nuclear

26May

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

TECHNOLOGY, VIDEO REELS

Safety Is Still Nuclear Power’s Greatest Challenge, 10 Years After Fukushima

Ten years ago, on March 11, 2011, the biggest recorded earthquake in Japanese history hit the country’s northeast coast. It was followed by a tsunami that traveled up to 6 miles (10 kilometers) inland, reaching heights of over 140 feet (43.3 meters) in some areas and sweeping entire towns away in seconds. An International Atomic Energy Agency investigator examines Reactor Unit 3 at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant, May 27, 2011. Greg Webb, IAEA/Flickr, CC BY-SA This disaster left nearly 20,000 people dead or missing. It also destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station and released radioactive materials over a large area. The accident triggered widespread evacuations, large economic losses and the eventual shutdown of all nuclear power plants in Japan. A decade later, the nucl...

Trailblazing Nuclear Physicist Chien-Shiung Honored With New Postage Stamp

On Feb. 11, 2021, the sixth International Day of Women and Girls in Science, the U.S. Postal Service will issue a new Forever stamp to honor Chien-Shiung Wu, one of the most influential nuclear physicists of the 20th century. The new U.S. postage stamp featuring Wu. U.S. Postal Service A Chinese American woman, Wu performed experiments that tested the fundamental laws of physics. In a male-dominated field, she won many honors and awards, including the National Medal of Science (1975), the inaugural Wolf Prize in Physics (1978) and honorary degrees from universities around the world. In China, where I grew up,...

A restart of nuclear testing offers little scientific value to the US and would benefit other countries

July 15, 2020 marks 75 years since the detonation of the first nuclear bomb. The Trinity Test, in New Mexico’s Jornada del Muerto desert, proved that the design for the Nagasaki Bomb worked and started the nuclear era. The U.S. tested nuclear bombs for decades. But at the end of the Cold War in 1992, the U.S. government imposed a moratorium on U.S. testing. This was strengthened by the Clinton administration’s decision to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Although the Senate never ratified the treaty and it never entered into force, all 184 countries that signed the test ban, including the U.S., have followed its rules. But in recent weeks, the Trump administration and Congress have begun debating whether to restart active testing of nuclear weapons on U.S. soil. Some cons...