Tag Archives: National Geographic

In the weeks after the earthquake and tsunami struck Japan in early 2011, I wrote a series of stories for National Geographic Digital Media exploring three critical questions:

• How is Japan’s Nuclear Disaster Different?
  Published March 16, 2011

  For decades, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl have served as shorthand for the nightmare of nuclear power generation gone awry. In the wake of Japan’s deadly earthquake and tsunami last week, the still-unfolding disaster of Fukushima Daiichi has come closer than any nuclear crisis in history to making it a fearsome trio. Yet key differences key differences that set the current Fukushima situation apart from the 1979 Three Mile Island emergency near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and the disaster in Chernobyl, Ukraine, that unfolded seven years later. Read more>>

• Would a New Nuclear Plant Fare Better than Fukushima?
  Published March 23, 2011

  Would brand-new reactors have fared better in the power outage that triggered dangerous overheating at one of Japan’s oldest power plants? The answer seems to be: Not necessarily. The vast majority of plants under construction around the world, 47 in all, are the same 1970s vintage as Fukushima Daiichi, and without integrated passive safety systems. Read more>>

• Is Armenia’s Nuclear Plant the World’s Most Dangerous?
  Published April 11, 2011 (Byline: Marianne Lavelle and Josie Garthwaite)
  In the shadow of Mount Ararat, the beloved and sorrowful national symbol of Armenia, stands a 31-year-old nuclear plant that is no less an emblem of the country’s resolve and its woe.

  The Metsamor power station is one of a mere handful of remaining nuclear reactors of its kind that were built without primary containment structures. All five of these first-generation water-moderated Soviet units are past or near their original retirement ages, but one salient fact sets Armenia’s reactor apart from the four in Russia. Metsamor lies on some of Earth’s most earthquake-prone terrain. Read more>>