Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

By Kevin Krolicki and Chisa Fujioka FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) - A decade and a half before it blew apart in a hydrogen blast that punctuated the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, the No. 3 reactor at the Fukushima nuclear power plant was the scene of an earlier safety crisis. [More]

More than three months after a powerful earthquake and 14-meter-tall tsunami struck Japan, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant remains flooded with a salty mix of fresh and sea water--saltwater contaminated with the radioactive residue of three reactors and four spent fuel pools' worth of nuclear fuel. Every day an additional 500 metric tons of seawater is poured onto the still hot nuclear fuel in the stricken reactors and fuel pools.

VIENNA (Reuters) - Global action to protect the nuclear industry against possible terrorist attacks is urgently needed, a leading expert said, as are safety steps to prevent any repeat of Japan's Fukushima accident.

A recent article on the Al Jazeera English web site cites a disturbing statistic: infant mortality in certain U.S. Northwest cities spiked by 35 percent in the weeks following the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant . The author writes that "physician Janette Sherman MD and epidemiologist Joseph Mangano published an essay shedding light on a 35 per cent spike in infant mortality in northwest cities that occurred after the Fukushima meltdown, and [ sic ] may well be the result of fallout from the stricken nuclear plant.” The implication is clear: Radioactive fallout from the plant is spreading across the Pacific in sufficient quantities to imperil the lives of children (and presumably the rest of us as well)

"Nuclear rabbit" tape posted on YouTube shows bunny supposedly born near crippled Fukushima plant; Sign of mutations to come?

A new survey determines that China is the most attractive country for renewable energy installations based on the size of its national renewable energy markets, renewable energy infrastructures, and suitability for individual technologies. In a resource-constrained world, any country with the ability to build out a clean energy infrastructure is going to have an advantage. While we'd like to think that American ingenuity and elbow grease would put us in a good position, it increasingly appears that China--land of coal-fired power plants and endless smog--is at the forefront

TOKYO, May 25 (Reuters) - Japanese engineers are trying togain control of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, 240 [More]

On April 26, Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff did a safety "walkdown" of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant on southern California's coast, part of NRC inspections of all U.S. reactors that were triggered by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster in Japan. The NRC's inspection report, released Friday, did not flag the plant's owner, Pacific Gas & Electric Co.

Still panicked after the Fukushima disaster? China's not: They're sending nuclear technology to everyone--even Pakistan.

By Mari Saito TOKYO (Reuters) - Seaweed collected from the coast near Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant and sewage in Tokyo have shown elevated levels of radiation, according to data released by an environmental group and government officials on Friday. [More]

By Yoko Kubota and Scott DiSavino TOKYO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - One of the reactors at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant has a hole in its main vessel following a meltdown of fuel rods, leading to a leakage of radioactive water, its operator said on Thursday. [More]

By Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. task force examining the disaster at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant expects to find ways to improve safety at the country's 104 U.S. nuclear plants but has not found any major problems in its first 30 days of work

TOKYO (Reuters) - Workers at Japan's crippled nuclear plant began putting up equipment on Tuesday to allow the start of repairs to its cooling systems, key to bringing reactors under control after they were badly damaged in the March 11 quake and tsunami. Soldiers moved to within 10 km (6 miles) of the Fukushima complex to search for those still missing following the disaster, the first time the military is conducting searches in this area since the plant began leaking radiation after the disaster hit. [More]

By Geoff Brumfiel of Nature magazine From the name, one might expect the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to have been a major force in the response to the Fukushima nuclear crisis in Japan. [More]

As officials in Japan deal with the accumulation of radioactive seawater near the devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the wake of last month's earthquake and tsunami, the U.S. Department of Energy is investing in fundamental research it hopes can be used to build safer nuclear reactors and avoid reactor emergencies. [More]