• Thanks to Degilbo for the image.

It's no secret that I support legalizing marijuana, but even the foggiest pot heads know better than to try and operate major machinery when they're blazed ... much less nuclear-frikin' power plants. Geeze.

Though, marijuana use is not even close to the most scandalous revaluation in this ABC News article, excerpted below:

Among the litany of violations at U.S. nuclear power plants are missing or mishandled nuclear material, inadequate emergency plans, faulty backup power generators, corroded cooling pipes and even marijuana use inside a nuclear plant, according to an ABC News review of four years of Nuclear Regulatory Commission safety records.

And perhaps most troubling of all, critics say, the commission has failed to correct the violations in a timely fashion.

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has very good safety regulations but they have very bad enforcement of those regulations," said David Lochbaum, a nuclear scientist with the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists.

There are 104 U.S. nuclear power plants.

Lochbaum and the Union of Concerned Scientists found 14 "near misses" at nuclear plants in 2010. And there were 56 serious violations at nuclear power plants from 2007 to 2011, according the ABC News review of NRC records.

At the Dresden Nuclear Power Plant in Illinois, for instance, which is located within 50 miles of the 7 million people who live in and around Chicago, nuclear material went missing in 2007. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission fined the operator -- Exelon Corp. -- after discovering the facility had failed to "keep complete records showing the inventory [and] disposal of all special nuclear material in its possession."

As a result, two fuel pellets and equipment with nuclear material could not be accounted for.

Read the rest of this article here.

Further reading:

• In case of a nuke accident ... — Boomer with an Attitude
• Long blackouts pose risk to US reactors — McClatchy
• Officials monitor radiation in U.S. air, rainwater — Reuters/Yahoo! News

• These are the coal ash ponds that drain into Charlotte's main drinking water reservoir: Mountain Island Lake.

While we await the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's thrashing in Washington, and their coal ash ruling — which was originally promised to be delivered in December 2009 — check out this snip from The Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

The federal government promoted some uses of coal ash, including wallboard or filler in road embankments, without properly testing the environmental risks, according to a report from the Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general.

The inspector general's report released Wednesday said sites where coal ash was used for earthworks, like road embankments or berms, "may represent a large universe of inappropriate disposal applications with unknown potential for adverse environmental and human health impacts."

The EPA is considering imposing stricter regulations for coal ash, or fly ash, a byproduct of burning coal at power plants. The rule changes were prompted by a 2008 environmental disaster at a Tennessee power plant that released more than 5 million cubic yards of ash into a river and nearby lands.

The agency has said coal ash contains arsenic, selenium, lead and mercury in low concentrations, and those contaminants can pose health risks if they leach into groundwater.

Read the entire article, by Dylan Lovan, here.

Further reading: Is coal ash poisoning Charlotte-area drinking water?

• An anti-Monsanto demonstration at the White House this past Saturday. (Thanks to 'mar is sea Y' for the photo.)

There's no way I can explain the dynamics between Monsanto — a massive chemical and seed producer — and the organic food industry in this post, but feel free to clue yourself in over at OrganicConsumers.org, where you can sign up to participate in the "Millions Against Monsanto" campaign if you're so inclined.

To sum up: Monsanto has the farming industry by the balls.

In the meantime, here's a snippet from a Reuters report that details a lawsuit between organic farmers and smaller seed producers and Monsanto:

A consortium of U.S. organic farmers and seed dealers filed suit against global seed giant Monsanto Co. on Tuesday, in a move to protect themselves from what they see as a growing threat in the company's arsenal of genetically modified crops.

The Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) filed the suit on behalf of more than 50 organizations challenging the agricultural giant's patents on its genetically modified seeds. The group is seeking a ruling that would prohibit Monsanto from suing the farmers or dealers if their organic seed becomes contaminated with Monsanto's patented biotech seed germplasm.

Monsanto is known for its zealous defense of its patents on a range of genetically altered crops. Its patented "Roundup Ready" soybeans, corn and cotton are favorites of U.S. farmers because of their ability to withstand herbicide treatments.

But Monsanto has filed scores of lawsuits and won judgments against farmers they claimed made use of their seed without paying required royalties.

Many farmers have claimed that their fields were inadvertently contaminated without their knowledge, and the issue has been a topic of concern for not only farmers, but also companies that clean and handle seed.

Read the rest of this article, by Carey Gillam, here.

Further reading: Coalition adviser orders review of "safe" pesticides — The Independent