Free Republic

TEPCO: Melted fuel eroded containment vessel floor at Fukushima reactor December 01, 2011 Most of the fuel rods that melted in the pressure vessel of the No. 1 reactor of the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant ate into the containment vessel, according to Tokyo Electric Power Co. It said on Nov. 30 the melted fuel did not breach the containment vessel but partially eroded its concrete floor. As for the No. 2 and No. 3 reactors, most of the melted fuel stayed within the pressure vessel, TEPCO added. Water levels have submerged the fuel rods at all three reactors, which...

Earlier this year I presented a series on energy that concluded that the USA made a major mistake in foregoing the building of more nuclear energy plants because worldwide experience has shown nuclear power to be the safest, cheapest and cleanest way to produce electricity. Recently, also, the development of the ‘PBR’ reactor even removes any threat of a potential ‘meltdown’ from the equation and produces free hydrogen for a vehicle fuel as a bonus. In 1979, Jane Fonda and Jack Lemmon produced a frisson of fear with their starring roles in "The China Syndrome," a fictional evocation of nuclear...

A leak of highly radioactive nuclear fuel dissolved in concentrated nitric acid, enough to half fill an Olympic-size swimming pool, has forced the closure of Sellafield's Thorp reprocessing plant. The highly dangerous mixture, containing about 20 tonnes of uranium and plutonium fuel, has leaked through a fractured pipe into a huge stainless steel chamber which is so radioactive that it is impossible to enter. Recovering the liquids and fixing the pipes will take months and may require special robots to be built and sophisticated engineering techniques devised to repair the £2.1bn plant.

<p>This article originally appeared in the Washington Post on May 16, 2004.</p> <p>Pat Michaels is senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute and author of the upcoming book "Meltdown: The Predictable Exaggeration of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians, and the Media" (Cato Books).</p>

WASHINGTON – The Chinese fighter pilot who intercepted a U.S. reconnaissance plane over the South China Sea got so close during one pass that a crew member "jumped back and yelled" for fear the jet "was going to keep coming right through the window," a newly released Navy report reveals. "The pilot was a mere three to five feet away from the EP-3," according to a four-page "Statement of Facts" report on the incident last year, prepared by the commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet in Hawaii. Judicial Watch Inc., a public-interest law firm here, uncovered the paper...