29 Articles

Tuesday, February 14, 2012
As If a Runaway Train, the Nuclear Juggernaut Rolls on
(1 comments) Last week's granting by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of combined construction and operating licenses for two nuclear plants to be built in Georgia is the culmination of a scheme developed by nucelar promoters 20 years ago. There have been huge changes in energy since. Still, as if a runaway train, the nuclear juggernaut has roared on.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012
A Way Around The Federal Nuclear Power Fix
The nuclear power program in the U.S> was set up rigged--to allow the federal government to push atomic energy with state and local governments "pre-empted" on most issues. But there's a way around this federal nuclear fix--the use by states of their power of "eminent domain."

Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Anarchy on the High Seas
(1 comments) The disdain of much of the cruise ship industry for safety (as well as labor and environmental) laws is signaled by the flags that fly on the stern of more than half of cruise ships. They are called "flags of convenience." By doing so, ship owners can avoid the laws of the nation from which they are actually operating. Major changes need to be made in the maritime industry--including the end of the "flags of convenience" syste

Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Spaceborne Nuclear Russian Roulette
(1 comments) Russia's Phobos-Grunt space probe, with 22 pounds of radioactive Cobalt-57 on board, fell to Earth Sunday. What happened demonstrates what could have occurred to the plutonium-fueled rover which NASA calls Curiosity which was also launched in November.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Space Launch Involving Plutonium Planned For Coming Weeks
NASA intends in coming weeks to launch a rover to be deployed on Mars fueled with 10.6 pounds of plutonium. Opponents of the launch in Florida, concerned about an accident releasing deadly plutonium, such as the explosion of the rocket that's to loft the rover, have created a Facebook page warning people not to visit Disney theme parks in Orlando during the November 25-to-December 15 launch window. Other actions are planned.

Monday, September 26, 2011
"Senior Official Number One, Take It Away"
The U.S. press has become increasingly accepting of officials speaking anonymously. Having officials identified only as a "senior department official" or "veteran diplomat" or "high official" and the like is a way for top and lesser officials to say things without having to take any responsibility for what they say. And now U.S. officaldom apparently thinks the public can readily accept this, too.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Siemens' Abandoning Nuclear Power
(10 comments) The just-announced decision by Siemens, a major player in the nuclear industry, to withdraw entirely from nuclear power, is a significant declaration by a corporation about nuclear power and the world's potential energy future.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011
And Now, A Solar-Powered Space Probe to Jupiter
What NASA claimed for years it couldn't do--use solar power as an energy source on a space probe going beyond the orbit of Mars -- it plans to do on Friday. But between November 25 and December 15 it intends to revert to using nuclear power in space, launching a rover to Mars fueled with 10.6 pounds of plutonium, although solar-powerd rovers have been used on Mars.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011
And Now..."Radiation Is Good For You." But DOE Cancels Pitch.
(1 comments) Among the nuttiest theories about radiation is that it is good for you. An advocate of this "hormesis radidation" theory was scheduled to peddle the thory tomorrow before the U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River-Site Advisory Board. But after complaints from safe-energy and environmental groups, the DOE cancelled the pitch.

Thursday, July 21, 2011
What Could Truly End the Space Program: A Nuclear Disaster Overhead
(2 comments) What's NASA's future now that Atlantis has landed and the shuttle program over? If NASA persists in using nuclear power in space, its future is threatened. The next NASA nuclear launch is slated for between Nov. 25 and Dec. 15 -- a rover fueled with 10.6 pounds of plutonium. Meanwhile, on August 5 NASA is to launch a solar-powerd probe named June to Jupiter, a demonstration of how solar can substitute for nuclear in space.

Thursday, July 14, 2011
Murdoch Media Empire: A Journalistic Travesty
(3 comments) The scandal shaking Rupert Murdoch's media holdings in Britain could be expected of a global media empire intoxicated with power and lacking any ethical base.

Thursday, June 30, 2011
Atomic Energy: Unsafe in the Real World
Nuclear power requires "perfection" and "no acts of God," we were warned years ago. This has been brought home by the ongoing disaster caused by the earthquake and tsunami that struck the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant complex, the flooding along the Missouri River in Nebraska now threatening two nuclear plants, and the wildlife laying siege to Los Alamos National Laboratory, the birthplace of atomic energy.

Friday, June 17, 2011
The Fukushima Big Lie Flies High
(5 comments) The global nuclear industry and its allies in government are making a desperate effort to cover up the consequences of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. "The big lie flies high," comments Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear. Meanwhile, this nuclear establishment will be holding a "Special Summit on New Nuclear Energy" in Washington next week. Involved is General Electric, the manufacturer of the Fukushima plants.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Nuclear Power Can Never Be Made Safe
(6 comments) With the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear plant catastrophe having arrived, and with the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear complex still unfolding--and radioactivity continuing to spew from those plants--some people are asking: can nuclear power be made safe. The answer is no. Nuclear power can never be made safe.

