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Even environmentalists concede that nuclear power is a clean source of abundant, reliable energy. But they stop short of supporting it. Why? Because of the “waste problem.” But how real are their concerns? James Meigs, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, answers this question.

Radiation in the water will be diluted to almost-background levels, but some researchers are not sure this will be sufficient to mitigate the risks.Despite concerns from several nations and international groups, Japan is pressing ahead with plans to release water contaminated by the 2011 meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean. Starting sometime this year and continuing for the next 30 years, Japan will slowly release treated water stored in tanks at the site into the ocean through a pipeline extending one kilometre from the coast. But just how safe is the water to the...

Way back in October 2021, Vox released a video about nuclear power featuring Cleo Abrams. The gist of the video was that New York’s then-recent decision to shut down Indian Point nuclear reactor was a bad idea. As Abrams pointed out in a 10-minute clip, shutting down nuclear reactors is completely counter-productive, especially for anyone who believes climate change is a problem that has to be dealt with immediately.What happened when NY shut down Indian Point? The state suddenly lost a major source of electric power which was soon replaced by power created by burning more natural gas. As Abrams...

The Department of Energy has fired a top nuclear waste official who happens to be non-binary and has been accused in a string of luggage thefts, according to reports. “Sam Brinton is no longer a DOE employee. By law, the Department of Energy cannot comment further on personnel matters,” a spokesperson for the DOE told the Daily Beast on Monday.

Self-aggrandizing "non-binary" Sam Brinton, who's "serving" as the Biden administratrion Department of Energy's deputy assistant secretary for spent (nuclear) fuel and waste disposition, has been accused of stealing another suitcase from another lady at a second airport, according to the New York Post.A Biden energy department official who allegedly stole a woman’s suitcase from a Minneapolis airport in September has been accused of another luggage heist at a Las Vegas airport.A felony warrant on grand larceny charges was issued for Sam Brinton, the deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition at the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear...

A cancer survivor is vowing to untangle the twisted mystery of why almost 100 people associated with a New Jersey high school have developed “extremely” rare malignant brain tumors. Al Lupiano is among the 94 former staff and students from Colonia High School in the Woodbridge Township School District who have been stricken by the devastating diagnoses in recent years. “I will not rest until I have answers,” Lupiano, 50, declared in an interview with NJ.com and the Star Ledger on Thursday. “I will uncover the truth.” [snip] Lupiano told NJ Spotlight News that the school is located less than...

Russia destroys Chernobyl lab, gaining 'highly active samples' BY JOSEPH CHOI - 03/23/22 12:37 PM EDT © AP Photo/Sergei Grits The Russian military has reportedly destroyed a laboratory near the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant that was working to improve the management of nuclear waste and contained "highly active samples." The State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management said in a statement on social media that Russian forces had destroyed the most recently established laboratory in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. The laboratory, which was created with the cooperation of the European Union, sought to improve the infrastructure for handling...

The Biden administration has affirmed a Trump administration interpretation of high-level radioactive waste that is based on the waste’s radioactivity rather than how it was produced. The U.S. Department of Energy announcement last week means some radioactive waste from nuclear weapons production stored in Idaho, Washington and South Carolina could be reclassified and moved for permanent storage elsewhere.... ...The Biden administration's affirmation of the new interpretation came after various groups offered letters of support and opposition to the agency after Biden became president, leading to the notice in the Federal Register making clear where the administration stood....

These objects are not environmentally safe, a representative of Rosatom made clear as he this week presented a clean-up plan for the north Russian waters. In the period between the late 1960s to the late 1980s, about 18 thousand radioactive objects were dumped to sea in the remote northern waters. Most of them represent little environmental risk. But some are increasingly seen as a hazard to Arctic ecosystems. “Rosatom over the next eight years intend to lift from the bottom of Russian Arctic waters the six objects that are most dangerous with regard to radioactive pollution,” the company spokesperson told...

For some people, Nevada Rep. Susie Lee said, the opportunity to drive on repaved highways, cross repaired bridges and fly out of modernized airports isn’t worth the political implications of a major infrastructure bill. “I’ve been told, ‘You don’t want to give Donald Trump a win on this,’” Lee, a Democrat, told an audience this morning at the Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas. But even though the passage of a major bill would give Trump a stump point for the 2020 election, Lee said, the need for infrastructure spending outweighs partisan politics. “This isn’t a Republican-Democrat thing. This is an...

