via phys.org / March 20, 2015 / Researchers in Japan have jointly developed a robot with four arms and four crawlers which can perform multiple tasks simultaneously to help clean up the rubble left after the 2011 quake-tsunami disasters in Minamisoma, Fukushima. On March 13th, a remote controlled four-armed, four-wheeled crawler robot designed to clear rubble and save lives in areas with complex terrain was unveiled at the Kikuchi plant … Continue reading →
Continue readingCategory Archives: Fukushima
via Daily Kos / March 19, 2015 / “Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, destroyed 4 years ago in explosions and meltdowns triggered by an earthquake and tsunami, won’t be truly safe until engineers can remove the reactors’ nuclear fuel. But first, they have to find it.“ So begins an in-depth article in the March 6th edition of the Journal Science entitled Muons probe Fukushima’s ruins. In February of this … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia RT.com / March 22, 2015 / Japan plans to build a 400-kilometer chain of sea walls to fend off any future natural disasters. Some parts of the $6.8 billion project will reach a height of five stories, but critics say it could damage marine life and won’t guarantee residents safety. Some 440 sea walls will be built in the north east of the country. The project is aimed at … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Julie Makinen / via latimes.com / March 11, 2015 / Neon pink and yellow banners flutter along the roadsides, their gentle flapping breaking an eerie stillness. The houses here are shut tight, the streets are nearly deserted, the fields that once sprouted rice, tomatoes and cucumbers are fallow. Shigeo Karimata dons a hard hat and a mask and prepares to get out of his car. “Some people say, ‘Oh, … Continue reading →
Continue readingfrom japan-focus.org / December 26, 2011 / By Nishioka Nobuyuki I: Fukushima and Okinawa At midnight on April 22, 2011, the Japanese government designated the zone within a 20-kilometer radius of the Fukushima nuclear power plant a controlled area under the Basic Law for Disaster Countermeasures. As a result, all entry into the zone was prohibited without special government permission. Some 78,000 people were separated from their homes, without knowing … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia The Japan News / March 13, 2015 The transfer of soil, contaminated four years ago with radioactive materials from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, to an interim storage facility began in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, on Friday. The Environment Ministry plans to move the contaminated soil — currently being kept at more than 75,000 locations in the prefecture’s 43 villages, towns and cities — to the facility gradually. … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia NEI.org / The March 2011 accident at Fukushima Daiichi followed a 45-foot-high tsunami that washed over the plant in the wake of a historically powerful earthquake off Japan’s east coast. Loss of electric power to the facility and all but one of 12 emergency diesel generators led to overheating nuclear fuel in three of the six reactors, meltdown of uranium fuel and ultimately the release of radioactivity into the … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Press TV / March 10, 2014 / A fresh report in Japan shows the number of deaths by radiation from the country’s Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster in 2011 increased by 18 percent last year. The report published on Tuesday by the Japanese newspaper Tokyo Shimbun said figures from authorities in Fukushima Prefecture showed a total of 1,232 deaths in 2014 were linked to the nuclear disaster. The highest … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia channelnewsasia.com / March 11, 2014 / Muneo Kanno left his village to avoid radiation contamination after the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in Japan four years ago. But that has not stopped the evacuee from making daily trips back home. The 64-year-old farmer is on a mission to reclaim the village he called home for most of his life and he has started a number of projects to achieve this … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia asahi.com / March 4, 2015 / Around 71 percent of Fukushima Prefecture residents remain dissatisfied with the central government’s handling of the nuclear disaster four years after the triple meltdown forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes, a survey showed. Only 14 percent of respondents were satisfied with the central government’s efforts at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, according to the telephone survey conducted jointly … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia mainichi.jp / March 3, 2015 / The planned completion of the purification of highly radioactive water stored at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant is expected to be pushed back to sometime around May next year, more than a year later than initially planned, it has been learned. Naohiro Masuda, chief decommissioning officer at the Fukushima Daiichi Decontamination & Decommissioning Engineering Co., disclosed the anticipated delay during an … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia world-nuclear-news.org / March 3, 2015 / The transfer of radioactive soil and waste generated from clean-up work following the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant to a provisional storage site has been approved by the governor of Fukushima prefecture and the mayors of Futaba and Okuma. In August 2014, the then governor of Fukushima Prefecture Yuhei Sato approved a central government plan to construct an interim storage … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia channelnewsasia.com / February 25, 2015 / The operator of the tsunami-crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant said on Tuesday it had found a pool of highly contaminated water on the roof of a plant building and that it had probably leaked into the sea through a gutter when it rained. The finding comes four years after a massive earthquake and tsunami caused meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc’s