via NHK World / July 1, 2014 / The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant estimates that it recovered about 80 percent of a radioactive substance that leaked with contaminated wastewater last year. About 300 tons of wastewater contaminated with radioactive substances leaked from a storage tank at the plant in August 2013. Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, submitted a report on the leak to Japan’s … Continue reading →
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via The Japan Times / June 28, 2014 / Tokyo Electric Power Co. can’t confirm whether the groundwater bypass operation at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant is working, Tepco officials said. The operation is intended to reduce the tons of radiation-tainted water being generated by the plant each day. The melted reactor fuel at the plant, which was heavily damaged by three core meltdowns after the March 2011 … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia RT.com / June 27, 2014 / Abby Martin speaks with Paul Gunter on Breaking The Set, reactor oversight director at Beyond Nuclear, discussing the many unanswered questions surrounding the ongoing nuclear crisis at Fukushima Japan, including the construction of a massive underground ‘ice wall’ and the rate at which contaminated water continues to pour into the Pacific Ocean.
Continue readingvia EX-SKF.blogpsot.com / June 25, 2014 / The water was drawn from the lower permeable layer 20-meter deep, according to Kyodo News (6/24/2014) from an observation hole newly dug in preparation for monitoring the frozen soil impermeable wall that is to surround the reactor/turbine buildings of Reactors 1-4. Cesium and all-beta (that includes strontium) are below detection levels, but tritium in 4-digit Bq per liter is apparently not what TEPCO … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia SBS.com.au / June 26, 2014 / Furious shareholders of the company that runs Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear power station have joined campaigners to demand the permanent closure of the utility’s atomic plants as it held its annual meeting. Dozens of demonstrators with loud speakers and banners said on Thursday Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), which wants to restart some of the reactors at the world’s largest nuclear plant, amongst … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia guardianlv.com / June 25, 2014 / Three years ago, on March 11, 2011, a catastrophic failure at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant occurred. Three out of the six nuclear reactors in the plant melted down when the area was hit by a tsunami, which occurred as an after-effect of an earthquake. The 2011 catastrophe was the largest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in April 1986. It is one of only a … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia NHK World / June 25, 2014 / The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has found that radioactive water can now easily spread in a deep layer of groundwater. It says it will speed up construction work on a barrier aimed at preventing contaminated water from leaking into the ocean. The deep layer of water is about 25 meters below the surface. Water there was found to be … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Enformable.com / June 23, 2014 / Tokyo Electric announced that it has resumed full operation of the ALPS system used to decontaminated radioactive water at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The ALPS system is designed to process up to 750 tons of radioactive water per day when operating at full capacity. It is the first time that all three lines of the ALPS system have been in operation … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia The Japan Times / June 23, 2014 / Environment Minister Nobuteru Ishihara on Monday apologized again for making a remark suggesting that the issue of where to store contaminated soil from the damaged Fukushima No. 1 power plant was a matter of handing out money. This time Ishihara made the apology to Toshitsuna Watanabe, the mayor of the town of Okuma, one of the candidate sites in Fukushima Prefecture … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia NHK World / June 19, 2014 / The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant will alter its plan to transfer the fuel rods from the number 4 damaged reactor building. Some fuel rods will be stored at a new location in the plant. Tokyo Electric Power Company says it will apply for approval for the change of plan to the Nuclear Regulation Authority shortly. As part of the … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Gregg Levine / Al Jazeera / June 18, 2014 / Skeptics of the plan to build a massive ice wall around Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility didn’t have to wait particularly long for their first “I told you so.” TEPCO, the nominal operator of the battered plant, announced Tuesday that while construction on the network of pipes, pumps, and compressors has begun on what is intended to be … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Recharge News / June 11, 2014 / A consortium under Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has finished building a V-shaped, semi-submersible apparatus (pictured) that will be used to float one of two 7MW Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) SeaAngel turbines, as part of the second phase of the Fukushima offshore floating wind demonstration project. The consortium — which includes Marubeni, MHI, the University of Tokyo, Hitachi, Mitsui … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / June 9, 2014 / Tokyo Electric Power Co. will use a truck-mounted filtration system to extract strontium from water stored at the damaged Fukushima No. 1 power plant as the utility struggles to overcome technical problems with its existing water-processing facility. Tepco has signed a contract with Kurion Inc. to remove strontium from more than 340,000 metric tons of radioactive water stored at the wrecked plant … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia EX-SKF / June 8, 2014 / Confusion and misunderstanding ensue, following the reporting on the