via Mainichi.jp / December 3, 2013 / The operator of the disaster-hit Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant said on Dec. 2 that it has detected radioactive materials that topped 36,000 times the permissible level in underground water extracted in the area. According to plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), strontium-90 and other radioactive substances that emit beta rays were detected at a level of 1.1 million becquerels per … Continue reading →
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via Associated Press / December 3, 2013 / A government panel proposed additional measures to lessen the radioactive water crisis at Japan’s crippled nuclear power plant, saying Tuesday that current plans are not enough to prevent the risk of a disaster. Officials on the Industry Ministry’s contaminated water panel also said that the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant could run out of storage space for contaminated water within two years if current … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Voice of Russia / December 2, 2013 / A trouble-prone system used to decontaminate radioactive water at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant was switched off Sunday because of a chemical leak, the plant’s operator said. Hydrochloric acid, used to neutralise alkaline water being decontaminated, was found seeping from a pipe joint, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said in a statement. The joint was wrapped in a vinyl bag … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia The Real News Network / December 1, 2013 / Gundersen: Agencies overseeing cleanup like the IAEA are biased towards defending and promoting nuclear power
Continue readingvia Voice of Russia / November 30, 2013 / Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) announced its intention to build two advanced coal-fired power plants in Fukushima. Company officials claim that the new power plants will help the region recover after the nuclear disaster. TEPCO promises that the new construction project will help fight unemployment by creating two thousand jobs and a source of cheap energy. The intended capacity of the … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia ABC.net.au / November 29, 2013 / Typhoons that hit Japan each year are contributing to the spread of radioactive material from the Fukushima nuclear disaster into the country’s waterways, researchers say. A joint study by France’s Climate and Environmental Science laboratory (LSCE) and Tsukuba University in Japan shows contaminated soil gets washed away by the high winds and rain and deposited in streams and rivers. “There is a definite … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Panorama.am / November 28, 2013 / After the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, little attention was paid to how the radiation leaks can affect the health of children who live in the US. Joseph Mangano, epidemiologist and Executive Director of the Radiation and Public Health Project research group, speaks with the Voice of Russia about the study that showed that kids born after 2010 have some … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Simon Tisdall / via The Guardian / November 19, 2013 / The catastrophic triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March 2011 was “a warning to the world” about the hazards of nuclear power and contained lessons for the British government as it plans a new generation of nuclear power stations, the man with overall responsibility for the operation in Japan has told the Guardian. Speaking at … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Reuters / November 28, 2013 / Japan is considering more than $100 million in extra government spending to handle contaminated water at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, boosting the budget allocation by at least a fifth, government officials familiar with the matter said. The additional budget allocation of between 10 billion and 15 billion yen aims to accelerate work on containing leaks and decontaminating the water, said the officials, … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Russia Today / Japan’s lower house has passed a heavy-handed state secrets act despite fears that it will have severe repercussions for state freedoms. Officials will now face a maximum punishment of ten years in prison if they are found to have leaked to the press. Japan’s Diet (parliament) passed the bill, which is aimed at expanding the definition of a state secret and place increasing penalties upon anyone … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia The Japan News / November 26, 2013 / The steering committee of the government-backed Nuclear Damage Liability Facilitation Fund requested Monday that costs for dealing with the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant be shared by the state, the company and financial institutions. “It would be difficult for TEPCO to deal with the crisis and cover related costs singlehandedly,” the fund said in … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Energy Business Review / Tokyo Electric Power Company has transported 22 fuel assemblies from the Unit 4 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. Loaded into a cask (pictured), the fuel assemblies were transferred from the crippled reactor building to the nearby common pool building at the power plant for safe storage. The extraction of fuel from the Unit 4 spent fuel pool will pause shortly for … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Energy Business Review / Tokyo Electric Power Company has transported 22 fuel assemblies from the Unit 4 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. Loaded into a cask (pictured), the fuel assemblies were transferred from the crippled reactor building to the nearby common pool building at the power plant for safe storage. The extraction of fuel from the Unit 4 spent fuel pool will