Nuclear energy is not a sovereign decision; it’s a global choice

As some nations push on with nuclear programs and others can’t retire their existing plants fast enough. It is clear, much like climate change, the actions of one nation effect the viability of the others on this blue-ish brown (smog) planet.
California scientists witnessed a spike in radioactive airborne material in March following the meltdown of Japan’s wrecked Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant, a study showed.

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, observed the highest levels ever detected of radioactive sulfur in the atmosphere, 15 days after Fukushima’s operators cooled the damaged reactors by pumping in seawater, according to a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The 40-year-old Fukushima plant withstood the country’s worst earthquake on record, only to have its power and back-up generators knocked out by the 7-meter (23-foot) tsunami that followed. Lacking electricity to pump water needed to cool the atomic core, engineers vented radioactive steam into the atmosphere to release pressure. A series of explosions ensued, blowing out concrete walls around some reactors.

The amount of radioactive material that escaped from the reactor’s core and found a kilometer above Fukushima was 365 times higher than normal, researchers calculated in the study. About 0.7 percent of the material made its way 5,800 miles across the Pacific Ocean to California, the study said. Researchers made their measurements in La Jolla, California.