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Tokyo Electric Power Co. reported this afternoon (U.S. time) that it has restored electricity to the control room at the Fukushima Daiichi reactor 3. Lights in the control room were switched on for the first time since the earthquake 11 days ago. Electricity to the reactor 4 control room is expected to be restored shortly. Power restoration to the control rooms will help technicians as they seek to repair the two reactors' cooling systems. Workers are seeking to reactivate control room monitoring systems for reactor parameters, such as reactor coolant temperatures and water levels. The company also reported that thermometers...

NEI has added a new graphic to its website: Emergency Presparedness: Protecting the Public and Environment.UPDATE AS OF 6:30 P.M. EDT, MONDAY, MARCH 21: Japan's NHK broadcasting network reported that Tokyo Electric Power Co. confirmed that the March 11 earthquake and tsunami were beyond the Fukushima Daiichi plant's design standards. TEPCO believes the tsunami that inundated the Fukushima Daiichi site was 14 meters high, the network said. The design basis tsunami for the site was 5.7 meters, and the reactors and backup power sources were located 10 to 13 meters above sea level. The company reported that the maximum earthquake...

A two-part operation to spray water into the used fuel pool at Fukushima Daiichi reactor 4 ended just before 7 A.M. EDT. Japan's defense ministry announced that the Self Defense Force discharged more than 100 tons of water at the pool, and concluded that much of it reached inside the reactor building. This was the first time since the March 11 quake that reactor 4 has been doused. Yesterday the Tokyo elite fire services used a high-pressure fire truck to spray water for more than 13 hours into the fuel pool of reactor 3. The ministry also reported conducting surface...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-export-import-banks-annual-conference Home • Briefing Room • Speeches & Remarks The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release March 11, 2010 Remarks by the President at the Export-Import Bank's Annual Conference Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington, D.C. 11:30 A.M. EST THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, everybody. And thank you, John, for that generous introduction. Congratulations to you and Fabienne and Luis for the recognition your companies so richly deserve. And thank you to the Chairman of the Export-Import Bank, Fred Hochberg, for having me here today, and for all the important work the...

TEHRAN - Iran's president declared victory over the United States on Wednesday and the head of a U.N. watchdog said Iran had been "somewhat vindicated" by a U.S. report that it halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003. U.S. President George W. Bush called for Tehran to "come clean" on its nuclear activities and stop its enrichment of uranium which can potentially be used to make atomic bombs. But Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran would press ahead with its nuclear program which the Islamic Republic says has only peaceful civilian aims. "Today, the Iranian nation is victorious but you...

This latest controversy over the National Intelligence Estimate is the latest…and only the latest example of what's wrong with the news business these days. In short, no perspective, incomplete facts and intentionally or unintentionally biased. The New York Times, a newspaper with a reputation for being on the left, runs a story quoting an un-named U.S. intelligence official as saying the latest summary by the nation's intelligence agencies concludes that quote "the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse. Two days later, after a firestorm of I told you from all the war critics, President Bush decides to...

We’ve gotten four or five requests for this since it aired this morning. It’s not so much what he says as how he says it: the long pauses, the look of utter incredulity that an educated person — from New York City, no less — might not still appreciate the stakes five years later. You’ll find the clip at the end of this sequence, which also features Bush’s angry comments about the NIE leak. Rarely has he been so blunt in his criticism of the press.