Story Ideas

Samuel Laurence Foundation Story Ideas shares compelling, evidence-based stories on nuclear safety and environmental health, designed to spark ideas, support reporting, and inform public dialogue.

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How Communities Prepare for a Disaster

When nuclear plants shut down but the waste stays behind, what happens to the people who trained for catastrophe?

Residents Demand Transparency on Nuclear Waste

SOLANA BEACH, CA – The scenic Southern California coastline, with its world-famous beaches and vibrant communities, is home to a pressing environmental and public safety concern: the 3.6 million pounds of nuclear waste stored at the decommissioned San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS).

Why the Federal Government Still Has No Permanent Nuclear Waste Solution

Forty-three years after Congress promised a solution, the United States remains trapped in an expensive stalemate over nuclear waste disposal. Despite President Trump's recent executive orders calling for a "recommended national policy to support spent nuclear fuel management" within 240 days, decades of political reversals have left 89,000 metric tons of radioactive waste scattered across 75 sites with no permanent solution in sight.

Justice Delayed: Environmental Exploitation and Recovery

For over eight decades, Indigenous communities worldwide have served as unwilling guardians of humanity's most dangerous industrial legacy. From the uranium mines of Namibia to the nuclear test sites of Kazakhstan, from the Marshall Islands to the Navajo Nation, Native peoples have borne the environmental and health costs of the global nuclear industry while reaping none of its benefits.
This pattern of "nuclear colonization" represents a modern form of environmental racism where marginalized communities become expendable in pursuit of national security and energy production. The consequences are measured not just in contaminated soil and water, but in generations of cancer, birth defects, and cultural displacement.

Toxic Legacy: Why California's Coastal Communities Demand Nuclear Justice

Coastal communities bear the environmental burden of 3.6 million pounds of nuclear waste.

A Timeline of Warnings Ignored