Japan « nuclear-news

Japan’s massive task to clean up nuclear fuel pools of Fukushima stricken reactors

Japan begins massive nuclear pool clean-up after Fukushima disaster, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-15/japan-taking-nuclear-fuel-rods-from-fukushima-reactor/11009422 The operator of the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant has begun removing fuel from a cooling pool at one of three reactors that melted down in the 2011 disaster, a milestone in the decades-long process to decommission the plant.

Key points:

Workers need to remove 566 nuclear fuel rods from a cooling pool at the reactor site
The whole process occurs underwater to prevent radiation leaks
New robots will need to be developed to remove debris from the reactors

The process involves taking out spent nuclear fuel rods by using remote-controlled cranes to lift hundreds of radioactive cylinders from a highly contaminated reactor site.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said on Monday that workers started removing the first of 566 used and unused fuel units stored in the pool at Unit 3.

The fuel units in the pools located high up in reactor buildings are intact despite the disaster, but the pools are not enclosed, so removing the units to safer ground is crucial to avoid disaster in case of another major quake.

“The work is expected to be completed in March 2021, but safety is our first priority,” spokesman Joji Hara said.

TEPCO says the removal at Unit 3 would take two years, followed by the two other reactors, where about 1,000 fuel units remain in the storage pools.

If the rods are exposed to air or if they break, radioactive gases could be released into the atmosphere.

The 2011 disaster forced 160,000 people to evacuate areas near the Fukushima plant, and many of them have never returned to the most contaminated areas.

Obstacles to removing melted fuel

Removing fuel units from the cooling pools comes ahead of the real challenge of removing melted fuel from inside the reactors, but details of how that might be done are still largely unknown.

Experts say the melted fuel in the three reactors amounts to more than 800 tons.

Removing the fuel in the cooling pools was delayed more than four years by mishaps, high radiation and radioactive debris from an explosion that occurred at the time of the reactor meltdown.

Workers are remotely operating a crane to raise the fuel from a storage rack in the pool and place it into a protective cask.

The whole process occurs underwater to prevent radiation leaks.

Each cask will be filled with seven fuel units, then lifted from the pool and lowered to a truck that will transport the cask to a safer cooling pool elsewhere at the plant.

The work is directed remotely from a control room about 500 metres away because of still-high radiation levels inside the reactor building that houses the pool.

Robotic removal

In 2014, TEPCO safely removed all 1,535 fuel units from the storage pool at a fourth reactor that was idle and had no fuel inside its core when the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami occurred.

Robotic probes have photographed and detected traces of damaged nuclear fuel in the three reactors that had meltdowns, but the exact location and other details of the melted fuel are largely unknown.

In February, a remote-controlled robot with tongs removed pebbles of nuclear debris from the Unit 2 reactor but was unable to remove larger chunks, indicating a robot would need to be developed that can break the chunks into smaller pieces.

TEPCO and government officials plan to determine methods for removing the melted fuel from each of the three damaged reactors later this year so they can begin the process in 2021.

Japan’s plutonium surplus, its history, and its danger

Ed. Note: Many in Japan are now seeing this info for the first time since their PRESS has be limited by Abe’s Gov’t which is “in bed” with the Nuclear Industry.

Japan’s Plutonium Overhang, Wilson Center, Nuclear Proliferation International History Project Jun 7, 2017 By William Burr Plutonium, a key element of nuclear weapons, has been an issue in U.S.-Japan relations for decades. During the administration of Jimmy Carter, the Japanese government pressed Washington for permission to process spent reactor fuel of U.S. origin so that the resulting plutonium could be used for experiments with fast breeder nuclear reactors. The government of Japan wanted to develop a “plutonium economy,” but U.S. government officials worried about the consequences of building plants to reprocess reactor fuel. According to a memo by National Security Council staffer Gerald Oplinger, published for the first time by the National Security Archive and the Nuclear Proliferation International History Project, the “projected plants would more than swamp the projected plutonium needs of all the breeder R&D programs in the world.” That “will produce a vast surplus of pure, weapons grade plutonium … which would constitute a danger in itself.” Indeed, as a result of reprocessing activities since then, Japan possesses 48 tons of plutonium and could be producing more, with no clearly defined use, when a new reprocessing facility goes on line in 2018………

Presidential Directive 8,-which declared that “U.S. non-proliferation policy shall be directed at preventing the development and use of sensitive nuclear power technologies which involve direct access to plutonium, highly enriched uranium, or other weapons useable material in non-nuclear weapons states, and at minimizing the global accumulation of these materials.”

