Our Neighborhood

Earth

Keeping It Green

The Pros and Cons
of Nuclear Energy

Don't let the PROS CON you!

Page Updated:
Mar. 2, 2026

• Nuclear Industry News

Nuclear News Stories

Read the latest news stories on nuclear power

What went right - and what went WRONG?

Click now for that section on this page.

• Nuclear Plant
Accident Timeline

Events to Make You
Distrust Nuclear Power:

Read the BBC account of the varous nuclear accidents beginning in 1957.

Click now to learn more.

• • Radioactive Waste from Nuclear Energy Lasts for 100,000 Years

  But Particle Accelerators Could Slash That Timeline to a Few Centuries

  
  

  Mar. 1, 2026 -Used nuclear fuel is one of the most persistent challenges facing nuclear energy. Long after a reactor stops using it, the material remains intensely radioactive, requiring cumbersome and expensive storage for tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years.

  Researchers are now exploring whether advanced physics tools could drastically shorten that timeline by transforming some of nuclear waste’s most hazardous components into materials that decay much faster.

• • Federal Nuclear Regulator Proposes
  New Regulations On Fusion Waste

  Trump Has Doubled Down On Nuclear Energy Even as it Has Lobbed Attacks Overall at Renewable Energy Efforts
  
  {POLITICO PRO}
  
  

  Feb. 25, 2026 -The Nuclear Regulator Commission on Wednesday said it would propose new regulations giving it regulatory responsibility to manage waste from fusion nuclear power generators.

  The new proposed rule comes as the Trump administration is doubling down on its nuclear energy efforts. Fusion power, long promised to be a cheap and clean form of nuclear energy, has made technological strides in recent years but remains far from becoming a commercial reality..

• • America’s Leaking Nuclear Coffin Is a Climate Time Bomb

  The Cold War Left Many Inglorious Legacies. The Runit Dome is a Good Example

  
  

  Feb. 24, 2026 -From the outside, it looks almost too unassuming: a perfect concrete disk, 377 feet (115) meters) wide, rising from the white sand. Locals from the Marshall Islands call it “The Tomb.” In fact, it’s a sarcophagus.

  Beneath the concrete cap there are more than 111,000 cubic yards of radioactive soil and debris. It’s lethal fallout from America’s Cold War nuclear testing program. Lethal amounts of plutonium-239, an isotope so toxic a speck can kill you and with a half-life of 24,100 years. The Tomb was America’s hasty solution to a permanent problem. It was built cheap, built fast, and built to fail.

• • The Four Meter Robot Building the World’s Largest Fusion Reactor

  A Giant Robot Preps the World's Most Complex Puzzle for Fusion

  
  

  Feb. 17, 2026 -For decades, nuclear fusion has been the “holy grail” of energy — a promise of clean, limitless power that always seems to be “twenty years away.”

  Nuclear fusion is the same process that fuels the stars, where hydrogen atoms are smashed together under such intense pressure that they fuse together. This process releases a gargantuan burst of energy with zero carbon emissions and no long-lived radioactive waste. To achieve this on Earth, scientists at ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) are building a magnetic cage designed to trap a “plasma” of hydrogen heated to 150 million degrees Celsius — ten times hotter than the core of the Sun.

• • Texas Becomes Leading Test Ground For Small Nuclear Reactors

  Texas Races to Become the Nation’s Testing Ground for SMRs, Backed By a New $350M Texas Nuclear Development Fund
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Feb. 16, 2026 -Multiple ventures are moving fast in TX: Natura Resources is building a molten salt research reactor at Abilene Christian University, X-energy is planning four 80 MW reactors at a Dow Chemical plant, and startup Aalo Atomics is designing truck-transportable 10 MW units for mass production.

  Despite the momentum, a University of Texas study warns that SMRs only become competitive if capital costs drop below $3M per MW—a steep target given current estimates range as high as $10.1M per MW.

• • Project Omega Comes Out of Stealth
  With Nuclear Batteries and Recycling

  Can Massachusetts Affordably Replace Fossil-Fuel Peakers For A Cheaper Combustion-Free Grid By 2050?
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Feb. 16, 2026 -Project Omega emerged from stealth with $12M in seed funding and a working prototype of a betavoltaic battery—a device that generates power directly from the radioactive decay of strontium-90, an isotope harvested from nuclear waste.