Ministry of the Environment’s plan (yet to be officially announced) to raise the radiation target level after decontamination in Fukushima from the current 0.23 microsievert/hour to 0.4-0.6 microsievert/hour. The Ministry of the Environment (supposedly) says the additional exposure from the radiation under the new target level will be still under 1 millisievert per year. The … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia NHK World / June 6, 2014 / The operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says more than 3 tons of radioactive water may have leaked from barriers surrounding storage tanks. Tokyo Electric Power Company made the announcement on Friday following the discovery of water leaking around 2 of its storage tanks on the hillside earlier this week. The tanks contain rainwater with radiation levels above government-set … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Daily Kos / June 6, 2014 / The lecture shown below is a great resource that summarizes the most recent results from a crowd-funded program Our Radioactive Ocean dedicated to monitoring Fukushima sourced radionuclides off the US and Canadian Pacific coasts and measurements made by the international scientific community in the Pacific. Probable impacts of the Fukushima disaster on the health of the North Pacific ecosystem and human inhabitants … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Daily Press / June 4, 2014 / Masao Yoshida (pictured) – the former plant manager of the Fukushima nuclear power plant during the time when it was hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 – died of cancer last year, but his recorded testimony revealed a flaw in the disaster management process that probably caused the chaos around the way Tokyo Electric Power … Continue reading →
Continue readingfrom Straight.com / May 29, 2014 / Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) has given the go-ahead to the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant to build a so-called ice wall around four reactors to prevent incoming groundwater from becoming severely contaminated. The NRA, Japan’s nuclear watchdog agency, had been considering the plan by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), which runs the Fukushima Daiichi plant, since last fall. TEPCO, … Continue reading →
Continue readingfrom Japan Times / May 31, 2014 / Singapore will lift a ban on food imports from Fukushima Prefecture imposed amid the nuclear meltdowns crisis, Premier Lee Hsien Loong said Saturday at a meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. In response, Abe expressed his gratitude and said, “It gives Fukushima great courage,” government officials said. Singapore stopped importing food products from Fukushima after the massive earthquake and tsunami of March … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / May 28, 2014 / Water sampled from a well at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant has been found to contain levels of radioactive tritium that exceeds the limit for dumping it into the Pacific, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said. The discovery was the first report of over the limit tritium in groundwater at the wells since Tepco began discharging water into the ocean … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Channel News Asia / May 28, 2014 / Japan’s government has announced it will replace two of its five members on the Nuclear Regulation Authority which determines if a nuclear plant is ready for a restart. Speculation is rising that the government is removing the seismic expert responsible for actually beefing up the requirements for nuclear plants. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) is eager to spread the message … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Asahi Shimbun / May 24, 2014 / Successive Cabinets have refused to release details of firsthand accounts of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, despite an understanding by a government investigation committee that the information from 772 interviewees could be made public. The media and other third parties have been denied access to the testimonies about Japan’s worst-ever nuclear accident. The government is still showing reluctance even after The Asahi Shimbun … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Justin McCurry / theguardian.com / May 21, 2014 / The operator of the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has started pumping groundwater into the Pacific ocean in an attempt to manage the large volume of contaminated water at the site. Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) said it had released 560 tonnes of groundwater pumped from 12 wells located upstream from the damaged reactors. The water had been temporarily stored … Continue reading →
Continue readingfrom Channel News Asia / May 21, 2014 / A Japanese court ruled Wednesday against the restarting of two reactors at a nuclear power plant, acknowledging residents’ safety fears and dealing a blow to the government’s plan to revive nuclear power. It was the first court ruling in Japan against the restarting of reactors since a massive earthquake and tsunami sparked meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear plant in March 2011. … Continue reading →
Continue readingfrom EX-SKF / May 19, 2014 / The entire ALPS multi-nuclide removal system is down again, as Line C has just been stopped as the water sample from Line C is found with high calcium content. Line A was stopped three days ago, and Line B has been idle since March this year, when the water treated in Line B was found with high beta (in the order of 10 … Continue reading →