Consistent with this, Carter called for an indefinite deferral of commercial reprocessing and the recycle of plutonium in the U.S. and restructuring U.S. breeder reactor programs to develop “alternative designs to the plutonium breeder.” He also directed U.S. nuclear R&D spending to focus on the “development of alternative nuclear fuel cycles which do not involve access to weapons useable materials.” …….

Since the 1988 agreement Japan’s nuclear plans have gone awry. The Fukushima disaster raised questions about nuclear energy as a power source while the Monju fast breeder reactor turned out to be a tremendously expensive boondoggle, which the Japanese government decided to decommission in late 2016 (during more than 20 years it operated only 250 days). The government remains interested in developing plutonium-fueled fast reactors but that is a remote prospect. Plans to use plutonium in a mixed oxide (MOX) reactor fuel have come to naught. At present, therefore, Japan has no clearly defined use for the 48 tons of separated plutonium that it owns, some 11 tons of which are on Japanese territory.

The surpluses, which emerged as anticipated, continue to worry arms control experts, including some, such as Robert Gallucci, who were involved in the 1980 debate. Terrorists would need only a few kilograms of plutonium for a weapon with mass destruction potential. In the meantime, the Rokkasho reprocessing facility is scheduled to go on-line in 2018. The industrial scale facility is slated to separate 8 tons of plutonium maximum annually, although Japan has no specific plans for using most of it. 2018 is the same year that the 1988 U.S.-Japan agreement is slated to expire, although whether the Trump administration has any interest in renegotiating it remains to be seen. Meanwhile, the South Korean government, which cannot reprocess, under existing agreements with Washington, asks why it cannot do what Japan has been doing.

When NSC staffer Gerald Oplinger wrote that the plutonium surplus would constitute a “danger in itself,” he probably assumed an environmental hazard and possibly a proliferation risk and vulnerability to terrorism. He did not mention the latter risks, although the reference to surpluses of “weapons grade” material evoked such concerns. While Japanese reprocessing plants would be producing reactor-grade plutonium, it nevertheless has significant weapons potential. On the question of Japan’s nuclear intentions, the documents from this period that have been seen by the editor are silent; it is not clear whether U.S. officials wondered whether elements of the government of Japan had a weapons option in the back of their mind. Any such U.S. speculation, however, would have had to take into account strong Japanese anti-nuclear sentiment, rooted in terrible historical experience, Japan’s membership in good standing in the nonproliferation community, and that since the days of Prime Minister Sato, the “three Nos” has been official national policy: no possession, no manufacture, and no allowing nuclear weapons on Japanese territory. According to a 1974 national intelligence estimate, Japan was keeping “open” the possibility of a nuclear weapons capability and had the resources to produce weapons in a few years, but the intelligence agencies were divided over the likelihood of such a development. The CIA, State Department intelligence, and Army intelligence saw such a course of action as highly unlikely without a collapse of U.S. security guarantee and the emergence of a significant threat to Japan’s security.

Sources for this posting include State Department FOIA releases as well as recently declassified records at the National Archives, including the records of Gerard C. Smith and Secretary of State Edmund Muskie. Many documents on Japan from the Smith files are awaiting declassification review.

Documents in this release:…..https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/japans-plutonium-overhang

April 18, 2019 Posted by Christina MacPherson | - plutonium, Japan | Leave a comment

50 countries ban Japanese seafoods from Fukushima region, South Korea will maintain the ban

Seoul Welcomes WTO’s Ruling on Fukushima Seafood Ban by Korea Bizwire SEOUL, Apr. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea on Friday welcomed the World Trade Organization’s decision to rule in favor of Seoul’s import restrictions on Japanese seafood in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and said it would keep the ban in place going forward.The WTO appellate body overturned several points of the 2018 verdict earlier in the day, saying the Seoul government’s measures are not unfair trade restrictions and do not fall into the category of arbitrary discrimination.

The appellate body, however, sided with Japan on one point, saying that Seoul has not provided enough information to Tokyo in terms of the import ban measures.