  The business logic: Sell the batteries first to generate cash flow, then scale up nuclear fuel recycling—a higher-volume but lower-margin market.

• • Fukushima Wild Boar Are Carrying Domestic
  Pig DNA Years After the Nuclear Disaster

  Escaped Farm Pigs Left a Lasting Legacy After the 2011 Nuclear Disaster

  
  

  Feb. 13, 2026 -More than a decade after the Fukushima nuclear accident forced a mass evacuation, the region remains a ghost town for humans. But when humans go away, wildlife comes right back in. Among the most successful new residents are wild boar—some of which carry the genetic fingerprints of domestic pigs left behind in the chaos.

  When the 2011 earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, 160,000 people fled their homes. In the rush, livestock were abandoned. Some pigs escaped their pens (or were released) and wandered into the surrounding forests. There, they met their wild cousins.

• • How Next-Generation Nuclear Reactors
  Break Out of the 20th-Century Blueprint

  How Next-Generation Nuclear Reactors Break Out of the 20th-Century Blueprint

  
  

  Feb. 12, 2026 -Commercial nuclear reactors all work pretty much the same way. Atoms of a radioactive material split, emitting neutrons. Those bump into other atoms, splitting them and causing them to emit more neutrons, which bump into other atoms, continuing the chain reaction.

  That reaction gives off heat, which can be used directly or help turn water into steam, which spins a turbine and produces electricity. Today, such reactors typically use the same fuel (uranium) and coolant (water), and all are roughly the same size (massive). For decades, these giants have streamed electrons into power grids around the world. Their popularity surged in recent years as worries about climate change and energy independence drowned out concerns about meltdowns and radioactive waste. The problem is, building nuclear power plants is expensive and slow.

• • Nuclear Fusion Startup Raises $450
  Million to Make Power With Lasers

  Inertia Enterprises Has Raised $450M to Prove That Lasers—Not Magnets—Are the Future of Fusion Energy
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Feb. 11, 2026 -Co-founder Annie Kritcher was lead designer of the 2022 Lawrence Livermore breakthrough—the only fusion experiment that's ever produced net energy gain.

  To make it work at scale, Inertia plans to build 1,000 lasers firing 10X per second at tiny fuel pellets—a system they say could be 1 million times more powerful than Livermore's. Commercial plant construction is targeted for 2030.

• • Nuclear Startup Terrapower Is Moving Fast

  Some Say Too Fast
  
  {E&E NEWS}
  
  

  Feb 11, 2026 -The people of Kemmerer, Wyoming, braced for the worst when the owner of the town’s coal-fired power plant scheduled its closure in 2020. Jobs would disappear, along with tax revenue.

  Then came TerraPower, an advanced nuclear company based out of Bellevue, Washington, that needed a place to build. TerraPower pitched itself to local officials as future employment for the power plant workers about to lose their jobs.

  Instead of closing the power plant, its owner, PacifiCorp, is retrofitting it to burn natural gas. And TerraPower is charging ahead with plans to build the first small U.S. nuclear reactor of its kind close by, with the support of local officials in western Wyoming.

• • DOE Awards $19M to Advance SNF Recycling

  Office of Nuclear Energy is Investing $19M to Jumpstart a Domestic Nuclear Recycling Industry
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Feb. 8, 2026 -The awards task five companies—Alpha Nur, Curio, Flibe, Oklo, and Shine—with developing tech that shrinks the nation’s waste stockpile while cutting reliance on foreign uranium.

  The projects range from recovering high-enriched uranium for SMRs (Alpha Nur) to optimizing molten salt pyroprocessing (Oklo) to developing modified PUREX methods that prevent plutonium from being weaponized (Shine).

• • DOE Prepares to Send Nuclear Waste Cross-Country

  A 180-Ton Lead and Steel Cask Containing Spent Nuclear Fuel Will Cross 13 States and Travel More Than 2,500 Miles
  
  {E&E News}
  
  

  Feb 5, 2026 -A rail journey years in the making will pull away from Dominion Energy’s North Anna nuclear plant in Virginia in the fall of 2027 bound for Idaho National Laboratory.

  Aboard a specially designed railcar will be a 180-ton lead and steel cask containing spent nuclear fuel. The trip crossing 13 states and traveling more than 2,500 miles will be the first shipment of spent nuclear fuel from commercial reactors in more than two decades.

• • The Fukushima Towns Frozen In Time:
  Nature Has Thrived Since the Nuclear Disaster

  But What Happens If Humans Return?

