nuclear-news

The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope

In Quake-Scarred Japan, 2011 Fukushima Disaster Still Looms Large

As another major quake struck Japan, the country was still reckoning with the nuclear crisis triggered by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake and a tsunami of 13 years ago.


By Emma Bubola, Jan. 1, 2024,  https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/01/world/asia/japan-fukushima-quake-tsunami.html

As Japan assesses the damage from Monday’s major earthquake, it is still reckoning with the devastating nuclear crisis triggered by an quake nearly 13 years ago, one that placed the name of Fukushima on par with Chernobyl’s and traumatized the nation.

In March 2011, an 8.9-magnitude earthquake and a tsunami devastated the northeast coast of Japan and knocked out cooling systems at three of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant’s reactors, causing a triple meltdown that spewed radioactive fallout over large swaths of land around it.

The quake and tsunami killed more than 19,000 people, and the nuclear calamity, one of history’s worst, raised alarms around the world. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from towns and farming villages around the plant, and a decade later some still had not returned.

The cleanup of the area around the Fukushima plant is still in an early phase. The government said the treated radioactive wastewater that was used to cool nuclear fuel rods would likely be released over a period of 30 years.

Last summer, the government announced that it would start releasing the treated water into the ocean. The International Atomic Energy Agency declared that the government’s plan had met the agency’s safety standards, but it still raised objections from some scientists, anxiety among fishermen who feared it would hurt their business, and tensions with the Chinese and South Korean governments.

All of Japan’s nuclear reactors were shut after the 2011 crisis, and much of its nuclear power program remains shuttered.

January 3, 2024 Posted by | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

How Japanese earthquake has chilling echoes of 2011 tsunami disaster that killed at least 20,000 and caused nuclear meltdown

Daily Mail, By PERKIN AMALARAJ, 2 January 2024 

Japan earthquake LIVE: Four countries now on tsunami ALERT 

A devastating earthquake hit central Japan today with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6, prompting mass evacuations – in what will have been a chilling reminder for the country of its tsunami disaster in 2011.

A total of 21 quakes above 4.0 magnitude rang out shortly after 4pm local time (7am UK time) today, and videos shared on social media and broadcast on Japanese TV showed how buildings collapsed in Suzu, a city close to the epicentre of the largest quake, with huge cracks appearing in roads.

Other clips showed terrified shoppers thrown to the ground in department stores and flooding at a train station after water pipes burst, as tsunami waves began lashing the coastlines.

For many, it will have been a painful reminder of when tragedy struck on March 11, 2011…………………………………………………………………………………….

The ensuing meltdown of three of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant’s reactors blanketed nearby areas with radiation, rendering some towns uninhabitable for years and displacing tens of thousands of residents. 

Seawater flooded electrical grids in the area, and took out many of the power plant’s backup generators. 

This meant there was no energy to cool down the reactors, leading to a catastrophic meltdown. 

Heat built up, and hydrogen gas was generated, accumulating in the upper part of the refuelling hall. 

Upon ignition, the roof of the refuelling hall exploded, spreading radioactive material everywhere. 

Everyone within a 12 mile radius was evacuated, and the tens of thousands of people who left fearing radiation are still displaced. Around two percent of Fukushima remains off-limits.

Most of Japan’s nuclear reactors are still offline, and government plans to revitalise the sector are controversial………………….. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12916139/How-Japanese-earthquake-chilling-echoes-2011-tsunami-disaster-killed-20-000-caused-nuclear-meltdown.html

January 3, 2024 Posted by | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

US officials monitored pro-Assange protests in Australia for ‘anti-US sentiment’, documents reveal

Previously classified papers detail how the US embassy in Canberra responded to WikiLeaks’ release of embassy cables in 2010 and ‘sensationalist’ local media

 Guardian Christopher Knaus, 20 Dec 23

American officials monitored pro-Assange protests in Australia for “anti-US sentiment”, warned of “increasing sympathy, particularly on the left” for the WikiLeaks founder in his home country and derided local media’s “sensationalist” reporting of the explosive 2010 cable leaks, previously classified records show.

Documents released by the US state department via freedom of information laws give new insight into how the US embassy in Canberra and its security team reacted to WikiLeaks’ release of 250,000 embassy cables in late 2010.

They show the embassy’s regional security office (RSO) monitoring and reporting on pro-WikiLeaks rallies held across Australian capital cities, feeding information to Washington via the embassy……………………………………………………………………………….

