"My trip inside Japan's Dead Zone" 8 months after the Fukushima meltdown

The Washington Post's journalist Chico Harlan goes on a 6-hour tour of the desolation surrounding the  the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster site.

Fire latest emergency at problem-plagued Davis-Besse atomic reactor

The Cleveland Plain Dealer has reported that a fire, cutting power to ventilation in the reactor control room at the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant near Toledo, prompted owner/operator FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC) to notify federal and state officials of an emergency alert status for several hours last week. The fire was caused by a faulty valve in a pipe carrying purified water to the reactor core, which leaked onto an electrical switchbox, causing an electrical arc and fire. Luckily, the reactor has been shut down since October 1st for major repairs, including the removal of the plant's 82 ton, corroded, second reactor lid. Severe corrosion on the reactor's original lid in 2002 represented the most infamous close call to a disaster at a U.S. atomic reactor since the 1979 meltdown at Three Mile Island. A giant hole cut in radiological containment structures for the reactor lid "transplant operation" revealed a 30 foot long crack in the reinforced concrete shield building, as well as additional cracks in the shield building. Despite this, FENOC hopes to persuade the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to allow it to restart Davis-Besse by the end of November. Beyond Nuclear has joined forces with Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and the Green Party of Ohio in an intervention opposing FENOC's proposed 2017 to 2037 license extension at the now 35 year old reactor. On Halloween, while Beyond Nuclear performed an "I Have a Scream!" protest against radioactive waste at Energy Department headquarters in Washington, D.C., our environmental coalition allies performed a solidarity action in Toledo against Davis-Besse. A week earlier, they held a press conference about the cracks, calling on the Toledo City Council to pass a resolution urging Davis-Besse's permanent closure, which the Cleveland Plain Dealer covered.

"The Energy Department's loan guarantee program is the real Solyndra scandal"

Today's Washington Post editorial headline above got it spot on. Congressman Upton has cried foul on a solar loan guarantee default, but fully backs even riskier nuclear loan guaranteesA high-profile hearing before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce government oversight subcommittee has shined a bright spotlight on the "Solyndra solar scandal," but nary a word about much more risky nuclear loan guarantees was uttered. The Washington Post has run three articles and an editorial in the past two days in its print edition: yesterday's "Solyndra made demands of Energy Department" and "Upton sought loan for now-ailing solar company in Michigan"; today's front page above the fold "Energy chief defends agency"; and today's lead editorial "No fun in the sun." Hopefully, the magnifying lens being taken to the Solyndra solar loan guarantee default will also be applied to already approved, and future proposed, nuclear loan guarantees! See Beyond Nuclear's nuclear loan guarantee website section for more information, as well as our summary backgrounder on U.S. Representative Fred Upton's (R-MI, House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman, photo at left) nuclear power industry cheerleading (see the section entitled "Handing over the keys of the U.S. Treasury to the nuclear power industry").

French Socialists and Greens unite for near 50% nuclear shutdown by 2050

The two French opposition parties - the Socialists and the Greens - have agreed to campaign for the shutdown of 24 of France's 58 nuclear reactors by 2025 and the immediate halt of the oldest plant at Fessenheim. The Greens favor a complete halt of France’s nuclear reactors, which provide more than three quarters of the country’s power, while Socialist candidate Francois Hollande has called for the lowering of France’s dependence on atomic power to 50 percent by 2025. The announcement caused stocks of the French utility, EDF, to slide as much as 6.4 percent to 19.40 euros, the lowest since Sept. 26 making it the worst-performing stock in Europe’s Stoxx 600 Utilities Index on November16.

New videos from Japan show reality of life post Fukushima

Yoko Kumano, a California resident, shot these videos on a recent visit to Japan where she also lived for a time. These are compelling testimonials about the reality of life in radioactively contaminated Japan. Visit the site to see more.