By Taiga Uranaka and Antoni Slodkowski / trust.org / October 31, 2014 / Thirty billion dollars in funding for roads, bridges and thousands of new homes in areas devastated by the tsunami in Japan three and a half years ago is still languishing unspent in the bank. That means Keiko Abe is heading into a fourth winter of sub-zero temperatures in a cramped, temporary dwelling that is succumbing to the … Continue reading →
Continue readingCategory Archives: Fukushima
via Japan Times / October 30, 2014 / In the first-ever delay in the plans to dismantle reactor 1 at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the government and the utility have agreed to postpone the removal of fuel rods from the spent-fuel pool by two years from the initial plans, NHK reported Thursday. The date of extracting the meltedfuel rods from the reactor core, … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Nassrine Azimi / Asia-Pacific Journal / October 29, 2014 / The first paragraph in the first volume of A History of Japan, by the scholarly British diplomat Sir George Sansom, is a detailed description of the islands’ geology. Writing in 1958 of the country he so loved, with its “mighty volcanic convulsions”, Sir George depicts the physical drama of peaks soaring two miles above and plunging five miles below … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia japantimes.com / October 29, 2014 / Radioactive soil currently stored at schools in Fukushima Prefecture is not supposed to be transferred to radioactive waste storage facilities planned to be built near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Jiji Press learned Tuesday. This is because decontamination at schools was carried out before a special law on radioactive contamination took effect in January 2012 and thus the Environment Ministry … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Robert Myles / allvoices.com / October 28, 2014 / A violent gust of wind, Tuesday, indirectly caused a further problem in the shape of a major hole in the cover protecting number one reactor at the stricken Fukushima Nuclear Plant in Japan, according to Fukushima operator, the Tokyo Electric Power. The incident occurred as a result of strong winds when a crane was in motion. A hole about 30 … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Justin McCurry / theguardian.com / October 28, 2014 / Japan has moved closer to a return to nuclear power, more than three years after the Fukushima disaster, after a town in the country’s south-west voted to approve two reactors coming back online. Nineteen of 26 assembly members in Satsumasendai, located 600 miles south-west of Tokyo, voted in favour of restarting the Sendai nuclear power plant. Four voted against and … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia theguardian.com / October 24, 2014 / Japan’s government is reeling from its third scandal in a week after the trade minister, who oversees nuclear energy, faced questions over his shares in the company that runs the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Yoichi Miyazawa (pictured) had already faced embarrassment on Thursday when it was revealed that members of his staff had claimed expenses for a visit to a bondage … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / October 25, 2014 / Prosecutors have delayed for three months a decision on whether to charge three former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Co. for their handling of the 2011 Fukushima disaster, an official with a panel that requested the indictments said Friday. The Tokyo District Prosecutor’s Office had been re-investigating the case after an independent judicial panel of citizens ruled in July that three former … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Victoria Craw & Nick Whigham / news.com.au / October 21, 2014 ONCE pristine rice paddies overgrown into forests. Wild animals roaming the streets of eerie towns with an uncertain future. That’s the scene described by Australian teacher Jessica Hellamy who recently had the chance to see inside the 20km exclusion zone created after the nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Dai’ichi powerplant in 2011. “Time had stopped. In the main … Continue reading →
Continue readingChiyo Nohara1, Wataru Taira1, Atsuki Hiyama1, Akira Tanahara2, Toshihiro Takatsuji3 and Joji M Otaki1* * Corresponding author: Joji M Otaki otaki@sci.u-ryukyu.ac.jp Author Affiliations 1 BCPH Unit of Molecular Physiology, Department of Chemistry, Biology and Marine Science, University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa 903-0213, Japan 2 Instrumental Research Center, University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa 903-0213, Japan 3 Graduate School of Fisheries Science and Environmental Studies, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki 852-8521, Japan For all … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Jun Hongo / Wall Street Journal / October 2, 2014 / The proportion of consumers saying they hesitate to buy food products from Fukushima prefecture because of radiation fears reached 20%, up from 15% in February, according to a twice-yearly survey by the Consumer Affairs Agency released this week. The percentage was the highest since February 2013, when the agency began issuing reports on how misinformation and harmful rumors … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Today / October 2, 2014 / The government on Wednesday lifted its evacuation advisory for part of the town of Kawauchi which lies within 20 kilometers of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Environment Ministry officials said that radiation cleanup has concluded in the eastern part of the town, NTV reported. Prior to the March 11, 2011 nuclear disaster, Kawauchi’s population was 3,000. The Environment Ministry has … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Eiji Noyori and Hiroyuki Oyama / the-japan-times.com / September 11, 2014 / Three and a half years after the outbreak of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, efforts to contain water contaminated with radioactive substances at the plant are