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"A nuclear explosion was set off 37 years ago, near Krestishche village in Krasnograd district, Kharkiv Region. It was the first in Ukraine and probably the only one in the European part of the Soviet Union. Scientists had determined that a large gas condensate field in the area which was discovered in 1970 could hold up to 300 billion cubic meters of fuel. In 1971, 17 wells were already operating in the Krasnograd district. But an accident occurred when drilling a new well at the field in July 1971. Gas came to the surface before the well reached its planned depth and the force of the spewing gas condensate reached 400 atmospheres, throwing two workers into the air. Engineers took days deciding what to do to stop the well. The nearest village was just 500 meters away. Residents were told to not light any fires and to stay out of their homes and not turn on any lights. Unable to stop the gas, the engineers decided to light it. By the next day, the burning flare was tens of meters high. Several attempts were made during the next year to put out the fire. Filling the well with tons of concrete slabs did not work - they flew apart like toys. Such flares are normally put out by capping the well. But for this case, specialists from Moscow offered an original solution - an underground nuclear explosion."

At least 20 people have died in an accident on a Russian nuclear submarine when a fire extinguishing system was activated by mistake. Russian Pacific Fleet spokesman Igor Dygalo said both sailors and shipyard workers died in the accident, which occurred during sea trials. The dead were suffocated by freon gas, which is used to put out fires as it removes oxygen from the air.

A fire in a Wyoming missile silo last spring exposed more problems in the oversight of the nation's nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile arsenal, but posed no threat of nuclear detonation or radiation release, Air Force Space Command said Thursday. The command, headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base, released an accident investigation report Thursday on the silo, which caused more than $1 million in damage. It had made no previous announcement of the incident.

Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- ``All zones, fire at the nuclear power plant,'' booms a loudspeaker at 9:00 a.m. near the Volgodonsk station deep in southwest Russia. Within 3 minutes, emergency personnel known as liquidators spill out of fire trucks wearing rubber boots and gloves to guard against electric shock as flames dance inside. At 9:14 a.m. an armored car rolls up, turret slowly twisting, measuring radiation. The command center receives a reading transmission: Abnormal.

PEOPLE living near a top-secret firing range may be at a higher risk of cancer, scientists have claimed. Researchers say radioactive particles from weapons could damage the genes, including those of unborn babies, of residents who live near the military site on the Solway Firth.

More than two years after they voted to unionize with the Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America, the security officers at Progress Energy's Shearon Harris nuclear power plant near Raleigh, N.C. finally have a contract. It came after a protracted fight with the guards' direct employer -- Securitas, the world's largest private security firm -- and involved the firing of numerous union supporters and the intervention of the National Labor Relations Board, which found the company guilty of bargaining in bad faith.

About a year after a security guard at Exelon's Limerick Nuclear Generating Station was fired for sleeping on the job, another was fired for altering his driver's license to hide the fact that he had been charged by police with three separate offenses.

The government has issued a $123,750 fine against B&W Technical Services, the contractor at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, for safety violations related to a uranium chip fire in 2007. More than 100 workers received radiation doses due to inhalation of airborne radioactive material created by the fire, according to the report released today.

OAK RIDGE - The government has levied a $123,750 fine against B&W Technical Services, the contractor at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, for safety violations related to a uranium chip fire in 2007.

A prairie fire at the Pinon Canyon Maneuver site, an Army training facility in southeastern Colorado, was reduced to smoldering ash earlier this month after consuming more than 45,000 acres. But now Fort Carson officials are drawing a different sort of fire.

OAK RIDGE - The small uranium fire extinguished itself within a matter of seconds March 15, 2007. But there were signs of broader concern when a radiation alarm went off in another area of the large building where warhead parts are assembled and taken apart.

Just weeks after UK press coverage on citizen outrage over the continuation of firing Depleted Uranium at the Dundrennan military firing range in Scotland and the increased radioactive contamination of the environment there...

