Nuclear Reactors

Japan's magnitude 9.0 earthquake could lead to insured-property losses of nearly $35 billion, making it one of the most expensive catastrophes in history, according to a risk-modeling analysis released Sunday by a U.S. consulting group. The insurance cost of the quake is nearly as much as the entire worldwide catastrophe loss for the global insurance industry in 2010 and could result in higher prices in the insurance market after years of declines, according to the analysis released by Boston-based AIR Worldwide.

KLEINENSIEL, Germany - When the German government shut down half the country's nuclear reactors after the Fukushima disaster in Japan, followed two months later by a pledge to abandon nuclear power within a decade, environmentalists cheered. A year later, however, criticism of the nuclear shutdown is emerging from a surprising source: some of the very activists who pushed for the phaseout. They say poor planning of the shutdown and political opportunism by the government have actually worsened the toll on the environment in Germany, and Europe, at least in the short term.

Aplatoon of double-crested cormorants took flight from the eastern shore of the Columbia River, skimming the sun-sparkled surface as two slender white egrets stood in the nearby shallows, hunting small fish hiding in the reeds. Twenty kayakers, mostly tourists from the Pacific Northwest, paddled along, letting the steady current do most of the work. They coasted past mule deer grazing on the shore, coyotes stalking the sandy beaches and cliff swallows buzzing the nearby white bluffs.

A consortium of utilities in the South won government approval Thursday to construct two new atomic energy reactors at an estimated cost of $14 billion, the strongest signal yet that the three-decade hiatus of nuclear plant construction is finally ending. Several new projects will test whether new technology and streamlined government licensing can help the industry avoid the economic and safety disasters that have tainted its past, nuclear experts say, though critics condemned the action by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The Earth's core is a nuclear reactor. Some of this radioactivity leaks to the Earth's surface. The Earth's surface contains other radioactive substances. The additional radioactivity from the storage of radioactive products can be a minuscule addition to this background radiation. Ten acres of land will safely store all of the world's radioactive waste. Global warming from burning hydrocarbons may be greater than other risks. Nuclear electric generation does not contribute to the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

A consortium of utilities in the South won government approval Thursday to construct two new atomic energy reactors at an estimated cost of $14 billion, the strongest signal yet that the three-decade hiatus of nuclear plant construction is finally ending. Several new projects will test whether new technology and streamlined government licensing can help the industry avoid the economic and safety disasters that have tainted its past, nuclear experts say, though critics condemned the action by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Seeking common ground with Republicans on energy and climate issues, President Obama on Tuesday pledged $8 billion in loan guarantees needed to build the first U.S. nuclear reactors in nearly three decades. The move, along with a tripling of nuclear loan guarantees in the president's budget, represents a new federal commitment to the low-carbon-emitting, but highly controversial, nuclear power sector long championed by the GOP. Industry groups and Republican leaders praised the announcement, which has been expected for months, but some environmentalists and free-market think tanks protested.

Power lines downed by bad weather forced two more Ukrainian nuclear reactors to shut down, leaving millions of people without electricity and experts warning of worse to come. Nuclear plants provide about half of Ukraine's electricity. Half of its 14 nuclear reactors were down late Tuesday, a day after a line failure stopped the last reactor at Chernobyl, site of the worst civil atomic disaster, possibly forever.

PG&E Corp.'s Pacific Gas & Electric unit, California's largest utility, will extend refueling of a nuclear reactor by five days to check for leaks in steam-generator tubes, a spokesman said. Diablo Canyon 2 was taken out of service for refueling on Feb. 3. The plant, which can produce 1,100 megawatts, or enough power for 900,000 U.S. homes, is in Avila Beach, between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

A decommissioned 1,000-ton nuclear reactor vessel finished its voyage up the Columbia River in Richland, Wash., docking safely just miles from a burial site for radioactive waste. It took about 36 hours for two tugs to bring the vessel, emptied of its uranium fuel, up 270 miles of river from the dismantled Trojan Nuclear Plant west of Portland, Ore.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has determined that the Aug. 23 East Coast earthquake caused only minor damage to the North Anna nuclear power plant, but federal regulators declined to say when the facility could restart operations. At a crowded public hearing Monday at the power station, 12 miles from the quake epicenter near Mineral, Va., officials said a monthlong investigation indicated that the temblor shook the ground more than the nuclear facility was designed to withstand.

