Disasters

"FORT CALHOUN, Neb. — When safety regulators arrive for a tour of a nuclear plant, the operators usually give the visitors a helmet, safety glasses and earplugs. When Gregory B. Jaczko, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, got to the Fort Calhoun plant on Monday morning, the Omaha Public Power District offered him a life jacket."

"Thousands of residents calmly fled Monday from the mesa-top town that's home to the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory, ahead of an approaching wildfire that sent up towering plumes of smoke, rained down ash and sparked a spot fire on lab property where scientists 50 years ago conducted underground tests of radioactive explosives."

"As America's nuclear power plants have aged, the once-rural areas around them have become far more crowded and much more difficult to evacuate. Yet government and industry have paid little heed, even as plants are running at higher power and posing more danger in the event of an accident, an Associated Press investigation has found."

"Near a nuclear power plant facing the Sea of Japan, a series of exhibitions in a large public relations building here extols the virtues of the energy source with some help from 'Alice in Wonderland.'"

"BROWNVILLE, Neb. — Like inhabitants of a city preparing for a siege, operators of the nuclear reactor here have spent days working to defend it against the swollen Missouri River at its doorstep. On Sunday, eight days after the river rose high enough to require the operators to declare a low-level emergency, a swarm of plant officials got to show off their preparations to the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission."

"Three U.S. senators, alarmed by findings of an Associated Press investigation about aging-related problems at the nation’s nuclear power plants, are asking for a congressional investigation of safety standards and federal oversight at the facilities."

"Global action to protect the nuclear industry against possible terrorist attacks is urgently needed, a leading expert said, as are safety steps to prevent any repeat of Japan's Fukushima accident."

"An internal investigation by the owner of the rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico last year has largely blamed BP for the disaster."

"MINOT, ND -- Minot city officials, residents and the North Dakota National Guard today worked together to ensure a safe evacuation of some 12,000 people and 4,200 homes in Minot, as the Souris River overtopped its levees, flooding streets and washing away some homes."

"Crews have made significant progress attacking three major wildfires in Arizona, but fire danger across the Southwest will remain for weeks to come until seasonal rains arrive."