n an unexpected finding that could have applications in medicine and elsewhere, UCLA researchers have found that unspooling a simple roll of Scotch tape produces X-rays -- enough to produce clear images of their fingers.
Radioactive tritium has been found leaking from a drainage pipe at FirstEnergy Corp.'s Davis-Besse nuclear plant north of Oak Harbor, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Friday. First Energy Corp. personnel discovered the leaking tritium 4 p.m. Wednesday.
At least 20 people were killed and 22 injured on a Russian nuclear-powered submarine when the ship's fire safety system was accidentally set off on board, a Russian naval spokesman said Sunday, Nov. 9.
The submarine's atomic reactor remained undamaged and radiations levels aboard the vessel were normal, the naval spokesman said.
One rainy night eight years ago, in Watertown, Massachusetts, a man was taking his dog for a walk. On the curb, in front of a neighbor's house, he spotted a pile of trash: old mattresses, cardboard boxes, a few broken lamps. Amidst the garbage he caught sight of a battered suitcase. He bent down, turned the case on its side and popped the clasps.
He was surprised to discover that the suitcase was full of black-and-white photographs. He was even more astonished by their subject matter: devastated buildings, twisted girders, broken bridges - snapshots from an annihilated city. He quickly closed the case and made his way back home.
The Department of Health should rewrite a 1977 radiological health rule it uses to monitor radiation releases from the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant and make sure the public has an opportunity to comment, a legislative oversight committee concluded Wednesday.
Critics of the nuclear plant have said the Health Department had re-interpreted the emission measurement rule over the years, allowing radiation at the edge of the plant's property to violate state standards.
Health Department officials have countered there's science behind their measurement practices.
Nearly 900 people have signed a petition demanding that Cumbria County Council opposes any move to create a new nuclear dump in the county.
Activists from West Cumbria Friends of the Earth (FoE) do not want the area to be put forward as a "volunteer" for an underground repository.
A Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspector said Tuesday that slack engineering by Entergy Nuclear workers was to blame for two recent cooling tower leaks at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in Vernon.
"Entergy's design change process requires providing adequate engineering drawings and instructions ... and also requires engineers to resolve technical issues identified during implementation," NRC's George Malone said. "Entergy did not do that."
The Isle of Wight Citizens Association met with representatives of Dominion Power and discussed the controversial possibility of farmers in the county using treated sewage sludge for fertilizer at their meeting Monday night.
Sonny Stanley, the director of nuclear safety and licensing at the Surry Power Plant, told the audience assembled at the Carrollton Public Library that unless additional power plants were constructed, the state would be facing a deficit of 4,000 megawatts by the year 2017.
Nuclear bosses have been accused of trying to "bribe" Sellafield staff not to strike by threatening to withhold a £1,500 loyalty payment.
British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) staff at other UK nuclear sites have received the cash when those businesses were sold to private sector.
John McCain supports plans to store high-level nuclear waste 90 miles from Las Vegas at Yucca Mountain.
Barack Obama does not.
The question being asked by Nevadans who oppose the repository - and by those who support it, too - is whether that matters. What could each candidate actually do about it as president?
Today, the Yucca Mountain project is a horseshoe-shaped tunnel under 1,000 feet of an unimpressive peak in Southern Nevada.
It's 60 miles as the crow flies to the lowest point in the continental United States, Badwater in Death Valley National Park. From Yucca's ridge it is also possible to see the highest point in the continental United States, Mt. Whitney, as well as ancient volcanoes and a major fault line.
President George W. Bush on Wednesday signed legislation that will allow the United States and India to open up nuclear trade, saying the two countries are "natural partners."
His action will pave the way for the details of the agreement to be signed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Washington on Friday.
There are few issues that divide environmentalists as much as nuclear power. Though generating electricity through nuclear doesn't create any carbon emissions directly, there is always the nagging issue of waste disposal, and securing the sites against natural disaster or terrorist attack. Then there is the issue with cost of new nuclear plants , which according to a Wall Street Journal report a few months back are significantly higher than expected. I could go on and on. A quick look at the comments in past TreeHugger posts on nuclear power shows the differences in opinion quite clearly.
Some communities welcome the jobs and cash created by the skyrocketing prices of metals, but in other areas, the surge has generated battles with the tourism business and environmental groups.
French power giant EDF is preparing to make a sweetened offer for nuclear power firm British Energy (BGY.L: Quote, Profile, Research) as early as this week, the Sunday Express newspaper reported, without citing sources.
The paper said the offer of about 770 pence a share was set to be signed off by EDF's board of Wednesday and could be announced the next day, although the timetable could also slip.
The man perhaps most responsible over the past 30 years for thwarting the federal government's plan for a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain slides into the driver's seat with a mischievous grin.
He has offered to drive to lunch on this hot August day. His state-issued rusted road hog looks like it belongs on an abandoned lot. The state's fleet managers must shudder every time they see its grimy government plates.
The nuclear smuggling ring headed by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan possessed a broader range of secret nuclear designs than was previously known and shared them electronically among members of the network, a U.N. watchdog group said yesterday.
A report by the International Atomic Energy Agency also acknowledged large gaps in investigators' understanding of the smuggling ring, raising concerns that Khan's nuclear black market may have had additional customers whose identities remain unknown.
It may not be pristine wilderness, but most of the trademark characteristics that define a nuclear power plant are long gone from Haddam Neck - no dome-shaped nuclear reactor and no electricity coursing into the power grid.
Now that the Connecticut Yankee nuclear power plant is no more, now that the only artifacts of the sixth nuclear power plant built in the U.S. are a nuclear waste storage area and a warehouse, what comes next? Can there be a second act for land that once housed a nuke plant?
Yesterday, the Department of Energy (DOE) reaffirmed its prior decision to relocate the uranium mill tailings predominantly by rail from Moab, Utah. The tailings will be trained from the banks of the Colorado River 30 miles north to Crescent Junction, Utah. DOE may still consider using truck transport under certain circumstances, but it won't be the primary mode of transportation for the contaminated pile.
UniStar Nuclear Energy and state officials are in a dispute about new conditions the state wants to impose for building a third reactor at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant.
