via Asahi Shimbun / July 2nd, 2013 / POINT OF VIEW by Hirohito Ono / The run-up to July’s Upper House election will likely focus on the economy and foreign policy issues, but one topic that must be discussed is the Abe administration’s nuclear energy policy. In its platform for the December Lower House election, the Liberal Democratic Party said it “would seek the establishment of an economic and social … Continue reading →
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By Chihiro Kamisawa / CNIC / June 1, 2013 / One of Japan’s major newspapers, the Asahi Shimbun, reported on February 7 that Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) had obstructed the investigation of the accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS) by the National Diet of Japan Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission (NAIIC). TEPCO clearly gave commission members false explanations concerning the condition of the Unit 1 reactor … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Hideyuki Ban / CNIC / June 1, 2013 / The constantly increasing amount of radioactive water stored at the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is becoming a grave problem. This article focuses on the contaminated water leaks. Despite the fact that no one knows where or in what condition the melted nuclear fuel from the reactor core is located at present, it is absolutely … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Hideyuki Ban / CNIC / June 1, 2013 Decontamination is now ongoing in many areas, including Fukushima. This article summarizes the current state of decontamination. Although we use the term “decontamination,” since the radiation does not disappear, it should perhaps more properly be termed “relocated contamination,” but here we use the term “decontamination.” Basic Policy The actual organization carrying out the decontamination differs according to the degree of contamination … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Bryan Walsh / via Time / May 1, 2013 / Honestly, if the consequences weren’t potentially so dire, the ongoing struggles to clean up the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northern Japan would be the stuff of comedy. In March, an extended blackout disabled power to a vital cooling system for days. The cause: a rat that had apparently been chewing on cables in a switchboard. As if that’s … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Mikiko Watanabe / CNIC / Two years have passed since the outbreak of the disastrous nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS). Even now, about 3,000 workers are engaged in various operations in the plant every day. With…
Continue readingAsahi Shimbun / March 22, 2013 / A power blackout at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant resulted in a long stoppage in the circulation of water that cools spent fuel in several pools. If the blackout had continued for …
Continue readingvia Washington’s Blog / March 11, 2013 / Nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen said today that the containment vessel at Fukushima reactor 2 has a large crack in it. Reactors 1, 2 and 3 all exploded. BBC reports today: They know very little about what??…
Continue readingvia ex-SKF / March 9, 2013 / Nothing has really changed after the nuclear accident on March 11, 2011. 2 to 3 months after the March 11, 2011 disaster, just when the extent of radiation contamination became known – sewer sludge, ashes from garbage…
Continue readingby David McNeill / via The Independent / March 2, 2013 / They displayed a bravery few can comprehend, yet very little is known about the men who stayed behind to save Japan’s stricken nuclear plant. In a rare interview, David McNeill meets Atsufumi…
Continue readingby Monte Burke / via Forbes / February 20, 2013 / Last May I wrote a piece about Bluefin tuna caught off the coast of southern California that carried radiation from the Fukushima, Japan, nuclear plant that was damaged in the March 2011. The fish were …
Continue readingby Jessica M. Morrison / via Slate / January 31, 2013 / […] In October 2011, the Science Council of Japan organized a committee to rethink reconstruction with an eye toward the social responsibility of science and scientists. Little more than a year …
Continue readingBy Dennis Riches / nf2045.blogspot.com / January 19, 2013 / More forgotten history that hides in plain sight: It’s not a stop for the Japanese tourists who visit Niagara, but they might be interested to know. The shores of Lake Ontario and the Ni…
Continue readingby Geoff Brumfiel / via Nature.com / January 16, 2013 / In the immediate aftermath of the nuclear accident, public-health experts worried about the possible risk from radiation. Subsequent analyses have shown that the prompt, if frantic, evacuation of …
