Nuclear Power & Radiation

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission ... is urging nuclear plants to embrace a more systematic approach to assessing fire risk -- one that relies on a computer program."

A simple brass plaque in Tarusa, Russia, stands as a reminder of an epic tale of scores of nuclear disasters in the former Soviet Union that were hidden, or never completely reported.

Canada faces a monumental challenge in finding a way to store or dispose of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel. The problem has dragged on unsolved for decades, and any solution is likely to prove costly.

"Some Senate Republicans want the climate change bill to focus on building new nuclear power plants. They're calling for as many as 100 new plants in 20 years. But the industry has been in decline for so many years now, there's concern there might not be enough nuclear engineers to do the job."

"Cleanup of the nation's biggest nuclear mess would take nearly two decades longer than planned under an agreement endorsed Tuesday by the governors of Washington and Oregon."

"The Obama administration is talking with allies and Congress about the possibility of imposing an extreme economic sanction against Iran if it fails to respond to President Obama’s offer to negotiate on its nuclear program: cutting off the country’s imports of gasoline and other refined oil products."

"The federal government will not lend $2 billion to USEC, the sole American-owned uranium enrichment company, the Energy Department said on Tuesday."

Homes are "contaminated with potentially dangerous levels of uranium from the days of the cold war, when hundreds of uranium mines dotted the vast tribal land known as the Navajo Nation."

"Thirty years ago today, an earthen tailings dam near the United Nuclear Corp. Church Rock Uranium mine collapsed, spilling ninety million gallons of liquid radioactive waste and eleven hundred tons of solid mill wastes into the Rio Puerco. The spill contaminated water, land and air at least 50 miles downstream on Navajo Nation land in New Mexico and Arizona."