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Special Topics
Special Topics - Nuclear Energy
Fukushima: Another reason to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
The success of the CTBT's global monitoring system in response to the tragedy in Japan has demonstrated its effectiveness in responding to natural disasters, further evidencing its value to US and global security.
Japan’s nuclear crisis: The fine line between security and insecurity
Since the 1970s, Japan has turned to nuclear as a secure source of energy. But this security has a double meaning.
Reflections on Fukushima: A time to mourn, to learn, and to teach
Japan faces prolonged anxiety and distress in its quest to find answers to the Fukushima disaster. One answer may be that a conventional back-up system was in the wrong place. There is much to learn.
Three Mile Island: The battle of Unit 1
What began as a brief refueling pause has stretched into six years as the restart of Three Mile Island's other reactor has become the focus of charges against the utility and the NRC.
Three Mile Island: Meltdown of Democracy?
As the government considers restarting the Three Mile Island Unit 1 reactor, local opposition remains strong. This case raises fundamental questions about democratic decision making in the age of high technology.
Containment of a reactor meltdown
Was the nuclear industry concerned that accident mitigation techniques, such as off-site preparations for emergencies and retrofitting with filtered venting systems, could be interpreted as tacit admissions that serious accidents can happen?
Excerpts from the President's Commission Report on the Accident at Three Mile Island
"Wherever we looked we found problems with the human beings who operate the plant; with the management that runs the key organizations; and with the agency that is charged with assuring the safety of nuclear power plants."
Commentary from London: Harrisburg ist überall
"No soothsayer reading the entrails for the nuclear industry ever found a more unambiguous omen. . ." As Carl Friedrich von Weizsaecker opened hearings in Hannover, West Germany on March 28, 1979, on a plan to build the world's largest civil nuclear installation, a feedwater pump failed on TMI.
Three Mile Island: Health Study Meltdown
A quarter century after the accident at Three Mile Island, remarkably few questions about the health effects of that near-catastrophe have been asked-let alone answered.
The Kemeny Commission Report
The final report on Three Mile Island offered within its voluminous pages almost any message an attentive reader wants to find.
Commentary from Washington: No longer can the NRC say . . .
Future prospects for nuclear power suffered a severe blow at Three Mile Island. Did the accident portend a "new beginning or "the beginning of the end"?
Institutional responses to Three Mile Island
Public fears of nuclear accidents raise difficult problems for democratic institutions. Who can judge the risk? Who can fashion an energy policy?
Environmental liabilities of nuclear power
The message from Three Mile Island that rightly received the most attention in almost every post mortem: Beware of human frailties.
The impact of Three Mile Island
The accident at Three Mile Island presented the U.S. nuclear power industry with very serious problems but, writes Commissioner Gilinsky, the industry was already in serious trouble.
In this nuclear world, what is the meaning of 'safe'?
Before the world's nations refine energy development plans, countries must ensure that one word -- safety -- is not lost in translation.
Facing fears with facts and reason: Managing energy risks after Fukushima
The energy future must take into account the needs of the world's growing population and protect the future viability of the planet. And this does not come without risk.
The lessons of Fukushima
If the nuclear disaster teaches us anything, it is that a perfect safety system is unattainable. Will the United States learn from Japan's mistakes?
Guarding against disaster: As Japan's tragedy becomes more serious, so does the need to learn from it
Not to be overlooked is the necessity for a twofold nuclear-safety strategy: stricter standards for reactor designs and systematic efforts to reduce the consequences of accidents.