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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Video: Fukushima Contaminated Water Leakage Still a ‘Challenging Issue’

By 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

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Looking Inside Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1

via 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

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NRA to Approve Takahama Safety Measures

 via 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

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24hr Convenience Store Re-Opens In Fukushima Restricted Zone

via 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

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Fishers Submit Request Over TEPCO Wastewater Plan

via 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

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Plant-Based Molecule May Be Key To Fukushima Clean-Up

via 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

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Robots To Work At Fukushima Disaster Scene

via 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

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Worker Dies at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant

via 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

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Robotic Technology Development Centre for Fukushima

via 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

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Fukushima Radioactivity Monitoring in the North Pacific Ocean

via 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

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South Korea To Review Fukushima Seafood Import Ban

via 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

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Thorium molten salt reactors to go into production by 2020

By 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

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Fukushima Rice Tests ‘Radiation Free’ First Time Since Disaster

via 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

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Fukushima Forgotten: Plant Workers Feel Voters Don’t Realize Their Ordeal

via 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

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Kurion Mobile Processing System Exceeds Fukushima Decontamination Targets

via 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

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Studying Radioactive Cesium Contamination of Children Affected by the Fukushima Disaster

via 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

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British Researcher Blasts U.N. Report on Fukushima Cancer Risk As Unscientific

By 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

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Plan C Also Failed In Plugging Reactor 2 Trench…Now What?

via 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

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TEPCO to bury Fukushima plant trench with concrete to control radioactive water

via 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

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Fukushima £11bn cleanup progresses, but there is no cause for optimism

via 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

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Trace Amounts Of Fukushima Radioactivity Detected Off U.S. West Coast

via 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

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In Hard-Hit Okawa, Life Remains A Struggle After 3/11

via 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

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Protests Erupt After Japan Local Government OK’s First Reactor Restart

via 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

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Fukushima Workers Injured As Steel Material For Coolant Tank Collapses

via 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

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Taiwan To Check Waste Shipments From Japan For Radiation

via 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

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All Spent Fuel Removed From Fukushima No.4 Reactor

from 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

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Abe Bereft of Reasons to Continue Nuclear Recycling Program – Analysis

via 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

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Storage Site For Radioactive Debris Near Fukushima No. 1 Is One Step Closer

via 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

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Japanese Grant For Tritium Removal Technology

via 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

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Tsunami Evacuees Caught In $30b Money Trap

By Taiga Uranaka and Antoni Slodkowski / trust.org / October 31, 2014 / Thirty billion dollars in funding for roads, bridges and thousands of new homes in areas devastated by the tsunami in Japan three and a half years ago is still languishing unspent in the bank. That means Keiko Abe is heading into a fourth winter of sub-zero temperatures in a cramped, temporary dwelling that is succumbing to the … Continue reading

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Fukushima Reactor 1 Dismantling To Be Delayed

via Japan Times / October 30, 2014 / In the first-ever delay in the plans to dismantle reactor 1 at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the government and the utility have agreed to postpone the removal of fuel rods from the spent-fuel pool by two years from the initial plans, NHK reported Thursday. The date of extracting the meltedfuel rods from the reactor core, … Continue reading

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Japan’s Natural Perils, and Promises, in the Wake of Fukushima

By Nassrine Azimi / Asia-Pacific Journal / October 29, 2014 / The first paragraph in the first volume of A History of Japan, by the scholarly British diplomat Sir George Sansom, is a detailed description of the islands’ geology. Writing in 1958 of the country he so loved, with its “mighty volcanic convulsions”, Sir George depicts the physical drama of peaks soaring two miles above and plunging five miles below … Continue reading

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Radioactive Soil Stored At Fukushima Schools Not Covered By Recent Disposal Law, Has Nowhere To Go

via japantimes.com / October 29, 2014 / Radioactive soil currently stored at schools in Fukushima Prefecture is not supposed to be transferred to radioactive waste storage facilities planned to be built near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Jiji Press learned Tuesday. This is because decontamination at schools was carried out before a special law on radioactive contamination took effect in January 2012 and thus the Environment Ministry … Continue reading

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Ill Wind Blows Another Worry For Fukushima Nuclear Plant

By Robert Myles / allvoices.com / October 28, 2014 / A violent gust of wind, Tuesday, indirectly caused a further problem in the shape of a major hole in the cover protecting number one reactor at the stricken Fukushima Nuclear Plant in Japan, according to Fukushima operator, the Tokyo Electric Power. The incident occurred as a result of strong winds when a crane was in motion. A hole about 30 … Continue reading

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Japan Edges Back Towards Nuclear Power With Vote To Restart Reactors

By Justin McCurry / theguardian.com / October 28, 2014 / Japan has moved closer to a return to nuclear power, more than three years after the Fukushima disaster, after a town in the country’s south-west voted to approve two reactors coming back online. Nineteen of 26 assembly members in Satsumasendai, located 600 miles south-west of Tokyo, voted in favour of restarting the Sendai nuclear power plant. Four voted against and … Continue reading

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Japan Trade Minister In Conflict Of Interest Row Over TEPCO Shares

via theguardian.com / October 24, 2014 / Japan’s government is reeling from its third scandal in a week after the trade minister, who oversees nuclear energy, faced questions over his shares in the company that runs the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Yoichi Miyazawa (pictured) had already faced embarrassment on Thursday when it was revealed that members of his staff had claimed expenses for a visit to a bondage … Continue reading

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3/11 Charges For TEPCO Execs Delayed By 3 Months

via Japan Times / October 25, 2014 / Prosecutors have delayed for three months a decision on whether to charge three former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Co. for their handling of the 2011 Fukushima disaster, an official with a panel that requested the indictments said Friday. The Tokyo District Prosecutor’s Office had been re-investigating the case after an independent judicial panel of citizens ruled in July that three former … Continue reading

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What’s life really like inside Fukushima?

by Victoria Craw & Nick Whigham / news.com.au / October 21, 2014 ONCE pristine rice paddies overgrown into forests. Wild animals roaming the streets of eerie towns with an uncertain future. That’s the scene described by Australian teacher Jessica Hellamy who recently had the chance to see inside the 20km exclusion zone created after the nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Dai’ichi powerplant in 2011. “Time had stopped. In the main … Continue reading

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Poll: 20% of Japanese Cautious About Radiation in Food

by Jun Hongo / Wall Street Journal / October 2, 2014 / The proportion of consumers saying they hesitate to buy food products from Fukushima prefecture because of radiation fears reached 20%, up from 15% in February, according to a twice-yearly survey by the Consumer Affairs Agency released this week. The percentage was the highest since February 2013, when the agency began issuing reports on how misinformation and harmful rumors … Continue reading

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Town Near Fukushima Plant Has Evacuation Order Partially Lifted

via Japan Today / October 2, 2014 / The government on Wednesday lifted its evacuation advisory for part of the town of Kawauchi which lies within 20 kilometers of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Environment Ministry officials said that radiation cleanup has concluded in the eastern part of the town, NTV reported. Prior to the March 11, 2011 nuclear disaster, Kawauchi’s population was 3,000. The Environment Ministry has … Continue reading

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Japan In Depth / TEPCO Measures Fail To Hold Water

By Eiji Noyori and Hiroyuki Oyama / the-japan-times.com / September 11, 2014 / Three and a half years after the outbreak of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, efforts to contain water contaminated with radioactive substances at the plant are at a crossroads. Resolving the radioactive water issue is the first hurdle toward decommissioning the plant. However, despite the time that has passed since the beginning … Continue reading

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