Category:Nuclear

This page contains information about nuclear energy and associated issues.

See also Energy, Solar, Geothermal, Hydrogen Nuclear, Bio-fuels and Wind.

Overview

Timeline.

Jonathan Fetter-Vorm's Trinity is a nonfiction book-length comic for adults about the birth of nuclear weapons. Although primarily a history book, Trinity is also a pretty good nuclear physics primer, making good use of the graphic novel form to literally illustrate the violence of atoms tearing themselves apart, and the weird, ingenious, improvised mechanisms for triggering and controlling that violence. 6/12.

Center for Investigative Reporting coverage.

HowStuffWorks' overview of fusion reactors, the sought-after "next step" in nuclear energy.

News

San Onofre nuclear power plant to be closed permanently 6/14.

Obama admin wants hundreds of tiny nuclear reactors built in U.S. 3/13.

Hanford Nuclear Tank Leaking Radioactive Waste OLYMPIA, Wash. -- The long-delayed cleanup of the nation's most contaminated nuclear site became the subject of more bad news Friday, when Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced that a radioactive waste tank there is leaking. The news raises concerns about the integrity of similar tanks at south-central Washington's Hanford nuclear reservation and puts added pressure on the federal government to resolve construction problems with the plant being built to alleviate environmental and safety risks from the waste. The tanks, which are already long past their intended 20-year life span, hold millions of gallons of a highly radioactive stew left from decades of plutonium production for nuclear weapons. | 2/13|

An un-redacted version of a recently released Nuclear Regulatory Commission report highlights the threat that flooding poses to nuclear power plants located near large dams -- and suggests that the NRC has misled the public for years about the severity of the threat, according to engineers and nuclear safety advocates. More 10/12

A Veteran of Fusion Science Proposes Narrowing the Field 10/12

Citizens in Massachusetts allege that Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth has violated the Clean Water Act on over 33,000 occasions. If the EPA does not respond to the allegations, the citizen group will sue the owner of the plant, Entergy, for over 800 million dollars. (text and audio) 10/12.

Cell phones and microwave ovens also emit radiation 10/12.

So Far Unfruitful, Fusion Project Faces a Frugal Congress 9/12.

Flood Threat To Nuclear Plants Covered Up By Regulators, NRC Whistleblower Claims 9/12. Plutonium disposal 5/12.

Listen to a sane debate about nuclear energy UK 3/12. US debate 4/11.

The United States' Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the construction of the first two nuclear reactors to be built in this country since 1978. They're both part of the same power plant complex, near Augusta, Georgia. 2/12.

co-founder Bill Gates confirmed Wednesday he is in discussions with China to jointly develop a new and safer kind of nuclear reactor. 12/11

Fukushima analysis: IEEE Spectrum has a big special feature online now about the Fukushima nuclear disaster and its after-effects. It includes an interactive map showing the impact that Fukushima has had on evacuation of residents, contamination of soil, and contamination of food and water supplies. 11/11.

Safecast is open source crowd-sharing site for tracking radiation in Japan, but could be expanded.

Wired Magazine article on thorium, the "green nuke." 1/10.

Yucca Mountain.

Radioactive e-waste in India 4/10

Uranium mining and Native people.

Books

Nuclear Roulette: The Truth about the Most Dangerous Energy Source on Earth by Gar Smith (UCB alum)

Devil's Tango investigates the Fukushima disaster in Japan.

Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats by Kristen Iversen.

Atomic Americaby Todd Tucker. On January 3, 1961, nuclear reactor SL-1 exploded in rural Idaho, spreading radioactive contamination over thousands of acres and killing three men: John Byrnes, Richard McKinley, and Richard Legg. The Army blamed "human error" and a sordid love triangle. Though it has been overshadowed by the accident at Three Mile Island, SL-1 is the only fatal nuclear reactor incident in American history, and it holds serious lessons for a nation poised to embrace nuclear energy once again.

Chernobyl Radiation Killed Nearly One Million People: New Book: "Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment," was compiled by authors Alexey Yablokov of the Center for Russian Environmental Policy in Moscow, and Vassily Nesterenko and Alexey Nesterenko of the Institute of Radiation Safety, in Minsk, Belarus. Nearly one million people around the world died from exposure to radiation released by the 1986 nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl reactor, finds a new book from the New York Academy of Sciences published today on the 24th anniversary of the meltdown at the Soviet facility. Eighty percent of children born to irradiated parents in Belarus, the Ukraine, and European Russia suffer elevated rates of serious diseases.More 4/10

Stephen I. Schwartz, Cowell '87 Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Since 1940, Brookings Institute, 1998. Now publisher of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Schwartz says his interest in nuclear policy dates back to his days at UCSC. As a freshman, he planned to major in theater and film, but was hooked instead by the Adlai E. Stevenson Program on Nuclear Policy, since renamed the Stevenson Program on Global Security.

Plume by Kathleen Flennike. In PLUME, her second book of poems, Kathleen Flenniken chronicles growing up during the Cold War in Richland, Washington—a small community nestled between the Columbia and Yakima rivers. Richland has traditionally been home to employees of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, a plutonium production plant that fueled the nation’s atomic defense since the Manhattan Project in the 1940s. After many cases of radiation-related illness surfaced among employees and their families, the government declassified documents in the late 1980s revealing a decades-long history of contamination despite official assurances to residents that the area had always been safe. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the Hanford site is now home to the world’s largest environmental cleanup project.

Video

Shadowlands is a Greenpeace presentation of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the displaced people, and the human cost of a serious nuclear accident.

Living Under the Cloud  : Chernobyl [videorecording]/ produced and directed by Teresa Metcalf ; Metcalf Productions Inc Published Oley, PA : Bullfrog Films, c1993 Call Number Location McHenry Media Center VT3978

Ed Moses: Clean Fusion Power This Decade LongNow talk. Ed Moses is director of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore Labs. Focusing massive amounts of laser light for a billionth of a second, the NIF is expected to demonstrate ignition of a fusion reaction (more energy out than in) for the first time in the coming year, followed by the prospect of a prototype machine for generating continuous clean energy by the end of this decade. That could change everything. The NIF itself is a spectacular work of "technological sublime." 6/10.

What's Next for Nuclear? Quest KQED video 9/12.

New Documentary: Thorium Dream (an alternative to conventional nuclear).

Thorium, an alternative nuclear fuel.

Nuclear Aftershocks PBS FRONTLINE travels to three continents to explore the debate about nuclear power: Is it safe? What are the alternatives? And could a Fukushima-style disaster happen in the U.S.? 4/12 Nuclear Energy After Fukushima Googletalk Tom LaTourrette RAND 2012

Inside Japan's Nuclear Meltdown PBS Frontline 3/12.

New Documentary: Thorium Dream (an alternative to conventional nuclear).Wired Magazine article on thorium, the "green nuke." 1/10

In this first-ever TED debate, Stewart Brand and Mark Z. Jacobson square off over the pros and cons. Video. A more recent radio debate 4/11

Bill Gates unveils his vision for the world's energy future, describing the need for "miracles" to avoid planetary catastrophe and explaining why he's backing a dramatically different type of nuclear reactor. The necessary goal? Zero carbon emissions globally by 2050. TEDtalk 2/10.

Karen Silkwood a whistle-blower on industry practices that could have endangered millions of Americans was the portrayed by Meryl Streep in Silkwood VT6062 clip

Audio

Living on Earth interview on safety and debate on Fukishima anniversary]. 3/12 related audio and video.

Atomic States of America is a new documentary based on the book Welcome to Shirley: A Memoir from an Atomic Town by Kelly McMasters Audio interview.

The World's Largest Environmental Cleanup has Problems is about Hanford WA. LOE.org audio and text. 2/12.

The Future Of Nuclear Energy In The U.S. Before the Fukushima disaster, nuclear power was being rebranded as a green form of energy. New York Times energy reporter Matt Wald explains how the situation in Japan is now raising questions about the safety and disposal of nuclear waste in the U.S. Audio 4/1/11 on Fresh Air.

Sunflowers for bio-remediation of radiation. 8/11.

Per F. Peterson is Professor and Chair of the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Nuclear Energy: Future Directions is a one hour talk from oct 09 (video)

Sourcewatch.org portal on the issue, including re-branding as green.

Living on Earth (NPR) coverage of nuclear power. Includes fusion.

Physicist Steven Cowley is certain that nuclear fusion is the only truly sustainable solution to the fuel crisis. He explains why fusion will work -- and details the projects that he and many others have devoted their lives to, working against the clock to create a new source of energy. TEDtalk video.

Finland's version of Yucca Mtn audio interview with documentary filmmaker of Into Eternity.

President Obama has big plans for the future of commercial nuclear energy but the industry still has to deal with the waste it's generated over the past 50 years. The administration has pulled the plug on the Yucca Mountain repository so, today, half a century of radioactive waste remains at power plants. That's costing taxpayers and ratepayers billions of dollars a year. Living on Earth's Bruce Gellerman investigates the flow of federal funds and nuclear waste in the second story in our series. (9:15) audio and text 3/10

Clean Fusion Power this Decade LongNow talk 6/10

Maps

Searchable map of US reactors.

Images

Inside the Fukushima exclusion zone: the photography of Satoru Niwa.

Interactive

Nuclear plant simulator game (no earthquake mode).