Nuclear Power & Radiation

"U.S. authorities are investigating a cyber intrusion affecting multiple nuclear power generation sites this year, E&E News has learned. There is no evidence that the nuclear energy industry's highly regulated safety systems were compromised. But any cybersecurity breach — targeted or not — at closely guarded U.S. nuclear reactors marks an escalation of hackers' probes into U.S. critical infrastructure."

"For 57 days last year and early this year, one of the nuclear reactors at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station west of Phoenix kept running after an explosion knocked a backup generator out of service."

"Beneath a forested patch of land on the Gulf of Bothnia, at the bottom of a steep tunnel that winds for three miles through granite bedrock, Finland is getting ready to entomb its nuclear waste."

"Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island power plant will close in 2019, forty years after it was the site of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history, as low natural gas prices make the costs of atomic energy uncompetitive, its owner said on Tuesday."

"it's understandable that environmentalists are worried that the Obama administration's moratorium on uranium mining in the area surrounding the Grand Canyon could be up next on the chopping block. That moratorium was announced by the Department of the Interior in 2012, and banned new uranium claims until 2032. Existing claims and mines were unaffected."

"The reluctance of U.S. federal regulators to require operators of nuclear reactors to spend $5 billion to enhance the security of spent fuel rods stored underground threatens the country with a potential catastrophe, scientists warned on Friday."

"Washington state’s Hanford Nuclear Reservation, scene of a recent collapse of a tunnel containing nuclear waste, would see its funding slashed under President Donald Trump’s new budget proposal."

"President Trump is planning to nominate three commissioners to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)."

"From Europe to Japan to the U.S., nuclear power is in retreat, as plants are being shuttered, governments move toward renewables, and key companies face financial troubles. Even some of the industry’s biggest boosters believe nuclear is on the way out."

"A tunnel containing radioactive waste caved in at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Richland Tuesday morning, forcing nearly 4,800 workers to take cover indoors."