"As America's nuclear power plants have aged, the once-rural areas around them have become far more crowded and much more difficult to evacuate. Yet government and industry have paid little heed, even as plants are running at higher power and posing more danger in the event of an accident, an Associated Press investigation has found."

"Near a nuclear power plant facing the Sea of Japan, a series of exhibitions in a large public relations building here extols the virtues of the energy source with some help from 'Alice in Wonderland.'"

"Despite criticism over perceived ties to oil and gas companies, judges of the New Orleans-based federal appeals court that frequently handles cases affecting the energy industry have made little effort to divest themselves of investments that could create conflicts of interest, according to new financial disclosure statements."

"Thousands of demonstrators formed a human chain outside France's oldest nuclear power plant on Sunday to demand the site be closed as the government mulls whether to extend its life by a decade."

"BROWNVILLE, Neb. — Like inhabitants of a city preparing for a siege, operators of the nuclear reactor here have spent days working to defend it against the swollen Missouri River at its doorstep. On Sunday, eight days after the river rose high enough to require the operators to declare a low-level emergency, a swarm of plant officials got to show off their preparations to the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission."

As a kid, Gary Mechanic didn’t think twice about playing along the banks of the Chicago River, just a half block from his home, despite the sewage and industrial runoff that fouled the waterway when it rained.

"Jeff Fulcher has spent $70,000 on legal fees and expert witnesses trying to get Drake Petroleum to clean up pollution that has crept from the Xtra Mart gas station in Westbrook to the business that Fulcher runs with his wife."

"Fishermen are gearing up and hunters are taking aim — for Marcellus Shale gas drilling."

"With a January deadline looming on a US law mandating energy efficiency standards for lightbulbs, some political forces don't want to turn out the lights."