via The Asahi Shimbum / July 8, 2013 / Radioactive cesium levels found in moss on a rooftop in downtown Fukushima exceeded 1.7 million becquerels, the highest levels detected in a year, researchers said. Ryoji Enomoto, an associate professor at the University of Tokyo’s Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, who led the team, said radioactive cesium levels were unusually high in the samples collected. The city is located more than … Continue reading →
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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 →
Continue readingvia NY Times / June 3rd, 2013 / The operator of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant said Tuesday that it would ask regulators to allow it to restart two reactors at a separate site in eastern Japan, even as problems with the company’s cleanup in Fukushima continue to multiply. The request by the operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, is expected to be among a flurry of such … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia World Nuclear News / July 2nd, 2013 / Construction of an incinerator is underway at the Fukushima Daiichi plant to burn the low-level waste (LLW) being generated from the clean-up and decommissioning of the site. The 3170-square-metre facility is expected to begin operating between September 2014 and March 2015. It will be used to reduce the volume of LLW – including such things as clothing, gloves and building materials … 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 Japan Times / June 30, 2013 / Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Saturday it has detected high levels of radioactive substances, including strontium, emitting beta rays in groundwater taken from a well at the port of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. Tepco said 3,000 becquerels of radioactive substances per liter were recorded in groundwater from the well, located just 6 meters from the Pacific. That concentration is 100 … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Enformable.com / June 28, 2013 / The American Health Physics Society released a map which shows how far radioactive iodine spread in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. The map was generated by researchers from the Japan Atomic Energy Agency and the United States Department of Energy after they analyzed radiation data that had been gathered jointly between April 2nd and 3rd of 2011. The map records … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / June 27, 2013 / Japan’s first shipment of mixed uranium-plutonium oxide (MOX) fuel since the Fukushima nuclear crisis broke out in March 2011 arrived early Thursday at the Sea of Japan port of Takahama, Fukui Prefecture. But the fuel, which took more than two months to get here from France and is scheduled to be used in reactor 3 of Kansai Electric Power Co.’s power plant … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia NHK World / June 26, 2013 / A group of shareholders at Tokyo Electric Power Company is demanding the utility withdraw from the business of nuclear power generation. TEPCO operates the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Shareholders gathered in Tokyo on Wednesday. It was their first annual meeting since the utility was effectively placed under government control. TEPCO Chairman Kazuhiko Shimokobe apologized to shareholders for continuing to cause … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia nf2045.blogspot.com Saturday June 29, 2013, 1:00-2:30 PM, Seijo University, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Building 7, 4th floor. Access map to the campus. The Center for Glocal Studies at Seijo University, Tokyo, will host a public lecture by American historian Robert Jacobs. The lecture will be given in English, but a Japanese-English interpreter will be available for the question and answer session. For more information about the event contact: dennis.riches@gmail.com More about Robert Jacobs’ … Continue reading →
Continue readingGlobal Research News Hour Episode 31: via Global Research.ca / June 24, 2013 / One of the most severe industrial accidents in history occurred two and a half years ago when the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility in Japan was crippled in the wake of an earthquake and tsunami that struck the island country. Critically, electric generators which circulate coolant through the facility failed leaving the core vulnerable to a melt … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia NHK World / June 25, 2013 / Officials from Tokyo Electric Power Company say the level of radioactive tritium has been rising in sea water near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. They say they can’t rule out the possibility that contaminated groundwater seeped into the sea. TEPCO officials said on Monday that samples collected on Friday contained 1,100 becquerels of tritium per liter. That is 10 times the … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia NHK World / June 24, 2013 / A government white paper says many hospitals and welfare facilities need help with contingency planning. The 2011 earthquake and tsunami taught Japanese service providers the importance of preparing contingency plans that would allow them to continue operating following a disaster. This year’s anti-disaster white paper features the results of a survey by the Cabinet Office. More than 21-hundred providers of lifeline services … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia NHK World / June 21, 2013 / TEPCO says radiation-contaminated water was found to have leaked from a desalinating device