The company benefiting from today’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission decision to approve the construction of the first new nuclear plant in the U.S. in over three decades is an influential powerhouse in Washington.
Southern Company, a power company based in Atlanta, has spent $130 million lobbying the federal government since 1998, ranking 17th among all organizations, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Last year, the company spent nearly $13 million on lobbying, including in-house efforts and hiring 14 outside firms.
The company’s political action committee, its employees and their family members also donate generously to federal candidates ...
Continue readingVirginia quake shuts nuclear power plant
A 5.8 magnitude earthquate with an epicenter in Mineral, Va., some 84 miles from Washington, D.C., caused a nuclear power plant in Virginia to shut down, and caused "unusual event declarations" at nine other nuclear generating plants, CNN reports.
As we noted last March, when the meltdown at Japan's Fukushima reactor dominated the news, nuclear power plants in the United States live along fault lines. As we wrote then, "Using data from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Geological Survey, we generated the following map, which shows the location of the aforementioned reactors (there are ...
Continue readingNuclear Industry Lobbying: Data
The New York Times ran a story today on the nuclear industry’s lobbying efforts over the past decade to revive... View Article
Continue readingNuclear Industry Lobbyists Battle Fallout From Japan Reactor Crisis
In his final State of the Union address President Jimmy Carter dedicated five paragraphs to a discussion of nuclear energy... View Article
Continue readingNuclear power plants live along fault lines
As recent events have shown in Japan, nuclear power plants are just as vulnerable to natural disasters as anything else. So here at Sunlight we were curious about the locations of domestic nuclear reactors. Using data from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Geological Survey, we generated the following map, which shows the location of the aforementioned reactors (there are 104 of them) vis-a-vis geological fault lines. We also included locations of significant historical earthquakes. Take a look and see if we might be vulnerable to a nuclear disaster if/when "the big one" hits, and click on ...
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