Fukushima Update: Some Highlights

Contamination is high in the seawater near the nuclear pant.


DemFromCT at Daily Kos says the disaster in Fukushima is unlikely to affect the nature and use of nuclear power.

...there's no nuclear renaissance in this country. We were unlikely to accept a lot of nuclear reactor construction before Fukushima, and nothing unfolding in Japan right now is likely to change that. Still, some folks in Congress like the idea of "clean energy" and figure the spent fule issue can be kicked down the road, so the debate won't disappear. As if the nuclear lobby would let it.

Meanwhile, the plant is hot. Very hot.

Engineers at Japan’s damaged Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant were evacuated from one reactor after three men suffered radiation burns, the second retreat from the location in as many days.

Have no fear--they'll develop a drug: From Voice of America News

The serious radiation leaks at Japan's damaged Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant have reawakened public fears about radiation sickness. But what if there were a drug that could not only protect people from dangerous levels of radiation exposure but also heal those actually exposed to damaging nuclear radiation?
Researchers say they are developing such a drug - one that can both prevent and repair human cell damage from all types of radiation exposure.
Such a healing medication has the potential to lessen panic and fear generated by catastrophic reactor accidents. Plant workers trying to make repairs near a crippled reactor's radioactive core might be less fearful if they could take a pill to repair their own radiation-damaged cells.

And, from Andrew Revkin at the Dot Earth blog of the New York Times: If we're going to keep nuclear, we need some big changes--changes we don't have the regulatory courage to implement.

Finally, regardless of nuclear industry spin, half of Americans now oppose building new nuclear plants--anywhere.