via Nuclear-News.net / June 4th, 2013 / Government officials held a meeting in Tamura-city in Fukushima prefecture to explain to residents that they need to look after themselves from now on. Originally they were aiming to reduce the level of contamination down to 0.23uSv/h (=added ionizing radiation 1mSv/y). However they have now abandoned this aim and are not going to repeat any more decontamination. The officials have suggested to residents … Continue reading →
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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 →
Continue readingvia The Mainichi / July 1, 2013 / A Japanese prime ministerial envoy secretly promised to the United States that Japan would resume its controversial “pluthermal” program, using light-water reactors to burn plutonium, according to documents obtained by the Mainichi. The secret promise was made by Hiroshi Ogushi, then parliamentary secretary of the Cabinet Office, to Daniel Poneman, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, during Ogushi’s visit to … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia EX-SKF / June 19, 2013 / From rice to be grown and harvested in 2013, the national government is buying up 250,000 tonnes for the government’s rice reserve; of that, 40,000 tonnes, or 16%, may come from Fukushima Prefecture. The Fukushima prefectural government is encouraging farmers to participate in the government bidding if they fear “baseless rumors” driving down the price for their rice in the open market. Once … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia ChannelNewsAsia.com / June 17, 2013 / Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a push on Sunday for his country’s nuclear technologies at a summit in Warsaw with leaders of four ex-Communist European Union countries, as part of his bid to boost the Asian powerhouse’s exports. Abe recently unveiled plans to treble Japan’s infrastructure exports to 30 trillion yen ($300 billion, 225 billion euros) a year, a target that could not … Continue reading →
Continue readingThe Asahi Shimbun / March 04, 2013 / Editor’s note: This is the first part of a new series that has run in the past under the title of The Prometheus Trap. This series deals with the secret missions assigned to the “shadow units” of the Groun…
Continue readingby Hideaki Kimura / via The Asahi Shimbun / February 12, 2013 Naomi Hirose, president of Tokyo Electric Power Co., denied an organization-wide effort to interfere with a Diet investigation into the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, saying one official …
Continue readingvia ex-SKF / December 25, 2012 / What an in-your-face insult to citizens of Japan, particularly for people in Kanto and Tohoku contaminated by radioactive materials from the nuclear accident, and even more so for the workers at Fukushima I Nuclear Powe…
Continue readingvia ex-SKF / December 19, 2012 / Japan is trying its best to pretend that the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident has been a minor inconvenience that no amount of newly printed money cannot overcome. After all, this is the country that has perfect…
Continue readingvia AFP / December 13, 2012 / An international conference will be held in Japan’s Fukushima region over the weekend to discuss nuclear safety following last year’s atomic crisis, Tokyo said Thursday. High-level officials, including governme…
Continue readingBy Mari Saito / via Reuters / December 13, 2012 / Nearly two years after a massive earthquake and tsunami caused meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear plant, Japan is failing to keep a pledge to tap global expertise to decommission its crippled reactors, …
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 Takashi Kida / via The Asahi Shimbun / December 7, 2012 / The International Atomic Energy Agency said it will set up a joint program on decontamination next year with the Fukushima prefectural government as efforts continue at the crippled Fukushima…
Continue readingBy Miki Aoki / via The Asahi Shimbun / November 22, 2012 / Of the many thousands of workers who have risked radiation exposure at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, only a paltry 3.7 percent are eligible for free cancer screenings provid…
Continue readingvia Japan Times / November 21, 2012 / The Fukushima Prefectural Government will abolish a nuclear fuel tax imposed on two power plants operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co., with an eye to having both decommissioned. Gov. Yuhei Sato said Monday the pref…
Continue readingBy Tsuyoshi Inajima and Yasumasa Song / via Bloomberg / November 7, 2012 / Tokyo Electric Power Co. asked the government for more aid after estimating it may need at least 11 trillion yen ($137 billion) to cover costs from last year’s nuclear disaste…
Continue readingvia The Asahi Shimbun / November 7, 2012 / Japan’s new nuclear industry watchdog acknowledged additional errors in its maps for the expected spread of radioactive substances from a serious nuclear accident, further exasperating local governments …
Continue readingBy Masakazu Honda / The Asahi Shimbun / November 2, 2012 / More than 10,000 people from across Japan are seeking criminal charges against officials of Japan’s government and the utility that operates the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, after…
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 readingvia The Economist / October 8, 2012 / IT HAS taken the Japanese government more than 18 months to pay tribute to a group of brave men, once known as the “Fukushima 50”, who risked their lives to prevent meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear p…
Continue readingvia The Daily Yomiuri / October 8, 2012 / Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda visited Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant Sunday to see the site of the country’s worst nuclear crisis first-hand and offer gratit…
Continue readingby James Corbett / via CorbettReport.com / September 20, 2012 / Last week, Japan surprised the world by announcing that it plans to abandon atomic energy completely by the 2030s. But now in an abrupt turnaround, the Japanese Cabinet appears to be backp…
Continue readingvia Japan Times / September 20, 2012 / Deadline for abolishing atomic energy by 2030s not endorsed In a shocking reversal, the Cabinet on Wednesday failed to approve the government’s new energy policy by watering down its main goal — the elimin…
Continue readingBy Yuji Okada / Bloomberg / September 18, 2012 / Japan’s new nuclear regulator starts operation tomorrow as part of measures the government introduced after the Fukushima disaster to try and establish an independent supervisor of the industry. The go…
Continue readingby David Herron / Examiner.com / September 16, 2012 / A year and a half ago one of the largest known earthquakes ever struck off the North Japanese coast, triggering a tsunami devastating the Japanese coast, as well as a massive nuclear power disaster….
