The Administration's Worst Nightmare: Coal. The EPA Is Worried About Fracking. Meanwhile, Massive Explosion at Japanese Nuclear Reactor: Sixth Reactor Fails

Updates

August 27, 2013: Japan may be nuke-free but "the mess" is getting bigger. More and more contaminated water is being released; it is so bad, the government has taken over operations from the private utility company. 

May 7, 2012: Japan is nuke-free; all 54 reactors are shut down. Japan is the first major economy in the modern era to be nuclear-energy free. If they get through the summer without brownouts/blackouts, nuclear energy is dead forever.


April 17, 2011: Timetable devised for shutting down the crippled reactors. The plan calls for the operator to begin shutting down the reactor in early 2012.

April 8, 2011: Japan raises disaster to highest rating (7/7); equal to Chernobyl.

April 4, 2011: Japan is now asking for Russian assistance. Specifically, Japan is looking for a special unit trained and equipped to handle nuclear submarine disasters. The article states that Japan is no closer to controlling this disaster than when it began. The site is discharging radioactive water directly into the ocean.

April 3, 2011: For the first time, Japan officials have provided a timetable of the disaster going forward -- it will be months before they have control of the situation. Months. And then it will be months (years?) trying to figure out how to dispose of all the radioactive seawater and debris that's been collecting.

April 2, 2011: Radioactive waste water is now flowing into the ocean.

March 31, 2011: World's largest cement pump being airlifted from the US east coast to Japan. Radioactivity found in Washington state milk.

March 30, 2011: the operator of the reactors now says it will be impossible to save the reactors. In addition, it is likely that radioactive water from the reactors will reach the ocean.

March 14, 2011, mid-day: Rods now melting at three Japanese reactors.

March 14, 2011, morning: GE CEO/Immelt defends nuclear power plants; others say this could be turning point for nuclear energy globally. 

March 13, 2011, evening: It is being reported that there has been an explosion at Fukushima reactor #3.

March 13, 2011, evening: It is being reported that the failing Japanese reactors 23 "sister" reactors designed by GE in the United States.

March 13, 2011, morning: Cooling effort fails: Japan braces for explosion.

March 12, 2011, evening: Sixth reactor fails.

A third reactor at the Fukushima No 1 plant loses its emergency cooling capacity, bringing to six the number of reactors that have failed at the two Fuskushima nuclear power plants since the earthquake and tsunami. 

Original Posting

Steven Chu is the country's Secretary of Energy.

He is an advocate of alternative energy and nuclear power.

Steven Chu's worst nightmare:coal.

What about other energy sources? Big Coal won’t be very happy if Dr. Chu gets confirmed as head of the DOE—he’s really, really not a big fan. “Coal is my worst nightmare,” he said repeatedly in a speech earlier this year outlining his lab’s alternative-energy approaches.

This morning there are reports that there has been a huge explosion in one of Japan's nuclear reactors where radiation had already risen 1000 times higher than normal.  [Update: March 12, 2011 afternoon: a second reactor ha now lost its emergency cooling system. Two reactors at risk.]

The explosion has been described as "massive."

[Update: reports are conflicting but it sounds like Japan will use a last-ditch effort stop the meltdown by flooding the nuclear reactor with salt water.

US nuclear experts warned Saturday that pumping sea water to cool a quake-hit Japanese nuclear reactor was an "act of desperation" that may foreshadow a Chernobyl-like disaster.

Several experts, in a conference call with reporters, also predicted that regardless of the outcome at the Fukushima No. 1 atomic plant crisis, the accident will seriously damage the nuclear power renaissance. -- March 12, 2011, evening]

This would be as good a time as any to have Mr Chu testify before Congress on the relative safety of coal vs nuclear energy. 

I assume I'm in the minority on this, but coal has never been my worst nightmare.