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Dr. Helen Caldicott For a number of years now, we've been sure to follow the public pronouncements of anti-nuclear activist Dr. Helen Caldicott and how the public is beginning to push back against her radical agenda . The latest example comes from the Sydney Morning Herald , where Caldicott's...

In the wake of the accident at Fukushima , the world once again got a chance to know Dr. Robert Peter Gale . One of the world's leading authorities on the biological effects of radaition, Dr. Gale first came to prominence in the late 1980s when he coordinated medical and relief efforts for victims...

Some facts UCS left out. If you were concerned with the safety of America's nuclear energy facilities, I could understand why this blog post from Matt Wald at NY Times Green might cause you a bit of pause. In it, David Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists makes the claim that industry and...

Earlier today, the Nuclear Energy Institute released a five-minute video explaining the comprehensive and tailored response strategy that it is implementing across the industry to enhance nuclear plant safety in the face of extreme natural events. To produce the high-definition video , NEI acquired first...

2012 may fade away and 2013 arrive with undo chipperness, but It’s all a continuum. Last year’s narratives will continue into the new year, a few cameo players from 2012 will gain additional prominence in 2013 – I’m thinking small reactors here – and, to paraphrase the tagline of an old horror comic...

Industry/Regulatory/Political U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has recommended requiring engineered filters to the containment vents for Mark I and Mark II boiling water reactors as a post-Fukushima response. A staff paper released this week for the commission’s consideration said an alternative...

Official points to affected area on map. A 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck Japan overnight , triggering tsunami warnings across the island nation, but fortunately the warnings were lifted soon after and the quakes caused very little damage. Of course, we've got out eyes on the situation at Fukushima...

Industry/Regulatory/Political Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority is investigating whether Kansai Electric Power’s Ohi nuclear plant—the only operating facility in the country—is on an active fault line. The NRA heard last week from a group of experts who have surveyed the fissure. The agency...

Earlier today, the Washington Post published an opinion piece by Phillip Lipscy, Kenji Kushida and and Trevor Incert entitled, " Protecting nuclear plants from nature's worst ." Steve Kerekes, NEI's Director of Media Relations, left the following comment in response at WashingtonPost...

The following news article originally appeared in NEI’s Nuclear Energy Overview. An online poll across 24 countries shows nuclear energy has more than 50 percent support in the United States, China, India and Great Britain, but less than majority support in other countries, including Japan, Germany and...

Industry/Regulatory/Political The International Atomic Energy Agency’s Annual Report for 2011 notes that while the Fukushima Daiichi accident slowed the growth of nuclear energy, it did not reverse it. The IAEA projects at least 90 new reactors to be in operation globally by 2030, a 7 to 8 percent reduction...

Over the last few days, we've seen thousands of stories around the Web concerning a study that concluded that radiation released into the atmosphere from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power had caused mutations in the local population of butterflies . At the same time, another piece of research noted...

Yesterday, a pair of researchers from Stanford University released a study that projected 130 people, primarily in Japan, will die from cancer over the next 50 years as the result of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.Some observers have already started to weigh in on its merits...

As our Mark Flanagan noted yesterday, Japan restarted one of the two reactors at the Ohi Nuclear Power Plant yesterday. The plant's second reactor is due to come back online sometime later this month. The restart is welcome news, and the why behind it was put into the proper perspective by Paul Scalise...

The Japanese government has released “The Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission,” a 600-page report that is notably harsh in its criticism of the, for want of a better word, Japanese-ness of the accident. You can read the 88-page English summary of the report here . Here’s a...

Industry/Regulatory/Political At shareholder meetings last week of all nine Japanese nuclear utilities, proposals to reduce or eliminate the use of nuclear energy were voted down. Tokyo Electric Power Co. shareholders approved the government taking over 75 percent of the utility’s shares in exchange...

Global Nuclear Industry Takes Steps to Improve Safety at Facilities Worldwide As a leader in creating and promoting standards for nuclear safety, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) spearheaded the global response to the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear energy facility. Gathering critical...

We haven’t looked at editorial punditry lately, but there have been some thoughtful entries lately. The Washington Post  weighed in on the restart of two of the reactors at Japan’s Ohi site over the weekend. The Post editorial is largely about trust and how the nuclear energy here and abroad depends...

One of the blogs we regularly monitor is All Things Nuclear , the blog on commercial nuclear energy sponsored by the Union of Concerned Scientists . It was impossible to miss this passage in a post published there yesterday by David Lochbaum. He wrote the following after participating in a panel discussion...

After a whirlwind three days in Charlotte at NEA 2012, I'm back in Washington. And while I'm done unpacking my suitcase at home, we're not done unpacking all of the content we created during the conference. One of the highlights of the conference had to be a roundtable discussion on industry...

This morning at around 10:00 a.m. U.S. EDT, NEI's Chief Nuclear Officer, Tony Pietrangelo, will chair a panel session at the 2012 Nuclear Energy Assembly entitled, "Ensuring Operational Safety While Implementing Lessons Learned from Fukushima." Panelists for the session include: Charles...

When many of us think of robots, images of Wall-E, Optimus Prime, R2-D2 and other droids from our favorite science-fiction movies come to mind. However, robots have many critical real-life functions, including detecting bombs in war zones and assisting in recovery efforts at disaster areas. More recently...

Today's Washington Post features an unsigned editorial that asks an important question: CAN THE WORLD fight global warming without nuclear power? One major industrialized country — Germany — is determined to find out, and another — Japan — is debating whether to try. Both illustrate how hard it would...

Last week, I hinted that Dr. Helen Caldicott had gotten more than she had bargained for when she visited the University of South Carolina recently. Unfortunately, I failed to follow up and link to the following post at the Nuclear Literacy Project . The author is Kallie Metzger, a graduate fellow studying...

Yesterday, we made sure to note that Dr. Helen Caldicott was set to appear at the University of South Carolina to talk about the health effects of the incident at Fukushima -- all in an effort to point folks to more reliable sources of information on radiation and public health. In today's edition...