Continue readingfrom Japan Times / May 20, 2014 / The government on Tuesday refused to comment on a media report that Masao Yoshida, the now-deceased chief of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant at the time of the meltdowns, was quoted as saying most of the plant’s workers evacuated in spite of his order to remain. The daily Asahi Shimbun, which claims to have obtained a copy of an interview with … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy AKIRA HATANO / Asashi Shimbun / May 17, 2014 / Plans to start construction in June of frozen underground soil walls at the crippled Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant are now askew after concerns were raised by the nation’s nuclear watchdog body. The Nuclear Regulation Authority said plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. has yet to submit documents demonstrating the safety and efficacy of the project, which is unprecedented … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia NHK World / May 14, 2014 / The government and the operator of a damaged Fukushima nuclear plant are expected to start next week releasing into the sea ground water pumped up at the plant. Officials of the government and Tokyo Electric Power Company say 2 surveys of groundwater show radiation levels of the water are below TEPCO’s safety target, which is lower than the government-set standard, at the … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia EX-SKF / May 10, 2014 / Just as the start of fuel assembly removal from Reactor 4′s Spent Fuel Pool was anticlimactic, so is the removal of debris from Reactor 3′s Spent Fuel Pool. No one reports it (not even the independent journalists these days), and TEPCO does not publicize. According to the progress report inside the updated Roadmap (4/24/2014; from page 222 to page 233), since December 17, … Continue reading →
Continue readingfrom Vice News / May 12, 2014 / In 2012, more than 15,000 people living near the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant filed a criminal complaint at the Fukushima prosecutors’ office. They alleged that Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and the Japanese central government were criminally negligent for the March 2011 Fukushima meltdown and the way in which the resulting cleanup was handled. The Fukushima police, however, declined to investigate. … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia RT.com / May 10, 2014 / The amount of Cesium-137 leaked from the Fukushima nuclear power plant could be worse than expected, a Japanese research team has concluded. They believe 50 percent more of the radioactive material could have escaped into the atmosphere and seawater. The original estimate of 13,600 terabecquerels was made by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the operator of the power station. However, a new report … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia EX-SKF / May 7, 2014 / As of May 7, 2014, 814 fuel assemblies (22 new (unused) assemblies, 792 used fuel assemblies) out of the total 1533 in the Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool have been successfully removed. Removal of the fuel assemblies in Reactor 4′s SFP started on November 18, 2013. At this pace, it will be completed sometime in November this year, as scheduled. From TEPCO’s English … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia CBS L.A. / May 7 2014 / The West Coast shoreline shows no signs of ocean-borne radiation from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, scientists said Wednesday. KNX 1070′s Tom Reopelle reports researchers from CSU Long Beach and other schools are sampling kelp along the California coastline to determine whether seawater arriving from Japan poses any public health threat. The Kelp Watch 2014 project – which is co-headed by … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Wall Street Journal / May 6, 2014 / Three years after the meltdown at Fukushima, the future of nuclear energy in East Asia is coming into view. Voters everywhere remain jittery about safety, but Japan and South Korea continue to invest in new capacity. The exception is Taiwan, which may soon exacerbate its own economic and strategic vulnerabilities by abandoning domestic nuclear-power production. Large street protests and a hunger … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Enformable.com / May 5, 2014 /Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and French President Francois Hollande met during a summit meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Monday and agreed that the two countries will work to promote the research and development of fast breeder reactors. According to Japanese sources with knowledge of the agreement, Japan will provide technical assistance on France’s fast breeder reactor development projects. France has … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia business-standard.com / April 30, 2014 / The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant said today it booked a USD 4.3 billion annual net profit owing to an electricity rate hike and a massive government bailout following the 2011 disaster. Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) was teetering on the brink as cleanup and compensation costs stoked huge losses and threatened to collapse the sprawling utility until Tokyo stepped with a … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia undercurrentnews.com / April 29, 2014 / Scientists claim to have found slightly elevated levels of radioactivity in US West Coast albacore tuna caused by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, according to Oregon State University (OSU). Researchers from OSU said in new study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology the increase of radiation has been minute. In fact, it would be needed to consume more than 700,000 … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Asahi Shimbun / April 29, 2014 / Nearly half of households that evacuated following the Fukushima nuclear disaster have been split up while close to 70 percent have family members suffering from physical and mental distress, a survey showed. The number of households forced to live apart exceeds the number that remain together, according the survey, the first by the Fukushima prefectural government that attempted to survey all households … Continue reading →
Continue readingfrom The Corbett Report: The Japanese Nuclear Regulatory Agency is currently considering applications from 8 different utilities companies to restart 17 of the nation’s 54 nuclear reactors, which have been taken offline in the wake of the Fukushima crisis. Today we talk to Aileen Mioko Smith of Green Action Japan about the anti-nuclear movement in Japan and their efforts to stop the reactor restarts from happening.
