Latest Articles

Holy Toledo!

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has ordered the operators of nearly 70 nuclear power plants to report back by Friday on whether the reactors at their facilities are safe to keep in operation. The order came after regulators discovered that acid in cooling water had almost burned through a six-inch lid on a reactor in […]

Favor Dis-Spencer

The word is out that U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham met only with energy industry executives and no environmental or consumer groups as he helped to write the Bush administration’s energy policy last year. But only now is the extent of that exclusive access becoming clear. On Monday night, after a court-ordered release of 11,000 […]

A look at the hiring practices at U.S. nuclear power plants

Could the Sept. 11 hijackers have gotten jobs at nuclear power plants? Under the current rules governing nuclear safety, at least some of them could have easily gone to work as janitors, carpenters, computer programmers, or other plant employees, according to Dave Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer who works for the Union of Concerned Scientists. […]

How secure are U.S. nuclear power plants?

Roughly 40 miles from the rubble of the World Trade Center, U.S. Navy cutters patrol the chilly waters of the Hudson River. Military planes circle overhead. On the ground, members of the National Guard stand ready. The Indian Point nuclear power station, which churns out electricity to nearly 2 million homes around New York City, […]

There’s a Place in France Where the Anti-nukies Dance

Lionel Jospin, the socialist prime minister of France, could lose his neck-and-neck race for the nation’s presidency to incumbent President Jacques Chirac if Jospin’s environmental allies make good on their promise to pull their support should the prime minister refuse to back a phase-out of nuclear power. The Green Party accounts for about 10 percent […]

Excess Marks the Spot

Representatives of the Haida Nation, a 7,000-member native group living on the Queen Charlotte Islands off Canada’s Northwest Coast, have sued to secure “exclusive right to make decisions about their land” and the surrounding waters. If the high court of British Columbia rules in their favor, the Haida will be able to prevent the government […]

Bureau of Land Manglement

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management granted permission yesterday to the Marine Corps to conduct two weeks of military exercises in the Arizona desert in late April and early May. Environmentalists are worried that tortoises and rare desert plants might be casualties of the Marine exercises. Known as Desert Scimitar ’02, the mission will test […]

Paper Late

Last night, the U.S. Energy Department released 11,000 pages of documents pertaining to the drafting of the Bush administration’s energy policy, just hours before a court-ordered deadline to turn over the papers. An initial review of the documents confirmed the suspicion of environmental organizations and Democrats that the Bush administration relied almost entirely on meetings […]

Up in Second-Hand Smoke

Park and Writhe

Air pollution, development, and funding cuts are just some of the problems facing the U.S. national parks system, according to the National Parks Conservation Association’s annual report on the country’s 10 most endangered parks. The diversion of water from the Rio Grande and air pollution from Mexico are threatening Big Bend National Park in Texas, […]