8/27/2013 Vanishing Chernobyl: Aerial photos show how devastated town in radiation disaster zone is being reclaimed by nature

Source: Mail Online
Date: 8/27/2013
By: Anthony Bond

Swamped: These astonishing new photographs show how Chernobyl - the site of the world's worst nuclear accident - and surrounding city of Pripyat are being reclaimed by the surrounding forest

Devastated by the worst nuclear disaster in history, Chernobyl is now a barren ghost town slowly being forgotten.

These astonishing aerial photographs of the former power plant and the neighbouring city of Pripyat show how they are becoming hidden from view as the surrounding forest closes in.

Following the disaster - which occurred during a systems test on April 26, 1986 -  the Ukrainian government evacuated 350,000 residents from Chernobyl and Pripyat.
 ...
Read the rest here.

8/27/2013 Vermont Yankee nuclear plant to shut down

Source: The Boston Globe
Date: 8/27/2013
By Martin Finucane

The Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station sits along the banks of the Connecticut River in Vernon, Vt. Credit: Toby Talbot/AP File

The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant will be closed, the company that owns it announced today, bringing to a close a long-running, divisive battle over the plant.

“This was an agonizing decision and an extremely tough call for us,” said Leo Denault, chairman and chief executive of Entergy.

While activists have criticized the plant for years, the company said its decision was based, in the end, on economics. The company blamed a variety of factors, including the boom in natural gas that has driven down natural gas and wholesale energy prices, the high cost of operating the plant, and what it called wholesale market “design flaws.”

The company said it would operate the Vernon, Vt., plant through the fourth quarter of 2014 to “duly and properly plan for a safe and orderly shutdown” and prepare filings with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on shutdown and decommissioning.
...
Read the rest here.