Articles by Grist staff

Let's Hope This Trojan Didn't Leak

A defunct nuclear reactor from the Trojan Nuclear Plant in Oregon safely completed a 36-hour, 270-mile barge ride up the Columbia River yesterday, reaching its destination at the Port of Benton, Wash. A tugboat pushed the barge past Portland, Ore., at about 1 a.m. Saturday, making it the first commercial reactor of that size and […]

Water Flows Uphill Toward Money

The world’s poor pay much more for water than the wealthy, and the water they get is often severely contaminated, according to a report published last week by the UN-affiliated World Commission on Water for the 21st Century. Government-subsidized water systems tend to reach wealthier citizens first and bypass the poor, even though they are […]

Plutonium Bombshell

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson yesterday ordered an immediate investigation into reports that thousands of unsuspecting employees at a government uranium plant in Kentucky were exposed on the job to cancer-causing plutonium and other radioactive materials. His announcement followed the publication yesterday of a Washington Post article on the issue. The Natural Resources Defense Council and […]

Not a Steller Success

Debate is raging among environmentalists and fishers over Alaska’s Steller sea lions, whose numbers have dropped by more than 80 percent in the last 20 years, from 120,000 to 20,000. Enviros charge that fishers are catching too many pollack, exacerbating the sea lions’ decline by depriving them of a primary food source, and last month […]