  
  

  Jan. 27, 2026, -Norio Kimura pauses to gaze through the dirt-flecked window of Kumamachi primary school in Fukushima. Inside, there are still textbooks lying on the desks, pencil cases are strewn across the floor; empty bento boxes that were never taken home.

  Along the corridor, shoes line the route the children took when they fled, some still in their indoor plimsolls, as their town was rocked by a magnitude-9 earthquake on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 which went on to cause the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chornobyl.

• • New York Extends Billions in Subsidies
  For Nuclear Plants in Upstate NY

  New York is Locked Into Nuclear Power For 20 More Years
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Jan. 22, 2026 -State regulators voted unanimously to extend subsidies for four Constellation-owned reactors, ensuring the plants—which generate 21% of New York's electricity—keep running through 2049 rather than retiring at decade’s end.

  The price tag could reach $33B over 20 years, though the Public Service Commission estimates the actual cost will be half that as federal tax credits and rising wholesale power prices offset the subsidies.

• • Tepco Halts Atomic Reactor Amid Issue With Milestone Restart

  Japan’s Nuclear Revival Hit Another Snag
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Jan. 22, 2026 -Tepco is shutting down its No. 6 reactor at the Kashiwazaki Kariwa plant—the world’s largest nuclear power plant—just one day after restarting it, following the discovery of a defect in the control rod monitoring system.

  Why it matters: The restart was intended to be a turning point for Japan's energy policy, signaling a full return to nuclear power. Instead, it highlights the technical and reputational fragility still haunting the sector.

• • China’s “Artificial Sun” Just Smashed a Key Fusion Barrier

  And Physics May Never Be the Same

  
  

  Jan. 14, 2026 - Fusion physicists have always been haunted by a ghost in the machine known as the Greenwald limit. It’s a frustratingly empirical ceiling: try to cram too much plasma into your magnetic donut (tokamak), and the whole thing goes haywire, effectively killing the reaction.

  But on January 1, researchers working on China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak(EAST) — often dubbed the “artificial sun” — announced something remarkable. They hadn’t just broken this rule; they may have rewritten the playbook for how we build stars on Earth.

• • Hochul Wants More Nuclear Power in New York

  The Governor’s State of the State Address Also Focused on Lowering Utility Rates. Discussion of the State’s Climate Act Was Notably Absent

  
  

  Jan. 14, 2026 -During her State of the State address this week, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that she will push to invest more funds into nuclear energy, calling it “a vital part of our all-of-the-above approach to energy.”

  The development of nuclear energy is a divisive issue among climate advocates in the state. Nuclear power plants do not pollute while operating and can operate continuously, unlike renewables, which are dependent on wind or sunshine. But the waste that the plants generate can be very radioactive and pose a threat to humans long after these facilities close.

• • Supreme Court Rejects Appeals
  On Nuclear Waste Storage & More

  It Rejected Appeals On Nuclear Waste Storage and Utility Monopolies
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Jan. 12, 2026 -The justices denied Beyond Nuclear v. NRC, declining to review a challenge to the NRC’s authority to license consolidated interim storage facilities—a major defeat for environmental groups seeking to block private radioactive waste sites like the Holtec project in New Mexico.

  The Court also refused to hear Duke Energy Carolinas v. NTE Carolinas II, leaving intact a lower court decision in a high-stakes antitrust lawsuit where the independent power producer accused the utility giant of using its monopoly power to sabotage a rival generation project.

• • Meta Unveils Nuclear Deals With Vistra, Terrapower, Oklo

  Deploying a “Barbell Strategy” For Nuclear Power
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Jan. 11, 2026 -Meta is locking in long-term agreements tied to existing Vistra nuclear plants in Ohio and Pennsylvania, ensuring immediate baseload for its data centers in the constrained PJM market.

  Plus: Meta is funding next-gen tech by providing crucial commitments that allow TerraPower (targeting 690 MW by 2032) and Oklo (targeting 1.2 GW by 2030) to raise the billions they need to build their first commercial fleets.

• • Nuke Industry Pushes Overhaul of Reagan-Era Law

  The Nuclear Industry is Pressing Congress to Update That Law
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Jan. 8, 2026 -The 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act assumed all spent nuclear fuel would be buried and forgotten, but today’s advanced reactor companies want to recycle and reuse it—something the law never contemplated.

