Markus Distelrath/Pixabay , CC BY Awadhesh Jha, University of Plymouth It’s been just over a decade since the fourth most powerful earthquake of the modern era triggered a tsunami that struck Fukushima on the eastern coastline of Japan, causing thousands of deaths and leaving hundreds of thousands unable to return home. That tsunami was also […]
Chernobyl Radiation Surge ‘Cause for Concern,’ Say Scientists
Scientists monitoring the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine are detecting increased fission reactions inside an inaccessible chamber built around the radioactive ruins of a reactor that suffered a catastrophic meltdown in 1986—and they aren’t sure why. New Scientist reported this week that since 2016, researchers have detected a 40% surge in neutron emissions from a sealed […]
New highly radioactive particles found in Fukushima
The 10 year anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident occurs in March. Work just published in the Journal ‘Science of the Total Environment’ documents new, large (> 300 micrometers), highly radioactive particles that were released from one of the damaged Fukushima reactors. Particles containing radioactive cesium (134+137Cs) were released from the damaged reactors at the Fukushima […]
Possible correlation shown between the partial meltdown at TMI and thyroid cancers
Penn State College of Medicine researchers have shown, for the first time, a possible correlation between the partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station and thyroid cancers in the counties surrounding the plant. Three Mile Island (TMI), located near Harrisburg, Pa., had a partial meltdown accident on March 28, 1979. During the […]
The Killing of Karen Silkwood: The Story Behind the Kerr-McGee Plutonium Case
Karen Silkwood, an employee of the Kerr-McGee plutonium processing plant, was killed in a car crash on her way to deliver important documents to a newspaper reporter in 1974. Silkwood was a union activist concerned about health and safety issues at the plant, and her death at age twenty-eight was considered by many to be […]
Particulate plutonium released from the Fukushima Daiichi meltdowns
Small amounts of plutonium (Pu) were released from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) reactors into the environment during the site’s 2011 nuclear disaster. However, the physical, chemical, and isotopic form of the released Pu has remained unknown. Now, recent work published in the journal Science of the Total Environment has shown that Pu was […]
Obama White House Approved Radical Radiation Cleanup Rollback
The Obama White House gave final approval for dramatically raising permissible radioactive levels in drinking water and soil following “radiological incidents,” such as nuclear power-plant accidents and dirty bombs. The final version, slated for Federal Register publication is a win for the nuclear industry which seeks what its proponents call a “new normal” for radiation […]
Hot particles in Japan: what does this mean for the Olympics and beyond?
Hundreds of thousands of people – athletes and spectators – will flood into Japan for the 2020 Olympics. But exposure dangers from the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe have not ended since the meltdowns and explosions spread radioactive contamination over large areas reaching down to Tokyo and beyond. Soon after the start of the meltdowns, experts began […]
Accidents Can Happen: The Women of Three Mile Island (DOCUMENTARY)
At Three Mile Island, almost forty years after the disaster of March 28th, 1979, Hutner stumbles upon Linda, Joyce, Beth, Paula– ordinary housewives who lived five miles from the nuclear plant at the time of the meltdown. The women “knew nothing about nuclear power.” They “trusted” the power plant owners and their government “to protect” […]
ROCKY FLATS Documentary Exposes Plutonium Contamination In Colorado
What happens when a massive nuclear weapons plant closes down in your neighborhood? ROCKY FLATS is the story of one community’s fight in Colorado to uncover the truth about the toxic legacy of the Cold War in their backyards ROCKY FLATS is a feature documentary about an under-the-radar yet crucial environmental story – of the […]