Monday, April 11, 2011
Fukushima: A Month of Media Disinformation
(8 comments) Today marks exactly a month since the nuclear power disaster in Japan began. Along with the ongoing discharges of radioactivity from the Fukushima nuclear plant complex, there has been a largely outrageous flow of media coverage.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Getting Realistic About Evacuation Zone for Nuclear Plant Disaster
(3 comments) Among the many obivous lessons of the ongoing nuclear power disaster at the Fukushima nuclear complex in Japan is that the 10-mile evacuation zone the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has insisted upon for nuclear plants here is a product of the pro-nuclear NRC's wishful thinking. The U.S. government has been directing Americans with 50 miles of the Fukushima reactors to evacuate.

Monday, April 4, 2011
Renewables Are More Than Ready
(3 comments) "Wind and solar are great but striclty supplmental," ieclared Al Velshi on CNN Mach 27 in a report on the nuclear power disaster in Japan. Velshi was wrong--as have so many in media been--in declaring that the choice in energy in the wake of the nuclear disaster in Japan is between nuclear on one side and coal, oil and gas on the other. THere are safe, clean, renewable energy technologies here to substitute for nuclear power.

Friday, April 1, 2011
Obama's Wrong-headed Nuclear Stance--After Disaster in Japan
(1 comments) President Obama's support this week for the construction of more nuclear power plants in the U.S., amid the ongoing nuclear power plant disater in Japan, must be considered among the most wrong-headed and irrational positions ever taken by a U.S. president, against stiff competition.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Hydrogen, Zirconium, Flashbulbs -- and Nuclear Craziness
(4 comments) The explosion at the Fukushima nuclear power plant is being described as caused by a "hydrogen build-up"--a situation of long concern in a nuclear plant malfunction caused by the cladding of the nuclear fuel rods being made of volatile zirconium.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Avoiding Nuclear Destruction: By The Skin Of Our Teeth
(1 comments) As Thanksgiving 2010 arrives, thanks should be given for something that never happened decades ago: the use of bases built all over the U.S. armed with BOMARC and Nike Hercules nuclear-tipped missiles. Wth nuclear technology still being promoted and a move underway to block ratification of a new nuclear arms pact between the U.S. and Russia, how long will we able to avoid nuclear destruction by the skin of our teeth?

Friday, October 1, 2010
Revenge of the Jellyfish
(29 comments) There's been an explosion of jellyfish in waters around the world--with global warming a prime cause.

Friday, September 3, 2010
New Book Concludes: Chernobyl death toll: 985,000, mostly from cancer
(2 comments) Book, "Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment," published by the New York Academy of Sciences, concludes that based on records now available, some 985,000 people died, mainly of cancer, as a result of the Chernobyl accident. That is between when the accident occurred in 1986 and 2004. More deaths, it projects, will follow.

Thursday, September 2, 2010
Floating Chernobyls
(7 comments) Russia has embarked on a scheme to build floating nuclear power plants to be moored off its coasts and sold to nations around the world. Nuclear experts are critical about floating nuclear plants and their special accident potential. Other issues raised include the floating plants being sources of fuel for nuclear weapons and easy targets for terrorists.

Friday, August 20, 2010
The Cancer Epidemic: Its Environmental Causes
(8 comments) The World Health Organization is projecting that this year cancer will become the world's leading cause of death. Why the epidemic of cancer? As numerous studies have now documented, it is a result of environmental causes -- toxic substances in the water we drink, the food we eat, the consumer products we use, the air we breathe.

Friday, April 30, 2010
When There's Driling, There's Spilling
When there's drilling, there's spilling. That is conceded by the oil industry. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is the kind of thing that will occur more often if President Obama's plan to expand offshore oil and gas drilling moves ahead.

Friday, August 14, 2009
FAA--Forget About Administration
(1 comments) Forget About Administration should be the official name for the Federal Aviation Agency for it is a toothless government agency long in bed with the industry it is supposed to regulate. The recent fatal collision between an airplane and sighteeing helicopter over the Hudson River is yet another epside involving a regulatory agency with little interest in regulation. should as

Monday, June 22, 2009
The Myth of Peaceful Nuclear Power
(4 comments) President Obama's declaration June 4 in his speech in Cairo that "any nation--including Iran--should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power" ignores a central issue. There is no "peaceful nuclear power." Nuclear weapons and nuclear power are two sides of the same coin.

Thursday, July 31, 2008
Nuclear-Powered Amphibious Assault Ships?
Most new large U.S. Navy amphibious assault ships would be required to be nuclear powered under the National Defense Authorization Act for 2009 which the House of Representatives has passed by a vote of 384 to 23. It now goes to the Senate where many senators are uneasy about the scheme--as is the Navy and the shipbuilding industry in the U.S. Safe-energy and environmental groups are strongly critical.

Friday, May 30, 2008
Half-Trillion Dollars for Nukes!
With Wall Street unwilling to finance new nuclear plants, U.S. Senators Joseph Lieberman and John Warner have cooked up a scheme to provide $544 billion in subsidies for new nuclear power plant development. Their move will be debated on the floor of the Senate on Tuesday, June 3.