Where the reactors are - U.S., Midwest
About the Prairie Island reactors
How a pressurized water nuclear reactor works - part I
How a pressurized water nuclear reactor works - part II
Northern States Power sues Westinghouse over faulty tubes
Problems with Steam Generator Tubes (Part I)
Problems with Steam Generator Tubes (Part II)
A nightmare confirmed: steam tube degradation is increasingly likely to cause a nuclear meltdown (Part I)
A nightmare confirmed: steam tube degradation is increasingly likely to cause a nuclear meltdown (Part II)
Chernobyl to Prairie Island - We are all in the zone (Part I)
Chernobyl to Prairie Island - We are all in the zone (Part II)
Prairie Island routinely emits radioactivity into the environment
A little lesson on radioactivity: how it affects the human body
The difference between high-level and low-level radiation exposure
The effects of low-level radiation exposure
The waste fuel pools are filling up
Dry cask storage: problems guaranteed, and problems unknown
Yucca Mountain, Nevada: not a good place for nuclear waste
Transporting the waste: how safe can 45,000 shipments be?
Most mining and milling of uranium occurs on Indian lands
People of color are also targeted for other uranium processing facilities
Nuclear waste dumps - guess where they want to put them
Anything is cheap if you don't pay the cost
Nuclear power can be phased out
An interview with two of the neighbors
REFERENCES
Nuclear Waste - No Solution
The Fuel Storage Pools are Filling Up
Nuclear power plants produce nuclear waste. Waste fuel assemblies must be removed from the reactor core after they lose efficiency.
The waste must be placed in a pool next to the reactor for at least five years due to intense heat and radioactivity. Direct exposure to radiation from a single rod of this waste for a small fraction of a second would kill an unprotected person standing anywhere nearby.
But the pool at the Prairie Island nuclear plant quickly filled, and twice, NSP increased the pool capacity by packing the waste assemblies closer together.
Then, in 1989, NSP applied to federal and state agencies to again increase nuclear storage capacity. Their proposal: store waste outside the plant in 48 steel casks on a concrete pad.
After a bitter fight in 1994, the Minnesota Legislature gave NSP permission to fill up to 17 casks.