Nuclear Power & Radiation

The protest by an 83-year-old nun is the least of the problems at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Unsafe, obsolete, and insecure, it is a nuclear disaster waiting to happen. The Y-12 Security Complex is the poster child for much of what ails the decaying weapons complex across the U.S. Although Y-12 has not produced weapons for some 25 years, its annual budgets have increased by nearly 50 percent since 1997, to more than $1 billion a year.

After uranium mining poisoned their wells, thousands of Navajos must drive long miles to get water that is safe to drink.

"MENTONE, Tex. — Loving County is big, dry and stretches for miles, and is the perfect place, local officials say, to store high-level radioactive waste."

"Green groups say the Environmental Protection Agency's plan to weaken radiation standards at nuclear power plants would triple the likelihood of people in surrounding communities developing cancer."

"The globe’s nuclear power industry is aging, plagued with high costs and construction delays, and generally on the decline."

"WAYNESBORO, Ga. — The U.S. nuclear industry has started building its first new plants in decades using prefabricated Lego-like blocks meant to save time and money and revive the once promising energy source."

"Every weekday, about a dozen large garbage trucks peel away from the oil boom that has spread through western North Dakota to bump along a gravel road to the McKenzie County landfill."

"A U.S. science advisory report says Japan's Fukushima nuclear accident offers a key lesson to the nation's nuclear industry: Focus more on the highly unlikely but worst case scenarios."