via RT.com / Dcember 11, 2013 / Over two years after an earthquake and tsunami devastated areas in and around the Japanese city of Fukushima, many residents have been left to live in impromptu residential camps with no hope of returning to their previous ways of life. The March 2011 tsunami forced hundreds of thousands in the Fukushima area to flee at a moment’s notice. RT’s Aleksey Yaroshevsky reports that … Continue reading →
Continue readingCategory Archives: Fukushima
via GlobalPost / December 10, 2013 / Two Japanese ministers will visit Fukushima on Saturday to seek consent from local authorities for the construction of facilities to store radioactive and other waste created by decontamination work around the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The Environment Ministry on Monday announced the planned visit of its head Nobuteru Ishihara and Reconstruction Minister Takumi Nemoto, who will meet with Fukushima Gov. Yuhei Sato … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Yahoo!7 / December 9, 2013 / If there was any question about the deadly nature of the Fukushima nuclear plant’s meltdown three years ago, it is pretty clear now. The levels of radiation in the area have set a new record for outdoor exposure, Japanese media reported. […] n two areas, the tests found levels at 25 Sieverts (Sv) per hour and about 15 Sieverts per hour, the Tokyo … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Matthew Winkler and Yuriy Humber / Bloomberg / December 10, 2013 / The global atomic power industry needs to share cross-border information to prevent nuclear accidents, replicating the transparency of international air-traffic control, said the head of the investigation into Japan’s Fukushima disaster. Nuclear plant operators and regulators need an international common language and standard for investigating and preventing disasters, Kiyoshi Kurokawa, who headed the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia WBUR.org / December 6, 2013 / Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency are praising Japan for making progress to stabilize the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, which was crippled by an earthquake and tsunami nearly three years ago. This week, the IAEA inspectors wrapped up a 10-day inspection of the plant, where the decommissioning process started a few weeks ago. Here & Now’s Jeremy Hobson gets the latest from … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Charlie Smith / via Straight.com / December 4, 2013 / A study by several researchers, including Health Canada monitoring specialist Ian Hoffman, reveals a sharp spike in radiation over southwest B.C. on March 20, 2011. That was nine days after a devastating earthquake hit Japan, triggering a nuclear disaster at the Fukushima power plant. Hoffman and the other researchers (Environment Canada’s Alain Malo, Jean-Philippe Gauthier, and Gilles Mercier, and … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia The Economic Times / December 5, 2013 / Japan’s ruling party could set up a British-style agency to shut down the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, taking control of a project now managed by the station’s embattled operator, a senior party policymaker said on Thursday. A huge earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 triggered three meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear station, the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986, … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / December 3, 2013 / Incumbents have suffered one defeat after another in city mayoral elections in Fukushima Prefecture — where more than 140,000 residents remain evacuees some two years and nine months after the meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The losing streak that happened this year in the cities of Koriyama, Iwaki, Fukushima and Nihonmatsu reflects local voters’ frustration over the lagging … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia 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 →
Continue readingvia 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 readingby Washington’s Blog / December 1, 2013 / “[The Odds of] Longer Term Chronic Effects, Cancer Or Genetic Effects … Cannot Be Said To Be Zero” It is very difficult to obtain accurate information on the dangers from Fukushima radiation to residents of the West Coast of North America and Hawaii. On the one hand, there is fear-mongering and “we’re all going to die” type hysteria. On the one hand, … Continue reading →
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 readingvia Washington’s Blog / November 27, 2013 / 2 weeks after the Fukushima accident, we reported that the government responded to the nuclear accident by trying to raise acceptable radiation levels and pretending that radiation is good for us. We noted earlier this month: Japan will likely pass a new anti-whistleblowing law in an attempt to silence criticism of Tepco and the government: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government is … 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 readingby Jay T. Cullen / TimesColonist.com / November 21, 2013 / Since the Fukushima Daiichi disaster on March 11, 2011, there are many reports of the potential impact of radioactivity from Fukushima causing harm to sea life and people on the West Coast of North America. But radioactivity from Japan poses no danger and little risk to us on the West Coast. A commonly used unit to measure radioactivity is … 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 The Guardian / November 7, 2013 / A video animation by the operators of the Fukushima plant, the Tokyo Electric Company, shows how 1,534 damaged fuel rods will be removed from the site. A robotic crane will move the rods from a storage pool damaged by March 2011′s earthquake and stored more securely in an on-site facility.
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 Japan Today / November 5, 2013 / Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has defended his about-face on nuclear power. Speaking in Yokohama on Monday, Koizumi shrugged off criticism that he had changed his stance on the issue of Japan’s reliance on nuclear power. The furor started on Oct 20 when Koizumi—who has retired from politics—gave a speech in Chiba Prefecture, in which he said that Japan should rid itself … 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 Mark Willacy / ABC / November 5, 2013 / CLICK HERE FOR MP3 AUDIO REPORT TRANSCRIPT TONY EASTLEY: One of the terrible legacies of the radioactive fallout from the Russian disaster at Chernobyl is now being visited upon people in Japan. Researchers in Fukushima are uncovering higher than expected rates of thyroid cancer in children. One prominent former thyroid surgeon – a veteran of the Chernobyl disaster – has … 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 reading