Residents of a remote Japanese village must choose between jobs and safety concerns as they weigh a request to restart the world's biggest nuclear plant, shut for more than a year after an earthquake triggered a fire and radiation leaks. A committee appointed by Niigata prefecture, where the plant is located, today said it agrees with Tokyo Electric Power Co. and the central government that one reactor is safe to restart. The decision, which needs to be endorsed by the head of Kariwa village, Kashiwazaki city and the prefectural governor, comes two weeks after a fire at the station -- the eighth since the shutdown -- revived fears that the plant isn't ready.

Arkansas Nuclear One near Russellville were shut down nearly 30 hours this weekend after unrelated problems involving a fire in a turbine building for Unit 1 and a steam leak in a turbine line that serves Unit 2. Neither occurrence caused extensive damage - and none to the reactors, plant spokesman Phil Fisher said Monday. Plant workers were unharmed, and neither event threatened public safety, he said.

Four security guards at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant were fired after testing positive for steroids, a spokeswoman for Wackenhut Services Inc., the government's security contractor, confirmed today. The guards union, however, is challenging two of the cases, claiming the positive readings were linked to use of over-the-counter supplements. Security police officers at Y-12 are subject to regular and random drug testing, but those tests are typically for Schedule I and II drugs - such as cocaine and marijuana. Courtney Henry of Wackenhut said the company began testing some guards for anabolic sterioids, a Schedule III drug, "for probable cause."

A woman sparked an alert when she went into Suffolk's fire service headquarters with a test tube she said contained uranium oxide. Firefighters put on air-tight suits and breathing apparatus to take the tube from the woman so it could be locked away in a secure place. Experts from Sizewell nuclear power plant tested the substance and said it had a low level of radioactivity. Dave Pedersen from Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service said it was low risk.

Gail Richards says NRC trying to intimidate her for reporting lax security Gail Richards thought her nightmare was over. In April, the Tennessee Valley Authority whistle-blower reached a settlement over her firing, which came after she reported security lapses in the power producer's nuclear energy program. But now the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission - the group that oversees TVA's nuclear facilities - has started its own investigation of Richards for potential infractions, including whether she improperly took private documents that she used to defend herself in a series of workplace allegations. Richards said NRC investigators grilled her for several hours this month in a Washington, D.C., hotel, threatening to get the Department of Justice involved in her case - a prospect that the wife and grandmother worries could lead to prison. She and her lawyer say the NRC is guilty of the same intimidating retaliation tactics that it's supposed to protect whistle-blowers from.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., has a "Low-cost Clean Energy Plan" being marketed to people with substandard reading skills. His press release claims his plan to build 100 nuclear power plants will "lower utility bills," though it "should not add to the federal budget since ratepayers will pay for building the plants." In other words, the people in Missouri, Ohio, Michigan and elsewhere who get their electricity from coal-fired power plants should see their utility bills skyrocket. Here's a reality check on Alexander's flimflam. The Republican plan proposes to double the level of U.S. nuclear energy generation in 20 years. How much would that cost? We currently have about 100,000 megawatts of nuclear generating capacity, and the cost of building a nuclear plant is about $7.5 million per megawatt, according to Moody's. So the cost would be about $750 billion. On a per megawatt basis, a nuclear plant costs five times as much to build and 10 times as much to operate as a natural gas plant. The $750 billion cost excludes the cost of shutting down the CO2 emitting coal-fired plants.

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

The Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred on April 26th, 1986 when reactor number four at the Chernobyl electric power facility in the Ukraine had a chemical explosion. Human error combined with the poor construction and design of the facility caused the chemical explosions and fires that released a plume of highly radioactive fallout into the atmosphere. Thirty-five people who attempted to put out the fires at Chernobyl died shortly after the accident of radiation poisoning. However, the immediate evacuation of about 116,000 people from areas surrounding the reactor reduce the general population from exposure to high levels of radiation. A United Nations report determined that a total of 57 people died as a direct result of the radiation from the disaster. Additionally, the UN study predicted that over several years up to 4000 additional deaths could result from radiation exposure from Chernobyl. However, the latest UN report suggest that these numbers may have been overestimated. Additionally, the IAEA reports that there has been no solid evidence of any additional deaths related to the Chernobyl disaster.