Fukushima … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia japantimes.co.jp / February 18, 2014 / Aichi Prefectural Police arrested a construction firm executive on Wednesday for sending a 15-year-old boy to help clean up radioactive waste outside the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant. The police said the boy, who is from Kitanagoya, Aichi Prefecture, was sent to Fukushima to cut contaminated leaves and scrape up dirt in the disaster zone last July. Japan’s labor law prohibits people under 18 … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia fukushimaminponews.com / February 13, 2015 / The number of Fukushima residents who remain evacuated as a result of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster, including those who have evacuated voluntarily, totaled 118,862 as of January this year, falling below the 120,000 mark, according to figures announced by the prefectural government on Feb. 12. The number of evacuees staying within the prefecture … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia japantimes.co.jp / February 21, 2015 / The Fukushima prefectural government may in the coming week approve the delivery of radioactive soil and other waste at interim storage facilities that are under construction, sources said Saturday. Fukushima Gov. Masao Uchibori may declare the acceptance during a meeting with Environment Minister Yoshio Mochizuki, who plans to visit the prefecture around Wednesday, according to the sources. The prefectural government has begun discussing … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia the-japan-news.com / February 21, 2015 / The nation’s first mass production of drones will kick off this year at a plant near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, drone expert Kenzo Nonami and product prototype manufacturer Kikuchi Seisakusho Co. said Friday. Kikuchi Seisakusho plans to produce 400 unmanned surveillance aircraft at its plant in Minamisoma in Fukushima Prefecture. “Fukushima is a suitable production site given its need … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Adam Justice / IBTimes.co.uk / February 9, 2015 / The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team that will review Japan’s decommissioning work at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant this week, said on Monday (9 February) that contaminated water leakage remains a challenging issue. Since the devastating March 2011 earthquake that caused triple meltdowns at the Fukushima plant, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) has struggled with … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia world-nuclear-news.org / February 10, 2015 / TEPCO said it is installing a muon detection system at the unit. The system comprises two measuring devices. The first was installed on the north side of the reactor building yesterday, while the second was scheduled to be put in place on the west side of the building today. Once the system is installed, it will be ready for testing, the company said. Muons are high-energy … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia NHK World / February 3, 2014 / Japan’s nuclear regulator is set to compile next week its final assessment on 2 reactors at the Takahama power plant (pictured) in Fukui Prefecture, central Japan. The final document will certify that the reactors have passed the regulator’s scrutiny, which is a prerequisite for their restarts. The final assessment follows the Nuclear Regulation Authority’s approval of its draft in December. The draft … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Asahi Shimbun / February 1, 2015 / A 24-hour convenience store has reopened in this small town, even though the former residents are still not allowed to stay overnight due to concerns over radioactive contamination. FamilyMart’s Kamishigeoka outlet servicing the community of Naraha resumed operation on Jan. 30. The store was forced to close on March 12, 2011, as the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia NHK World / January 27, 2015 / Japanese fishers have demanded that the operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant gain their understanding before releasing decontaminated water into the sea. The head of a national federation of fisheries cooperatives, Hiroshi Kishi, submitted the request to industry minister Yoichi Miyazawa on Tuesday. The Nuclear Regulation Authority last week released a plan to discharge decontaminated water below government standards into … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia phys.org / January 28, 2015 / A Virginia Tech professor is part of a team of scientists from Japan and the United States that may have discovered a way to remove radioactive cesium from the millions of gallons of contaminated water being held at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant following the 2011 disaster. “Radioactive cesium is the major radioactive component from the reactor,” said Barry Goodell, professor of sustainable … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia ubergizmo.com / January 18, 2014 / Robots are wonderful workers for a few reasons – they do not get tired, they do not complain and neither will they congregate around a water cooler to gossip about their superior and his or her flaws. Not only that, robots do not have a union, and will be unable to go on strike – not to mention in a more practical manner, … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia theguardian.co.uk / Januray 20, 2015 / A worker at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has died after falling into an empty water storage tank, in the latest of a series of accidents at the site of the worst nuclear disaster for a quarter of a century. The death was the second at Fukushima Daiichi in less than a year, but the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia world-nuclear-news.org / January 13, 2015 / Work began on the Naraha Remote Technology Development Centre, which is being built by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), in September 2014. The centre at Nahara-Minami industrial park is due to begin full operations in the 2016 fiscal year. The complex will house a mock-up of the lower part of a reactor containment vessel, representing