pause shortly for … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Russia Today / Thousands of people protested in Tokyo against a bill that would see whistle-blowing civil servants jailed for up to 10 years. Activists claim the law would help the government to cover up scandals, and damage the country’s constitution and democracy. A 3,000-seat outdoor theater in a park in downtown Tokyo, near the parliament, was not enough to contain everyone who came on Thursday to denounce government … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Russia Today / Thousands of people protested in Tokyo against a bill that would see whistle-blowing civil servants jailed for up to 10 years. Activists claim the law would help the government to cover up scandals, and damage the country’s constitution and democracy. A 3,000-seat outdoor theater in a park in downtown Tokyo, near the parliament, was not enough to contain everyone who came on Thursday to denounce government … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia NHK World / The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is preparing to complete the first transfer of nuclear fuel from a reactor building to a safer storage pool. On Thursday, Tokyo Electric Power Company moved the batch of nuclear fuel from the No. 4 reactor building to a nearby facility housing the safer pool. TEPCO workers used a trailer to carry a cask containing 22 unused fuel … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Russia Today / Homeless men employed cleaning up the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, including those brought in by Japan’s yakuza gangsters, were not aware of the health risks they were taking and say their bosses treated them like “disposable people.” RT’s Aleksey Yaroshevsky, reporting from the site of the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl, met with a former Fukushima worker who was engaged in the clean-up operation. … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Associated Press / November 19, 2013 / It’s costly, risky and dependent on technologies that have yet to be fully developed. A decades-long journey filled with unknowns lies ahead for Japan, which took a small step this week toward decommissioning its crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant. Nobody knows exactly how much fuel melted after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems. Or where exactly the fuel … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia EX-SKF / November 20, 2013 / TEPCO started removing fuel assemblies stored in Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool on November 18, 2013. 4 unused (new) assemblies containing about 60 fuel rods each were removed to the cask by 6:45PM. The work continues on November 19, 2013, and TEPCO hopes to load the cask with 22 unused (new) fuel assemblies before the cask is lowered by the gantry crane to … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Russia Today / November 18, 2013 / In a highly risky undertaking Fukushima plant operators have finally begun removing over 1,500 nuclear fuel rods from one of the four reactors at its damaged nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan on Monday. The operation is expected to take at least a year hailed as a key first step toward a full cleanup of the plant. Unit 4 of the Fukushima … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia EX-SKF / November 18, 2013 / Move over, three fuel assemblies with damaged/deformed fuel rods inside in the Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool! You’re nothing. According to Kahoku Shinpo, a Fukushima local paper, TEPCO admitted on November 15, 2013 that there are 70 fuel assemblies with damaged fuel rods in the Reactor 1 Spent Fuel Pool, located on the operating floor (top floor) of the reactor building whose air radiation … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Kyodo News / Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Friday it will start removing nuclear fuel from the spent fuel pool of the No. 4 reactor building at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant from Monday (Nov. 18) “Full-scale removal (from the accident-stricken unit) is a very important process in moving ahead with the plant’s decommissioning,” TEPCO spokesman Masayuki Ono told a press conference, adding that the experience will be useful … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia EX-SKF / It must be from the explosion! Or from something TEPCO has done since the accident, whatever it is! No. If TEPCO is to be believed, TEPCO has been hiding the damages for at least 10 years; the oldest damage was from 25 years ago. According to the Yomiuri Shinbun, that’s not clear, and you would be excused if you thought the damages were recent (after March 11, … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia NHK World / November 14, 2013 / A robot at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has for the first time identified exactly where highly radioactive water is leaking from a reactor. Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, on Wednesday succeeded in sending a remote-controlled robot close to the lower part of the No.1 reactor’s containment vessel. The lower section is filled with contaminated water injected to … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Asahi Shimbun / A record high level of 710,000 becquerels of beta-ray sources, such as radioactive strontium, was detected per liter of water in an observation well at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Nov. 12 the water was taken Nov. 10 at the well 10 meters north of a tank that leaked 300 tons of highly contaminated water before the problem was … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Reuters / November 13, 2013 / The operator of Japan‘s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant will as early as this week begin removing 400 tonnes of highly irradiated spent fuel in a