via Japan Times / February 21, 2014 / Foreign activists urged Tokyo on Friday to give up its policy of exporting nuclear technology as the impact of the meltdown crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant continues to ripple through Japan and other countries even after three years. “My humble request to the Japanese and the Japanese government is please don’t dump this destructive technology on people who love … Continue reading →
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via Enformable.com / February 19, 2014 / The controversy in Japan swirling around the topic of restarting idled nuclear reactors is showing no signs of simmering down; instead uncertainty and frustration appear to be increasing. In July, 2013, the Nuclear Regulation Authority began processing restart applications for ten reactors from eight utilities under tougher post-Fukushima guidelines. At that time the process was only expected to take six months, but has … Continue reading →
Continue readingfrom Asahi Shimbun / February 12, 2014 / The Hakodate municipal government will file a lawsuit demanding a halt to construction of a nuclear power plant across the Tsugaru Strait, arguing that an accident there could have catastrophic consequences for the city. The lawsuit against the central government and the electric power company building the nuclear plant in Oma, Aomori Prefecture, on the northern tip of Japan’s main island of … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Miya Tanaka / via Japan Times / February 10, 2014 / The defeat of two anti-nuclear candidates, including former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa, in Sunday’s Tokyo gubernatorial election has given the central government a boost of confidence as it prepares to move forward with an energy policy supporting the use of atomic power. “We plan to compile a feasible and balanced Basic Energy Plan (for medium- to long-term energy … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Lucas W. Hixson / via Enformabale.com / February 3, 2014 / It is well known that sometimes, we humans experience unintended consequences for conscious decisions we have made. Some of these unintended consequences are so frequently encountered that they are named. The Streisand Effect describes a situation where an attempt to suppress, censor, or remove information brings more attention to it. It is named after Barbra Streisand, who unsuccessfully … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Masaaki Kameda / via The Japan Times / February 2, 2014 / Whether the powers that be liked it or not, nuclear power took center stage in a debate involving four major candidates for the Tokyo gubernatorial election that was streamed live on the Internet Saturday. Three of the candidates came out firmly against atomic power. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration has done its best to keep the issue … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Ralph Nader / Counterpunch / January 24, 2014 / Last month, the ruling Japanese coalition parties quickly rammed through Parliament a state secrets law. We Americans better take notice. Under its provisions the government alone decides what are state secrets and any civil servants who divulge any “secrets” can be jailed for up to 10 years. Journalists caught in the web of this vaguely defined law can be jailed … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Asia One / January 15, 2014 / Japan’s government on Wednesday approved a fresh business plan for the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant that includes restarting idled reactors elsewhere in the currently nuclear-free country. Industry minister Toshimitsu Motegi gave the green light to Tokyo Electric Power’s plan, which involves pursuing the resumption of some operations at the huge Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station (pictured) in northern Niigata prefecture. … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Asahi Shimbun / January 14, 2014 / Former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa (pictured left), who is aiming to make Japan a nuclear-free country, said on Jan. 14 that he will run in next month’s Tokyo gubernatorial election with the backing of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi (pictured right), another anti-nuclear advocate. The support by Koizumi, a popular former Liberal Democratic Party prime minister, is an embarrassment to the pro-nuclear … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / January 9, 2014 / The Japan Atomic Energy Agency is planning to melt a small nuclear fuel rod in an experiment at its research facility in March to figure out how meltdowns occurred at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in 2011, officials said Thursday. The experiment could offer clues about the uncertain state of the melted fuel inside the three crippled Fukushima No. 1 … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Global Research / January 5, 2013 / Does anyone in authority anywhere tell the truth about Fukushima? If there is any government or non-government authority in the world that is addressing the disaster at Fukushima openly, directly, honestly, and effectively, it’s not apparent to the outside observer what entity that might be. There is instead an apparent global conspiracy of authorities of all sorts to deny to the public … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Asia-Pacific Perspective / January 4, 2013 / The Japanese government plans to revise a basic policy for disposing of nuclear waste so that it can play a more active role in selecting disposal sites. The industry ministry said starting