"TEPCO says it's not hiding anything, but critics have complained for years that it and other Japanese nuclear power plant operators have withheld information about safety violations and accidents."
"Just a month before a powerful earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima Daiichi plant at the center of Japan's nuclear crisis, government regulators approved a 10-year extension for the oldest of the six reactors at the power station despite warnings about its safety."
As the Nuclear Regulatory Commission begins a presidentially ordered review of U.S. nuclear power-plant safety, the NRC's chief operations officer says no major safety changes are needed.
"With more trash coming into Keystone Sanitary Landfill in Dunmore, dangerous air emissions are on the rise, a Sunday Times analysis of state records found. The review also found the state Department of Environmental Protection relies upon the landfills to monitor air quality and report problems."
The U.S. has called for evacuating a 50-mile radius around the stricken Japanese nuclear plant. If a similar disaster were to require evacuation around the Indian Point plant, the comparble circle would include almost all of New York City and a big chunk of New Jersey. Despite an evacuation "plan," such an evacuation on short notice would be unrealistic.
"The nuclear industry likes to claim that each new reactor model is safer than the last. The unfolding nuclear emergency in Japan suggests otherwise."
"The birth of the 'nuclear renaissance' and proposed construction of up to 100 new nuclear reactors in the United States will be crippled by the crisis in Japan as regulators struggle to incorporate 'lessons learned' into the country's existing nuclear fleet, a former member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said [Friday]."
"The U.S. government on Friday said that "miniscule" amounts of radiation were detected in Sacramento, California, but that no radiation levels of concern have been uncovered in United States."
"That it would take more than 20 years for federal regulators to finally propose toxic emissions standards for the power industry is testament to both the slow wheels of bureaucracy and the clout of the nation’s utility and coal interests, which bitterly — and for years, successfully — fought the controls, even as other industries bowed under."
"The U.S. government said on Friday it had struck a deal with wildlife advocates to remove some 1,200 wolves in Idaho and Montana from the endangered species list."
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