  Why it matters: With companies like Oklo, Curio, and SHINE Technologies pushing fuel-recycling approaches, industry leaders argue the legal framework is now their biggest bottleneck—not the technology itself.

• • Watchdog Halts Nuclear Plant Safety Review
  After Seismic Data Found to be Fabricated

  A Setback For Japan’s Nuclear Ambitions
  
  {energycentral}
  
  

  Jan. 7, 2026 -The reasoning? The plant's operator reportedly supplied years’ worth of fabricated data that underestimated earthquake risks.

  The decision forces the utility, Chubu Electric Power Co., to restart the approval process from scratch, dealing a major blow to the government’s push to bring its idle nuclear fleet back online to cut energy costs and emissions.

• • Nvidia and Siemens Reveal Fusion
  Energy Partnership at CES 2026

  Nvidia, Siemens, and Commonwealth Fusion Systems Took to the CES Main Stage to Announce a Nuclear Fusion Partnership
  
  {energycentral}
  
  

  Jan. 7, 2026 -The trio is using Nvidia’s AI infrastructure and Siemens' industrial data to create a virtual replica of Commonwealth’s SPARC prototype fusion power plant, which is currently 70% complete in Massachusetts.

  By testing scenarios in the digital twin, the group hopes to compress years of manual experimentation into weeks, accelerating the timeline for fusion to power the AI boom.

• • Optimism About Nuclear Energy Is Rising Again

  Will It Last?
  
  
  

  Jan. 6, 2026 -Once a home of the Manhattan Project, the fields surrounded by forested valleys and rolling hills in Oak Ridge, Tenn., could soon yield another nuclear first.

  Concrete foundations and pilings are rising here for what is expected to be one of the first of a new generation of nuclear power plants, known as small modular reactors. The company behind it, Kairos Power, has been developing its technology for almost a decade and is now deep in the throes of construction

• • Duke Energy Files First Application For
  Potential New Nuclear Reactors in North Carolina

  Duke Energy Filed an Application to Build North Carolina’s First New Nuclear Reactor Since the 1980s
  
  {energycentral}
  
  

  Jan. 5, 2026 -Duke aims to reuse the existing Belews Creek coal plant and workforce to secure sizable federal tax credits (and take a key step toward its net-zero goals).

  Duke submitted a “technology-neutral” early site permit for the project, allowing it to clear an 18-month safety review now while waiting to see which SMR designs mature best over that period.

• • Nuclear Industry Year-End Outlook 2025

  Nuclear Generation Hit New Records - and Locked In Momentum
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Dec. 24, 2025 -Global nuclear generation set an all-time high in 2024 and is on track to exceed it again in 2025. This is not a rebound but a structural shift, enabled by stronger performance across existing fleets, renewed and sustained reinvestment in operating assets, and new reactors entering service. Nuclear is re-establishing itself as a growth engine rather than a legacy stabiliser.

  Life extension moved from a technical exercise to a capital-allocation priority. Across markets, operators advanced long-term operation programmes, fuel and materials optimisation, and regulatory-aligned investment strategies. LTO is now recognised as the fastest and lowest-risk route to securing firm, low-carbon electricity this decade, and it remains the essential bridge to future new build.

• • The New AI Tool That Could Pave
  the Way For Nuclear Fusion Power

  Nuclear Startup Radiant Just Raised Another $300M to Build a Reactor Small Enough to Fit On a Semi-Truck
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Dec. 18, 2025 -To build a working reactor, engineers need to predict how superheated plasma (which is 10X hotter than the sun) behaves in 5 dimensions. Traditionally, a single simulation of this chaotic turbulence took supercomputers days to crunch.

  The new tool, dubbed GyroSwim, shrinks that processing time to seconds. By using AI to “learn” the physics rather than brute-forcing the calculations, researchers can test millions of plasma simulations in the time it once took to test just a few.

• • Radiant Nuclear Raises $300M For Its Semi-Sized 1 MW Reactor

  Nuclear Startup Radiant Just Raised Another $300M to Build a Reactor Small Enough to Fit On a Semi-Truck
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Dec. 18, 2025 -This fundraise values the company at $1.8B and caps a wild month for the sector as investors bet that mass-manufactured fission is the best way to power the AI boom.

  Radiant’s 1 MW microreactor is designed to replace diesel generators at remote sites or data centers. It uses meltdown-resistant TRISO fuel and runs for 5 years before the entire unit is simply hauled away for refueling.

• • Nuclear Industry to Add 15 Reactors Next Year After 2025 Decline

  The Nuclear Industry Is Expected to Switch On 15 Reactors Globally In 2026
  
  {Bloomberg}
  
  

  Dec. 15, 2025 -The nuclear industry is expected to switch on 15 reactors globally in 2026, a big jump after total capacity actually shrank by 1.1 gigawatts this year, according to BloombergNEF.

  Just two new reactors went into service this year through November and seven shut down, BloombergNEF said in a report published Monday. About 12 gigawatts of fission power will be added in 2026, including at the Palisades plant in Michigan that is being revived. However, it will likely be several years before any new traditional nuclear projects in the US are completed.

• • China Is Going Big in the Race to Harness Clean, Limitless Energy

  Beijing Is Pouring Vast Resources Into Fusion Research, While the U.S. Wants Private Industry to Lead the Way
  
  
  

  Dec. 13, 2025 -On a leafy campus in eastern China, crews are working day and night to finish a mammoth round structure with two sweeping arms the length of aircraft carriers.

  On former rice fields in the country’s southwest, a hulking, X-shaped building is being built with equal urgency under great secrecy. That facility’s existence wasn’t widely known until researchers spotted it in satellite images a year or so ago.

• • California’s Last Nuclear Plant Clears Major Hurdle to Power On

  Not Everyone Approves
  
  {Los Angeles Times}
  
  

  Dec. 14, 2025 -California’s last nuclear power plant received permission to operate for at least 5 more years in exchange for conserving thousands of acres of land in San Luis Obispo County.

  The agreement between The California Coastal Commission and Pacific Gas & Electric seeks to balance damage to the marine environment going forward.

  Some stakeholders in the region celebrated the deal while others, including a Native tribe, were disappointed.

• • As the UK Looks to Invest In Nuclear,
  Here’s What It Could Mean For Britain’s Environment

  The Government’s Bid to Speed Up Nuclear Construction Could Usher In Sweeping Deregulation, With Experts Warning of Profound Consequences For Nature
  
  
  

  Dec. 12, 2025 -When UK prime minister Keir Starmer announced last week that he was “implementing the Fingleton review”, you can forgive the pulse of most Britons for failing to quicken.

  But behind the uninspiring statement lies potentially the biggest deregulation for decades, posing peril for endangered species, if wildlife experts are to be believed, and a likely huge row with the EU.

• • Helical Fusion Secures $5.5M Funding

  Signs Japan's First Fusion Power Purchase Agreement
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Dec. 10, 2025 -Tokyo-based startup Helical Fusion signed the historic agreement with Aoki Super, a regional supermarket chain, while simultaneously closing a $5.5M Series A extension to fund the development of its “Helix” reactor.

  Bigger picture: The move is underpinned by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s new “fusion-first” strategy, which aims to achieve 100% energy self-sufficiency for resource-poor Japan by fast-tracking fusion pilot plants into the 2030s.

• • Micro-Nukes Startup Antares Raises $96 Million

  Micro-Reactor Startup Antares Just Raised $96M to Fire Up Its First Test Reactor By Mid-2026
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Dec. 3, 2025 -The funding includes $71M in new equity and $25M in debt, plus $12M+ in federal contracts, including from the Defense Innovation Unit—a sign the Pentagon sees micro-nukes as a future power source for remote bases and off-grid missions.

  is building 100 kW to 1 MW micro-reactors cooled with sodium heat pipes and fueled by TRISO particles—a three-layered nuclear fuel that’s engineered to trap radioactive material even under meltdown-level stress.

• • Kansas Will Get the World’s First Mile-Deep Nuclear Reactor

  The State Is About to Host the World’s First Mile-Deep Nuclear Reactor
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Dec. 8, 2025 -The physics hack: California startup Deep Fission is ditching massive concrete domes for a standard 30-inch borehole. By placing the reactor a mile deep, the sheer weight of the water column above naturally provides the necessary operating pressure, eliminating the need for thick, costly steel pressure vessels.

  The waste fix: The design offers a "bury it and forget it" solution. When the reactor is spent (after ~2–7 years), it can be sealed in place forever far below the water table, or pulled up for inspection like an oil pump.

