When Italy decided in the mid-'70s to add nuclear power to its power portfolio, young mechanical and nuclear engineer Cesare Silvi was among those attracted to the opportunities it presented. His work centered on nuclear safety issues — in particular, what might happen if something unexpected struck a power plant. Corners he saw cut there eventually soured Silvi on that endeavor. His next position — at the Italian Commission on Nuclear and Alternative Energy Sources, which included work on nuclear disarmament — eventually soured him on nuclear energy itself. "[If we] continue with ... Read More
At Chernobyl It Was All Under Control
March 19, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
As a visiting scholar last year at the Linz Institute for Organic Solar Cells, I met Valery N. Bliznyuk, a visiting professor at Linz and a permanent faculty member at Western Michigan University. His fascinating work in materials at molecular and nanotech levels includes work on polymer photovoltaics. Over dinner, he told me he hailed from Kiev (or Kyiv in Ukrainian), and the subject of Chernobyl inevitably arose. And now, with the disaster at Fukushima dredging up memories of that meltdown 25 years ago, Bliznyuk’s recollections of being a scientist laboring in an informational black ... Read More
Nuclear Disasters: Do Plans Trump Actions?
March 17, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
As Japan’s natural disaster has unfolded into a worst-case-scenario nuclear crisis over the past week, countries around the world have turned inward toward their own nuclear policies. Germany has temporarily shut down all of its plants built before 1980. Switzerland has suspended the approval process for three new ones. The European Union is testing all 143 reactors on the continent for earthquake and flood risk, age and ability to counter meltdowns. And China, which has some of the world’s most ambitious nuclear energy plans, announced Wednesday that it will suspend its program. So ... Read More
Remembering California’s Nuclear Meltdown
March 14, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
The world is watching warily as Japanese scientists and engineers attempt to head off catastrophe at several nuclear power plants damaged in the recent earthquake and tsunami. Miller-McCune has posted a wide-ranging series of articles on nuclear energy and alternative energy sources, which will provide important context as the story unfolds. Among them: A look back at America’s worst nuclear meltdown, which occurred in Southern California in August 1959. A report on renewed interest in nuclear power in the U.S., fueled by concern over fossil fuels and climate change. Our most ... Read More
Nuclear Weapons and Conservation: Connecting the Dots
February 28, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Hydrogen bombs and environmental conservation are two things that do not go together. Except at a nuclear site in South Carolina, where ecologist Nick Haddad has constructed one of the biggest ecological experiments in the world. Taking advantage of a large forest that has grown up around the Savannah River nuclear facilities, he has carved massive islands of grassland into the forest, through clear cutting, and connected some of the islands together, through yet more clear cutting. Why do this? One of the major priorities in conservation today is to connect together protected areas ... Read More
50 Years After America’s Worst Nuclear Meltdown
August 24, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
For Release Saturday A.M., August 29, 1959 CANOGA PARK, CA "During an inspection of fuel elements on July 26 at the Sodium Reactor Experiment, operated for the Atomic Energy Commission at Santa Susana, California by Atomics International, a division of North American Aviation, Inc., a parted fuel element was observed. The fuel element damage is not an indication of unsafe reactor conditions. No release of radioactive materials to the plant or its environs occurred and operating personnel were not exposed to harmful conditions... In each case, all seven tubes of the fuel element ... Read More
