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According to Daniel Ellsberg, the weapon could have accidentally fired because "five of the six safety devices had failed." Nuclear physicist Ralph E. Lapp supported this assertion, saying that "only a single switch" had "prevented the bomb from detonating and spreading fire and destruction over a wide area." nuclearbomb shadow shadow shadow ***** It (a B-52 bomber) was carrying two nuclear weapons, each 1,000 times as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb. One of the bombs dropped on the countryside and didn't explode. It had six safety locks on, and when it was found, five of them had flipped. It would have destroyed all housing within a circle of 25 miles and ignited all things burnable within a 75-mile radius. --Lloyd J. Dumas, author of Lethal Arrogance: Human Fallibility and Dangerous

In a devastating pair of financial reports that might be called "The Emperor Has No Pressure Vessel," the New York Times has blazed new light on the catastrophic economics of atomic power. The two Business Section specials cover the fiasco of new French construction at Okiluoto, Finland, and the virtual collapse of Atomic Energy of Canada. In a sane world they could comprise an epitaph for the "Peaceful Atom". But they come simultaneous with Republican demands for up to $700 billion or more in new reactor construction. The Times's "In Finland, Nuclear Renaissance Runs Into Trouble" by James Kanter is a "cautionary tale" about the "most powerful reactor ever built" whose modular design "was supposed to make it faster and cheaper to build" as well as safer to operate. But four years into a construction process that was scheduled to end about now, the plant's $4.2 billion price tag has soared by 50% or more. Areva, the French government's front group, won't predict when the reactor will open. Finnish utilities have stopped trying to guess. Finnish inspectors say Areva allowed "inexperienced subcontractors to drill holes in the wrong places on a vast steel container that seals the reactor." The Finns have also cited Areva for "the attitude or lack of professional knowledge of some persons."

Concerns over emergency response plans at nuclear power plants around the country have led the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to propose changes to some federal regulations. One of the changes, if approved, would require that emergency planners incorporate "hostile actions" into biennial drills. The NRC is also suggesting a clarification of the responsibilities of security officers at nuclear power plants. "Some licensees were utilizing security personnel to implement the emergency plan when many of these responders would likely not be available due to a hostile action," according to the Federal Register notice posted on May 18.

On Mother's Day in 1969, Stanley Skinger and William Dennison bent to tape the cuffs of their coveralls, pulled on their rubber gloves, adjusted their masks, looked at each other and thought, "Let's go." Then, without knowing anything about how to fight a fire, the pair waded into the worst industrial conflagration the country had ever seen. It wasn't safe, Skinger knew, but the alternative was far worse. Forty years ago, when Building 776-777 on the Rocky Flats campus eight miles south of Boulder caught fire, it contained 7,600 pounds of plutonium, enough for 1,000 nuclear bombs.

Nearly 370 farms in Britain are still restricted in the way they use land and rear sheep because of radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear power station accident 23 years ago, the government has admitted. Environmentalists have seized on the figures as proof of the enormous dangers posed by nuclear power as the UK moves towards building a new generation of plants around the country. Dawn Primarolo, minister for health, revealed 369 farms and 190,000 sheep were affected, but pointed out this was a tiny number compared with the immediate impact of radioactive fallout from Ukraine.

Editor's note: This story originally appeared in Facing South, the online magazine of the Institute for Southern Studies. For links to supporting documents, please see the original story. Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near It was April Fool's Day, 1979-30 years ago this month-when Randall Thompson first set foot inside the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Middletown, Pa. Just four days earlier, in the early morning hours of March 28, a relatively minor problem in the plant's Unit 2 reactor sparked a series of mishaps that led to the meltdown of almost half the uranium fuel and uncontrolled releases of radiation into the air and surrounding Susquehanna River.

"A controversial Indian law protecting companies from having to pay out major sums of compensation in the event of an accident at a nuclear power plant is pandering to foreign investors at the expense of the Indian people, say critics. The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill - which the government says is crucial for many foreign companies to tap into energy-starved India's emerging nuclear power market - was slammed by critics last month, forcing the government to postpone its introduction in parliament."

Japan warned of a possible radiation leak on Saturday as authorities battled to contain rising pressure at two nuclear plants damaged by a massive earthquake, but said thousands of residents in the area had already been moved out of harm's way. Pressure was building in reactors of two plants at Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima facility, located some 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo. At one of them, the Daiichi plant, pressure was set to released soon, which could result in a radiation leak, officials said. "It's possible that radioactive material in the reactor vessel could leak outside but the amount is expected to be small, and the wind blowing toward the sea will be considered," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news conference.

Close-up pictures of the devastated No 4 reactor building show the gaping hole through which radiation is escaping into the atmosphere as the rods break down. Last night, the UN's nuclear safety body said it was "too early to say" whether desperate attempts to cool them by spraying water into the building had been a success. The Foreign Office issued an urgent statement advising any Britons within 50 miles of the plant to leave the area immediately, and arranged charter flights to get British citizens out of the country.

This Greenpeace briefing serves to provide analysis and advice of the risks and potential health impacts following releases of radioactivity from Japan's Fukushima 1/Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was damaged by the March 11th earthquake and tsunami. Terminology Dose = total amount of radioactivity absorbed by the body over a certain period. Measuring units: − microSievert (µSv) − milliSievert (1 mSv = 1000 uSv) − Sievert (1 Sv = 1000 mSv). Dose rate = the amount of radioactivity absorbed per hour, expressed in − micro Sievert per hour (µSv/h) − milli Sievert per hour (mSv/h =1000 µSv/h)