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Chernobyl’s Deadly Effects Estimates Vary
Chernobyl’s Deadly Effects Estimates Vary April 26 marks the 33rd anniversary of the 1986 radiation disaster at Chernobyl reactor Number 4 in Ukraine, just north of Kiev the capital. It is still nearly impossible to get scientific consensus on the vast extent of the impacts. The explosions and two-week long fire at Chernobyl spewed around […]
Woolsey Fire Started at Santa Susana Field Lab — Site of “[fourth] largest release of iodine-131 in the history of nuclear power”
Woolsey Fire Started at Santa Susana Field Lab — Site of “[fourth] largest release of iodine-131 in the history of nuclear power” In my Nov. 16 column, I reported on potential radiation risks posed by California’s Woolsey wildfire having burned over parts or all of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory—south of Simi Valley, Calif., 30 […]
Woolsey Fire Burns Toxic Santa Susana Reactor Site
Woolsey Fire Burns Toxic Santa Susana Reactor Site Photo Source NASA MODIS (TERRA Satellite) | CC BY 2.0 “A common denominator, in every single nuclear accident … is that before the specialists even know what has happened, they rush to the media saying, ‘There’s no danger to the public.’ They do this before they themselves know […]
Help Stop Radioactive Waste Dump and Thousands of Dangerous Shipments Across the US
Help Stop Radioactive Waste Dump and Thousands of Dangerous Shipments Across the US The private company Waste Control Specialists (WCS) or “Interim Storage Partners” wants to place a high-level radioactive waste dump site (called a “centralized interim storage facility”) in West Texas. If approved, opening this high-level waste dump would launch nation-wide transports of a […]
The Tip of the Radiation Disaster Iceberg
The Tip of the Radiation Disaster Iceberg Photo Source Surian Soosay | CC BY 2.0 The World Nuclear Association says its goal is “to increase global support for nuclear energy” and it repeatedly claims on its website: “There have only been three major accidents across 16,000 cumulative reactor-years of operation in 32 countries.” The WNA […]
Russian Sea Monsters: Rudderless Reactors on the High Seas
Russian Sea Monsters: Rudderless Reactors on the High Seas Did you hear the one about the Exxon Valdez, Fuku-Chernobyl, Gulf Oil Titanic? Yeah: Russia floated two nuclear reactors on a bargeto power oil rigs in the Arctic Ocean and nothing went wrong! Unsatisfied with trouncing Japan at the Winter Olympics, 14 gold medals to four, […]
Move Over Chernobyl, Fukushima is Now Officially the Worst Nuclear Power Disaster in History
Move Over Chernobyl, Fukushima is Now Officially the Worst Nuclear Power Disaster in History Photo by thierry ehrmann | CC BY 2.0 The radiation dispersed into the environment by the three reactor meltdowns at Fukushima-Daiichi in Japan has exceeded that of the April 26, 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe, so we may stop calling it the “second […]
Move Over Chernobyl, Fukushima is Now Officially the Worst Nuclear Power Disaster in History
Move Over Chernobyl, Fukushima is Now Officially the Worst Nuclear Power Disaster in History Photo by thierry ehrmann | CC BY 2.0 The radiation dispersed into the environment by the three reactor meltdowns at Fukushima-Daiichi in Japan has exceeded that of the April 26, 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe, so we may stop calling it the “second […]
Nuclear Keeps on Polluting, Long After Shutdown
Nuclear Keeps on Polluting, Long After Shutdown Photo by Nuclear Regulatory Commission | CC BY 2.0 Last month, the La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor, on the banks of the Mississippi River in Wisconsin, was found to be leaking radioactive tritium (the radioactive form of hydrogen) into the groundwater. Again, clean, safe, cheap nuclear power comes […]
War Deaths, and Taxes
War Deaths, and Taxes Are the federal taxes coming out of your wages and due this week killing you? Sadly what’s rhetorical for US tax payers is gravely literal for people of eight countries currently on the shooting end of the US budget. This year at least 47% of federal income taxes goes to the […]
“Uncontroversial” Mass Destruction
“Uncontroversial” Mass Destruction “There are two sets of scenarios in which a US president might order a nuclear strike. The first is relatively straightforward and uncontroversial: launching a retaliatory attack after or during an enemy nuclear attack.” Richard Betts and Matthew Waxman, who wrote this sentence in Foreign Policy magazine, ignore military, scientific and humanitarian […]
Fukushima: A Human-Made Disaster Brought on by Bad Faith
Fukushima: A Human-Made Disaster Brought on by Bad Faith “Nearly seven years after the triple reactor meltdowns, this unique nuclear crisis is still underway,” Greenpeace International’s Shaun Burnie wrote in a blogpost last December. The word “unique” is an understatement but true. The March 11, 2011meltdowns are the world’s first combined earthquake-tsunami-reactor catastrophe. Moreover, while […]
False Alarms and Exaggerated Threats
False Alarms and Exaggerated Threats Photo by Anthony Quintano | CC BY 2.0 Three days after the January 13 false alarm of a North Korean nuclear attack on Hawaii, Japan’s public TV broadcaster NHK issued its own false alarm around 7 p.m., warning in error that North Korea had launched a missile at Japan. As reported […]
Nuclear Reactors, Bankrupting Their Owners, Closing Early
Nuclear Reactors, Bankrupting Their Owners, Closing Early On January 22, FirstEnergy Corporation announced that its faulty and nearly-self-destructed Davis-Besse power reactor east of Toledo, Ohio, will be closed well before its license expires. But the shutdown is not because the reactor represents reckless endangerment of public health and safety. FirseEnergy was fine with that. No, […]
Presidential Bomb Threats at the UN
Presidential Bomb Threats at the UN Photo by Nathaniel St. Clair Donald Trump denounced North Korea and its president Kim Jong-un as “depraved” before the United Nations Sept. 19, saying the nation “threatens the entire world with unthinkable loss of life.” Of course, North Korea can barely feed itself, and yet has to defend itself […]
