Nuclear power hasn’t breathed its last, but there’s been a decided turn in the tone of coverage since 1979; the industry’s ascendance is no longer presented as an inevitability. These nuclear stories, for instance, speak more to the reasons for opposing this power source.
Radiation Monitoring
Solar cell-powered radiation monitoring stations are located near nuclear plants throughout the Southeast to collect measurements in the event of “non-routine releases.”
Killing the Breeder Reactor
For ten years now, environmentalists have been trying to kill a project that would result in the construction of a demonstration breeder reactor on the Clinch River in Tennessee. And in September they almost won. The reactor-that-produces-more-fuel-than-it-uses (in theory, at least) escaped timely death by a single vote in the U.S. Senate. Breeder opponents vowed to finish the job during the lame-duck session of Congress late this year.
Three Mile Island Reactor Kaput
The inner workings of Three Mile Island’s Unit 2 reactor are little more than rubble. That’s according to engineers who took their first looks into the core, more than three years after the incident, through a miniature TV camera lowered through inch-and-a-half holes.