Continue readingby Linda Seig / via Reuters / September 10, 2012 / Deadlock in Japan between anti-nuclear activists and advocates of atomic power deepened on Monday as the government failed to produce an expected proposal to reduce the role of nuclear power in the cou…
Continue readingby Linda Sieg / via Chicago Tribune / September 7, 2012 / Efforts by Japan’s government to craft an energy mix that will respond to growing anti-nuclear sentiment among voters after the Fukushima crisis without alienating powerful pro-atomic ener…
Continue readingby Linda Sieg / via Chicago Tribune / September 7, 2012 / Efforts by Japan’s government to craft an energy mix that will respond to growing anti-nuclear sentiment among voters after the Fukushima crisis without alienating powerful pro-atomic ener…
Continue readingvia The Asahi Shimbun / September 4, 2012 / Japan is scheduled to set national energy policy early next week, national policy minister Motohisa Furukawa said on Sept. 4, although he said the government had not taken any particular position on the main …
Continue readingvia Kyodo / September 4, 2012 / Japan needs to invest at least 50 trillion yen in renewable energy by 2030 if it decides to completely phase out nuclear power, the government estimated Tuesday. It also predicted households would see their energy bills,…
Continue readingvia ex-SKF / August 22, 2012 / That’s the number from analyzing 7,000 comments from the public on the national energy policy. 80,000 more to go. The committee members who have been analyzing the public comments have already started to stress the …
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 readingvia The Asahi Shimbun / August 20, 2012 / The nuclear power industry has made behind-the-scenes payments to the tune of at least 3.18 billion yen ($40 million) to six local governments hosting nuclear-power related facilities since the Fukushima disast…
Continue readingvia The Japan Times / August 18, 2012 / National policy minister Motohisa Furukawa has said that reactors 5 and 6 at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant and the nearby No. 2 power station should never be restarted. Furukawa made the remarks Thursday whil…
Continue readingvia InfoShop.org / August 9, 2012 / Around 13:20 of 3/14/2012, just after reactor 3 exploded, Sato, Fukushima governor required Tepco to announce “there was no concern that radiation from reactor 3 may affect human body because the wind blows from No…
Continue readingby Takaaki Tamura / The Asahi Shimbun / August 03, 2012 The town of Namie, in the no-entry zone surrounding the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, is set to issue its own radiation dose book for evacuees this month in the hope it will lead to a natio…
Continue readingvia The Japan Times / August 5, 2012 / Around 70 percent of citizens who wished to air their views on the future of nuclear power at public hearings held by the government wanted to discuss its complete elimination, officials said Saturday. A series of…
Continue readingvia AJC / July 31, 2012 / A contentious debate over nuclear power in Japan is bringing another question out of the shadows: Should Japan keep open the possibility of making nuclear weapons — even if only as an option? It may seem surprising in the on…
Continue readingby Kaname Ohira and Mari Fujisaki / The Asahi Shimbun / July 31, 2012 / The bailout of embattled Tokyo Electric Power Co. got under way July 31, with an equity investment of 1 trillion yen ($12.78 billion) in taxpayer money. Public funds will also be u…
Continue readingvia NHK / July 29, 2012 / A large rally has been held in Tokyo to protest the restart of a nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture. The demonstrators gathered in Hibiya Park in central Tokyo on Sunday. They were protesting the recent resumption of the No.3 a…
Continue readingvia The Yomiuri Shimbun / July 30, 2012 / A steam locomotive ran between the JR Tohoku Line’s Koriyama and Fukushima stations on the weekend as a promotional event to boost tourism in areas affected by the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake. Th…
Continue readingvia Japan Today / July 29, 2012 / Thousands of people are expected to form a “human chain” around Japan’s Diet building on Sunday as part of demonstrations aimed at ending nuclear power after last year’s disaster at Fukushima. The protest is th…
Continue readingby Rick Wallace / The Australian / July 24, 2012 / THE misguided and arrogant faith that TEPCO and nuclear regulators held in Japan’s nuclear safety “myth” contributed to the severity of the Fukushima disaster, a panel has found. R…
Continue readingby Mitsuru Obe and Phred Dvorak / Wall Street Journal / July 23, 2012 / Over the weekend, a subcontractor that worked at the devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant confessed to asking some of its employees to put lead covers on their dosimeters in …
Continue readingvia The Asahi Shimbun / July 20, 2012 / In a rare move by a former Japanese prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama joined a boisterous anti-nuclear demonstration outside his old office on July 20, a fresh sign that the ruling party he once led is fracturing ov…
Continue readingvia Japan Times / July 21, 2012 / Tokyo Electric Power Co. next week plans to reassess its final report on the Fukushima nuclear disaster to address contradictions with the final report recently released by an independent Diet panel, a Tepco official s…
Continue readingvia Japan Times / July 20, 2012 / The government said Thursday it will order Tokyo Electric Power Co. to trim its rate hike for households to an average of 8.47 percent from its planned 10.28 percent after determining the utility can further reduce sal…
Continue readingby Natalie Apostolou / The Register / July 16, 2012 / Japan’s troubled Tokyo Electric Power Co, Tepco, the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, will be forced to release hundreds of hours of in-house teleconference video footage revealing executi…
Continue readingvia Japan Times / July 15, 2012 / Tepco Chairman Kazuhiko Shimokobe has urged the government to quickly complete the screening process for its planned electricity rate hike for households to strengthen the company’s battered finances. Shimokobe s…
Continue readingvia Japan Today / July 15, 2012 / Japan should overhaul its power sector, dominated by regional monopolies, to promote competition and a stable power supply, according to a draft proposal issued by a panel of experts set up after the Fukushima nuclear …
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