Reactor Reax: Weekly Roundup of Nuclear Stories

Catch the latest media reports from around the world about nuclear energy.

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(WASHINGTON D.C.) - What is the world to do with an ever accumulating supply of spent, dirty radioactive waste? Scientists say there are big problems tied to the storage of used nuclear waste that are being stored in facilities never intended for long-term use. That is just one of the stories making news this week in Reactor Reax, supplied for our readers by Physicians for Social Responsibility.

While developing issues related to Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster continue to dominate the news, there are many other areas that pro-safety experts say require serious attention, and one is the fact that the U.S. facilities storing this spent nuclear waste would actually be in a far more grim situation if ever confronted with a similar natural disaster.

For me, growing up for part of my life in the shadow of California's Diablo Canyon Nuclear facility, there is no safety associated with an oceanfront nuclear power plant, or any other for that matter.

U.S. at risk from used nuclear fuel – report, Reuters, May 25, 2011. "Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster has revived a long-simmering dispute about the danger of storing used nuclear fuel at U.S. plants in facilities never designed for long-term storage, an industry critic said on Tuesday."

Report: 'Unacceptable threat' from spent-fuel pools at US nuclear power plants, Christian Science Monitor, May 25, 2011. "Spent nuclear fuel stored in water-filled pools at many nuclear reactor sites in the US far surpasses in volume and radioactivity the threat posed by such material at Fukushima, according to a new study.. The huge hazard could be largely eliminated by moving older materials from the pools into dry cask storage, it said."

IAEA: Confidence in nuclear energy damaged, Associated Press, June 2, 2011. "The giant tsunami, triggered by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake that hit Japan on March 11, causing explosions, fires and meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi facility has provoked global soul searching in the use of nuclear energy. While nations who rely on nuclear power plants for part of the energy supply, from the United States to France to China, have begun examining safety issues, Germany decided to scrap its nuclear power altogether, announcing last week it would shutter the nation's 17 plans by 2022."

States fight back against nuclear power, even as the feds remain in its thrall, Grist, June 2, 2011. "At the state level, things look a lot different. In a number of states, politicians and activists are fighting for early shutdown of reactors they believe to be unsafe, and corporations are deciding that new nuclear plants are just too risky."

Germany to Forsake Its Nuclear Reactors, Wall Street Journal, May 30, 2011. "Germany on Monday said it would close all of its 17 nuclear reactors by 2022, a sharp policy reversal that will make it the first major economy to quit atomic power in the wake of the nuclear crisis in Japan."

Japan: Credit Outlook Cut On Fears About Fukushima, International Business Times, May 30, 2011. "On Friday the country joined the US and Italy among the major western economies in having its international credit rating pushed to a negative outlook by nervy ratings firms. Fitch Ratings said the reason for the changed outlook was the risks associated with the continuing Fukushima nuclear power plant crisis and the potential impact that could have on the country's already high gross debt ratio which is the highest of any country it tracks."

Fukushima Faces 'Massive Problem' From Radioactive Waste Water, San Francisco Chronicle, May 27, 2011. "The utility known as Tepco has been pumping cooling water into the three reactors that melted down after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. By May 18, almost 100,000 tons of radioactive water had leaked into basements and other areas of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant, according to Tepco's estimates. The radiated water may double by the end of December."

Tepco Failed to Disclose Scale of Fukushima Radiation Leaks, Academics Say, Bloomberg, May 27, 2011. "As a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency visits Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s crippled nuclear plant today, academics warn the company has failed to disclose the scale of radiation leaks and faces a "massive problem" with contaminated water."

Browns Ferry reactor brings worries, The Tennessean, May 30, 2011. "A TVA Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant reactor has fallen lower in regulators' trust than any other reactor in the nation at this time. It alone is classified at level 4 — with 5 being the worst and an "unacceptable performance" — in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's listing. Four means repeated issues of degradation in performance have been found."

"Reactor Reax" is featured on www.NuclearBailout.org, a Web site maintained by Physicians for Social Responsibility.