June 2nd, 2011 by Bill Lascher Letters sent as part of the licensing process reveal the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had multiple questions for Energy Northwest about the assumptions it used to develop its response plan for potential accidents. Among the questions: Why did Energy Northwest continue to use 15-year-old studies as the basis for earthquake preparations at the Columbia Generating Station — the Northwest’s only commercial nuclear reactor — when much more up-to-date information about the region’s seismic profile were available from the USGS and Hanford itself?
Read the rest of Research shakes up seismic knowledge near Northwest nuclear plant
April 27th, 2011 by Bill Lascher This update originally appeared April 15 on the blog for the Spot.us story I’m working on about seismic risks at Eastern Washington’s nuclear power facilities. Later updates — including news of a petition by environmental groups to stop the NRC from nuclear plant licensing and other proceedings until it completes a review
Read the rest of Plutonium pride on the Mid-Columbia
March 22nd, 2011 by Bill Lascher
August 6th, 2010 by Bill Lascher  I’ve begun blogging about environmental justice and the
Read the rest of What a Week for Wind
April 1st, 2010 by Bill Lascher Yesterday afternoon President Obama shocked the country when he announced plans to open parts of the Atlantic and Alaskan coasts to oil drilling. Though the Pacific Coast was left untouched, the move could open up huge expanses of ocean elsewhere.
Many environmentalists treated the news as a betrayal and yet another delay in
Read the rest of All Things Not Considered in NPR’s Oil Drilling Coverage
March 22nd, 2010 by Bill Lascher Geomicrobiologists look to harsh environments for organisms “disobeying” traditional chemistry teaching. (This story was originally written and reported in October, 2008 at the University of Southern California).
Petri dishes might not be replacing AA batteries at Radio Shack any time soon, but a growing body of research shows it may soon be possible
Read the rest of Extreme Measures
November 4th, 2009 by Bill Lascher Halfway through my interview with Louis-Philippe Morency I suddenly felt incredibly self-conscious.
Every nod, every movement of pen to paper, every glance in his eyes made me wonder what I might have been saying without saying anything. Would he catch my eyes straying to his bookshelves or the traffic
Read the rest of Blurring the lines: Virtual human research promises real-world impacts
September 1st, 2009 by Bill Lascher  “Two firefighters die.”
Each thick black letter blazes through the scratchy grime of the plexiglass newspaper rack. They ignite my attention. They singe my mind even after I pass, as I board a 754 Rapid at Wilshire and Vermont and as I disembark
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June 14th, 2009 by Bill Lascher “Wheel is going green,” blared a television announcer during a Spring broadcast of TV’s popular game show “Jeopardy.” The wheel in question? “Jeopardy”’s sister show, the equally well-known “Wheel of Fortune.”
Pat Sajak and Vanna White — icons for decades of American dreams of easy money — became the latest public
Read the rest of Will Going Green be the Next Way We Go Bust?
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This is a copy of a blog post I wrote today at 
