Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The recent 5.8-magnitude earthquake had more of an impact on a Virginia nuclear plant than first thought. For the first time in American history, an earthquake has shifted the casts that hold spent nuclear fuel.
Japan's Fukushima nuclear accident in early March 2011 is likely to have a primarily economic impact and is unlikely to result in a strengthened push for nuclear disarmament.
The recent nuclear disaster in Japan has many people re-thinking the risks and benefits of nuclear energy. Germany took a bold stance two weeks ago when it pledged to shut down its nuclear reactors by 2022.
Three months after a massive earthquake and tsunami ravaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, a new report puts the amount of radiation released at more than double earlier estimates.
One month after the worst earthquake in Japan’s history triggered a crisis at Fukushima’s Daiichi reactors, the most complicated nuclear reactor crisis in history remains volatile.
As Japanese officials report that radioactive water has contaminated the ground near the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant, concerns grow that it may take several more weeks to get the reactors under control.
Given the severity of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan, the plant operators at Japan’s damaged Fukushima power plants are being forced to improvise solutions as they attempt to bring the reactors and radiation leaks under control.
A radiation leak in the turbine building of Fukushima's Daiichi unit 3 reactor, damaged by Japan's earthquake and subsequent tsunami, suggests there is some chance the reactor core has been breached.
A reactor core may have been breached at one of Japan’s Daiichi reactors. For a nation still mobilizing to respond to a triple crisis – the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear reactor crisis – this dangerous development is difficult to address.
Reports of increased radiation levels in the turbine room of Japan’s damaged nuclear reactor in Fukushima have increased concerns that damage has been done to the steel container that encloses the nuclear core.