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Partial uranium mine ban in Grand Canyon area
President Biden will today create a national monument of nearly 1 million acres around the Grand Canyon. This designation will protect lands important to nearby Native Americans from new uranium mining — a major reason they want the designation. New mining claims will not be allowed, but “valid existing rights” will be maintained, which could…
Read MoreADVANCE Act on nuclear sends us backwards
The US Senate has passed the ADVANCE Act as a component of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), sending America backwards on climate mitigation by wasting needless funds and precious time chasing after elusive nuclear fantasies. The ADVANCE acronym stands for everything that nuclear power is not — Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for…
Read MoreRemembering Hiroshima/Nagasaki
“Hibakusha” is the term for those who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But in recent years, it has come to be applied more widely to all who have been exposed to radiation from nuclear bombs and other sources of contamination from manufacturing, uranium mining, nuclear reactors, and radioactive waste. And, as this week’s…
Read MoreSIGN UP: Autumn classes on radiation basics!
Cindy Folkers (Beyond Nuclear) and Mary Olson (Gender and Radiation Impact Project) are again offering their course on radiation basics with guest presenter, Ian Fairlie. RADIATION BASICS (5 classes) THURSDAYS from SEPTEMBER 7- OCTOBER 5 Noon ET / 11 am CT / 10 am MT / 9 am PT Topics Covered: What is radiation? Cancer…
Read More“Milestone” reactor is likely US’s last
The AP 1000 Vogtle Unit 3 reactor in Georgia, 16 years in the making, became officially operational this week after several technical setbacks earlier this year had caused it to start up and power down again. The moment of commercial operation has been heralded in headlines and by the nuclear industry as a “milestone” but…
Read MoreSenate expands Trinity Downwinder compensation
Almost 80 years after the first atomic bomb, Trinity, was detonated near an unsuspecting population , health impacts continue and remain largely unrecognized (NYT paywalled) at the national level. While other victims of atomic testing fallout have been compensated, the Trinity Downwinders have not. “Today’s Senate vote is a step in the right direction toward…
Read MoreMassachusetts says ‘no’ to tritium discharge into bay
From the Associated Press: Massachusetts environmental regulators have denied a request by the company dismantling a shuttered nuclear power plant to release more than 1 million gallons (3.8 million liters) of radioactive wastewater into Cape Cod Bay. The state Department of Environmental Protection’s draft decision issued Monday said it denied Holtec’s request for a permit…
Read MoreSetting the record straight on tritium
In an opinion piece published in the Washington Post, Cindy Folkers, Radiation and Health Hazard Specialist of Beyond Nuclear, points out that tritium is not as safe as industry proponents claim it is, highlighting a recent paper by Mousseau and Todd, which found that tritium can have significant impacts when taken into the body, making…
Read MoreTrinity fallout hit 46 states, Mexico, Canada
New research, conducted by Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security, finds that Trinity atomic fallout reached 46 states, Mexico and Canada within 10 days of detonation in 1945. The hourly reconstruction of blast fallout shows that it was much larger than anticipated and the radioactive mushroom cloud traveled higher in the atmosphere than…
Read More“Zero trust”: St. Louis nuclear coverups
A Freedom of Information Act Request regarding Manhattan Project and Cold War radioactive contamination at numerous sites across the St. Louis region garnered some 15,000 pages of documents. A collaboration between AP, MuckRock, and Missouri Independent analyzed them, resulting in major coverage. Disregard for worker and public health by officials at the Atomic Energy Commission,…
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