Emergency workers seemed to try everything they could think of Thursday to douse Japan's most dangerously overheated nuclear reactors: helicopters, heavy-duty fire trucks, even water cannons normally used to quell rioters. But they couldn't be sure any of it was easing the peril at the tsunami-ravaged facility.Three reactors have had at least partial meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear pla...

It's a big ocean between northeastern Japan and the United States and thousands of miles from the crippled nuclear power plant to much of Asia. That means there's little chance - at least for now - that radiation from the shattered reactors could pose a serious threat to the wider world.Experts say the amount of radioactivity emitted by the facility has been relatively minor and should dissipate q...

SCE&G officials say their company’s nuclear plant in Fairfield County was built to be safe during earthquakes and is in better position to withstand natural disasters than the aging atomic reactors that have begun to fail in Japan.The company’s plant near Jenkinsville, licensed in 1982, has a different design than the ones in Japan, making the South Carolina plant able to provide vital c...

Fort Jackson's forestry branch will conduct a controlled burn of 100 acres today, near Screaming Eagle Road. Burning will begin about 11 a.m. Controlled burning is used in forest management. It is conducted during the cooler months to reduce the build up of fuel on the forest floor and decrease the likelihood of serious hotter fires. Controlled burning stimulates the germination of some desirabl...

The driver of a fuel tanker that overturned and blocked morning and evening rush traffic Feb. 22 at a major intersection in Lexington has been cited by police for driving too fast.Gregory Mabeley, 49, of Aiken was issued a ticket for the spill of nearly 1,100 gallons of fuel, town police chief Terrence Green said today. The maximum fine in municipal court is nearly $82.Investigators concluded Mabe...

Columbia and USC officials introduced today a hydrogen-powered Ford bus that they hope will be in use for the next year to transport handicapped students for one year.The bus is a partnership between Ford, USC, Columbia and the federal Department of Energy. If the deal is finalized, Ford will own the bus, USC will provide the driver and the insurance, Columbia will provide the fuel and the Departm...

Discovery, the world's most traveled spaceship, thundered into orbit for the final time Thursday, heading toward the International Space Station on a journey that marks the beginning of the end of the shuttle era.The six astronauts on board, all experienced space fliers, were thrilled to be on their way after a delay of nearly four months for fuel tank repairs. But it puts Discovery on the cusp of...

Traffic through arguably the most important intersection in Lexington has been and will continue to be blocked for most of today after a fuel tanker overturned just as the morning commute was revving up.The tanker was turning at Sunset Boulevard/U.S. 378 and North Lake Drive/S.C. 6 between 7 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. when it tipped over, Lexington County Public Safety Director Bruce Rucker said."We're lo...

A cool microclimate in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains has allowed farmer James Light to grow broccoli in quantity enough to supply a small chain of supermarkets.Along most of the East Coast, however, the broccoli piled up in produce crispers has traveled thousands of miles from the West Coast in refrigerated trucks, typically at a cost of $6,000 a tractor load.A team of researchers and agr...

Richland County deputies are looking for thieves who stole more than 4,500 gallons of gasoline from a Columbia convenience store.Deputies say the suspects were able to manually program the gas pumps to give them the fuel without permission.Investigators say the men took more than 1,400 gallons of premium and diesel gas on Dec. 12 and 3,300 gallons of the same fuels on Jan. 24.Deputies say the valu...

Officials say part of the Savannah River Site's most iconic symbols of the nuclear age has been removed.Contractors on Tuesday dismantled the 75-foot-fall orange dome above a test reactor named "Hector."The reactor - a relic from the Cold War - was built in 1959 and designed to test experimental fuel assemblies for commercial heavy-water power reactors.It has been inactive for decades since the fe...

The control systems of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant have been penetrated by a computer worm unleashed last year, according to a foreign intelligence report that warns of a possible Chernobyl-like disaster once the site becomes fully operational.Russia’s envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, also has raised the specter of the 1986 reactor explosion in Ukraine, but suggested last week that th...

Opposition figure Mohammed ElBaradei emerged from house arrest late Sunday to join protesters in central Cairo, echoing their demand that U.S.-allied President Hosni Mubarak resign and establishing himself as the face of Egypt's six-day pro-democracy uprising. The dramatic nighttime appearance by ElBaradei - the Nobel Peace Prize winner who returned to Egypt last week after the protests began ...

Just Google the term “hybrid cars” and look at how many options you get – from how they work to fuel economy comparisons, consumer reports to carmakers’ ads for their latest models.And it’s not just the Toyota Prius, which has become fairly common even on South Carolina roads. Carmakers are rolling out new models of hybrid and all-electric cars every year, includ...

Toyota recalled nearly 1.7 million cars worldwide Wednesday for possible fuel leaks, the latest in a ballooning number of quality problems that could further tarnish the company's reputation in the United States.The recalls are mostly in Japan, but include Lexus IS and GS luxury sedans sold in North America. That's where the world's No. 1 car company faces the biggest challenges in winning back cu...

