Nuclear Power & Radiation

Ravaged by the radioactive legacy of nuclear weapons testing, the Pacific Island of Enewetak is now threatened by sea level rise.

"Federal regulators have been too slow and lax when it comes to ensuring the safety of California's last operating nuclear plant, according to Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, who clashed repeatedly with members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission during a Senate committee hearing Wednesday."

"On Jan. 9, a freak storm dumped a record rainfall on central Florida's Treasure Coast, inundating the St. Lucie nuclear power plant facing the Atlantic Ocean. Storm drains failed, and 50,000 gallons of water flooded the plant's Unit 1 reactor auxiliary building through improperly sealed electrical passages, disabling core cooling pumps."

"The American mining industry is asking a federal appeals court to overturn a ban on new uranium mining claims near the Grand Canyon in a legal battle with environmentalists over impacts on the premier U.S. park."

"A Department of Energy investigation into the contentious firing of a Hanford nuclear waste site official met initial resistance from some of the government's biggest contractors."

"Washington state's attorney general said on Wednesday he intends to sue the U.S. government for not adequately protecting workers involved in the decades-long cleanup of a decommissioned nuclear site, saying dozens have been sickened by toxic vapors."

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s rules are not geared for supervising the decommissioning of nuclear reactors, the task that will occupy much of its time in the coming years, the head of the agency, Allison M. Macfarlane, said Monday."

"Promoters of the Yucca Mountain, Nev., nuclear waste repository left for dead by the Obama administration are celebrating Republicans' Senate takeover as a chance for resurrecting a project stymied by outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)."