At least one person was killed and four injured when a furnace exploded Monday at the Marcoule nuclear waste treatment site in southern France. Authorites say there was no radioactive leakage to the outside. Evangelia Petit of the Agency for Nuclear Safety confirmed the explosion but declined to provide further details, according to the Associated Press. The Marcoule nuclear plant is located in Langedoc Roussillon, in southern France, near the Mediterranean Sea. The site of the blast does not reportedly contain any nuclear reactors.

More than four months after it was crippled by an earthquake-generated tsunami, Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has stabilized and workers are on track to achieve a "cold shutdown" within six months, government and utility officials say. Officials made a positive prognosis this week after scaling several hurdles in decommissioning the facility, which was damaged March 11 when the tsunami disabled the plant's cooling system. The flooding led to partial meltdowns of the reactors, which released radioactivity into the atmosphere and prompted the evacuation of tens of thousands of nearby residents.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced a $1.43-billion investment in atomic power Monday, going against Europe's antinuclear tide following the Fukushima disaster in Japan. Despite growing safety concern among neighboring countries, Sarkozy said abandoning the development and building of new nuclear reactors made no sense. "There is no alternative to nuclear energy today," he told reporters. Sarkozy also promised "substantial resources" to strengthen research into nuclear safety and a further $1.85-billion investment in renewable energy sources, including solar and wind power.

After Svetlana Ivanova and her husband moved to this village in southwestern Russia 17 years ago, they laughed when they found out what locals called the $4 monthly payment for living in the contaminated Chernobyl zone: funeral money. Then one warm spring afternoon three years ago, her husband, Pyotr Ivanov, came home from a job-seeking trip to Moscow, put on a clean white shirt, stepped out into the garden "for a smoke" and hanged himself. "I remembered this sad joke when I buried my husband," she said.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has asked federal authorities to delay the license renewal proceedings for its Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant until more thorough seismic testing of the area can be performed. In the wake of the earthquake and nuclear crises in Japan, government and environmental groups have called for more seismic testing around California's nuclear plants. PG&E applied in 2009 to renew the licenses for its two nuclear reactors in San Luis Obispo County, which expire in 2024 and 2025.

Japan's Kansai Electric Power Co. said it restarted a nuclear reactor for commercial operation today for the first time since it was shut down after a fatal August 2004 accident. The No. 3 reactor at Mihama Nuclear Power Plant had been shut down after a corroded pipe ruptured and sprayed plant workers with boiling water and steam. Five were killed and six others injured, although no radiation was released.

France will build a second new-generation nuclear reactor, President Nicolas Sarkozy said, pledging a "new industrial revolution" in an era in which fossil fuels have grown too expensive. France, the country most reliant on nuclear power, has been building its first European Pressurized Reactor, or EPR, on the Normandy coast, and it is expected to go into service in 2012. EPR reactors are intended eventually to replace the aging reactors around the world.

Japanese emergency crews are scrambling to contain rising levels of extremely radioactive water that has leaked into tunnels and basement equipment rooms at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, putting up dangerous new obstacles to workers trying to bring the reactors under control. Workers were using sandbags and concrete panels Tuesday in a desperate attempt to prevent the contaminated water from further spreading through the plant or into the nearby soil and ocean. Their challenge is compounded by the fact that they must continue to douse water on the nuclear reactors and the spent fuel pools that would otherwise overheat and release additional radiation.

In the wake of a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and the powerful tsunami that followed, the stricken nuclear reactors at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi power plant released not one but two powerful and invisible forces: radiation and fear of radiation. Both can spread quickly, and with insidious stealth. They permeate walls, make no distinction between rich and poor, and are particularly hard on children. And elevated levels of either can have long-term health consequences. To be sure, to those living close to the Fukushima power plant or who have been told to avoid contaminated water, milk and spinach, the health threat posed by radiation is very real.