Audit Report: Billions of Yen Wasted on Bad Technology at Fukushima

March 24, 2015 / by Mari Yamaguchi / AP / Japanese government auditors say the operator of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant has wasted more than a third of the 190 billion yen ($1.6 billion) in taxpayer money allocated for cleaning up the plant after it was destroyed by a March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. A Board of Audit report describes various expensive machines and untested measures that ended in … Continue reading

Continue reading

Taiwan: 283 Mislabeled Japanese Food Products Originated Near Fukushima

By Stephanie Chao / chinapost.com More than 283 Japanese food products imported from the radiation-stricken areas near the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster were found to be relabeled as having come from other areas of Japan and sold to local customers, authorities said yesterday. Officials from New Taipei City’s Department of Health, as well as the Food and Drug Administration and other law-enforcement authorities, seized the mislabeled products, although a substantial … Continue reading

Continue reading

An ‘Octopus’ Robot Developed To Clear Rubble In Fukushima

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 reading

Fukushima Unit-1 Muon Scan Results: No Fuel In Reactor Vessel

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 reading

Great Wall of Japan? Debate Over Tokyo’s 400-km Anti-Tsunami Barrier

via 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 reading

After 4 years, Fukushima Nuclear Cleanup Remains Daunting and Vast

By 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 reading

Flashback: Understanding the Power Structures Behind the 3.11 Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

from 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 reading

Fukushima Soil Transfer Begins

via 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 reading

What Is Happening At The #Fukushima Daiichi Site Now?

via 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 reading

Deaths Tied To #Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Up 18%

via 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 reading

Four Years On: Why Some #Fukushima Residents Are Returning To The Evacuation Zone

via 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 reading

4 Years After: 71% of Residents Dissatisfied With Work at Fukushima Nuclear Plant

via 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 reading

Purification Of Contaminated Water To Be Delayed By A Year

via 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 reading

Transfer of Fukushima Clean-Up Waste Gets Go-Ahead

via 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 reading

TEPCO Finds New Source Of Radiation Leaking Into Sea

via 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 reading

Construction Firm Exec. Arrested For Sending Teen To Help Fukushima Cleanup

via 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 reading

No. of Fukushima Evacuees Drops Below 120,000

via 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 reading

Fukushima May Accept Delivery Of Radioactive Waste

via 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 reading

Drones To Be Mass-Produced In Fukushima

via 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 reading