A new nuclear reactor from the Westinghouse Electric Co. could safely withstand getting struck by a large commercial airliner, a federal advisory panel said Thursday.The finding by the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards means regulators could decide this year whether to give final approval to the company's AP1000 reactor, which utility companies have picked to power new plants in the Southea...

U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint said today the nation should recycle its used nuclear fuel, a move that could bring jobs to the state’s Savannah River Site.Recycling is one option for handling the nation’s waste now that the Obama Administration has decided not to dispose of the waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.Speaking at a forum in Augusta on how to handle the nation's growin...

A federal panel appointed by President Barack Obama to examine U.S. nuclear waste policies is visiting a former nuclear weapons complex in South Carolina.The 15-member Blue Ribbon Commission is meeting Thursday at the Savannah River Site near Aiken. Officials are touring the 310-square-mile site to examine facilities for treating, packaging and storing used nuclear fuel and waste.Savannah River on...

The National Transportation Safety Board says lack of fuel probably caused a fatal 2009 Spartanburg County plane crash.Authorities say 64-year-old Stuart Adcock Jr. of Campobello, S.C., was killed on April 7, 2009, when his single-engine 1974 Grumman American AA-1B crashed in a pasture.In a Dec. 20 report, the NTSB concluded the engine died because it was not getting enough fuel, due to inadequate...

Federal regulators have released their final safety evaluation report for a plant to make nuclear reactor fuel from plutonium waste at the old nuclear bomb plant in South Carolina.The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in the report released Monday that plans for the mixed oxide fuel facility at the Savannah River Site near Aiken have adequate safeguards.Construction on the facility to convert wea...

An estimated 200 jobs will be created in Columbia area as Pure Power Technologies will embark on a $25 million expansion affecting the company’s Midlands operations, according to an announcement made Tuesday. Pure Power Technologies, a division of Illinois-based Navistar Inc., makes diesel engine fuel parts at its Blythewood manufacturing plant. It also has a research and development facili...

Deep fried turkey is a popular Thanksgiving treat. But what to do with all that leftover frying oil?Columbia residents can now recycle their used cooking oil from Thanksgiving - and every other day of the year - through the city's Southern Fried Fuel program.People can drop off their used oil at the Public Works Facility on Colonial Drive. Cooking oil should be free of water, suds and food scraps ...

Columbia, plagued by volumes of deep-fried-turkey cooking oil poured into kitchen sinks each holiday season, is taking action to get residents to collect the oil for recycling.Deep-frying turkey Deep-fried-turkey cooking households can generate up to five gallons of leftover cooking oil that many folks are tempted to pour down drains. But that oil wreaks havoc on the city’s underground sewer ...

Federal regulators are fining a South Carolina nuclear fuel plant thousands of dollars for a spill of wastewater containing uranium.The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Thursday it had proposed a fine of $17,500 for the Westinghouse Electric Co. plant near Columbia.Regulators say about 200 gallons of wastewater containing ammonia and uranium spilled Jan. 24 after a pump failed. No workers were h...

USC has landed a $3.6 million grant from the U.S. Defense Department to research how to make fuel cells lighter for portable power uses.The research will be conducted by three USC endowed chairs at their new labs in the Horizon I building on the school's Innovista reedrch campus.The grant was announced by U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., EngenuitySC and SCRA.

SCANA Corp.’s third-quarter earnings fell nearly 2 percent as rising operating expenses offset higher power sales and profits at the Cayce-based electric and natural gas provider.The parent of S.C. Electric & Gas reported today that earnings for the quarter ending Sept. 30 were $101 million, or 79 cents per diluted share, versus $103 million, or 84 cents per diluted share, a year earlier.A ye...

Iran began the process of loading 163 fuel rods into the reactor core of its first nuclear power plant on Tuesday, celebrating the achievement as proof that Tehran can outmaneuver international sanctions.The plant, built with Russian help in the southern port city of Bushehr, is not among the aspects of Iran's nuclear program that are of top concern to the international community and is not direct...

Toyota is recalling 1.53 million Lexus, Avalon and other models, mostly in the U.S. and Japan, for brake fluid and fuel pump problems, the latest in a string of quality lapses for the world's No. 1 automaker.Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday it will call back for repairs about 740,000 cars in the U.S. and 599,000 in Japan. The remainder are in Europe and other markets around the world.Over the past...

A U.S. Department of Energy official is visiting South Carolina's former nuclear weapons complex to celebrate a milestone in stimulus-funded cleanup.Officials say U.S. Department of Energy Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Ines Triay is at the Savannah River Site on Wednesday to mark the completion of work at the M Area.Savannah River opened in the early 1950s and once produced plut...

Most U.S. homeowners should get some relief on their heating bills this winter. The price of natural gas, the fuel that supplies 70 percent of the nation’s heat, is relatively low for the second year in a row, and falling. Also, forecasters predict a warmer winter across much of the country – especially in the Southeast, which suffered through a historically cold winter last year. Bu...