- Social:
Harvard University
Associate at the Project on Managing the Atom in the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School; former reporter in the London Bureau of Time magazine
PROFILE
Eben Harrell
Guest
FROM Eben Harrell
To the Point
Hunting Down Nuclear Waste Leads to a 'Plutonium Mountain' Sixty years ago, the former Soviet Union started conducting nuclear tests in a remote area of Eastern Kazakhstan. Much of the plutonium residue never disappeared. When the Soviets pulled out it was left behind and went unprotected for years. Only in recent years has there been an effort to secure it. Last October, scientists marked the completion of a 17-year operation. They had reduced one of the largest nuclear security threats since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Eben Harrell, Associate at the Project on Managing the Atom at Harvard's Kennedy School, has reported on what's now called "Plutonium Mountain."
To the Point
Chernobyl 25 Years Later: Lessons for Fukushima Twenty-five years ago today, reactor number 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in what's now Ukraine melted down. Some 600,000 workers were exposed to massive amounts of radiation and the radioactive plume caused sickness and death elsewhere in the northern hemisphere. In the months after the disaster, a massive sarcophagus was built over the power plant. But the core is still molten, the sarcophagus is starting to crumble and there's concern that its collapse could release another radioactive cloud. Eben Harrell is a writer and reporter in the London bureau of Time magazine.
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To the Point
Venezuela spirals into economic and political chaos Venezuela, a country whose potential for prosperity is unmatched, finds itself on the verge of civil war. What sustains the repressive government? With time running out, guest host León Krauze looks at what the international community can do to pull the country from the edge of collapse.
To the Point
Trump's 'America First' goes missing abroad In the Middle East, President Trump is changing some policies of the Obama Administration—and reversing his own campaign attacks on Islam as a religion that "hates us." We hear about his visit to Saudi Arabia and what's at stake for the rest of his foreign excursion.
To the Point
Replacing Obamacare: Now you see it… now you don’t As the Senate deliberates replacing Obmacare, health coverage for millions of people is at stake. There've been no public hearings, and a draft measure won't be made public. Is the House version so unpopular that that Senate is hiding a version that looks much the same?
To the Point
Is the threat from Russia missing from the Russia meddling probe? There's much being made about the Trump administration's possible ties with Russia. But the bottom line is Russia's effort to influence American democracy. Do the President and his aides care enough to take action before voters go back to the polls?