the interior of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca / A paper published in December 2014 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) details the arrival and concentration of radioactive isotopes from the Fukushima nuclear reactor in the North Pacific Ocean. This paper, by Fisheries and Oceans scientist Dr. John Smith, documents the first and only systematic study of its kind validating ocean circulation models while tracking the eastward movement of radioactive isotopes. On … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia scmp.com / January 9, 2015 / South Korean experts will visit Japan next week for further investigation before deciding whether to lift an import ban on Japanese marine products imposed following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said on Friday. During the four-day investigation from Tuesday, the second of its kind since December, a team consisting of South Korean researchers and consumer group representatives will visit … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Scott Dunn / thedigitalfirehouse.fr / January 8, 2015 / When most people think of nuclear power, they think of thousands of barrels of waste that no one can touch or do anything about. They look for ways to keep the waste out of their backyards. They think of crusty old domes near their homes or freeways that could go off any day now. As mentioned before in several articles … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia RT.com / January 5, 2015 / For the first time since the 2011 disaster, all of the rice harvested in Fukushima Prefecture this year has passed radiation tests and now can be deemed safe for consumption, according to local officials. Virtually all of the rice harvested in Fukushima in 2014 – or some 360,000 tonnes – has been checked for radiation and met the national standards of less than … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / Decemeber 10, 2014 / As Sunday’s snap election nears, many of the people working toward the decommissioning of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant say they want voters to know about their harsh working conditions, insufficient pay and worries of radiation exposure. Currently some 6,000 people a day are engaged in the decommissioning work at the plant — a process expected to take 30 to … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia environmentalleader.com / December 12, 2014 / Nuclear and hazardous waste management company Kurion has been awarded a contract by Tokyo Electric Power Company for a second Kurion Mobile Processing System for deployment at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant site. The first system started operating at the site in early October 2014 and has exceeded its performance targets during this period, Kurion says. The second system (pictured), identical to … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Daily Kos / December 2, 2014 / The purpose of this short diary is to report the results of a very recently published study which used a whole body scanner to look for cesium (134-Cs half life ~ 2 years, 137-Cs half life 30 years) contamination in children directly affected by the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant (NPP) disaster (behind pay wall unfortunately). This diary is part of an … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Masakazu Honda / Asahi Shimbun / December 2, 2014 /A British scientist who studied the health effects of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster panned a United Nations report that virtually dismissed the possibility of higher cancer rates caused by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis. Keith Baverstock (pictured), 73, made the comments during a visit to Tokyo at the invitation of a citizens group related to the Fukushima disaster. In response … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia EX-SKF.blogspot.com / November 24, 2014 / Plan D of Course! But first, recall that Plan A was to install freezing pipes at the head of the trench leading from Reactor 2 turbine building to create an ice plug so that the extremely contaminated water that had been sitting in the trench since the very beginning of the nuclear accident could be pumped out. TEPCO started the work in April … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia mainichi.jp / November 23, 2014 / Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has decided to bury a trench at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant using concrete after an effort to completely stop the flow of radiation contaminated water failed, it has been learned. TEPCO reported its plan to the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) on Nov. 21, and the NRA approved it, saying that the plan can at … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia The Guardian / November 14, 2014 / The man in charge of cleaning up the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has admitted there is little cause for optimism while thousands of workers continue their battle to contain huge quantities of radioactive water. The water problem is so severe that the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power [Tepco], and its myriad partner firms have enlisted almost all of their 6,000 … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia WHOI.edu / November 10, 2014 / Monitoring efforts along the Pacific Coast of the U.S. and Canada have detected the presence of small amounts of radioactivity from the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident 100 miles (150 km) due west of Eureka, California. Scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) found the trace amounts of telltale radioactive compounds as part of their ongoing monitoring of natural and … Continue reading →
Continue readingIf an earthquake fault caused a nuclear accident at California’s Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, whose fault would it be? Did you know that Diablo Canyon is adjacent to two active earthquake faults: the Hosgri and Shoreline faults? When we think of earthquake damage we think of buildings shaking and crumbling, pipes bursting and breaking. […]
The post Whose Fault? appeared first on Fairewinds Energy Education.
