nuclear power plant

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Fukushima Nuclear Plant Stabilized

Workers on track for cold shutdown within six months

(Newser) - Some good news from Japan: The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant is stabilized and a cold shutdown should be achieved within six months. Even so, Tokyo Electric Power Co. warns that final cleanup—which will involve encasing the plant in concrete—could take more than 10 years. Engineers have recently...

If Fukushima Happened in US ... We'd Be Hosed

40% of Americans live within 50 miles of a nuclear plant

(Newser) - An AP investigation suggests that America's nuclear power plants and safety policies have not aged well: The once-rural areas around the plants have become far more crowded and difficult to evacuate, and the plants themselves are running at higher power and thus pose more of a risk in the...

Floodwaters Breach Nebraska Nuke Berm

Water hits transformers, triggering shutdown of electricity

(Newser) - Floodwaters have poured over a berm surrounding a Nebraska nuclear power plant, forcing a shutdown of electricity used to control cooling systems. Emergency generators were used until an off-site power supply could be connected to the Fort Calhoun plant, and officials say there has been no danger to the public,...

US Nuclear Regulators Routinely Weaken Rules
US Nuclear Regulators Routinely Weaken Rules
Investigation
Jun 20, 2011 1:23 PM CDT

US Nuclear Regulators Routinely Weaken Rules

Changing standards keep ancient reactors running, despite wear and tear

(Newser) - US regulators are helping the nuclear power industry keep its aging plants in line with safety requirements by repeatedly loosening those requirements, according to a year-long AP investigation . The AP found thousands of problems—from cracking tubes to failed cables to leaking valves—all of which made the plants less...

Rising Missouri River Almost Shuts Down Nuclear Plant

River came within 18 inches of forcing the shutdown

(Newser) - The Missouri River rose to within 18 inches of forcing the shutdown of a nuclear power plant in southeast Nebraska but stopped and ebbed slightly, a plant spokesman said today. The river has to hit 902 feet above sea level at Brownville before officials will shut down the Cooper Nuclear...

Germany: All Nuke Plants Shut Down by 2022

Country is largest industrial power to make such a pledge

(Newser) - In the wake of the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, Germany has announced plans to phase out all of its nuclear power plants by 2022. With this move, Germany will become the largest industrial power to give up nuclear energy, the BBC reports. The country’s seven...

5 Arrested on Terror Charges Near UK Nuke Plant

Homes of the five suspects were being searched

(Newser) - Five men have been arrested on suspicion of terrorism outside a nuclear power facility in Britain, reports CNN . All five live in London and their homes were being searched, while roads near the Sellafield nuclear facility were temporarily closed. The arrests drew interest given the killing of Osama bin Laden,...

Robot Detects Radiation Still Too High for Japan Workers

But Tepco officials say this will not affect their reactor shutdown plans

(Newser) - An American robot sent into the crippled nuclear reactor buildings at Fukushima Dai-ichi has detected radiation levels too high for workers to enter, more than a month after a quake and tsunami crippled the plant, reports the AP . Reactor Unit 1 measured 49 millisieverts per hour, and Unit 3 reached...

Radioactive Water Leaks After Japan Aftershock

Death toll rises to four; 100 injured

(Newser) - The death toll from yesterday's aftershock in Japan rose to four as news came that the quake (revised to a magnitude of 7.1) also caused radioactive water to leak from one of the country's nuclear plants. The water leaked from the spent fuel pools at the Onagawa nuclear power...

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 ...

Plutonium Seeping from Fukushima

Traces of highly toxic substance found outside plant

(Newser) - Highly toxic plutonium is seeping from the damaged nuclear power plant in Japan's tsunami disaster zone into the soil outside, officials said Tuesday, heightening concerns about the expanding spread of radiation. Plutonium was detected at several spots outside the Fukushima plant—the first confirmed presence of the dangerously radioactive substance,...

Nuke Plant Radiation 100K Times Higher Than Normal

Not as high as previously estimated, but still at fearsome levels

(Newser) - The good news is that Japanese officials were wrong when they announced radiation in water leaking from the Fukushima nuclear plant was 10 million times higher than normal. The bad news is that radiation levels in fact spiked 100,000 times higher than average yesterday. In current conditions in the...

First Photos From Inside Fukushima Released

Images reveal tough conditions for 'Fukushima 50'

(Newser) - Japanese authorities have released the first photos from inside the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant since disaster struck. Workers in bulky radiation suits can be seen toiling in cramped conditions, trying to contain the release of radiation, Gawker reports. The workers inside the complex—known as the Fukushima 50—are being...

Japan Nuclear Pool Near Boiling Point

Work resumes at stricken plant

(Newser) - Workers resumed efforts to bring Japan's Fukushima nuclear complex under control today but a pool for storing spent fuel at the plant has presented yet another problem, AP reports. A nuclear safety official says the pool is heating up and temperatures are at or near the boiling point. The pool...

US Launches Safety Review of All 104 Nuke Plants

As do other countries, like China

(Newser) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is launching a comprehensive review of all 104 reactors in America. Other countries, including China, are taking similar steps as the Japan nuclear crisis unfolds. President Obama called for the review yesterday as he assured Americans that they are unlikely to face harmful radiation from the...

Traces of Radiation to Reach US Friday

UN charts radiation plume

(Newser) - A plume of radiation from stricken Japanese nuclear reactors is crossing the Pacific and will be detectable in southern California by tomorrow, according to a United Nations forecast. Experts stress that the radiation in the plume will be extremely diluted and will, at worst, have very minor health consequences for...

Germany Shuts Down 7 Nuclear Reactors

Older reactors will cease operations for at least 3 months

(Newser) - Japan’s growing nuclear crisis has led Germany to shut down seven of its nuclear power plants for at least three months, the New York Times reports. Plants that began operating before the close of 1980 will temporarily close while officials complete a safety review for all 17 of the...

California Nuclear Plants Are Safe: Officials

Chances of 9.0 earthquake, large tsunami are very low

(Newser) - As Californians worry that their state might be next , officials are reassuring them that the specific combination of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis that hit Japan is very unlikely there. Though one of the state’s two nuclear power plants was only built to withstand a 7.0 quake and...

Japan's Nuclear Crisis: Let's Not Freak Out
Let's Not Freak Out Over Japan's Nuclear Crisis 

OPINION
Mar 14, 2011 12:45 PM CDT

Let's Not Freak Out Over Japan's Nuclear Crisis

It's far from another Chernobyl

(Newser) - America is positively freaking out over the state of Japan’s nuclear reactors, with some calling for a halt to the development of new nuclear plants. But that’s a wild overreaction, opines a Wall Street Journal editorial. The media’s done a poor job of putting the tragedy in...

Joe Lieberman: After Japan Nuclear Troubles, Time to Put the Brakes on New US Nuclear Power Plants
 Lieberman: 
 'Put the Brakes' 
 on Nuclear Power 
TALK SHOW ROUNDUP
Mar 13, 2011 1:33 PM CDT

Lieberman: 'Put the Brakes' on Nuclear Power

Plus, the no-fly zone and more from the Sunday talk shows

(Newser) - As Japan struggles to avoid a nuclear meltdown following its massive earthquake and tsunami, Sen. Joe Lieberman thinks it might be time to stop permitting new nuclear power plants in the US, Politico reports. "I think we've got to kind of quietly—quickly put the brakes on until we...

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