hugely delicate and unprecedented operation fraught with risk. Carefully plucking more than 1,500 brittle and potentially damaged fuel assemblies from the plant’s unstable Reactor No. 4 is expected to take about a year, and will be seen as … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Reuters / November 11, 2013 / For many of Japan’s oldest nuclear refugees, all they want is to be allowed back to the homes they were forced to abandon. Others are ready to move away, severing ties to the ghost towns that remain in the shadow of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant. But among the thousands of evacuees stuck in temporary housing more than two and a half years … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / November 11, 2013 / The first wind turbine in an experimental project by the University of Tokyo and 10 companies started generating electricity Monday off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture. The turbine, equipped with 80-meter-long blades, floats on the sea some 20 km off the town of Naraha. It will deliver up to 2,000 kilowatts to Tohoku Electric Power Co. through a floating substation and underwater … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Press TV / November 9, 2013 / After coming under criticism for its handling of clean-up efforts, the operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant says it will double the pay of contract workers at the station. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) says hazard pay for thousands of workers will be increased from one hundred US dollars to two hundred US dollars a day. “It is extremely important to … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia The Guardian / November 8, 2013 / Gazing down at the glassy surface of the spent fuel pool inside the No 4 reactor building at Fukushima Daiichi, it is easy to underestimate the danger posed by the highly toxic contents of its murky depths. But this lofty, isolated corner of the wrecked nuclear power plant is now the focus of global attention as Japan enters the most critical stage … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia CommonDreams.org / November 5, 2013 / Preparations to begin the potentially catastrophic decommissioning of the crippled Reactor 4 at the Fukushima nuclear power plant will begin this week with a test run. The test, which could push back the beginning stages of fuel rod removal by two weeks, includes moving a “protective fuel cask” into and out of the No. 4 storage pool with a crane—before attempts are made … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / November 5, 2013 / With Tepco due to begin removing more than 1,300 spent-fuel rod assemblies and nearly 200 fresh ones from the reactor 4 pool at the Fukushima No. 1 plant this month, global pressure is mounting to allow an international task force to monitor and assist the highly hazardous operation. A former Japanese ambassador to Switzerland, anti-nuclear groups in Japan and abroad, nuclear engineers, … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia NHK World / November 6, 2013 / The International Atomic Energy Agency is sending marine monitoring experts to Japan. They will advise on handling radioactive wastewater leaking into the sea from the troubled Fukushima Daiichi power plant. The world nuclear watchdog says two members from its Marine Environment Laboratory in Monaco will stay in Japan from Wednesday through next week. The experts will visit Fukushima on Thursday and Friday. … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia JapanFocus.org / November 4, 2013 / With the third anniversary of Fukushima’s triple meltdown approaching, stories of incompetence and corruption in the nuclear cleanup are rife. A team of Reuters’ reporters working in Japan has researched working conditions at Fukushima Daiichi and decontamination jobs outside the plant. Their findings are shocking. Their report focuses on the testimony of three workers with different backgrounds: Hayashi Tetsuya, 41, whose case was … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia GreenAction.org / September 13, 2013 / https://fs220.xbit.jp/n362/form2/ To: Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan Toshimitsu Motegi, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Shunichi Tanaka, Chairman, Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) Urgent international petition calling for immediate action on the uncontrolled radioactive discharges at Tepco’s Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant This is clearly not an appropriate time for Japan to restart nuclear plants or export nuclear technology The ocean, the source of … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Yoshifumi Takemoto and Kentaro Hamada / via Reuters / November 4, 2013 The operator of Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant is working on a reorganization plan to fend off more drastic proposals, including possibly dragging the company through bankruptcy in return for a publicly funded clean-up and shutdown of the reactors. Two people close to Tokyo Electric Power Co (9501.T), or Tepco, and the government department that oversees it … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia ENE News / Nov. 5, 2013 / The utility had intended to start removing the fuel rods from the unit’s packed cooling pool as early as Friday. The test was requested by the Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization. The government-affiliated agency called for an initial test that would include transporting a protective fuel cask from the No. 4 storage pool to another pool in a different building about 100 … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia RT / October 25, 2013 / Many issues of national importance to Japan, probably including the state of the Fukushima power plant, may be designated state secrets under a new draft law. Once signed, it could see whistleblowers jailed for up to 10 years. Japan