“The government has been making all-out efforts to follow the principle of making the health and safety of the people a priority, and the government highly appraises the WTO’s decision,” the Ministry of Trade, Investment and Energy said in a statement.

The South Korean government said it hopes that there would be no further trade dispute with Japan.

In 2015, Japan officially lodged a complaint at the WTO to challenge South Korea’s import bans and additional testing requirements on fish caught after 2013. Tokyo argued that radioactive levels of its fishery product were lower than those from a number of other nations.

The WTO’s dispute settlement body ruled in favor of Japan in February 2018.

South Korea has been placing import restrictions on 28 kinds of fish caught from eight prefectures near Fukushima since the nuclear power plant accident.

The South Korean government said it will keep the existing import ban on all seafood from the eight prefectures. All Japanese seafood companies will be required to hand in safety certificates when any traces of radiation are found, it added.

About 50 countries have maintained bans on imports since the nuclear disaster, but Japan has complained to the WTO about only one country — South Korea.

“Currently, 19 more countries have implemented an import ban (on Japanese seafood) at different levels,” said Yoon Chang-yul, the head of the social policy coordination office under the Office for Government Policy Coordination……..http://koreabizwire.com/seoul-welcomes-wtos-ruling-on-fukushima-seafood-ban/135802

April 13, 2019 Posted by Christina MacPherson | environment, Japan, South Korea | Leave a comment

World Trade Organization approves South Korea’s right to ban Fukushima seafoods

SOUTH KOREA WTO APPEAL SUCCEEDS IN JAPANESE FUKUSHIMA FOOD DISPUTE, https://www.agriculture.com/markets/newswire/update-2-south-korea-wto-appeal-succeeds-in-japanese-fukushima-food-dispute GENEVA, April 11 (Reuters) – South Korea won the bulk of its appeal on Thursday in a dispute at the World Trade Organization over import bans and testing requirements it had imposed on Japanese seafood in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Last year a WTO dispute panel supported Japan, saying South Korea was wrong to keep its initial trade restrictions in place. But Thursday’s ruling overturned several key points of that verdict, saying South Korea’s measures were not overly restrictive and did not unfairly discriminate against Japan.

The appeal looked solely at the panel’s interpretation of the WTO rules, without going into the facts about the levels of contaminants in Japanese food products or what the right level of consumer protection should be.

“The South Korean government highly appreciates the WTO’s ruling and welcomes the decision,” South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said in a statement.

Following the ruling, South Korea’s current trade restrictions on Japanese seafood will stay in place, the ministry statement added.

South Korea widened its initial ban on Japanese fishery imports in 2013 to cover all seafood from eight Japanese prefectures including Fukushima.

Japan launched its trade complaint at the WTO in 2015, arguing that radioactive levels were safe and that a number of other nations, including the United States and Australia, had lifted or eased Fukushima-related restrictions.

South Korea imported 10.9 billion yen ($102 million) worth of Japanese seafood in the year to August 2013 before it broadened its restrictions. Those imports then fell to 8.4 billion yen the following year, according to the Japanese government. (Reporting by Tom Miles; additional reporting by Jane Chung in SEOUL; Editing by Keith Weir and Hugh Lawson)

April 13, 2019 Posted by Christina MacPherson | environment, Japan, Legal | Leave a comment

Okuma residents reluctant to return : much of the area still highly radioactive

Fukushima Japan nuclear fallout: Okuma residents encouraged home https://www.dw.com/en/fukushima-japan-nuclear-fallout-okuma-residents-encouraged-home/a-48272491 12 Apr19

Eight years after a triple meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, part of nearby Okuma has been declared safe for residents to return. But there has been no rush to go home as radiation levels remain high. The evacuation order for parts of Okuma was lifted by the Japanese government on Wednesday.

But just 367 of the town’s pre-2011 population of 10,341 have registered to go home, according to local media reports in Japan.

Okuma sits alongside the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station and 40% of the town has been declared safe for a permanent return. But a survey last year found only 12.5% of former residents wanted to do so.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is to attend a ceremony in Okuma on Sunday to mark the occasion. But the government has been accused of promoting the return of residents to showcase safety ahead of the Tokyo Olympics next summer.

“This is a major milestone for the town,” Mayor Toshitsuna Watanabe said in a written statement. “But this is not the goal, but a start toward the lifting of the evacuation order for the entire town.”