Continue readingvia Japan Times / April 27, 2014 / Residents of the 20-km hot zone around the meltdown-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant have been allowed to stay overnight at their homes after progress with decontamination. Previously, the residents from the village of Kawauchi Village, Fukushima Prefecture (pictured), were allowed to spend only the day inside the evacuation zone. The change means the residents will be free to spend entire days … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia RT.com / April 21, 2014 / Katsutaka Idogawa, former mayor of Futaba, a town near the disabled Fukushima nuclear plant, is warning his country that radiation contamination is affecting Japan’s greatest treasure – its children. Asked about government plans to relocate the people of Futaba to the city of Iwaki, inside the Fukushima prefecture, Idogawa criticized the move as a “violation of human rights.” Compared with Chernobyl, radiation levels … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Yuka Obayashi / via Japan Times / April 20, 2014 / The manager of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant admits to embarrassment that repeated efforts have failed to bring under control the problem of radioactive water, eight months after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the world the matter had been resolved. Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant’s operator, has been fighting a daily battle against contaminated water … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Ria Novosti / April 18, 2014 / Radiation levels in the areas surrounding the quake-hit Fukushima nuclear power plant have dropped, but still exceed the long-term target of the Japanese government, according to a report issued by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on Friday. The report, quoted by the Asahi Shumbun daily newspaper, says that Fukushima evacuees will receive radiation doses from 0.7 to 3 millisieverts per … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Shinichi Sekine and Miki Aoki / Asahi Shimbun / April 16, 2014 / The Japanese government withheld findings on estimated radiation exposure for Fukushima returnees for six months, even though levels exceeded the long-term target of 1 millisievert a year at more than half of surveyed locations. Individual radiation doses were estimated to be beyond 1 millisievert per year, or 0.23 microsievert an hour, at 24 of all the … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Press TV / April 15, 2014 / Authorities at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant say the facility’s basements have been mistakenly filled with highly contaminated water. The basements were flooded with about 200 tons of cooling-tank radioactive water after pumps were turned on by mistake. The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), says the water didn’t have a pathway to reach the ocean or leak out to … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / April 12, 2014 / Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Friday that toxic water found to have leaked last August at one of the huge tanks at the accident-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was far more contaminated than initially announced. After recalculating the radiation level, Tepco said the water contained 280 million becquerels per liter of beta ray-emitting radioactive materials such as strontium-90, instead of … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Kevin Griffin / Vancouver Sun / April 12, 2014 / All along the Pacific coast of North America and as far south as Costa Rica, people with little or no scientific background have volunteered to raise money for the program and collect the sea water samples needed to test for radiation. The crowdsourcing, citizen-scientist program is the idea of Ken Buesseler, a research scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Maan Pamintuan-Lamorena / via Japan Daily Press / April 11, 2014 / Teaching the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident to elementary school students proved to be difficult as what some textbook publishers found out. Especially if the words “atom” and “radiation” are not yet included in the curriculum guidelines for elementary students. As such, only one out of the six approved science textbooks for primary school use tackled the … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Enformable.com / April 8, 2014 / Engineers from Tokyo Electric held discussions with officials from the Japanese government on Monday where they communicated that they are running out of room to store contaminated debris at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. According to estimates provided by the engineers, more than 560,000 cubic meters of debris will be produced from decommissioning activities over the next 13 years. Tokyo Electric … Continue reading →
Continue readingfrom NHK World / April 8, 2014 / The government and Tokyo Electric Power Company will begin pumping up groundwater at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Wednesday. The water is expected to be released into the sea next month. This will mark the start of one of several key measures to reduce the increasing volume of radiation-contaminated water at the facility. According to the plan, clean groundwater that … Continue reading →
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