Toxic Waste Is at the Mercy of Climate Change: Liam Denning

Among Hurricane Helene’s roster of disasters is a storm surge that deluged a retired nuclear power plant in Florida. While radioactive material there remains secure, according to operator Duke Energy Inc., one of the plant’s industrial wastewater ponds overflowed amid the flood. With luck, any resulting contamination will be minimal.

Even a near miss reminds us that, as with much else, the question of how we handle our industrial dregs is now shaped by climate change.

As my Bloomberg Opinion colleague Mark Gongloff writes, Helene’s shocking destruction in western North Carolina — “a temperate, mountainous place hundreds of miles inland” — mocks the idea ...