March 2014

Radioactive Waste 67 - Location of U.S. Waste Isolation Pilot Plant was Poorly Chosen

              I have blogged before about the problems at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, New Mexico. This is the only national geological repository for waste generated in the U.S. nuclear weapons program including tools, clothing and other objects that have been contaminated by plutonium and other radioactive isotopes. Around eighteen shipments of waste had been coming to the repository every week.

Radioactive Waste 66 - US Dept. of Energy is Failing in Hanford Cleanup

              I have covered the world in this blog but sometimes you wind up in your own backyard. Problems at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation are like the rain in Seattle, they just keep coming. The Federal Government and the State of Washington are arguing over the cleanup of Hanford which is the most contaminated radioactive waste site in the country.

Nuclear Weapons 68 - Obama has Been Inconsistent with Respect to Nuclear Disarmament

              Activists have been fighting against nuclear weapons for decades. With the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, it seemed that nuclear disarmament had a real chance. A number of international treaties had been signed over the decades to encourage nuclear armed nations to get rid of their nuclear weapons and to try to prevent non-nuclear nations from getting nuclear weapons. The U.S. and the Soviet Union/Russians had the biggest nuclear arsenals.

Nuclear Weapons 68 - Obama has Been Incosistent with Respect to Nuclear Disarmament

              Activists have been fighting against nuclear weapons for decades. With the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, it seemed that nuclear disarmament had a real chance. A number of international treaties had been signed over the decades to encourage nuclear armed nations to get rid of their nuclear weapons and to try to prevent non-nuclear nations from getting nuclear weapons. The U.S. and the Soviet Union/Russians had the biggest nuclear arsenals.

Nuclear Reactors 109 - The Union of Concerned Scientists Criticize the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

              I have remarked in previous blog posts that nuclear regulation is often inconsistent and insufficient. Many national regulatory agencies have been "captured" by the industry that they are suppose to regulate. In the last four years, there has been a decline in the number of events that caused the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to stage "special inspections" at U.S. nuclear power plants. In 2010, there were nineteen such events but in 2013, there were only fourteen.

Pages