Continue readingvia The Japan Times / December 26, 2012 / The catastrophe at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant not only affected people directly in Fukushima Prefecture but also harmed the local economy. Sales of products from the prefectu…
Continue readingby Roger Pulvers / The Japan Times / December 9, 2012 / excerpt: As someone who has been studying Russian affairs for 50 years, having made my first trip there in 1964, I strongly believe that the aftereffects — ecological, economic, political and ps…
Continue readingby Evan Osnos / The New Yorker / November 2, 2012 / When Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast, it forced three nuclear reactors to shut down, including the Indian Point 3 plant along the banks of the Hudson, about twenty-five miles north of New York City…
Continue readingby James Conca / via Forbes / October 9, 2012 / No one wants to make a decision on nuclear power in Japan. This is not surprising since the weak regulatory environment and complicity between government and industry in Japan led to the Fukushima disaste…
Continue readingby Dennis Riches / nf2045.blogspot.com / August 22, 2012 / “Looking back more than a year after the event, it is clear that the Fukushima reactor complex, though nowhere close to state-of-the-art, was adequately designed to contain radiation.R…
Continue readingby Dennis Riches / nf2045.blogspot.com / August 22, 2012 / “Looking back more than a year after the event, it is clear that the Fukushima reactor complex, though nowhere close to state-of-the-art, was adequately designed to contain radiation.R…
Continue readingby Harvey Wasserman / CounterPunch / August 29, 2012 / With every atomic reactor disaster comes the inevitable whitewash. And Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal has just painted a tragic new coat over the radioactive wasteland of atomic flim-flam….
Continue readingby Richard Wilcox / via DissidentVoice.org / August 31, 2012 / End of the day, factory whistle cries, Men walk through these gates with death in their eyes. – Bruce Springsteen, “Factory” Bring us the living dead. People no one will miss. – Fuk…
Continue readingby Mari Yamaguchi / Associated Press / August 26, 2012 / This is Japan’s summer of discontent. Tens of thousands of protesters — the largest demonstrations the country has seen in decades — descend on Tokyo every Friday evening to shout anti-…
Continue readingby Eric Johnston / The Japan Times / August 23, 2012 Numbers, numbers everywhere. So what are we to think? That’s the question activists, academics and members of the public are asking as they follow the debate over the next long-term energy plan…
Continue readingby Richard Muller / via Wall Street Journal / August 18, 2012 / Denver has particularly high natural radioactivity. It comes primarily from radioactive radon gas, emitted from tiny concentrations of uranium found in local granite. If you live there, yo…
Continue readingBy Kwang Weng Kin / The Jakarta Post / August 9, 2012 / Five hundred days and four voluminous reports later, the truth about the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 plant remains elusive. The Fukushima disaster was triggered by a huge earthquake an…
Continue readingby Harvey Wasserman / CounterPunch / August 7, 2012 / Our lives still hang by a Devil’s thread at Fukushima. The molten cores at Units 1, 2 & 3 have threatened all life on Earth. The flood of liquid radiation has poisoned the Pacific. Fukushima??…
Continue readingvia The Daily Yomiuri / August 8, 2012 / Tokyo Electric Power Co. has at long last made public, albeit partially, video images of in-house teleconferences held during the crisis at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant to discuss countermeasures. The…
Continue readingvia The Mainichi / August 4, 2012 / We must condemn Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) over its restrictions on news media access to footage of videoconferences it held immediately after the outbreak of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The utility will sh…
Continue readingvia Mainichi Daily / July 26, 2012 / A major shift in the nation’s energy policy is needed if Japan is to reduce its reliance on nuclear power. Not only must the scope of energy conservation be expanded, the nation must promote the introduction o…
Continue readingby Tina Gerhardt / The Indypendant / July 25, 2012 / On March 11, 2011, Japan was hit by a massive earthquake–measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale –and a tsunami with waves up to 65 feet high, leading to a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiich…
Continue readingby Jason Bartashius / Deep Kyoto / July 23, 2012 / On March 18, 2011 Yuko Nishiyama and her three-year old daughter, Mariko, left Fukushima City, 60 km from the Daiichi plant, to live in Tokyo. In June 2011, Yuko her parents and Mariko relocated to Kyo…
