Trump Wants a New Low-Yield Nuclear Weapon. But the US Has Plenty Already.


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Made in Chattanooga

, director, Nuclear Safety Project

May 10, 2018 3:42 PM EDT

What do the Arkansas Nuclear One Unit 2, Beaver Valley Unit 1, Beaver Valley Unit 2, Big Rock Point, Callaway, Calvert Cliffs Unit 1, Calvert Cliffs Unit 2, Catawba Unit 2, Comanche Peak Unit 1, Comanche Peak Unit 2, Connecticut Yankee, Cooper, Diablo Canyon Unit 1, Diablo Canyon Unit 2, Donald C. Cook Unit 1, Edwin I. Hatch Unit 1, Edwin I. Hatch Unit 2, Fort Calhoun, HB Robinson, Indian Point Unit 1, Indian Point Unit 2, Indian Point Unit 3, James A. FitzPatrick, Joseph M. Farley Unit 1, Joseph M. Farley Unit 2, Fermi Unit 2, Kewaunee, LaSalle Unit 1, Maine Yankee, Marble Hill, McGuire Unit 1, Millstone Unit 1, Millstone Unit 2, Millstone Unit 3, Nine Mile Point Unit 1, Oyster Creek, Palisades, Palo Verde Unit 1, Palo Verde Unit 2, Palo Verde Unit 3, Pilgrim, Point Beach Unit 2, Salem Unit 1, Salem Unit 2, San Onofre Unit 1, San Onofre Unit 2, San Onofre Unit 3, Seabrook, South Texas Project Unit 1, South Texas Project Unit 2, St. Lucie Unit 1, St. Lucie Unit 2, Vogtle Unit 1, Vogtle Unit 2, Waterford, and Wolf Creek nuclear power reactors have in common? Read more >

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NRC Cherry-Picking in the Post-Fukushima Era: A Case Study

Mark Leyse , UCS

May 7, 2018 9:31 AM EDT

In the late 1960s, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), the forerunner of the NRC, paid the very companies that designed nuclear reactors—Westinghouse and General Electric (GE)—to test the efficacy of their own emergency cooling systems. Read More

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What Does North Korea Want—and What is the US Prepared to Give?

, co-director and senior scientist

April 26, 2018 12:46 PM EDT

North Korea is not likely to negotiate in earnest unless it is convinced the United States is committed to the process. It is important that the administration put together a package of what it is willing to put on the table in response to Pyongyang’s steps. Read more >

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What Does the US Want from North Korea?

, co-director and senior scientist

April 26, 2018 12:45 PM EDT

President Trump is planning to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un in May or June. In preparing for the summit, the administration must be clear about what it wants from the process—both near-term and long-term. And it needs to figure out what it is willing to put on the table to get those things. Read more >

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The “Race” to Resolve the Boiling Water Reactor Safety Limit Problem

, director, Nuclear Safety Project

April 24, 2018 6:00 AM EDT

General Electric (GE) informed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in March 2005 that its computer analyses of a depressurization event for boiling water reactors (BWRs) non-conservatively assumed the transient would be terminated by the automatic trips of the main turbine and reactor on high water level in the reactor vessel. GE’s updated computer studies revealed that one of four BWR safety limits could be violated before another automatic response terminated the event.

Over the ensuring decade-plus, owners of 28 of the 34 BWRs operating in the US applied for and received the NRC’s permission to fix the problem. But it’s not clear why the NRC allowed this known safety problem, which could allow nuclear fuel to become damaged, to linger for so long or why the other six BWRs have yet to resolve the problem. UCS has asked the NRC’s Inspector General to look into why and how the NRC tolerated this safety problem affecting so many reactors for so long. Read more >

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