NEI’s Resources on Japan

If you haven’t visited NEI’s Japan Earthquake page, well, you really ought to. It’s grown – enormous – in the last three weeks and provides a lot of good information about issues that have swirled around events at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

Information about Health and Radiation Safety

Emergency Planning: Protecting the Pubic and Environment – with a graphic showing the American approach to ensuring public safety

A growing FAQ about the events in Japan – helping to counter myths and provide solid information

A set of Fact Sheets and Graphics describing the workings of various kinds of reactors, including Fukushima Daiichi.

A large collection of quotes from American politicians and other policymakers with their views on Japan and the American nuclear energy industry.

And, as they say on infomercials, much much more. I think it’s fair to assert that NEI has provided more good information, data, graphics and links about Japan and Fukushima Daiichi than any other site on the Internet. And despite NEI’s role as a nuclear advocate, nothing is sugar coated or spun for advantage. It all aims for the highest level of unvarnished fact possible.

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How Nanomaterials Can Make Nuclear Reactors Safer and More Efficient

The following is a guest post from Matt Wald, senior communications advisor at NEI. Follow Matt on Twitter at @MattLWald.

From the batteries in our cell phones to the clothes on our backs, "nanomaterials" that are designed molecule by molecule are working their way into our economy and our lives. Now there’s some promising work on new materials for nuclear reactors.

Reactors are a tough environment. The sub atomic particles that sustain the chain reaction, neutrons, are great for splitting additional uranium atoms, but not all of them hit a uranium atom; some of them end up in various metal components of the reactor. The metal is usually a crystalline structure, meaning it is as orderly as a ladder or a sheet of graph paper, but the neutrons rearrange the atoms, leaving some infinitesimal voids in the structure and some areas of extra density. The components literally grow, getting longer and thicker. The phenomenon is well understood and designers compensate for it with a …

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Huh?

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Nuclear plants occupy an unusual spot in the towns where they operate: integral but so much in the background that they may seem almost invisible. But when they close, it can be like the earth shifting underfoot.

Lohud.com, the Gannett newspaper that covers the Lower Hudson Valley in New York, took a look around at the experience of towns where reactors have closed, because the Indian Point reactors in Buchanan are scheduled to be shut down under an agreement with Gov. Mario Cuomo.

From sea to shining sea, it was dismal. It wasn’t just the plant employees who were hurt. The losses of hundreds of jobs, tens of millions of dollars in payrolls and millions in property taxes depressed whole towns and surrounding areas. For example:

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NEI Nuclear Notes

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