Continue readingby Kumiko Makihara / NYTimes.com / July 23, 2012 / The traditional inn nestled amid the mountainous countryside offered all the luxurious comforts for which these old-style hotels are famous. An elegant and eye-pleasing eight-course dinner was served i…
Continue readingJapan’s earthquake and tsunami forced a re-evaluation of nuclear power plant protection. Now, a veteran firefighter examines the state of American preparedness and looks at what needs to be done next. by Robert Lewin / HSToday.us / June 27, 2012 / Du…
Continue readingby Geoff Brumfiel / Nature / July 18, 2012 / t’s been well over a year since multiple meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan sparked the worst nuclear crisis in 25 years — and it is remarkable how little we still know about its impac…
Continue readingby Gregg Levine / via truthout / July 14, 2012 / Since the release of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Committee’s official report last week, much has been made of how it implicates Japanese culture as one of the root causes of the crisis. …
Continue readingby Dennis Riches / nf2045.blogspot.com / July 10, 2012 / Last week the government of Japan released a major report on the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. The Official Report of the The National Diet of Japan Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investiga…
Continue readingby David Shukman / via BBC / July 7, 2012 / The devastating conclusion that Japan’s Fukushima nuclear meltdown was an accident waiting to happen has grabbed the headlines. But the investigation has also unearthed worrying questions about the cata…
Continue readingby Michael Hanlon / The Telegraph / February 21, 2012 / I watched the terrible events which took place in Japan on March 11 last year with an appalled fascination. The first truly epic natural disaster to be recorded and beamed into a billion homes in …
Continue readingby Caroline Lucas, Rebecca Harms, and Dany Cohn-Bendit / The Guardian / February 17, 2012 / Rebecca Harms and Dany Cohn-Bendit are co-presidents of the Greens/EFA group in the European parliament On 11 March last year, Japan was hit by massive earthqu…
Continue readingby James Burgess / via HuffingtonPost.com / February 14, 2012 / As the radioactive clean-up following the disaster at Fukushima gets under way, the close relationship between the nuclear industry and the Japanese government becomes more obvious. I say …
Continue readingChris Meyers / Reuters / February 13, 2012 / OKUMA, Japan, Feb 13 (Reuters) – Back home for just three hours, a tearful Miyoko Takeda sorted through her belongings. She left behind the kimonos she once wore as a traditional dancer, fearful they m…
Continue readingvia nf2045.blogspot.com / February 1, 2012 / A couple weeks ago I was interviewed on Corbett Report Radio by independent radio journalist James Corbett (see also his blog Fukushima Update). After the interview, I thought of dozens of ways I could have …
Continue readingvia sanonofresafety.org / About California Nuclear Initiative On November 18, California’s Secretary of State approved the ballot initiative that seeks the closure of the two remaining nuclear power plants in California, thus starting the countdown …
Continue readingby Michael Platt / Calgary Sun / January 22, 2012 / There’s no need to panic — probably. But not knowing whether to shrug or cower over radioactive iodine falling on Calgary as a result of a meltdown in Japan last year has Canada’s top nuclear cr…
Continue readingvia nf2045.blogspot.com / January 22, 2012 / Book Review Yaroshinskaya, Alla, A. (2011) Chernobyl: Crime without Punishment. Transaction Publishers. The Chernobyl catastrophe was largely forgotten and dismissed by the world as soon as the smoldering…
Continue readingby Josh Bloom / Forbes / January 11, 2012 / Josh Bloom is a scholar at the American Council On Science and Health. Here, he writes about a new study on Fukushima’s impact on the U.S. I’ve seen some bad studies in my day, and also some irresponsible…
Continue readingBy David McNeill / Japan Times / January 8, 2012 Is the ongoing crisis surrounding the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant being accurately reported in the Japanese media? No, says independent journalist Shigeo Abe, who claims the authorities, and many…
Continue readingby Theodore Rockwell / American Spectator / December 6, 2011 / The front-page story in the Washington Post on Sunday November 20 vividly portrayed the horrors of the evacuated zones around Fukushima with unforgettable imagery. A natural reaction is to …
Continue readingNo CANDU Would a Canadian reactor have staved off the Fukushima nuclear disaster? by Andrew Horvat / Literary Review of Canada / September 1, 2011 / On March 14, 2011, three days after a 16 metre tsunami knocked out the cooling systems of four of six …
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