at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The plant operator adds that the leak stopped when it halted the device, and that the water has not flowed outside the complex. TEPCO said a worker detected the leak at the device that removes salt from water used for reactor … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia NHK World / June 20, 2013 / Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority will allow the country’s only 2 running reactors to stay online after new nuclear safety guidelines take effect in July. The guidelines for the first time oblige utilities to beef up measures against serious accidents like the one that occurred in Fukushima 2 years ago. The authority submitted a draft report on its safety assessment of the No. … 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 TheStar.com / June 19, 2013 / High levels of toxic strontium-90 have been found in groundwater at the devastated Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, the utility that operates the facility said on Wednesday Strontium-90 is a by-product of the fission of uranium and plutonium in nuclear reactors as well as nuclear weapons, according to the website of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It was not immediately clear how … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia News on Japan /June 17, 2013 / Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), operator of the disaster stricken Fukushima nuclear power facility, put on hold the ongoing test run of its water decontamination system on Sunday, June 16 because of a suspected leak in the holding tanks of the highly radioactive waste water. A number of widely publicized leaks to the facility’s underground storage tanks – erstwhile primary storage for … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia The Asahi Shimbun / June 16, 2013 / With the government facing difficulty in finding disposal sites, municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture are being unofficially notified that the goal for completion of radioactive decontamination work in March 2014 may not be met, sources said. The government also informed municipalities that it will not allow decontamination work to be redone in areas where radiation levels have not declined even after … 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 readingvia The Mainichi / June 13, 2013 / Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Wednesday again corrected the radiation level of groundwater samples taken from the premises of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, saying it was a tenth of the level announced earlier this month. It is the second time that the utility has corrected the data regarding groundwater, part of which TEPCO is seeking to dump in the Pacific … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Yahoo News-AP / June 13, 2013 / The European Commission proposed tougher nuclear safety rules Thursday, amid international debate about the future of nuclear energy and how to secure aging plants. Stress tests on European nuclear plants prompted by the 2011 disaster at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant showed that almost all of them needed safety improvements. A report on those tests called for more consistency across the 27-nation EU … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia NHK World / June 13, 2013 / Work to remove radioactive substances from the land and surfaces of buildings has been underway across Fukushima Prefecture more than 2 years following the nuclear accident. But NHK has learned that there are no decontamination numerical targets in most of the contracts cleaning companies signed with the central government and Fukushima municipalities. NHK obtained the information on the contracts signed through April … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Asahi Shimbun / June 12, 2013 / A canopy has been completed over a heavily damaged reactor building at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in preparation for removing the spent nuclear fuel inside. Tokyo Electric Power Co. allowed reporters to tour part of the facility, which experienced reactor meltdowns after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster, on June 11. The upper part of the No. 4 reactor … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia ScienceDaily.com / June 11, 2103 / Researchers from the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA) and the Department of Physics of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) have studied the spread of radioactive strontium in the coastal waters of eastern Japan during the three months following the Fukushima nuclear accident, which happened in March 2011. The samples analysed show the impact of the direct release of radioactive materials … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia The Mainichi / June 11, 2013 / Kyushu Electric Power Co. is continuing to spend around 10 billion yen a year to maintain the idle No. 1 and 2 reactors at the Genkai Nuclear Power Plant in Genkai, Saga Prefecture, it has been learned, even as a potential 40-year operation limit for the No. 1 reactor looms. Multiple company executives said that they are “not thinking at all” of … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / June 10, 2013 / The government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Monday they may be able to start removing the melted fuel inside the crippled nuclear reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 complex around 18 months earlier than initially planned, although this action would still be years away. The process would reportedly