• • China Launches Full Construction of Its First
  Hualong One Nuclear Unit Equipped With a Cooling Tower

  China is Tweaking Its Homegrown “Hualong One” Nuclear Design to Rely Less On the Ocean
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Nov. 23, The twist: While coastal nuclear plants typically pump in seawater for cooling, the new Zhaoyuan project in Shandong features a 666-ft. “natural draft” tower that vents heat into the atmosphere instead.

  The strategy: By proving the Hualong One works with this “secondary-circuit” cooling, China is effectively unlocking the ability to build these massive reactors inland, rather than squeezing them all along the coastline.

• • Trump Administration Backs Three Mile Island
  Nuclear Restart With $1 Billion Loan to Constellation

  The Department of Energy is Backing Constellation Energy’s Restart
  
  {CNBC}
  
  

  Nov. 18, 2025 - The Trump administration will provide Constellation Energy with a $1 billion loan to restart the Crane Clean Energy Center nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, Department of Energy officials said Tuesday.

  Previously known as Three Mile Island Unit 1, the plant is expected to start generating power again in 2027. Constellation unveiled plans to rename and restart the reactor in Sept. 2024 through a power purchase agreement with Microsoft to support the tech company’s data center demand in the region.

• • Valar Atomics Says It’s the First
  Nuclear Startup to Achieve Criticality

  Using a Zero-Power Chain Reaction to Prove Its Core Physics
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Nov. 18, 2025 - The company hit the milestone with a NOVA test assembly built alongside Los Alamos, a key advantage under the pilot program that lets early-stage reactors run physics validations without waiting years for full NRC licensing.

  Cold criticality doesn’t generate heat or electricity, but it confirms the fuel design and reactor geometry behave as modeled—an especially important check for Valar, whose fuel type has had limited real-world testing.

• • How China Raced Ahead of the U.S. on Nuclear Power

  Beijing’s Ultimate Objective is to Become a Supplier of Nuclear Power to the World, Joining the Rare Few Nations
  
  
  

  Nov. 13, 2025 -China is quickly becoming the global leader in nuclear power, with nearly as many reactors under construction as the rest of the world combined. While its dominance of solar panels and electric vehicles is well known, China is also building nuclear plants at an extraordinary pace. By 2030, China’s nuclear capacity is set to surpass that of the United States, the first country to split atoms to make electricity.

  Many of China’s reactors are derived from American and French designs, yet China has overcome the construction delays and cost overruns that have bogged down Western efforts to expand nuclear power.

• • Fusion Breakthrough: One
  Step Closer to Solving Key Challenges

  Another Step Towards a
  Working Fusion Reactor
  
  

  Nov. 8, 2021 - In fusion power, two atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus, releasing vast amounts of energy in the process. The process takes place in a fusion reactor and, at least in theory, this energy can be harnessed; but the practical aspects are extremely challenging.

  An important problem for fusion reactors is maintaining the plasma core extremely hot (hotter than the surface of the sun), while also safely containing the plasma — something fusion researchers refer to as “core-edge integration”.

• • Is Thorium the Nuclear Answer?

  Thorium Nuclear Reactors
  Mentioned by Andrew Yang

  Dec. 23, 2019 (energycentral)- Andrew Yang mentioned Thorium Nuclear Reactors as one of the advanced nuclear fission reactor concepts. Yang has also talked about making a prototype thorium reactor by 2027. There is a US startup working on a Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor. If Flibe Energy was fully funded then they could build their planned 20-50 MW modular nuclear reactor by 2027. China also has an extensive molten salt and thorium reactor program. It is also possible to have more conventional reactors or pebble bed reactors adapted to use some thorium.

  Yang has proposed nuclear subsidy—$50 billion over five years. If there was that level of subsidy, then the other advanced nuclear projects would complete for it. There would be a lot of push for the molten salt reactors that use Uranium. The Thorcon molten salt reactor seems like a design that could scale to 100 GW per year of construction. In the rest of this article, I will review the status of the US, China and Indian Thorium reactor projects.

• • TerraPower: Nuclear Innovation
  (Striving to Improve the World)

  We Need Advanced Nuclear Now
  TeraPower Says It's Rready

  TeraPower-TerraPower’s founders entered the nuclear energy arena to meet growing electricity needs and lift billions out of poverty. Advanced reactors and other isotopic applications are now possible with technology and enhanced computing capabilities that were unimaginable just a few decades ago. TerraPower says that they are ready to build the clean energy of tomorrow - today.

  One of their founders, incidentally, is Bill Gates.