early this year it will act on proposals submitted in November by a panel of experts, Japanese (NHK World) website reported. The government plans to store highly-radioactive waste from nuclear … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Today / December 27, 2013 / Environment Minister Nobuteru Ishihara said Thursday that decontamination of areas around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will most likely be completed by the end of March 2017, rather than the initial deadline of March 2014 set by the previous government. Ishihara told a news conference that the government had to revise the schedule because it was not realistically possible to … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Al Jazeera / December 16, 2013 / Fifty-one crew members of the USS Ronald Reagan say they are suffering from a variety of cancers as a direct result of their involvement in Operation Tomodachi, a U.S. rescue mission in Fukushima after the nuclear disaster in March 2011. The affected sailors are suing Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), alleging that the utility mishandled the crisis and did not adequately warn … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Asahi Shimbun / December 15, 2013 / Environment Minister Nobuteru Ishihara (pictured below) and reconstruction minister Takumi Nemoto on Dec. 14 asked the Fukushima governor and mayors of three towns in the prefecture to accept facilities to temporarily store soil and other materials contaminated with radioactive substances. The government hopes to buy a total of 19 square kilometers of land in Futaba, Okuma and Naraha for the construction of … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Russia Today / December 11, 2013 / Tokyo is looking to invest 100 billion yen ($970 million) for storing more than 130,000 tons of contaminated soil dug out near the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, according to local media. No nearby town has offered its land for the plan, though. The Japanese government wants to buy some 3 to 5 square kilometers (1.2 to 2 square miles) of land … 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 YouTube / Footage from a public consultation between the Japanese government and Fukushima residents recorded June 6, 2013 and posted by World Network Children.
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 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 readingvia EX-SKF / Sep 23, 2013 / As Japan celebrates “recovery” (at least in the stock market), 2020 Tokyo Olympic, maglev bullet train that will run under Japan Alps, there are still 100 people from Futaba-machi, Fukushima still living in the abandoned high school building in Saitama Prefecture, more than two and a half years after the earthquake and tsunami and the nuclear accident struck Tohoku and Kanto. Time has … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia The Asahi Shimbun / Sep 21, 2013 / In the wee hours of Sept. 20, a strong earthquake measuring a 5-plus on the Japanese seismic scale struck Fukushima Prefecture. Its epicenter was in the Hamadori area in the eastern part of the prefecture, where the wrecked Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is located. Even though it caused no damage to the some 1,000 storage tanks within the plant … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia The Asahi Shimbun / Sep 21, 2013 / In the wee hours of Sept. 20, a strong earthquake measuring a 5-plus on the Japanese seismic scale struck Fukushima Prefecture. Its epicenter was in the Hamadori area in the eastern part of the prefecture, where the wrecked Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is located. Even though it caused no damage to the some 1,000 storage tanks within the plant … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia The Japan Times / Sep 19, 2013 / Wearing a protective suit to guard against radioactive contamination, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe entered the wrecked Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant Thursday to inspect the desperate effort to stop tainted water from entering the soil and the Pacific. Abe visited the site in an apparent publicity stunt to demonstrate his determination to get the water crisis under control. An estimated 300 … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia EX-SKF / Sep 21, 2013 / To win 2020 Olympic for Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared to the world that his government will be “at the forefront” to deal with problems at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. Reading the article by Nikkei Shinbun about his most recent visit to the plant and comments from his ministers, it sure looks all talk, nothing but talk. From Nikkei Shinbun … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Reuters / Sep 10, 2013 / Fukushima nuclear plant operator Tepco Electric’s response to the world’s worst atomic disaster in a quarter century has been called ad hoc and more concerned with cost than safety, but 30 months later, the utility is still in charge. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in the centerpiece of Tokyo’s successful bid to host the 2020 Olympics, said he would be personally responsible for a … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / Sep 10, 2013 / One question that emerged among the public immediately after Tokyo won the right to host the 2020 Olympics was whether Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made an incorrect statement, or told an outright lie, about the contaminated water issue at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. During the Tokyo bid delegation’s final presentation before the International Olympic Committee in Buenos Aires on Saturday, … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Al Jazeera / Sep 8, 2013 / In March 2011, a tsunami hit Japan, killing almost 19,000 people and crippling the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The shutting down of the plant removed thousands of megawatts from the country’s power grid – but that was just the beginning of the problems caused by Fukushima’s meltdown. Continuing fears about food safety are destroying the livelihoods of farmers and fishermen who have … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia JapanFocus.org / Sep 1, 2013 / by Andrew DeWit and Christopher Hobson / Japan’s searing summer of 2013 saw the lid slide further off Fukushima Daiichi and its Pandora’s box of radioactive and political crises. The company in charge, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), already Japan’s most distrusted firm,2 was irredeemably exposed as dangerously incompetent. A slew of reports concerning leaks of high-level radiation led to increasingly concerned appeals, … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia SMH.com.au / Aug 27, 2013 / The Japanese government has lost patience with the efforts of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) to get the crippled reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant under control. Toshimitsu Motegi, the minister of trade and industry, visited the plant on Monday to determine progress on decommissioning three reactors damaged by an earthquake and tsunami in March, 2011. Tepco admitted last week that hundreds … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia NHK World / Aug. 20, 2013 / Residents of Fukushima Prefecture, home to the crippled nuclear power plant, will sue the central government for negligence in providing assistance one year after the enactment of a relevant law. The law enacted in June last year mandates medical, housing and other support to current and former residents of areas where radioactive levels are higher than usual but were not designated as … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia RT.com / August 7, 2013 / Radiation-contaminated water has been pouring into the Pacific Ocean from the disabled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant for the past two years, an industry ministry official told reporters on Wednesday. A Japanese government official said an estimated 300 tons of contaminated water is leaking into the Pacific Ocean per day from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant. Japanese authorities are working in crisis mode, … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / August 1st, 2013 / Tokyo Electric Power Co. reported Wednesday a group net profit of ¥437.93 billion for the April-June quarter, but fuel costs for thermal power generation to make up for the loss of atomic energy due to the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant catastrophe that started in 2011 continued to weigh heavily on the utility. The quarterly net profit compares with a loss of … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia NHK World / July 24, 2013 / Experts estimate that cleaning up radioactivity in Fukushima Prefecture would cost 50 billion dollars, more than 4 times the amount that has been earmarked. Experts from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology studied the cost of decontamination for the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident. They estimate that decontamination in no-entry zones will cost up to 20 billion dollars, and in … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Wall Street Journal / July 22, 2013 / Media surveys ahead of Sunday’s upper house election show that Japanese voters are placing the economy above all other issues, including the future of nuclear energy use. That appears to be true even in the prefecture of Fukushima, home to the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant that was the country’s worst-ever nuclear accident. The Liberal Democratic Party … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia ZeroHedge.com / Several companies applied to Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority on July 8 for permission to restart a total of 10 nuclear reactors in the country. Despite widespread apprehension in Japan about nuclear power following the Fukushima disaster in 2011 that led to the shutdown of all of the country’s 54 nuclear reactors, the plan to restart the reactors may succeed for a few reasons. The reactors are located … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia QZ.com / June 12th, 2013 / Radioactive water has been steadily leaking into the sea around the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant ever since it was hit by an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, Japan’s nuclear watchdog announced on Wednesday. Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co, widely reviled for its inept response to the disaster, had long insisted that no leakage was taking place; in recent days … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia The Peninsula Online / July 8th, 2013 / Japan moved a step closer to restarting nuclear reactors yesterday as four utility companies applied for safety inspection of 10 idled plants, the clearest sign of a return to atomic energy nearly two and a half years after the Fukushima disaster. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pushed for restarts since taking office in December, freezing the previous government’s nuclear phase-out plan. … Continue reading →
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