Infrastructure improvements are perennial fodder for politicians on the stump looking to appeal to voters. However, composing a detailed, effective investment plan that goes beyond rhetoric is a much more daunting task that requires careful consideration. President Trump has made it clear he wants to undertake a “new program of national rebuilding” by investing $1 trillion in infrastructure.1 Although the President has stated this funding would be drawn from both public and private sources, he has yet to put forth a detailed plan. Democrats in Congress have seized on the opportunity to put forward their own proposal on infrastructure. This...

The Woolsey fire that has engulfed over 90,000 acres in California last weekend may have spread toxic and radioactive substances from a Superfund site. Activists, who believe authorities might be downplaying the risks of the toxins released into the air, say the burning of the nuclear waste site could further complicate health concerns. According to RT, the Woolsey fire ripped right through the Santa Susana Field Lab (SSFL), a federal Superfund site in the Simi Hills that was the site of the worst nuclear meltdown in United States history in 1959. While the SSFL has been the site of multiple...

So far there have been four US Air Force flights carrying highly enriched uranium bound for South Carolina, taking off from Wick John O’Groats Airport, in Caithness, at weekends as the base is closed to civilian aircrafts on Saturdays. Dounreay, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, Police Scotland, the Civil Nuclear Constabulary and the airport have all refused to comment. The deal was trumpeted by former prime minister David Cameron and ex-US president Barack Obama, arranging for highly enriched uranium – the basic building block for a nuclear bomb – to be flown from Wick to the US in return for “medical...

Despite the objections of local fishermen, the tritium-tainted water stored at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant will be dumped into the sea, a top official at Tokyo Electric says. “The decision has already been made,” Takashi Kawamura, chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc., said in a recent interview with the media. Tritium typically poses little risk to human health unless ingested in high amounts, and ocean discharges of diluted volumes of tritium-tainted water are a routine part of nuclear power plant operations. This is because it is a byproduct of nuclear operations but cannot be filtered out...

A House committee voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to advance a bill meant to move along the stalled Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. The legislation would set a time limit for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to approve the project and makes a necessary land transfer for the project. It also allows the Department of Energy (DOE) to permit an interim nuclear waste storage site before Yucca has its licensing process completed. If the legislation becomes law, it would bring Yucca closer to reality, 30 years after Congress decided — over the objections of the state of Nevada — to...

Lawmakers faced off in a Wednesday hearing on proposed legislation to approve a nuclear waste storage facility in Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Many lawmakers at the hearing were concerned about the federal government defaulting on its legal obligations to dispose of used nuclear fuel. Even House Democrats acknowledged the sheer scale of this problem. “Courts have determined that DOE has breached contractual obligations under this statute,” New York Democrat Paul Tonko, ranking member of the subcommittee, said in the hearing. “DOE estimated that if it could begin to accept waste in the next 10 years, liabilities would total $29 billion dollars.”...

The Chicago Tribune’s editorial board implored President Donald Trump Tuesday to clean up the nuclear waste storage debacle left by former President Barack Obama. Obama helped former Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid to derail plans to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Without Yucca, nuclear power plants don’t have a permanent location to store spent fuel and left the federal government with $50 billion in legal liabilities. “Many people in Nevada didn’t want the waste, no matter how safe or isolated the storage facility may be,” the editorial board wrote. “It was the ultimate NIMBY [Not In My Backyard]...

Opponents of the newly revived federal plan to store nuclear waste at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain are preparing for battle with the Trump administration as the political winds seem to be shifting in favor of the project. Powerful figures in Nevada — led by Republican Sen. Dean Heller and including freshman Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat, and Gov. Brian Sandoval — have vowed to fight the White House at every turn as it tries to breathe new life into Yucca Mountain with the first injection of federal funds into what surely would be a multi-billion dollar undertaking. But none of...

The Obama White House made an unfortunate and ungracious choice in launching a preemptive attack on Rick Perry's nomination this week. Spokesman Josh Earnest did his best deadpan as he disparaged the choice as one based on politics and not merit. But what about President Obama's appointments of Ken Salazar, Kathleen Sebelius, Tom Vilsack and Janet Napolitano? They were all lawyers without specific expertise in the issue areas of the departments they led. But each, having experience as elected Democratic statewide officials, knew enough about their respective issue areas that their status as non-experts never really mattered. Perry spent 14...

The facility will be built at the Energy Department's 890-square-mile site that includes the Idaho National Laboratory, considered the nation's primary lab for nuclear research.