at a crossroads. Resolving the radioactive water issue is the first hurdle toward decommissioning the plant. However, despite the time that has passed since the beginning … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia theguardian.com / September 10, 2014 / Japan’s nuclear watchdog has given the green light for two reactors to restart but the operator still has to persuade local communities they are safe. Widespread anti-nuclear sentiment has simmered in Japan ever since an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 caused meltdowns at the Fukushima power plant, sparking the worst atomic disaster since Chernobyl. The country’s nuclear reactors were switched off after … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia naturalgasasia.com / Septmeber 12, 2014 / Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and BP Singapore (BPS), an affiliate of BP Group have signed an agreement under which the Japanese utility will purchase up to 1.20 million tons of LNG per year over 17 years from the British firm. LNG supplies are expected to commence in April 2017 and the gas would be sourced from multiple sources the BP holds, TEPCO … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia channelnewsasia.com / September 1, 2014 / The governor of disaster-struck Fukushima agreed on Monday (Sep 1) to accept the “temporary” storage of nuclear waste from the Japanese accident, paving the way for an end to a years-long standoff. Yuhei Sato has been cajoled and lavished with the promises of subsidies if he accepts a central government plan to build a depot on land near the battered Fukushima Daiichi plant. … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia phys.org / September 3, 2014 / It was raining when Eric Norman, Berkeley Lab physicist and University of California (UC) Berkeley professor of Nuclear Engineering, heard about the nuclear-reactor meltdown in Fukushima, Japan. “I immediately thought of Chernobyl,” he says, referring to the “nuclear rain” that fell in the days that followed the 1986 disaster in Ukraine. Norman wanted to know if, following the March 11, 2011 Fukushima breach, radioactivity … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia NHK World / September 1, 2014 / Workers at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are planning to sue Tokyo Electric Power Company, demanding it pay wages suited for the dangerous work. Four male workers at a TEPCO subcontractor will file a lawsuit at the Iwaki branch of the Fukushima district court on Wednesday. The workers are doing plumbing work on tanks that store radioactive water at the plant. … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Christina Sarich / NaturalSociety.com / August 31, 2014 Just recently, farmers in the city of Tamura, Fukushima Prefecture, have begun planting rice in a district previously designated as a ‘no-plant zone’ due to of radioactive fallout. This will be the first time since March, 2011’s core meltdowns that rice intended for public sale will be planted in fields that are possibly still contaminated with radioactive cesium and other toxic … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Dave Sweeney / New Matilda / August 29, 2014 / In March 2011 people all around the world held our breath as the Fukushima nuclear disaster played out on our screens. Later as the headlines, albeit not the radiation levels faded, it was confirmed that Australian uranium directly fuelled Fukushima. Rocks dug in Kakadu and northern South Australia were the source of the radioactive fallout threatening Japan and well … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia RT.com / August 27, 2014 / The tragedy at the Fukushima nuclear plant will cost 11.08 trillion yen ($105 billion), twice as much as Japanese authorities predicted at the end of 2011. The expenses include radiation clean-up and compensation to residents. The research was led by Kenichi Oshima, environmental economics professor at Ritsumeikan University, and Masafumi Yokemoto, professor of environment policy at Osaka City University. They calculated the costs … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Asahi Shimbun / August 28, 2014 / Additional decontamination machines will be installed at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant to treat the hundreds of tons of radioactive groundwater collected at the facility daily, the Nuclear Regulation Authority said Aug. 27. The multi-nuclide removal equipment, called ALPS (advanced liquid processing system), began operating in late March 2013 and has handled 127,000 tons of contaminated water to date. … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia therakyatpost.com / August 26, 2014 / A Japanese court has ruled that Fukushima nuclear operator Tokyo Electric was responsible for a woman’s suicide after the March 2011 disaster and must pay compensation, in a landmark ruling that could set a precedent for other claims against the utility. The civil suit by Mikio Watanabe claimed that Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc (Tepco) was to blame for the July 2011 death … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / August 26, 2014 / A groundwater bypassing operation at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant has yet to produce significant results in preventing groundwater from flowing into the basements of reactor buildings, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said. By last Thursday, about three months after the effort was launched, a total of around 25,000 tons of water had been pumped from underground and released into the sea. … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / August 26, 2014 / The Japanese government picked three overseas companies Tuesday to participate in a subsidized project to determine the best available technology for separating radioactive tritium from the toxic water building up at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. Tokyo Electric Power Co. is currently test-running a system it says is capable of removing 62 types of radioactive substances from the contaminated water, but … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia NHK World / August 20, 2014 / Workers have begun the difficult task of decommissioning the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. One of the biggest hurdles they’re facing is how to remove melted fuel from the crippled reactors. First they need to know the condition of the fuel. Experts believe it has cooled down and turned into debris. But engineers with Tokyo Electric Power Company have not been able … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia abs-cbnnews.com / August 23, 2014 / The government plans to make public testimony regarding the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster given by plant chief Masao Yoshida, government and other sources said Friday, possibly shedding light on whether Yoshida ordered staff to remain at their posts. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga will announce as soon as Monday the decision to release the testimony by mid-September or later, the sources said. The … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Asahi Shimbun / August 24, 2014 / The number of young people in Fukushima Prefecture who have been diagnosed with definitive or suspected thyroid gland cancer, a disease often caused by radiation exposure, now totals 104, according to prefectural officials. The 104 are among 300,000 young people who were aged 18 or under at the time of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and whose results of thyroid gland tests … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia fukushimainform.com / August 18, 2014 / This diary is part of an ongoing series here that aims to report measurements of Fukushima derived radionuclides in the North Pacific Ocean to help determine the likely impact on ecosystem and public health in western North America. The purpose of this diary is to report the results of a recently published study by Kumamoto and colleagues in the open-access journal Scientific Reports. … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / August 21, 2014 / Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday it expects to finish transferring all the fuel rods from the spent-fuel pool perched atop reactor 4 at the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant by November — one month ahead of the initial schedule, according to Tepco President Naomi Hirose. Hirose made the comments in a meeting with assembly members from Fukushima Prefecture. Hazardous … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia The Straits Times / August 19, 2014 / Japan is to restart exports of rice grown in Fukushima for the first time since foreign sales were halted due to fears of contamination by the nuclear disaster there, officials said on Tuesday. The National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (Zen-Noh), a major wholesaler of Japanese agricultural products, said it will send 300kg of the grain to Singapore. Its provenance will … Continue reading →
Continue readingfrom the-japan-news.com / August 20, 2014 / Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Tuesday it had failed in an attempt to create an ice wall in an underground tunnel to block the flow of highly radioactive water from a damaged reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station. Since last month, TEPCO has injected more than 400 tons of ice and dry ice to freeze radioactive water in a section … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia RT.com / August 15, 2014 / Fukushima’s nuclear disaster has caused genetic damage, a decline in the population and other changes to non-human organisms from plants to butterflies to birds in the area, US and Japanese scientists say. In a series of articles published in the latest of US science magazine Journal of Heredity, researches revealed the widespread impact of the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster on biological organisms … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Lucas W Hixson / Enformable.com / August 12, 2014: Tokyo Electric has determined that it will cease use of AREVA’s decontamination system, which uses chemicals to remove radioactive materials from water, as it has not lived up to expectations since it was installed. The utility will file an application with the Nuclear Regulation Authority in order to scrap the system. The decontamination system was set up in June 2011, … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia fukushimainform.com / August 10th, 2014 / In addition to the citizen scientist sampling network that is under construction the other pillar of the InFORM project is the collection of samples in the open North Pacific and Arctic Oceans. The first samples for radionuclide analyses were collected by University of Victoria undergraduate student Kathryn Purdon on the first leg of the icebreaker CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier’s annual operations in Canada’s … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Asahi Shimbun / August 9th, 2014 / The central government has offered to double the amount of grants to be paid if local municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture accept the construction of temporary storage facilities for radioactive debris produced by the 2011 nuclear accident. In talks Aug. 8 with Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato and the mayors of Okuma and Futaba towns in the prefectural city of Koriyama, Environment Minister Nobuteru … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia NHK World / August 8, 2014 / The Japanese government plans to provide a subsidy of about three billion dollars over 30 years for regional development in Fukushima Prefecture. The grant is to be offered when local communities agree to build temporary storage facilities for highly radioactive waste. Environment Minister Nobuteru Ishihara (pictured) and Reconstruction Minister Takumi Nemoto will explain on Friday the grant for the local governments to … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia channelnewsaisa.com / August 7, 2o14 / The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant on Thursday (Aug 7) unveiled a plan