Health and Environmental Effects

Ploughshares Fund board member Chuck Hagel, who represented the state of Nebraska in the U.S. Read more >>

The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) was the first to report that the Department of Energy (DOE) had delayed a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) report about a potential major threat to public safety posed by plutonium at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (Los Alamos).   Read more >>

The U.S. Department of Energy celebrated the completion of the world's largest laser at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), housed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The celebration drew Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Energy Secretary Steven Chu. Some experts hope the laser could lead to fusion plants capable of generating more energy than they use. Read more >>

The Energy Department is releasing more than $6 billion in stimulus money for contractors, including many that have been cited for serious safety violations and costly mistakes, to clean up nuclear sites.  The cleanup program, long plagued by cost overruns and delays, is designated by the Government Accountability Office as "at high risk for fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement."  Former Ploughshares grantee Read more >>

Babcock & Wilcox recently paid $52.5 million to several hundred claimants in one of few nuclear contamination cases to even be tried, let alone reach settlement for personal injury and wrongful death. The case was filed in federal court in 1994 alleging that radioactive emissions from two nuclear fuel processing plants caused illness, death and property damage. Read more >>