begin with the removal of fuel assemblies from the outside-reactor spent-fuel pools of … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia The Mainichi / June 06, 2013 / The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) has inspected the badly-damaged reactor building of the No. 1 reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant for the first time as part of its efforts to analyze the possible causes of the nuclear disaster. The NRA released photographs (below) of the interior of the fourth floor of the No. 1 reactor building on June … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Russia Today / June 06, 2013 / The operator of the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant said Wednesday that it had found a leak in one of the hundreds of steel tanks used to store radioactive water at the plant, raising renewed questions about the company’s ability to handle the plant’s cleanup. The discovery comes a day after the operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco, admitted that it … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Kyodo News / June 05, 2013 / An ongoing study on the impact of radiation on Fukushima residents from the crippled atomic power plant has found 12 minors with confirmed thyroid cancer diagnoses, up from three in a report in February, with 15 others suspected to have cancer, up from seven, sources familiar with the matter said Tuesday. The figures were taken from about 174,000 people aged 18 or … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Masako Sawai / CNIC / June 1, 2013 / This report summarizes the status of nuclear fuel stored at the Fukushima Daiichi (F1) and Fukushima Daini (F2) nuclear power plants. Fuel in the reactors and fuel in the spent fuel pools at F1 and F2 Table 1 lists the data for the nuclear fuel loaded (melted down) in the reactors and fuel stored in the fuel pools in the … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia RT.com / June 2, 2013 / Thousands of demonstrators have gathered in Tokyo to protest restarting of nuclear reactors the government is considering. Around 7,500 people participated in the anti-nuclear protests in the Japanese capital, according to organizers cited by AFP. The demonstrators gathered in a park in central Tokyo, marched through the city and rallied outside the offices of Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), operator of the Fukushima … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Independent.co.uk / June 2, 2013 / Like most fathers, Yoji Fujimoto frets about the health of his young children. In addition to normal parental concerns about the food they eat, the air they breathe and the environment they will inherit, however, he must add one more: the radioactive fallout from a nuclear disaster. Three days after meltdown began at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on 11 March 2011, Mr … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Today / May 31, 2013 / A government panel of experts on Thursday recommended that Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) consider freezing the soil around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to reduce the amount of radioactive groundwater being generated by water flowing into the plant. According to the panel’s plan, pipes would be placed in the ground and filled with coolant at a temperature of minus … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia JapanTimes.co.jp / via May 29, 2013 / The government lifted the last no-go zone designation in Fukushima Prefecture on Tuesday, more than 26 months after three reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant suffered core meltdowns, but certain areas remain uninhabitable. In the town of Futaba, the last no-go zone has been reorganized into areas where the return of residents is deemed “difficult” and those where preparations can … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia JapanTimes.co.jp / May 30, 2013 / To reduce the flow of groundwater into the crippled reactor buildings at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 atomic plant, the government told Tepco on Thursday to freeze the soil around them. Walls of frozen soil can be created by inserting pipes into the soil and injecting them with coolant. Tokyo-based major general contractor Kajima Corp. came up with the idea. A … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Andrea Germanos / Common Dreams / May 26, 2013 / Japanese officials raised the level of acceptable radiation doses for evacuees of the Fukushima nuclear disaster to avoid increasing costs for compensation, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun reported on Saturday. A 5-millisieverts per year dose, the same level of exposure used as a yardstick to relocate residents after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, was proposed at an unofficial meeting of ministers in … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia EX-SKF / May 27, 2013 / If they are approved, there will be 8 additional reactors, including one with MOX fuel, will be online in Japan, in addition to two reactors at Ooi Nuclear Power Plant. These plants are: Takahama Nuclear Power Plant (pictured): Reactor 3 (MOX), Reactor 4, operated by Kansai Electric Power Company; Ikata Nuclear Power Plant: Reactor 3, operated by Shikoku Electric Power Company; Sendai Nuclear … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia EX-SKF / May 27, 2013 / If they are approved, there will be 8 additional reactors, including one with MOX fuel, will be online in Japan, in addition to two reactors at Ooi Nuclear Power Plant. These plants are: Takahama Nuclear Power Plant (pictured): Reactor 3 (MOX), Reactor 4, operated by Kansai Electric Power Company; Ikata Nuclear Power Plant: Reactor 3, operated by Shikoku Electric Power Company; Sendai Nuclear … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia JapanDailyPress.com / May 27, 2013 / A subcontractor hired by the Fukushima Prefectural government to do nuclear disaster cleanup has been ordered by the Labor Standards Inspection Office to properly implement labor practices after it was reported that they fired three male employees without prior notice. The men claim that they were fired because they reported the company’s corner-cutting. The labor standards office said that the city of Fukushima … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia The Japan Times / May 27, 2013 / Japan’s health survey on the effects of the March 2011 nuclear crisis should be expanded to include areas outside Fukushima Prefecture, a U.N. expert said. The health management survey should be provided to residents in all affected areas by radiation exposure higher than 1 millisievert per year, Anand Grover, the U.N. special rapporteur on health, said in a report. The report … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia EX-SKF / May 24, 2013 / Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), who operates J-PARC, didn’t bother to notify the Nuclear Regulatory Agency (secretariat of the Nuclear Regulatory Authority, mostly made of people from NISA) for 2 days, because they did not think there was any leak of radioactive materials. According to Asahi, the researchers suffer internal radiation of exposure of 1.7 millisievert, and the contamination of the facility is … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Kyodo News / May 21, 2013 / The United Nations is considering excluding measures to prevent a nuclear accident caused by earthquake and tsunami from a new framework on disaster risk reduction expected to be adopted at the next world conference in 2015, U.N. sources said Tuesday. A Japanese government official involved in drafting the new framework, which will be discussed at the U.N.-sponsored World Conference on Disaster Reduction … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Tokyo AP / May 23, 2013 / Keeping the meltdown-stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in northeastern Japan in stable condition requires a cast of thousands. Increasingly the plant’s operator is struggling to find enough workers, a trend that many expect to worsen and hamper progress in the decades-long effort to safely decommission it. Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility that runs the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant that melted down in March … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia NewsOnJapan.com / May 23, 2013 / The Nuclear Regulation Authority accepted on Wednesday an assessment that a reactor at the Tsuruga plant in western Japan is sitting above an active fault, making it increasingly difficult for the facility to resume operation. It is the first time Japan’s regulatory authorities have acknowledged an existing reactor is located above a fault feared to move in the future, according to an NRA … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia The Star / May 22, 2013 / Farmers have resumed planting rice for market only 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, a local official said Wednesday. It was the first time since the March 2011 earthquake-tsunami-nuclear disaster that farmers have gone inside the former 20-kilometre “no-go” zone around the doomed plant to sow rice intended for sale. The zone has been redefined to … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / May 12, 2013 / Police and the Japan Coast Guard conducted a joint drill Saturday to prepare for a possible terrorist attack on the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. About 150 officers and other people, including members of a special assault team of the police, participated in the drill at the Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power plant, about 10 km from Fukushima No. 1. Both … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia World Nuclear News / May 14, 2013 / A four-year process is planned to rebuild the cover over Fukushima Daiichi 1, equipping it to remove used reactor fuel still stored there. Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) will take away the roof of the temporary cover structure that was put in place to reduce radioactive emissions to air in the six months after the accident in 2011. This will give … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Wall Street Journal / by Yuko Takeo / May 13, 2013 / A new study offers fresh insights into how radioactive contamination from the Fukushima nuclear disaster may have spread through Japan’s interconnected waterways, reaching some freshwater fish hundreds of kilometers away. The research by two Japanese academics published in “Nature” magazine late last month reports traces of cesium found in 2011 “even in Shizuoka prefecture, 400 km south-west from the … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia ex-SKF / April 19, 2013 / Meanwhile in one of the most contaminated towns and villages in Fukushima after the nuclear accident more than two years ago, officials have just launched a new program to encourage children to receive annual health checkups. If a child undergoes one annual health checkup, he/she will receive 10,000 yen (these days it’s close to US$100) worth of book coupons (gift certificates for books). … Continue reading →
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