Continue readingvia latimes.com / November 7, 2014 / More than 3 1/2 years after a 50-foot tsunami rushed up the Kitagami River, inundating houses and farms and destroying everything in its path, the road to this city’s port remains unusable. Farmland, tainted by a massive influx of seawater, is still being restored. Hundreds of people remain in shabby temporary housing, with no exit in sight. The only business that really seems … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia NHK World / November 8, 2014 / A hospital in Fukushima Prefecture mailed the results of thyroid examinations to incorrect addresses. Nearly 200 people received somebody else’s test results.
Continue readingvia SBS.com.au / November 8, 2014 / The green light from the assembly and governor of Kagoshima prefecture, in the south of the country, marks a victory for the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe which has faced significant public opposition to its drive to re-fire nuclear power. “I want to inform the economy, trade and industry minister about my understanding of the government’s policy to push for restarting nuclear … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia RT.com / November 7, 2014 / Three workers at the troubled Fukushima nuclear power plant were hurt during an operation to set up a coolant tank for contaminated water. A 13-meter-high steel construction collapsed on them. One of the workers has been left in critical condition after being knocked unconscious. He was transported to the hospital from the plant by helicopter, according to a TEPCO spokesman, AFP reported. A … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia japantimes.com / November 5, 2014 / Taiwan will conduct radiation checks on some types of container cargo arriving from Japan, the island’s legislature said on Wednesday. The body’s Finance Committee ruled that waste materials such as plastic, scrap metal and paper must be checked with radiation meters upon arrival at the island’s four seaports: Keelung, Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung. Jao Ping, director general of the Customs Administration agency, told … Continue reading →
Continue readingfrom NHK World / November 5, 2014 / Workers have finished removing highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel from one of the reactor buildings at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant. The No.4 reactor had no nuclear fuel when the plant was hit by a massive quake and tsunami in March 2011. But there were more than 1,500 units of spent and unused fuel in the pool in the reactor building. The … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Asahi Shimbun / November 3, 2014 / The main components of the government’s nuclear fuel recycling project have all been sidelined. But the program was already in a state of collapse even before the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster led to a shift in Japan’s energy policy. After the meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, the Democratic Party of Japan-led government considered reviewing the recycling program. However, … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia simplyinfo.org / November 4, 2014 / Drone footage taken of the Unit 3 refueling floor.
Continue readingvia japantimes.com / November 4, 2014 / The Lower House on Tuesday approved a bill for the construction of temporary storage facilities for radioactive waste on land near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. The bill is expected to be enacted during the current extraordinary session of the Diet following debate in the Upper House. The bill calls on the government to ensure the safety of the facilities and … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia world-nuclear-news.org / November 4, 2014 / Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has awarded US-based waste management specialist Kurion a JPY 1 billion ($10 million) grant to demonstrate technology to remove tritium from contaminated water for possible deployment at Fukushima. Kurion’s technology is one of three selected by METI in August to go forward to the demonstration phase, alongside offerings from GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy Canada and … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia ISRN.fr / A video explaining in simple terms how the Fukushima nuclear crisis unfolded on March 11, 2011. Video created in 2012.
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