nuclear
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It will take at least 30 years to safely close Fukushima
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was shut down in March, after earthquake and tsunami damage led to meltdowns, radiation leaks, and evacuations. But an expert panel, convened by Japan’s Atomic Energy Commission, says that fully decommissioning the plant will take at least 30 years. Closing Fukushima Daiichi doesn't just mean shutting down damaged reactors. That […]
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Great, we have three-eyed fish now
Fishermen trawling a nuclear-plant-fed reservoir in Córdoba, Argentina have caught a three-eyed wolf fish. Like everyone else who's writing about this story, I'm illustrating this post with a picture of Blinky, the nuclear fish from The Simpsons, because the real fish is super ugly. They don't know for sure yet whether the fish's mutation is […]
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Perry and Paul were for energy subsidies before they were against them
Texas Republicans hate federal energy subsidies. Unless, of course, those energy subsidies are going to Texas! Both presidential candidate and Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Texas Rep. Ron Paul pleaded with the energy department in 2008 for a loan guarantee. The project they were supporting was a nuclear facility. (Clean energy!)
Here is what Perry had to say about energy subsidies this Tuesday:
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Radioactive fallout detected in Tokyo
Radiation has a sneaky way of spreading, and in Tokyo, citizens have identified 20 sites contaminated by radioactive cesium from the Fukushima meltdown.
The government wasn't planning on testing in Tokyo, but citizens and a nuclear research center started their own investigation and came up with positive results. -
Nuclear plant’s pollution will never, ever be cleaned up
If you got all warm and fuzzy reading our previous post about the revitalization of the Howe Sound, and if you want to keep that feeling, don't read this post. Because it is the exact opposite story, one in which humans mess up the environment and can never, ever take it back.
In Scotland, from 1963 to 1984, a nuclear plant leaked lethal-if-ingested radioactive waste. That waste got all over beaches and other lovely sea-side resources. A while back, the Scottish version of the EPA recommended that someone make this right and return the area to a "pristine condition."
But now, they're giving up. -
Critical List: Coal companies lavish cash on Boehner; how to stick it to hungry deer
Boehner's got his hands all sooty with coal money.
Uh, guys? Maybe we should check up on the safety of nuclear plants? Kthx. XOXO, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
California chose solar PV projects over solar thermal projects because the latter use more water. -
Critical List: Romney’s down with coal; Iran starts up a nuclear plant
Mitt Romney, in a desperate attempt to fit in, says he wants to burn more coal.
Iran's making nuclear power. There’s no way that could go wrong!
But worldwide, renewables are beating out nuclear in terms of installed capacity.
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Do you live near America's Fukushima?
This infographic from 1BOG.org — click for the much bigger original, which has details about all the plants — shows at-risk nuclear facilities in the United States. Most of the ones situated in high-population areas (the larger gray circles) don't coincide with the high seismic risk areas (yellow and red), so that's comforting … but […]
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The U.S. gets more power from renewables than from nuclear
A new report from the Energy Information Administration shows that in 2011, renewable power in the U.S. surpassed nuclear for the first time. In the first three months of the year, renewable energy plants -- including geothermal, biomass, wind, water, and solar -- were responsible for about 12 percent of the country's energy production, while nuclear produced only 2 percent.