On June 8, 2012, the US District Court of Appeals threw out the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) so-called ‘waste confidence’ decision. The lawsuit, brought by the state of New York and four environmental groups (Natural Resources Defense Council, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Riverkeeper, and Southern Alliance for Clean Energy) will fundamentally impact NRC licensing proceedings and environmental analysis as well as any future decisions on nuclear waste management. Read more »
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Apologies to all readers for the longish hiatus of this blog. Many things have occurred since we last posted: Read more »
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A nuclear disaster in a plant near Chicago would force the evacuation of 7 million people and could deliver fatal doses of radiation to 20,000 people, said a speaker at an APHA session on "In the Wake of Fukushima: Is Nuclear Energy Healthy for Communities?" this afternoon. Read more »

Today the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future (BRC) will convene in Denver the first of its public meetings since releasing its draft report on US nuclear waste management. The BRC was created in the wake of the Obama Administration’s wise decision to shutter the Yucca Mountain project as a way to hopefully (finally?) figure out what to do with spent fuel in this country. In case you didn’t know, after 60 years of nuclear power, the U.S. still has no permanent storage for the over 65,000 tons of spent fuel sitting around at 70 sites all over the country. Read more »
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The Associated Press has done some more great work on the safety risks of nuclear reactors. According to its recent analysis of an 11,000 page record request from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the risk that an earthquake would cause a severe accident at a U.S. nuclear reactor is much greater than previously thought. Read more »

Just days after an earthquake that shook Toronto to South Carolina, we are once again gearing up for a dangerous scenario. The earthquake caused ‘unusual events’ at a dozen reactors along the East Coast, demonstrating, particularly in the wake of the Fukushima disaster earlier this year that more emergency preparedness is desperately needed at reactor sites. This upcoming weekend, the East Coast is expecting a Category 3 hurricane, Irene, which poses yet another threat to the reactor safety. Read more »

PSR is an organization that you couldn’t accuse of going soft on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Let’s face it: there are many reasons not to. Still, it’s heartening to see that NRC Chairman Jaczko understands that NRC is supposed actually regulate the nuclear industry. Yesterday, he made public his vote (and reasoning for said vote) on the recommendations of the NRC’s Fukushima Task Force, in which he endorses moving forward on the recommendations. Read more »

Within the past week, we have witnessed two separate nuclear threats in the United States as a consequence of a forest fire and flooding. The Los Alamos National Laboratory is the birthplace of the nuclear bomb and continues to be a center for nuclear weapons’ development and a place for storage of radioactive waste. A forest fire that has already consumed 61,000 acres of forest is now at the edge of Los Alamos. The Fort Calhoun Nuclear Reactor is imperiled by flood waters from the Missouri River. Read more »
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Within the past week, we have witnessed two separate nuclear threats in the United States as a consequence of a forest fire and flooding. The Los Alamos National Laboratory is the birthplace of the nuclear bomb and continues to be a center for nuclear weapons’ development and a place for storage of radioactive waste. A forest fire that has already consumed 61,000 acres of forest is now at the edge of Los Alamos. The Fort Calhoun Nuclear Reactor is imperiled by flood waters from the Missouri River. Read more »
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How do you know when you’ve had enough? With addiction, usually there are warning signs. The rewards no longer surpass the drawbacks, the risks, and the loss. A smoker notices a persistent cough. An alcoholic can’t remember the night before. Small, relentless wakeup calls. Read more »

In the wake of the Japanese nuclear crisis, Americans are considering things that they haven’t thought of in a while. One is the relationship between nuclear power and health. As workers dump millions of gallons of irradiated water into the ocean, radiation levels reach Chernobyl-like levels in villages around Fukushima, and iodine-131 is found in US milk, it is reasonable to question how “clean” nuclear is. Read more »

The German public sent a strong message to policymakers in state elections on Sunday. Read more »

President Obama signed the Fiscal Year 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act, H.R. 1105, which continues the policy shift away from the build up of nuclear weapons and toward efforts to stabilize U.S. relations throughout the world. Read more »