to dump scrubbed water directly into the ocean, sparking concerns over whether it would be properly decontaminated. The plan, which still needs approval from the nuclear agency and local residents, comes as workers are locked in a daily struggle to safely store radioactive water used to cool reactors … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia reuters / August 6, 2014 / The long-awaited restart of Japan‘s nuclear power plants is facing yet another setback and may be delayed until 2015, Japanese media said on Wednesday, piling pressure on struggling utilities to push for fresh price hikes. Kyushu Electric Power’s two-reactor Sendai plant (pictured), located about 1,000 km (600 miles) southwest of Tokyo, is likely to be the first nuclear plant to be allowed to … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia NHK World / August 6, 2014 / The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says the damage to nuclear fuel in one of its reactors may be worse than previously thought. Tokyo Electric Power Company engineers have been working to size up damage at the plant from the March 2011 accident and start the process of decommission. Officials with the utility now say most of the nuclear … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia thediplomat.com / August 1st, 2014 / Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has taken yet another hit this week, as a judicial panel has decided to request the indictment of three of its executives over the handling of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster. While a previous indictment was dismissed, new charges are being pursued, mainly at the request of residents in affected areas in Fukushima. Additionally, there are … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia The Corbett Report / August 3rd, 2014 / James Corbett is joined by Gary Kohls, MD–a retired physician and regular contributor to the Duluth Reader–to discuss his recent column, “The Hiroshima Myth and the Glorification of American Militarism.” We expose the myths surrounding the supposed necessity of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of WWII and outline the real reasons that the nuclear annihilation of these … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Jason Bartashius / Japan Times / July 30, 2014 / Over the past three years, the atomic bombing anniversaries in August have increasingly become a time to ask new questions. How did the only country to experience nuclear bombings come to embrace nuclear power, a decision that ultimately led to the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 plant? Does Japan have the capability or political will to create … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Mainichi.jp / August 1, 2014 / Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Thursday it turned to the black on a group pretax basis in the April-June quarter for the first time in the four years since the 2011 nuclear crisis at its Fukushima Daiichi power plant. For the three-month period, TEPCO, which is effectively under state control, reported a consolidated pretax profit of 52.51 billion yen, compared with a loss … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Clint Richards / The Diplomat / July 30, 2014 / After months of attempting to negotiate with local residents in Fukushima, the Japanese government has abandoned its attempt to purchase land to store nuclear waste from the stricken Fukushima Daiichi reactors. Storing nuclear waste and preventing groundwater from entering the disaster site continue to be persistent problems for the government, with no clear solution. This inability is a key … Continue reading →
Continue readingfrom Japan Times / July 30, 2014 / The Nuclear Regulation Authority said Wednesday it is considering raising the maximum radiation exposure limit for nuclear workers in emergencies, from the current 100 millisieverts. “We cannot completely deny the possibility” that accidents involving radiation exceeding the current limit would occur in the future, NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka said at an agency meeting, noting that “reality-based” working conditions should be prepared in … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia yahoo.com / July 29, 2014 / Tests of water off the U.S. West Coast have found no signs of radiation from Japan’s 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, although low levels of radiation are ultimately expected to reach the U.S. shore, scientists said on Tuesday. Results obtained this week in tests of water gathered by an Oregon conservation group and tested by East Coast scientists came in as expected with no … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / July 30, 2014 / The administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has offered to pay the Fukushima Prefectural Government ¥230 billion over the next 30 years if the prefecture hosts temporary storage facilities for soil tainted by radiation from the March 2011 nuclear disaster, NHK reported Wednesday. But Fukushima Prefecture is unhappy with the plan because the administration is at the same time planning to terminate … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia EX-SKF / July 28, 2014 / TEPCO says by dumping ice and dry ice they can lower the temperature of the contaminated water in the trench to about 5 degrees Celsius, then they will be able to form a continuous ice plug. Here I thought that water freezes at zero degree Celsius. As the whole world is seemingly going crazy afresh this July, maybe TEPCO is correct that water … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Channel News Asia / July 29, 2014 / Japanese officials are handing out radiation-blocking iodine tablets to people living in the shadow of two nuclear reactors slated to restart this year, underscoring concerns about atomic power after the Fukushima crisis. The move to distribute the pills — which help to reduce radiation buildup in the body — started Sunday (July 27) for those living within a five-kilometre radius of … Continue reading →
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