• •  The Hanford Nuclear Leak Is Irreparable  

  D.O.E. To Permanently
  Close Damaged Hanford Tank

  Jan. 2, 2018 - The Energy Department says it will permanently close a damaged radioactive waste storage tank on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

  The department says that Tank AY-102 has widespread damage and should not be repaired.

  Click now for more on this earthFix story.

• •  The U.S. Backs Off Nukes - But Not Georgia 

  The U.S. Backs Off Nuclear
  Power. Georgia Wants to
  Keep Building Reactors

  Aug. 31, 2017,  The New York Times - Even as the rest of the United States backs away from nuclear power, utilities in Georgia are pressing ahead with plans to build two huge reactors in the next five years — the only nuclear units still under construction nationwide.

• • Uranium Mining in the Grand Canyon?

  Keeping Uranium Mining
  Out of the Grand Canyon

  The Grand Canyon is an irreplaceable natural treasure. Its stunning vistas, ancient geology, and winding Colorado River are world renowned — drawing over 5.5 million visitors to the park each year. Moreover, more than 40 million people and 4 million acres of farmland depend on the Colorado River for clean, safe water.

  Yet, irresponsibly operated uranium mines located on federal public land just miles from the North and South Rims threaten to permanently pollute the Grand Canyon landscape and the greater Colorado River.

• • What's the NRC Hiding on Palo Verde?

  Nuclear Leaks: The Back Story
  the NRC Doesn’t Want You to
  Know about Palo Verde

  June 14,2017 - One of two emergency diesel generators (EDGs) for the Unit 3 reactor at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generation Station in Arizona was severely damaged during a test run on December 15, 2016.

  The operating license issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) allowed the reactor to continue running for up to 10 days with one EDG out of service. Because the extensive damage required far longer than 10 days to repair, the owner asked the NRC for permission to continue operating Unit 3 for up to 62 days with only one EDG available. The NRC approved that request.

• • The USA's 10 Riskiest Nuclear Power Plants 

  Where Are They - And
  What Are the Dangers?

  March 18, 2011 - As we watch the continuing catastrophe in Japan unfold with no clear expectations of the outcome, one thing is for certain: The safety of nuclear power has become a hot topic of conversation. While some countries are shutting down plants, many other are reevaluating the safety of theirs and strategizing over future plans.

• • Ohio House Speaker Arrested for Bribery

  The Speaker and Four Others
  Were Attempting to Bail
  Out the Ohio Nuclear Industry

  July 21, 2020,(POWERGRID INTERNATIONAL)-The powerful Republican speaker of the Ohio House and four associates were arrested Tuesday in a $60 million federal bribery case connected to a taxpayer-funded bailout of Ohio’s two nuclear power plants.

  Hours after FBI agents raided Speaker Larry Householder’s farm, U.S. Attorney David DeVillers described the ploy as “likely the largest bribery scheme ever perpetrated against the state of Ohio.”

  Householder was one of the driving forces behind the nuclear plants’ financial rescue, which added a new fee to every electricity bill in the state and directed over $150 million a year through 2026 to the plants near Cleveland and Toledo.

• • Is The Energy of the Future Finally Here?

  World’s Largest Nuclear Fusion
  Experiment Clears Milestone

  July 24, 2019,(Scientific American) -A multination project to build a fusion reactor cleared a milestone yesterday and is now 6 ½ years away from “First Plasma,” officials announced.

  Yesterday, dignitaries attended a components handover ceremony at the construction site of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in southern France. The ITER project is an experiment aimed at reaching the next stage in the evolution of nuclear energy as a means of generating emissions-free electricity.

• • Old Nuke Plants Are Dragging Down Clean Energy

  Why America’s Old Nuclear
  Plants Could Be Dragging Down
  Clean Energy Development

  Apr. 25, 2017 -New York and Illinois are investing billions to keep old facilities in action, and Connecticut, New Jersey, and Ohio are among states contemplating the same idea. It’s an expensive process, though it does mean that new natural gas plants aren’t required to fill the gaps left by wind and solar.

• • Revisiting the Three Mile Island Meltdown 

  Documentary:Meltdown at Three
  Mile Island 40 Years Later

  EnergyCentral Mar. 28, 2019 -The Three Mile Island accident on March 28, 1979 is still considered the worst at a U.S. nuclear plant in history. Due to a series of human and technical errors, the core of the Unit Two reactor at TMI partially melted down.

  Though debated and controversial, research over the past 40 years concluded only a small amount of radiation escaped into the atmosphere and didn’t result in any deaths or injuries.

  This documentary details what happened inside the containment building at TMI on March 28: the chaos, confusion, miscommunication and fear in the area surrounding the plant afterwards and the legacy of TMI after the accident.

• • British Nuclear Project Becomes Messy

  Huge British Nuclear
  Project Becomes a
  Diplomatic Flash Point

  Aug. 15, 2016 -Once considered a vital part of Britain’s clean-energy future, the beleaguered Hinkley Point nuclear plant project looked further than ever from becoming reality this week as a row erupted between the three countries developing the massive facility: the U.K., France, and China.

• •  Does Fail-safe Nuclear Power Actually Exist?   

  Could We Actually Have
  Fail-safe Nuclear Power?

  Aug. 2, 2016 -The Shanghai Institute’s effort to develop molten-salt reactors, a technology that has sat all but forgotten in the United States for decades, reflects just how daring China’s nuclear ambitions are. Already, the government has invested some two billion Chinese renminbi ($300 million) over the last five years in molten-salt R&D. Building actual plants will require tens of billions more.

• •  Florida Power & Light Sued For Radio-Active Leak 

  Florida Nuclear
  Plant Operator Sued for
  Polluting Drinking Water

  July 15, 2016 -Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against Florida Power & Light Co., operator of the Turkey Point nuclear facility, saying that the company violated the Clean Water Act by discharging contaminants from the plant, impacting nearby drinking water.

  Click now to read the story
  (Hint: Bring your Geiger Counter).

• • The Protrusion of Confusion Over Fusion

  The Real Problem With
  Fusion Energy

  May 27, 2016 -The longstanding joke about fusion — that it’s the energy source of the future, and always will may not be the field’s biggest problem.

  Click now for what
  might be encouraging news.

• • All Things Nuclear

  Fukushima: Taking On the NRC

  Union of Concerned Scientists - If the Nuclear Regulatory Commission balks at implementing new safeguards in a reasonable time frame on the grounds that it does not have enough information about what happened in Japan, then the agency also cannot have enough information to relicense operating reactors or license new ones...

  More by clicking now.

• • Russia Criticized For Its Arctic Nuclear Activity

  Nuclear Security: Power
  Plants Are Poorly Protected
  Against Malicious Acts

  Oct. 10, 2017   Greenpeace - The nuclear power plants around us are “The Sword of Damocles” over our heads.

  A new report by independent experts, submitted to authorities in France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg, questions security at French and Belgian nuclear facilities and points at their vulnerability to outside attacks. These experts are particularly concerned about a certain type of facility at nuclear plants: the spent fuel storage pools.

  These pools tend to contain the highest volume of radioactive matter in a nuclear plant and are very poorly protected. Rather than wait for the worst to happen, let’s address this issue and take action.

• • Dangers of Densely Packed Nuclear Waste Pools

  The Case for Moving U.S.
  Nuclear Fuel to Dry Storage

  Apr. 14, 2011   M.I.T. Technology Review - One of the lesser-noted facts of the Fukushima nuclear disaster—where loss of coolant in spent-fuel pools has resulted in massive radiation releases—is that some fuel at the plant was stored in so-called dry casks, and these casks survived the March 11 earthquake and tsunami intact.

  This fact is likely to result in new calls to move some spent fuel out of water pools at reactor sites in the United States—where it is packed more densely than the fuel in the stricken Japanese pools—and into outdoor dry casks, experts say.

  Worried? Click now to get radio-active.

• • Links Between Nuke Power and Weapons

  The Links Between Nuclear
  Power and Nuclear Weapons

  - Nuclear weapons and nuclear power share several common features. The long list of links includes their histories, similar technologies, skills, health and safety aspects, regulatory issues and radiological research and development. For example, the process of enriching uranium to make it into fuel for nuclear power stations is also used to make nuclear weapons. Plutonium is a by-product of the nuclear fuel cycle and is still used by some countries to make nuclear weapons.

  There is a danger that more nuclear power stations in the world could mean more nuclear weapons. Because countries like the UK are promoting the expansion of nuclear power, other countries are beginning to plan for their own nuclear power programs too. But there is always the danger that countries acquiring nuclear power technology may subvert its use to develop a nuclear weapons program.

  Click to read more from
  the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.