Fitness for Duty: Operating Under the Influence

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Fitness for Duty: Operating Under the Influence

What oversight exists at the nuclear plant nearest you? On today's podcast Arnie, Lucas and Nat discuss the NRC's Fitness for Duty program for nuclear reactor operators, in which workers are periodically tested for mental health issues and on-the-job usage of drugs and alcohol. Fairewinds recently authored a report on the many industry-wide instances of nuclear plant operators coming to work under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Listen to our podcast and read our report to find out what areas of the country are experiencing the most violations, what is the nuclear plant operator’s drug of choice, and whether rates of drug and alcohol abuse have gone up or down in the past five years (hint: they’ve gone up).

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Fairewinds Crew on Nuclear Free Future with Margaret Harrington

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Fairewinds Crew on Nuclear Free Future with Margaret Harrington

Nuclear Free Future host Margaret Harrington speaks with Fairewinds Founding Director Maggie Gundersen, Chief Engineer Arnie Gundersen, Media Producer Nathaniel White-Joyal, and Administrator Samantha Donalds about the decommissioning of Vermont Yankee.

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Olympic Insanity + If Gundersen were in Charge at Fukushima

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Olympic Insanity + If Gundersen were in Charge at Fukushima

Libbe HaLevy from Nuclear Hotseat radio interviewed Arnie Gundersen about the current state of problems at Fukushima Daiichi and asks what he would do if he were in charge of the disaster site.

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The Road Less Taken: Energy Choices for the Future, featuring Amory Lovins

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The Road Less Taken: Energy Choices for the Future, featuring Amory Lovins

Today we feature an interview with Amory Lovins, preeminent environmental thinker and co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute. With forty years of energy policy experience, Amory Lovins has dedicated himself to the idea that our energy future does not have to look like our energy past.

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How concerned should we be about Fukushima?

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How concerned should we be about Fukushima?

On today's Your Call, we’ll talk about the recent leaks from the nuclear power plant at Fukushima, Japan.  It’s been over two years since the plant suffered its original damage from the earthquake and tsunami.  Now, more than 300 tons of radioactive water has leaked from the plant into the ground and ocean.  So what do we need to know?  Could the entire Pacific Ocean be at risk?  And what can we be doing to prevent this? Join the conversation on the next Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

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Is the United States remaining vigilant to Fukushima risks?

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Is the United States remaining vigilant to Fukushima risks?

By Lucas W. Hixson, Enformable.com As our readers may be aware, on multiple occasions over the last two years Russia has made data public on contaminated imports from Japan which have been sent back due to radiation concerns.  In early August, Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s federal customer rights protection agency told Russian media outlets that some 112 contaminated batch lots of goods from Japan had been barred from entering the country after failing radiation tests.

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Just say no to nuclear power – from Fukushima to Vermont

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Just say no to nuclear power – from Fukushima to Vermont

By Amy Goodman, The Guardian

Welcome to the nuclear renaissance.

Entergy Corp, one of the largest nuclear-power producers in the US, issued a surprise press release Tuesday, saying it plans "to close and decommission its Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station in Vernon, Vermont. The station is expected to cease power production after its current fuel cycle and move to safe shutdown in the fourth quarter of 2014."

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