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This is a map of highways 18-wheelers use to cart atomic warheads and nuclear waste around the country. And this is possibly the most comprehensive map of nuclear sites and facilities in the United States, in case you wanted to know what’s near you.

And this is the shortlist of rejected heds for our new “Nuclear Truckers” story:

Axles of Evil
What the Truck?
A Big Trucking Deal
Have Bomb, Will Travel
Nuke Road Truckers
If You Can Read This, You’re in My Blast Zone
Driver Carries No Cash, Just Nuclear Weapons
Every Which Way But Loose Nukes

(Source: Mother Jones)

Nuclear Truckers: Warheads on 18 Wheels

Big rigs with bombs are secretly cruising the interstate near you. But how safe are they from terrorists or accidents? To find out, we sent Adam Weinstein to investigate…and haul ass after one on a long stretch of South Carolina lowcountry highway. YEEHAW.

(Plus, later today, we’ll share the list of headlines for this story that we rejected. They’re oh so good. And bad.)

(Source: Mother Jones)

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Hey, look, it’s Osama bin Laden…and OMG he’s looking at our handy map of nuclear weapons sites around the US!

Even though we used 100% public, unclassified information to make our map of the nuclear complex, some people have freaked out and accused us of doing America’s enemies’ homework for them. Never mind that the military freely posts the location of its missiles and bombers and the nuclear power industry shares the locations of its plants. Apparently, terrorists have yet to master this simple yet deadly tool.

Why yes, yes, that IS a six-tube launcher for nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles jammed in that 747. It’s just one of the eight wackiest/worst ideas for nuclear weapons ever. You’ll never want to fly cross-country again.

Just one part of our “Atomic America” series on the growing nuclear-industrial complex.

(Source: Mother Jones)

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How the US Just Did Away With its Biggest Nuke

10,000 pounds. Nine megatons. 600 Hiroshimas. The B53 atomic bomb could have annihilated millions in a blink…but it couldn’t survive the Obama administration’s zeal for nuclear disarmament. Full story of the civilization killer’s retirement, with pics and video, here.

(Source: Mother Jones)

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Missing: Tons of US-Supplied Nuclear Weapons Material

We gave more than 17,000 kilos of highly enriched uranium to 27 “friendly” nations. We lost track of most of it.

Does that mean we have to invade ourselves now?

(Photo: Ed Siasoco)

(Source: Mother Jones)

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A Privately Owned Nuclear Weapons Plant? In KANSAS CITY?

Yeah, it’s happening. On an old soybean field on the edge of town.

But check out the activists who found an old-school way to fight the plan.

(Photo: James Rea)

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Can You Nuke a Hurricane?

Spoiler: No. But that won’t keep people from proposing it. The fascinating science and political backstory here.

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Chernobyl’s Half Lives
Radiation checkpoints. Contaminated mushrooms. A quarter-century after the meltdown, meet the families who chose to stay. A MoJo photoessay by Michael Forster Rothbart.

“When I was sick with cancer, we sold our car to pay for the surgery. We sold our TV, we sold our refrigerator, jewelry, everything we could. Now my wife Lydia has cancer and there’s nothing left to sell.” —Viktor Gaidak, Chernobyl engineer, above.

A Texas billionaire. The "King of Superfund Sites." 60 million cubic feet of low-level radioactive waste. What could possibly go wrong? →

Ann Coulter says radiation is good for us. I find this immensely comforting. Don’t you?

abudai:

From Seth’s Blog: The Triumph of Coal Marketing

For every person killed by nuclear power generation, 4,000 die due to coal, adjusted for the same amount of power produced… You might very well have excellent reasons to argue for one form over another. Not the point of this post. The question is: did you know about this chart? How does it resonate with you?

Vivid is not the same as true. It’s far easier to amplify sudden and horrible outcomes than it is to talk about the slow, grinding reality of day to day strife. That’s just human nature. Not included in this chart are deaths due to global political instability involving oil fields, deaths from coastal flooding and deaths due to environmental impacts yet unmeasured, all of which skew it even more if you think about it.

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thedailywhat:

Photo Series of the Day: The first photos of the so-called Fukushima Fifty — the fifty heroic nuclear reactor employees working around the clock to prevent a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant — have finally emerged.

An additional 150 workers have since joined the original fifty, of which five are believed to have died. Many of those inside the plant readily admit that, while they are still alive, they know radiation poisoning will eventually kill them.

[dailymail.]

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The Department of Energy should get some points for creative use of Microsoft Paint on  this Japan nuclear map. Via Kate Sheppard.

Japan Reactor Systems Drawn Like a NY Subway Map

How brilliant are our editorial interns? One, Joe Kloc, created this set of NYC subway-style schematics to show how Japan’s Fukushima nuclear reactors (and their fail-safe systems) are supposed to work.

Check out the full explanation, like Bill Nye the Science Guy, here.