has relatively lenient penalties for exposing state secrets compared to many other nations, but that may change with the introduction of the new law. … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia ex-SKF / October 21, 2013 / The ex-McKinsey management consultant never ceases to entertain (albeit in a bad way). The last I heard Mr. Toshimitsu Motegi was when he said there would be more space to install storage tanks for contaminated water once Reactors 5 and 6 at Fukushima I NPP were decommissioned, casting doubt about his intelligence level. He was also pontificating over the talk between TEPCO and … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia RT / October 20, 2013 / Water has overflowed at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) is attempting to discern the quality of the water and possible radioactive substances which could have been spilled. TEPCO announced on Monday that the water overflowed in 12 areas of the plant. Heavy rains caused water to flow over the barriers of an artificial embankment which surrounds a dozen … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Arirang News / October 22, 2013 / Japan’s Environment Ministry was forced to acknowledge Monday that the decontamination of six towns around the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant will have to be delayed by up to three years. The clean-up was originally due to be complete by next March, but has been pushed back mostly due to lack of storage for contaminated cooling water from damaged reactors. The Fukushima plant … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Ex-SKF / October 14, 2013 / Duh. Relying on government officials in an emergency may be hazardous to your health and well-being. Nagaoka City, where the drill was carried out, is located in Niigata Prefecture, close to Kashiwazaki-Kariwa NPP. Good luck residents, because the governor of Niigata has declared he won’t allow venting in a severe nuclear accident, even if it’s the filtered vent, unless the municipalities and supposedly … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Press TV / October 14, 2013 / The International Atomic Energy Agency has for a second time sent a team of experts to Japan to monitor the clean-up operation at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima. The IAEA team, which includes 16 nuclear specialists, arrived in the Japanese capital, Tokyo, on Monday for a week-long mission at the request of the Japanese government. “We want to carefully analyze the … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Shiro Namekata / via The Asahi Shimbun / October 14, 2013 / Japan urgently needs an effective system that reuses radiation-contaminated water to cool down the crippled reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, said Gregory Jaczko, former chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In an interview with The Asahi Shimbun, the nuclear expert said failure to handle the contaminated water problem at the site will damage … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / October 6, 2013 / Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday requested more foreign assistance in cleaning up the Fukushima No. 1 power plant, where work has been plagued by the radioactive water crisis. “Our country needs your knowledge and expertise” in coping with the aftermath of the triple meltdown triggered by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, Abe said in a speech in English at an … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia The Japan News / October 3, 2013 / Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Japan should abandon nuclear power. “I’m calling for zero nuclear power,” he said in a speech in Nagoya. The 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which triggered a nuclear crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 plant, should be taken as an opportunity to build a resource-recycling society without nuclear power, he said on Tuesday. … Continue reading →
Continue readingFaith Aquino / The Japan Daily Press / Oct 2, 2013 Japanese fast food chain Yoshinoya dares to farm in Fukushima Prefecture, home of the world’s worst nuclear meltdown in two decades, where they plan to harvest rice and vegetable produce as ingredients for their dishes. Yoshinoya Holdings said it has collaborated with local farmers in the prefecture, forming the Yoshinoya Farm Fukushima. Yoshinoya and local farmers will be utilizing … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia The Japan News / September 30, 2013 / Tokyo Electric Power Co. President Naomi Hirose revealed in an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun on Saturday the company’s plans to decommission the Nos. 5 and 6 reactors at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. In the interview, Hirose said the two reactors will never again be used for power generation. The permanent shutdown of the Nos. 5 and 6 … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia The Mainichi / Sep 26, 2013 / Fishery products caught off Fukushima Prefecture were ready for trial sale as early as Sept. 26 after fisheries cooperatives here resumed test fishing the day before. Some 5.2 tons of 11 varieties of fish — including octopus, horsehair crab, blackbelly rosefish and angler — were landed at the Matsukawaura Port in Soma, northern Fukushima Prefecture, after 21 dragnet fishing boats returned there … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia News on Japan / Sep 26, 2013 / The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says underwater barriers in the facility’s port have been breached. The so-called silt fences are intended to prevent the spread of radioactive materials. Tokyo Electric Power Company officials said on Thursday they found damage in the curtain-like barriers near the intake canals of the No. 5 and 6 reactors. The silt fences … Continue reading →
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