Nuclear Power Topics

Democracy Now! stories, posts and pages that relate to Nuclear Power

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  • Play_jan

    U.N. Nuclear Watchdog Says It Will Continue to Push for New Nuclear Power Plants Despite Growing Global Nuclear Concern

    The disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility in Japan has set off a debate in the international community about the future of nuclear energy. There are currently 440 nuclear reactors in operation worldwide, generating about 14 percent of global electricity—and plans for construction of new plants have soared in the last decade, especially in India and China. This was the focus on Monday as the fifth review meeting of the Convention...
    Apr 05, 2011 | Story
  • Play_japan_nukes

    Nuclear Catastrophe in Japan “Not Equal to Chernobyl, But Way Worse”

    Japan has raised the severity rating of its nuclear crisis from 5 to 7, the highest level, matching the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. We go to Tokyo for an update from Thomas Breuer, head of the Climate and Energy Unit for Greenpeace Germany and part of a field team of radiation monitors in Japan. He notes that unlike Chernobyl, the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is in a densely populated area. “We warned the government that...
    Apr 12, 2011 | Story
  • Alynware

    Right Livelihood Laureate Alyn Ware On The Global Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament

    Alyn Ware received the Right Livelihood Award in 2009 for leading initiatives in peace education and nuclear abolition in his native New Zealand and around the world for the past twenty-five years. Democracy Now! met up with him at the 2010 Right Livelihood Awards in Bonn, Germany.
    Apr 14, 2011 | Web Exclusive
  • Mycleschneider

    "The Connection Between Energy Use And Political Power Is Essential": Right Livelihood Laureate Mycle Schneider

    Mycle Schneider, a Paris-based independent consultant on energy and nuclear policy, received the Right Livelihood Award in 1997 for "serving to alert the world to the unparalleled dangers of plutonium to human life." Democracy Now! interviewed him at the 2010 Right Livelihood Awards in Bonn, Germany. [includes rush transcript]
    Apr 14, 2011 | Web Exclusive
  • Playjapan_nukes

    As Radiation Continues to Leak from Japan Nuke Plant, Owners of Vermont Yankee Plant Sue to Stay Open

    Workers at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility in Japan have started to pump radioactive water from a leaking reactor into a makeshift storage area—an effort they say is a crucial step toward easing the nuclear crisis. The Tokyo Electric Power Company says it will take six to nine months to achieve a “cold shutdown.” Meanwhile in the United States, the owners of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant have filed a federal...
    Apr 19, 2011 | Story
  • Chernobyl

    Chernobyl Catastrophe: 25th Anniversary of World’s Worst Nuclear Accident

    As Japan continues to deal with its nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power facility, memorials are being held in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia today to mark the 25th anniversary of the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl. On April 26, 1986, an explosion at the power plant sent a cloud of radioactive fallout into Russia, Belarus and over a large portion of Europe. Soviet officials attempted to cover up the accident, but eventually 50,000 people...
    Apr 26, 2011 | Story

  • "Weiner’s No Longfellow" By Amy Goodman

    The media has been awash with New York Congressmember Anthony Weiner’s string of electronic sexual peccadillos. Punctuating the sensationalism, and between the TV commercials from the oil, gas, coal and nuclear industries, are story after story of extreme weather events. Herein lies the real scandal: Why aren’t the TV meteorologists, with each story, following the words “extreme weather” with another two, “climate change”? We need...
    Jun 08, 2011 | Columns & Articles
  • Japan_nuke_button

    Japan Admits 3 Nuclear Meltdowns, More Radiation Leaked into Sea; U.S. Nuclear Waste Poses Deadly Risks

    Almost three months after the earthquake and tsunami that triggered a nuclear disaster in Japan, new radiation "hot spots" may require the evacuation of more areas further from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility. Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency recently admitted for the first time that full nuclear meltdowns occurred at three of the plant’s reactors, and more than doubled its estimate for the amount...
    Jun 10, 2011 | Story

  • "Japan’s Meltdowns Demand New No-Nukes Thinking." By Amy Goodman

    New details are emerging that indicate the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan is far worse than previously known, with three of the four affected reactors experiencing full meltdowns. Meanwhile, in the U.S., massive flooding along the Missouri River has put Nebraska’s two nuclear plants, both near Omaha, on alert.
    Jun 22, 2011 | Columns & Articles
  • Button_1

    New Exposé Reveals Nuclear Regulatory Commission Colluded with Industry to Weaken Safety Standards

    Three U.S. senators have called for a congressional probe on safety issues at the nation’s aging nuclear plants following a pair of new exposés. In a special series called “Aging Nukes,” the Associated Press revealed that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the nuclear power industry have been working in tandem to weaken safety standards to keep aging reactors within the rules. Just last year, the NRC weakened the safety margin...
    Jun 24, 2011 | Story