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Nuclear power in the crosshairs of war
Ecoaction, an environmental NGO in Ukraine, and the European Chernobyl Foundation, hosted a briefing Thursday, March 10, updating the nuclear status of Ukraine — highlighting physical safety problems, and grave staffing concerns these facilities. Experts raised the dangers caused by mistreatment of staff such as lack of food, rest, and heat, inability to obtain needed…
Read MoreEleven years out: For Fukushima victims, landmark decision
Japan’s Supreme Court has ordered Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of the Fukushima nuclear power station, to pay 12 million dollars to 3,700 people, compensating them for damages suffered as a result of the nuclear catastrophe that began on March 11, 2011. It was the first among 30 similar lawsuits to reach such…
Read MorePower severed to Chernobyl, threatening irradiated fuel pools
Fighting around the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power facility has severed a power line used to supply power to the two on-site irradiated fuel pools that house 20,000 capsules of radioactive waste. This waste is not just used and highly-radioactive fuel, but also ruined and radioactive material from the exploded reactor that melted down in 1986.…
Read MoreChernobyl: From radioactive exclusion zone to war zone
Radiation and wildlife expert, Timothy Mousseau, Professor of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, has studied radiation’s impact in wild areas for decades. He enumerates what can go wrong when a site that “is among the most radioactively contaminated regions on the planet” becomes a war zone. In his article for The Conversation, he states…
Read MoreOn air coverage on Ukraine nuclear
Beyond Nuclear had been calling out the dangers of war around nuclear power plants even before the Russian invasion. Now, it has become a tragic reality. Beyond Nuclear staff have made a number of television appearances. First, the concerns centered only around Chernobyl. Then came the attack on Zaporizhzhia You can watch Kevin Kamps explain…
Read MoreGermany’s green goals on track
Despite claims that dependance on Russian gas derails Germany’s energy revolution, the country will instead ramp up renewables While the pro-nuclear lobby crows that Germany must now extend the life of its remaining nuclear power plants and will need to expand its use of coal as access to Russian gas gets cut off, the country…
Read MoreEnergoatom calls on IAEA for help
Energoatom, the Ukrainian nuclear utility, has asked the International Atomic Energy Agency to intervene to help safeguard the country’s 15 nuclear reactors as Russian forces advance dangerously close to the sites. “We call on the IAEA to intervene to prevent occupying forces in the 30 kilometre zone around our nuclear power plants,” the company’s CEO, Petro…
Read MoreIAEA must ensure safety
International agency should ensure safe operation at Ukraine’s nuclear facilities now in a war zone Beyond Nuclear joined nine other international civil society groups in signing a letter that urges the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to be transparent about the status of Ukraine’s 15 commercial reactors as well as the Chernobyl nuclear site. Although…
Read MoreA plea from Nobel Peace Prize winners
A joint statement from Dmitry Muratov, journalist (2021 Nobel Peace Prize) and Beatrice Fihn on behalf of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (2017 Nobel Peace Prize) Right now, we see nuclear tensions heightening to the most threatening levels seen in modern times. Vladimir Putin has made threats to launch nuclear attacks and raised the…
Read MoreDoctors call for international peacekeepers
A group 45 physicians, all of them members of the 1967 class of Harvard Medical School, have called for international peacekeepers to be sent to Ukraine, under a ceasefire, to safeguard the country’s 15 nuclear reactors. The letter was submitted to media outlets. (The letter was released on February 28 but other signatories not noted…
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