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TOKYO (Reuters) - Tokyo Electric Power Co, the operator of the tsunami-crippled Fukushima power plant, shut its last operating nuclear reactor on Monday for regular maintenance, leaving just one running reactor supplying Japan's creaking power sector. Japan has 54 reactors, but since the tsunami last March triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years at the Fukushima plant, it has been unable to restart any reactors that have undergone maintenance due to public safety concerns. Tepco said it shutdown the No.6 reactor at its Kashiwazaki Kariwa plant, the world's biggest nuclear power plant, raising concerns about a power crunch this summer when electricity demand peaks due to hot weather.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Tokyo Electric Power Co, the operator of the tsunami-crippled Fukushima power plant, shut its last operating nuclear reactor on Monday for regular maintenance, leaving just one running reactor supplying Japan's creaking power sector. Japan has 54 reactors, but since the tsunami last March triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years at the Fukushima plant, it has been unable to restart any reactors that have undergone maintenance due to public safety concerns. Tepco said it shutdown the No.6 reactor at its Kashiwazaki Kariwa plant, the world's biggest nuclear power plant, raising concerns about a power crunch this summer when electricity demand peaks due to hot weather.

A research project exploring the potential for making medical isotopes with X-rays from a particle accelerator instead of a nuclear reactor is about to move to the large scale.

(PhysOrg.com) -- In any kind of nuclear reactor, there is a small amount of the radioactive isotope strontium-90 that is formed as part of the regular fission process.

Illustration by Bryan Christie Design As we all have seen, nuclear power is a dangerous business. Even tearing down a plant is no easy feat

The first new nuclear reactor in the U.S. in nearly three decades is taking shape outside Augusta, Ga

Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor accident has focused new attention on how much ionizing radiation people are exposed to from different sources (see list below). By far the largest source is medical imaging technology (see " Graphic Science: Exposed " in the May 2011 issue). Americans, on average, are exposed to 3.1 millisieverts of radiation a year from natural background factors such as radon gas from the Earth and cosmic rays from the universe

After weeks on standby, robots have been called from the sidelines to help inspect reactor buildings at Japan's damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Despite recent news of miraculous survival stories, Bill Whitaker reports that fears continue to intensify over the instability of nuclear reactor plants in Japan.

President Obama responded to Japan's nuclear reactor crisis yesterday by asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to make a comprehensive safety review of U.S.

How does a nuclear reactor work? Most nuclear reactors, including those at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi generating station, are essentially high-tech kettles that efficiently boil water to produce electricity. They rely on harnessing nuclear fission--the splitting of an atom into two smaller atoms, which also yields heat and sends neutrons flying.

“The type of accident that is occurring in Japan is known as the station blackout: loss of off-site AC power--power lines are down--and then a subsequent failure of emergency power on-site, the diesel generators. The station blackout has been one of the great concerns for decades.” Physicist Ken Bergeron, speaking on March 12 during a press briefing. He worked on nuclear reactor accident analysis at Sandia National Laboratories.

First came the earthquake , centered just off the east coast of Japan, near Honshu. The horror of the tsunami quickly followed

Different branches of science have played famous roles in lots of movies. But one category is often overlooked: sources of energy, even though the plots and turning points of major movies have hinged on just that. How likely is the potential nuclear reactor meltdown in China Syndrome (Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon)