How to Start Your Own Power Company, Stop Coal and Nukes, and Transform Your City

2011 Goldman Prize winner Ursula Sladek discusses how she became an unwitting energy mogul -- and a global environmental hero

By Sven Eberlein | AlterNet |March 28, 2012

Photo Credit: Goldman Environmental Prize

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As Fukushima Worsens, US Approves New Nukes

Nuclear Regulatory Commission OKs New Nuclear Plants in South Carolina

Common Dreams | March 30, 2012

The Vogtle nuclear power plant, which was given the first license since the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster in 1979

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Japan left with one nuclear reactor after shutdown

Japan has shut down another nuclear power station, bringing it a step closer to suspending atomic energy, following the Fukushima disaster

BBC News Asia | 26 March 2012

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa power station is not currently in operation

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China's nuclear power plant review: 'problems in 14 areas' found

Should we be concerned? A nuclear official said in passing this weekend that problems in 14 areas need to be resolved. In the wake of Fukushima, a shade more transparency would be welcome

By Peter Ford | Christian Science Monitor | March 12, 2012

A Chinese flag is seen near a nuclear power plant in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, February 15. Carlos Barria/REUTERS

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Chernobyl’s Lessons for Fukushima on Earthquake’s First Anniversary

Contaminated food embargoed, residents evacuated swiftly—a year after Fukushima’s meltdown, it’s clear Japanese authorities avoided many of the Soviet Union’s catastrophic post-disaster missteps, though not all

by Owen Matthews, Anna Nemtsova | The Daily Beast | Mar 11, 2012

Tohoku, One Year Later - Sudden devastation struck Japan twice on March 11, 2011, when an 8.9-magnitude earthquake sent a wall of water toward Japan’s helpless northern coastal cities and villages.... Q. Sakamaki / Redux for Newsweek

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Nuclear Industry Upbeat Despite Fukushima

One year after Fukushima, industry leaders remain optimistic on the future of nuclear power in coming decades, partly because of the high priority that has been placed on identifying and addressing potential weaknesses such as were revealed last year at Fukushima Daiichi, Japan

By Richard Johnson | IDN-InDepth NewsReport | March 10, 2012

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Japan's Hamaoka nuclear plant sees tsunami defense in (very big) wall

Japan's controversial Hamaoka nuclear plant, shut down after Fukushima, wants to reopen once a 54-ft.-high, mile-long wall is finished. But the plant also sits on a seismic fault line, raising more than a few doubts

By Peter Ford | Christian Science Monitor | March 10, 2012

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How Fukushima is leading towards a nuclear-free Japan

Tokyo hopes to restart some reactors, but hardening public attitudes may rule out even modest return to nuclear power

Justin McCurry | guardian.co.uk | 9 March 2012

A Japanese activist takes part in an anti-nuclear protest in Kobe. A recent poll shows that nearly 70% of the public want to reduce or end the use of nuclear power. Photograph: Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images

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Japan's Green Renewal? After the Disasters UN Tour

I've returned from a sobering United Nations-led tour of six tsunami-damaged communities and two radiation-impacted cities in Northern Japan. The obvious conclusion: the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident is forcing Japan to go green, including the launch of a new renewable energy national feed-in tariff that starts in July

by Warren Karlenzig | Mar 6 2012 by Common Current in Energy Bulletin | Mar 6 2012

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Abolitionists Target Funds Behind Nuclear Arms Industry

The world’s nuclear weapons industry is being funded – and kept alive – by more than 300 banks, pension funds, insurance companies and asset managers in 30 countries, according to a new study

By Thalif Deen | Inter-Press Service | Mar 5 2012

A Small ICBM (missile) Hard Mobile Launcher. Nuclear-armed nations spend over 100 billion dollars each year on their weapons programmes. Credit: US Air Force

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Japan Weighed Evacuating Tokyo in Nuclear Crisis

In the darkest moments of last year’s nuclear accident, Japanese leaders did not know the actual extent of damage at the plant and secretly considered the possibility of evacuating Tokyo, even as they tried to play down the risks in public, an independent investigation into the accident disclosed on Monday

By MARTIN FACKLER | The New York Times | February 27, 2012

Journalists, in protective gear, were taken on a tour last week of Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, at the center of the crisis last year. Issei Kato/Reuters, via Bloomberg

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Iran: Willing to Deal

With the United States and the European Union (EU) imposing one of the toughest sanction regimes ever on Iran, the world is inching closer to a potential catastrophic war at the heart of the Middle East

By Richard Javad Heydarian | Foreign Policy in Focus | February 20, 2012

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin meets Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

 

 

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Nuclear power is an expensive gamble that may (or may not) pay off

Energy deals could suck in vast resources for generations, or prove one of the most far-sighted government decisions ever

John Vidal | The Guardian | 17 February 2012

A picture of the now decomissioned Hinkley A nuclear power plant. A new Hinkley C plant is proposed near the Bridgwater site in Somerset. Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian

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Japan OKs fresh support for Fukushima nuclear plant

Japan's trade minister approved nearly $9 billion in additional support for Tokyo Electric Power Co to help compensate victims of the Fukushima nuclear crisis on Monday, but said the government would not go ahead with a plan to inject tax money into utility unless it got adequate management say

By Yoko Kubota | Reuters | Feb 12, 2012

The crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant's No.4 reactor building is seen after the removal of debris on the upper side of the unit in Fukushima prefecture, in this handout picture taken on January 5, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Tokyo Electric Power Co./Handout

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Rolling Out the Red Carpet for the Second Coming With Nuclear War

On February 8 I posted about an online dialogue on evangelical Christians and nuclear disarmament. In March of last year, at A Deeper Story: Tales of Christ and Culture, site administrator Nish shared emails with Reverend Tyler Wigg-Stevenson, founder of the Two Futures Project, a groundbreaking evangelical disarmament group, as well as with commenters

By Russ Wellen | Foreign Policy in Focus | February 11, 2012

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Nuclear Regulatory Commission Ignores Fukushima, Green-Lights First New Reactors in 34 Years

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has granted a construction and operating licenseto Southern Co. for two reactors to be added to its Plant Vogtle facility in Georgia. The OK is the first granted by the US regulator since 1978

by: Gregg Levine | Capitoilette in truthout | 10 February 2012

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Water leak shuts CA nuclear plant

A water leak led to the shutdown a California nuclear power plant, and officials said an "extremely small" amount of radiation may have been released

UPI in Disaster News Network | February 2, 2012

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Japan emissions rising after atomic crisis: report

Japanese manufacturer's greenhouse gas emissions are rising after the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, hurting the country's carbon reduction goals, a report said Sunday

AFP in Google News | 30 Jan 2012

Japanese manufacturer's greenhouse gas emissions are rising after the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster (AFP/POOL/File, David Guttenfelder)

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Japan finds water leaks at stricken nuclear plant

Japan's stricken nuclear power plant has leaked more than 600 liters of water, forcing it to briefly suspend cooling operations at a spent-fuel pond at the weekend, but none is thought to have escaped into the ocean, the plant's operator and domestic media said

Reuters | Jan 29, 2012

The crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant's No.4 reactor building is seen before the removal of debris on the upper side of the unit in Fukushima prefecture, in this handout picture taken on September 22, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Tokyo Electric Power Co./Handout

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UK 'subsidising nuclear power unlawfully'

Green energy campaigners are attempting to block new nuclear power stations in the UK by complaining to the European Commission that government plans contravene EU competition regulations

By Richard Black | BBC News | 20 January 2012

The Fukushima accident illustrates why governments pick up the bills for nuclear disaster

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