This week in America, “continent-spanning winter storms triggered blackouts in Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and several other states,” reports the New York Times. But that was just the beginning… One-third of oil production in the nation was halted. Drinking-water systems in Ohio were knocked offline. Road networks nationwide were paralyzed and vaccination efforts in 20 states were disrupted. The crisis carries a…
Tag: nuclear plant
Rolls Royce Plans 16 Mini-Nuclear Plants For UK
A consortium led by Rolls Royce has announced plans to build up to 16 mini-nuclear plants in the UK. The BBC reports: It says the project will create 6,000 new jobs in the Midlands and the North of England over the next five years. The prime minister is understood to be poised to announce at least 200 million pounds for the…
Greenpeace Claims Fukushima Water Release Could Change Human DNA
An anonymous reader quotes CNN: Contaminated water that could soon be released into the sea from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant contains radioactive carbon with the potential to damage human DNA, environmental rights organization Greenpeace has warned. The environmental group claims that the 1.23 million metric tons of water stored at the plant — scene of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi…
Japan Decides To Release Treated Fukushima Water Into the Sea
hcs_$reboot shares a report from CBS News: Japan will release more than a million tons of treated radioactive water from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea in a decades-long operation, reports said Friday, despite strong opposition from environmentalists, local fishermen and farmers. The release of the water, which has been filtered to reduce radioactivity, is likely to start in…
Mysterious Spike In Radioactivity Over Northern Europe, Accident At Russian Nuclear Plant Suspected
An anonymous reader quotes the International Business Times:
Watchdog agencies last week detected an increase in radioactivity levels in the atmosphere over northern Europe, suggesting a potential damage at a nuclear plant. Authorities noted the possibility that the spike may be the result of accidental release of radioactive material from one of the nuclear plants in Russia, but a spokesman denied any…
Coming Soon: Open-Source Blueprints for a Tiny Nuclear Reactor
“A nonprofit startup is offering an open-source nuclear plant plan,” reports Popular Mechanics: A mechanical engineer-turned-tech entrepreneur has plans to, well, empower people around the world to build their own 100-megawatt nuclear power reactors. That’s much larger than some of the modular reactors designed by nuclear startups, but still much smaller than operating nuclear power plants in the U.S. The Energy…
Fukushima To Possibly Dump Radioactive Water Back Into Ocean
omfglearntoplay shares a report from CNN: Eight years after Japan’s worst nuclear disaster, the government is not sure what to do with the contaminated water that remains — but its environment minister says dumping it into the ocean might be the only choice. To cool fuel cores at the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant, operator Tokyo Electric has pumped in tens of…
Why California May Go Nuclear
An anonymous reader shares a report: Last week, a California state legislator introduced an amendment to the state’s constitution that would classify nuclear energy as “renewable.” If the amendment passes, it would likely result in the continued operation of the state’s last nuclear plant, Diablo Canyon, well past 2025, its current closure date. Diablo generates 9% of California’s electricity and 20%…
Russia’s Floating Nuclear Power Plant Begins 2,650-Mile Sea Voyage
An anonymous reader shared this article about the Akademik Lomonosov “powership” — Russia’s new 459-foot (140-meter) floating nuclear power station (with two 35-megawatt nuclear reactors). It’s begun a three-week, 2,650-mile voyage to the Arctic port town of Pevek — where it will be replacing another plant that’s being decommissioned.
The Russian project is the first floating nuclear power plant since the U.S….
Employees Connect Nuclear Plant To the Internet So They Can Mine Cryptocurrency
Ukrainian authorities are investigating a potential security breach at a local nuclear power plant after employees connected parts of its internal network to the internet so they could mine cryptocurrency. From a report: The investigation is being led by the Ukrainian Secret Service (SBU), who is looking at the incident as a potential breach of state secrets due to the classification…