"As the Japanese authorities order a wider evacuation area around the stricken Fukushima reactor complex to as far out as 19 miles, three health and environmental groups in the United States announced that they were seeking further information about why American officials recommended that its citizens keep at least 50 miles away."
"German chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives have suffered a historic defeat in a state ballot after almost six decades in power there, partial results showed Sunday, in an election that amounted to a referendum on the party's stance on nuclear power."
Tsunamis are urgent news when the warning sounds. When a big one catches people unprepared, the disaster can be huge. But there are further stories about planning, preparation, disaster-proofing, recovery, and more.
"In the country that gave the world the word tsunami, the Japanese nuclear establishment largely disregarded the potentially destructive force of the walls of water. The word did not even appear in government guidelines until 2006, decades after plants — including the Fukushima Daiichi facility that firefighters are still struggling to get under control — began dotting the Japanese coastline."
The use of nuclear energy to generate power has been a major policy debate for decades. While the best decisions may be based on facts, many risk calculations are actually values choices. Here are some of the best sources for both facts and opinion.
Earthquakes are often enough a disaster and response story. But there are important stories all the time about seismicity, preparation, prevention, planning, engineering, and other facets. Here are some key sources and starting points for reporters.
"Japanese officials began encouraging people to evacuate a larger swath of territory around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on Friday as new signs emerged that parts of the crippled facility are so damaged and contaminated that it will be hard to bring the plant under control soon."
"More than a quarter of U.S. nuclear plant operators have failed to properly tell regulators about equipment defects that could imperil reactor safety, according to a report by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's inspector general."
"The federal government promoted some uses of coal ash, including wallboard or filler in road embankments, without properly testing the environmental risks, according to a report from the Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general."
"It has killed millions of fish and hundreds of dolphins and manatees. It has ruined countless Florida beach vacations. And it has left people with respiratory problems gasping for air. Yet until now, how Red Tide's poisons worked remained something of a mystery."