The embassy was particularly critical of Australian media’s reporting of cables that showed the US government was closely watching the rise of the then deputy prime minister, Julia Gillard……………………………………………………………………………………

The cable is the result of a lengthy, expensive FoI battle by Maurizi, supported by the Logan Foundation and her lawyers, Lauren Russell and Alia Smith. She said it provided “indisputable evidence that the U.S. diplomacy’s Regional Security Office (RSO) in Canberra was monitoring the peaceful protests in support of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks in December 2010, as WikiLeaks had just started publishing the most important cables on Australia”.

“We know that the Regional Security Office protects U.S. diplomatic facilities, personnel and information, which is a legitimate activity, at the same time, one wonders what kind of monitoring activities were devised against peaceful protesters: were they identified? Were they intercepted? Were their donations to WikiLeaks tracked?” she said. “These are important questions, considering that we now know that later on, in 2017, Julian Assange, his wife, Stella … the WikiLeaks journalists, lawyers, doctors, and even we media partners were subjected to unprecedented spying activities inside the Ecuadorian embassy.”

The Italian journalist first filed an FoI request in February 2018, but it was ignored for two years, prompting her to sue the US state department.

She has filed similar FoI requests across the world, including in Australia, which she described as “the worst jurisdiction on earth when it comes to FOIA [Freedom of Information Act]”………………………………………..

Assange’s lawyers are suing the Central Intelligence Agency over the alleged espionage at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, saying it violated their US constitutional protections for confidential discussions with Assange.

The US embassy in Australia was approached for comment.  https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/dec/20/us-officials-monitored-pro-assange-protests-in-australia-for-anti-us-sentiment-documents-reveal

January 3, 2024 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, politics international, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

“Forbidden news” Water Containing Radioactive Materials Spills Over atKashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant.

When you go to these news sites - you get “Forbidden”

Water from the fuel pools at the top floors of the No. 7 and No. 2 reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture spilled over due to strong earthquakes, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. announced Monday. No damage or leakage out of the buildings was confirmed.

No further details on damage to people or the environment were immediately available

January 3, 2024 Posted by | Japan, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Nuclear waste site a potential danger to all who live here

Residents of affected communities should have a say on a potential nuclear waste storage site in Northwestern Ontario.

Chris Mills, https://www.nwonewswatch.com/letters-to-the-editor/nuclear-waste-site-a-potential-danger-to-all-who-live-here-8044416 1 Jan 2024

Nuclear Waste Management Organization has stated that they will put to a vote in two communities, Ignace/Wabagoon First Nation and South Bruce/Saugeen Ojibway Nation, for a permanent burial of nuclear waste.

I have been following this search for a burial place for nuclear waste since the early 1980s when Atomic Energy of Canada was in charge of the process. The planning and testing the concept of burial of nuclear waste goes back to the 1960s with drilling in Northern Manitoba. Manitoba has a High-Level Nuclear Waste Act, which states that there will be no storage of any nuclear waste that was not produced in Manitoba.

The site proposed to burial this nuclear waste is half way between Ignace and Dryden, but people in Dryden will not be given the option to vote on this waste site. When there is a leak (not if) the water flow will go into the Wabagoon water system, though to Dryden, Kenora and parts of Manitoba before heading north to Hudson Bay and south to Minnesota.

Do any of the people who will be affected have a vote on this nuclear waste site?

No.

When there is a nuclear accident with a transport moving this waste, we have no knowledge on how long the highway will be closed. We are not talking about a transport truck moving Amazon packages or a logging truck that closes down the highway for 12 hours, we could be talking weeks.

When there is an accident, and your home is contaminated, your insurance policy is null and void. If you read the fine print in your policy, it clearly stated that in case of a nuclear incident you are not covered.

You and everyone who is on the route to move this nuclear waste through Northwestern Ontario is in danger of losing everything you have worked so hard for. But you don’t have a vote because the Nuclear Waste Management Organization has rigged the system on who is allowed to say yes or no.

If this was great jobs and a safe option, do you honestly think that Southern Ontario would allow it to be buried in Northern Ontario? The answer would be no, they would be fighting to keep the jobs down in the South. But they got all the nuclear power, all the jobs, all the spin off jobs, and now they want to “Share” by giving us the hole.

January 3, 2024 Posted by | 1 NUCLEAR ISSUES, Canada | Leave a comment

Iran Says Prospect for Talks Over Nuclear Deal ‘Still Exists’

Bloomberg, By Arsalan Shahla, January 1, 2024

Iran said it is open to fresh talks around its nuclear program with world powers that had been overshadowed by the deadly war in Gaza.

“The diplomatic environment to hold a new round of talks still exists,” Nasser Kanaani, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, said in a press conference in Tehran on Monday. “We have no problem with a new round of talks within the framework of our red lines.”……………………….. (Subscribers only) more https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-01/iran-says-prospect-for-talks-over-nuclear-deal-still-exists?embedded-checkout=true

January 3, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment