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How dangerous is nuclear power? Three lessons from Japan.

The devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has become the latest poster child for long-standing issues surrounding nuclear energy – issues that need to be resolved to reduce the risk of a similar nuclear crisis in the United States.
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World is ignoring most important lesson from Fukushima nuclear disaster

Fukushima's most important lesson is this: Probability theory (that disaster is unlikely) failed us. If you have made assumptions, you are not prepared. Nuclear power plants should have multiple, reliable ways to cool reactors. Any nuclear plant that doesn't heed this lesson is inviting disaster.
Q&A: Illinois nuclear plant loses power. What got vented into the air?

A nuclear plant in Illinois shut down one reactor Monday after a transformer failed. The problem is growing for aging nuclear plants. But in this case, the public was never in danger, officials say.
Russia reconquers Eastern Europe via business

Russia's Kremlin-backed businesses are snapping up assets in former Eastern Europe, though governments are still wary.
Change Agent
Cheap drip irrigation could transform small farms

Peter Frykman founded Driptech to provide low-cost drip-irrigation systems to small farmers, hiking their crop yields by 20 to 90 percent.
American manufacturing needs skilled workers

American manufacturing is not dead. In fact, it has accounted for many of the new jobs created since the Great Recession. It will not survive, however, unless it builds up a skilled labor force. Fortunately, industry and the White House are waking up to this challenge.
Missouri River soaks Nebraska nuclear plant, but it's no Fukushima

Much of the grounds at Fort Calhoun nuclear plant in Nebraska are under two feet of water from the rising Missouri River. But the plant's critical systems sit six feet above the flood's expected crest.
Germany to phase out nuclear power. Could the US do the same?

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has endorsed a plan to end all nuclear power in Germany by 2022. Increasingly, studies suggest this is not a far-fetched idea, even for the US.
Nuclear power and radiation

A Christian Science perspective: Prayer can support the efforts of engineers and others to find inspired answers.
25 years after Chernobyl, Europe debates nuclear power's future

In Germany, phasing out nuclear energy is not a question of if, but when. France, however, has seen only minor expressions of dissent about its reactors.
Robots throw doubt on 'road map' to control Fukushima crisis

Robots found high radiation levels in reactor buildings 1 and 3 Monday, which could make it impossible for workers to enter the Fukushima plant to carry out crucial fixes.
Why Fukushima isn't Chernobyl, despite rise in crisis level

Japan's prime minister is urging the public not to panic after the government boosted the severity level of the crisis at Fukushima to the highest rating, the same level as the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
Fukushima warning: US has 'utterly failed' to address risk of spent fuel

Nuclear experts told Congress Wednesday that spent-fuel pools at US nuclear power plants are fuller than safety suggests they should be. They say the entire US spent-fuel policy should be overhauled in light of the nuclear crisis at Japan's Fukushima plant.
Green Economics
Can Japan's disaster help prepare the world for climate change?

Nobody expected that a tsunami would affect Japan's nuclear plants. And climate change will raise the possibility of such awful, unlikely happenings around the world.
Japan nuclear crisis: Has the US industry learned something?

Administration officials, in the first formal accounting to Congress on the Japan nuclear crisis, assured senators that US reactors are safe. But industry critics said much needs to be improved.
How dangerous is nuclear power? Three lessons from Japan.

The devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has become the latest poster child for long-standing issues surrounding nuclear energy – issues that need to be resolved to reduce the risk of a similar nuclear crisis in the United States.
Plutonium found in soil near Fukushima plant

Plutonium has been found in low quantities in the soil around the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant as public dissatisfaction with officials continues to percolate.
Do US nuclear plants have defective parts? NRC finds reporting flaws.

An NRC report finds that 28 percent of US nuclear power plant operators did not share information on defective parts with federal regulators. 'Confusion' over reporting rules is blamed.
Top priority in US earthquake study: nuclear power plant near New York City

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo calls the Indian Point nuclear power plant near New York City a 'catastrophe waiting to happen.' Federal nuclear power regulators promise to make Indian Point, which sits near a fault, a top priority in their review of seismic hazards.
Critics cite 'severe seismic risk' at California nuclear power plants

State and federal legislators voice concerns about the earthquake risk at two California nuclear power plants – as well as the adequacy of safety protocols in place there.
Japan nuclear crisis: Closer to stabilization, but what about food supply?

The most dangerous of Japan’s stricken nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant appeared to stabilize Saturday, according to Japanes authorities.
GE defends reactors in Japan nuclear crisis

The Japan nuclear crisis has brought scrutiny on GE, but the world's biggest nuclear-equipment supplier has maintained that its containment vessel design is reliable.
Nuclear power report: 14 'near misses' at US plants due to 'lax oversight'

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission failed to resolve known safety problems, leading to 14 'near-misses' in US nuclear power plants in 2009 and 2010, according to a new report from a nuclear watchdog group.
Terrorism & Security
Japan crisis: Nuclear agency joins France in raising danger assessment

Japan’s nuclear agency raised its assessment of the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station from a level 4 to a level 5 on a 7-level international scale for nuclear accidents, matching an earlier assessment by France.
Japan nuclear crisis: why the plume traveling to US poses little threat

Scientists point to several factors. On Thursday, the Japan nuclear crisis took a hopeful turn as engineers installed a cable to connect the Fukushima I nuclear power plant to the utility grid.
Japan nears key fix for nuclear plant, but could it come too late?

A top nuclear regulatory official testified Wednesday that Japan's nuclear plant might already be too dangerous to allow repairs, even though external power could soon be available to run crucial water pumps.