Don't rock the boat' culture has left cancer patients scared to talk after nuclear meltdown

(Newser) - She's 21, has thyroid cancer, and wants people in her prefecture in northeastern Japan to get screened for it. That statement might not seem provocative, but her prefecture is Fukushima, and of the 173 young people with confirmed or suspected cases since the 2011 nuclear meltdowns there, she's...

Radiation May Not Kill You, but Fear of It Might
Radiation May Not Kill You, but Fear of It Might
OPINION
Oct 22, 2013 12:13 PM CDT

Radiation May Not Kill You, but Fear of It Might

David Ropeik: Our dread of nuclear accidents exceeds the facts

(Newser) - Seems like there's a new story every week about a new radioactive leak or accident at Japan's shuttered Fukushima nuclear plant. The headlines may sound terrifying, but David Ropeik in the New York Times points out that scientists have said repeatedly that the radiation has been relatively harmless...

Hero Fukushima Boss Dies of Cancer
 Hero Fukushima Boss 
 Dies of Cancer 
OBITUARY
Jul 10, 2013 12:30 AM CDT

Hero Fukushima Boss Dies of Cancer

Masao Yoshida defied orders in effort to prevent nuclear disaster

(Newser) - The Fukushima nuclear plant manager hailed as a hero for defying orders and putting public safety ahead of the company's bottom line has died of cancer at the age of 58. Masao Yoshida stayed at the plant to try to stabilize it after the March 2011 quake and tsunami...

Japan Marks 2 Years Since Quake, Tsunami

300K still displaced as recovery continues

(Newser) - Japan fell silent today to mark the second anniversary of the country's worst natural disaster in living memory, an earthquake and subsequent tsunami that left 19,000 people dead or missing and devastated large areas along its northeast coast. "I pray that the peaceful lives of those affected...

Japanese Seethe Over Hushed Radiation Forecasts

Thousands exposed because gov't agencies refused responsibility

(Newser) - Anger is growing in Japan over the government hiding radiation forecasts from the public, causing unnecessary exposure to thousands, letting contaminants into the country's food supply, and not acknowledging that there even was a meltdown for three months after the initial disaster, reports the New York Times . Thousands of...

US Reactors Have Same Flaw as Fukushima

Venting system is same as one that failed at Japan plant

(Newser) - US officials have long insisted that American nuclear plants are safe from the kind of crisis that hit Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, because they have a newer, better venting system. But Tokyo Electric has now revealed that it installed the exact same vents years ago, the New York Times...

What Really Happened When Quake Hit Fukushima

Nuclear crisis was more desperate than the world realized

(Newser) - The first 24 hours of the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ichi were more chaotic and dangerous than the outside world ever dreamed. When the tsunami hit and knocked out the plant’s backup generators, workers turned into scavengers, searching nearby homes for flashlights and ripping the batteries out of...

Japan Nuke Reactor in Worse Shape Than Thought

Water had leaked from reactor No. 1, exposing fuel rods

(Newser) - Fukushima Dai-ichi's nuclear reactor No. 1 is damaged more seriously than originally thought—it's leaking water, reports the New York Times . The containment vessel at reactor No. 1 had been considered secure; but when Tokyo Electric workers were finally able to gain access to a water gauge yesterday,...

What Does Fukushima's Level 7 Mean?

It sounds really, really bad. Is it?

(Newser) - Japan has made the decision to raise the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster severity level from 5 to 7. That obviously means "worse." But what else does it mean?
  • Japan finally has an estimate on how much radiation has been released: The level is an indication of the total
...

Japan Nuke Crisis Raised to Chernobyl Level

Fukushima Dai-ichi may have spilled more radiation than thought

(Newser) - Japan has decided to raise the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster from 5 to 7, according to government sources, a severity level only previously seen in Chernobyl, reports Kyodo News. The country's Nuclear Safety Commission today found that at times after the breach, the plant was emitting some 10,000 terabecquerels...

Fukushima Endgame: Years, a Fortune Away

Will likely take decades to decommission nuke plant

(Newser) - The day when radiation stops spilling out of Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi is still unknown, but it'll be at least a decade and millions of dollars beyond that by the time the nuclear plant is decommissioned, reports the AP. That's the timeline from Toshiba, which built four of the six reactors,...

Fukushima's Disaster Plan: A Stretcher and a Fax

Plant was woefully unprepared for natural disaster

(Newser) - Tokyo Electric Power Co. had a disaster plan in place at its Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, but certainly not a very thorough one: It only involved one stretcher, and relied heavily on a satellite phone and fax machine for emergency communications. In a look at the plan, the Wall Street ...

Tokyo Electric Will Scrap Fukushima Reactors

Tokyo Electric Power cannot recover reactors 1-4

(Newser) - After three weeks, Tokyo Electric Power still has not been able to bring the first four reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant under control, and the company now says that they will all be decommissioned. “We have no choice but to scrap” them, said the company’s chairman,...

Japanese PM: We're on 'Maximum Alert'

But experts say fear over plutonium in soil may be overblown

(Newser) - With fears escalating over the plutonium leaking into the soil around the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, Japanese officials sounded a cautious note today, with Prime Minister Naoto Kan telling lawmakers that the government would “tackle the problem while in a state of maximum alert,” according to the Economic Times...

Inside the Hell That Is Fukushima

Little sleep, food, water; plenty of stress, danger, misery

(Newser) - As if risking their lives to work feverishly to avoid nuclear meltdown wasn't grim enough, there's no respite for the weary workers at Japan's hobbled Fukushima Dai-ichi plant. A Japanese nuclear official who just returned from five days at Fukushima paints a picture of life on the inside, reports the...

Radiation in Fukushima, Nearby Waters Spikes

Radioactive iodine hits 10 million times normal level, forcing evacuation

(Newser) - Radiation is spiking both in and around the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, forcing workers to evacuate the plant. Radioactive iodine in water leaking from the No. 2 reactor's turbine housing unit soared to 10 million times the usual limit, said Tokyo Electric Power Co., where workers had been struggling...

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