June 2nd, 2011

Research shakes up seismic knowledge near Northwest nuclear plant

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?

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April 27th, 2011

Plutonium pride on the Mid-Columbia

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

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March 22nd, 2011

Uncertainty, seismic risks and nuclear regulation

Hanford from aboveThis is a copy of a blog post I wrote today at spot.us to update supporters about my work on a story exploring the seismic dangers that could face the Columbia Generating Station near Richland, Washington. Click here to read more about that

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October 13th, 2010

A few thousand words on the road

I’ve been driving and fighting off a cold while traveling to the 2010 Society of Environmental Journalists Conference. Now I’m here and diving right into the event. For now here are a few thousand words — in the form of a few dozen photos — describing what I saw.

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August 6th, 2010

What a Week for Wind

Biglow Wind Farm I’ve begun blogging about environmental justice and the

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