Lingering radiation

There are plans to open a new town hall in May to encourage more people to go back to their town which was devastated by the earthquake, tsunami and triple meltdown at the plant in March 2011. But the town center near the main train station remains closed due to high radiation levels which exceed the annual exposure limit. There will be no functioning hospital for another two years.

Much of Okuma still records high radiation levels and is off-limits. All of nearby Futaba remains closed, with the former 40,000 residents unable to return home. In a report from an investigation published last month, environmental campaign group Greenpeace said “radiation levels remain too high for the safe return of thousands of Japanese citizen evacuees.”

Reluctance to return

The government lifted the evacuation order for much of neighboring Tomioka two years ago. But only 10% of Tomioka’s population has so far returned. Some 339 square kilometers (131 square miles) of the area around the plant are designated unsafe.

Fears of exposure to radiation remain high among former residents, especially those with children. In its report, Greenpeace accused the government of failure: “In the case of workers and children, who are in the frontline of hazards resulting from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the Japanese government continues to ignore international radioprotection recommendations.”

Part of the Okuma is being used to store millions of cubic meters of toxic soil collected during the decontanimation operation. Authorities say it will be removed by 2045 but no alternative storage site has yet been found.

In all, 160,000 people were evacuated out of the area when three of Fukushima’s six reactors went into meltdown, leading to radiation leaks.

April 13, 2019 Posted by Christina MacPherson | Fukushima continuing | Leave a comment

As WHO upholds South Korea’s ban, Japan promotes Fukushima food exports

Japan pitches safety of food from Fukushima and Tohoku in wake of WTO ruling for South Korea, Japan Times ,12 Apr19, KYODO Japan will seek to reassure other countries about the safety of food produced in areas affected by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis, officials said Friday, after the World Trade Organization supported South Korea’s import ban on some Japanese seafood.Fishermen in Tohoku, the region hit hardest by the devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami that triggered the triple core meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, expressed disappointment with the WTO’s decision, saying their catches clear strict safety checks before shipment……….

Japan has been promoting its agricultural and seafood exports, which have been growing in recent years and reached ¥906.8 billion ($8.1 billion) in 2018, putting the government’s target of ¥1 trillion for this year in sight.

By holding baseball and soccer games in the disaster-hit region, Japan hopes to present the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics in 2020 as a symbol of reconstruction.

“I will promote the high quality of food products (in the disaster-hit areas),” Olympics minister Shunichi Suzuki said at a news conference held just a day after he was reappointed to his role.

The WTO’s appellate body for dispute settlement on Thursday ruled in favor of South Korea’s import ban on fishery products from Fukushima and seven other prefectures, reversing an earlier decision.

Thursday’s ruling is final as the appellate body is the highest authority in the WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism.

Due to fears of radioactive contamination, South Korea expanded its initial ban to include all fishery products from Fukushima and the seven other prefectures in 2013.

A total of 54 countries and regions introduced import restrictions following the meltdowns. The number has since declined, but South Korea is among 23 that are keeping the restrictions in place, according to the Japanese government. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/04/12/national/japan-pitches-safety-food-fukushima-vicinity-wake-wto-ruling-south-korea/#.XLEUO4kzbGg

April 13, 2019 Posted by Christina MacPherson | Japan, politics | Leave a comment

Impossible at present to remove all fuel debris from stricken Fukushima nuclear reactors

Unclear debris map casts shadow over decommissioning of Fukushima plant https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20190409/p2a/00m/0na/021000c April 9, 2019 (Mainichi Japan) TOKYO — The government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) are set to launch full-scale probes of the inside of the No. 1 through No. 3 reactors at the disaster-stricken Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station this fiscal year, in an attempt to determine which reactor to work on first to remove fuel debris — a critical step for decommissioning the facility.

However, the interior of the No. 2 reactor, which is most likely to be the first to go through the debris removal process, has turned out to be different from what had originally been expected, underscoring the difficulties entailing the removal work. Since many companies are involved in the process, how to pass down the know-how acquired over the course of the more than 30 year-decommissioning process also poses a challenge.

“At present, it is difficult to clearly say we are going to remove all fuel debris,” said Akira Ono, who leads the decommissioning project, at a regular press conference by TEPCO on March 28, while noting that the utility will not back down from its ultimate goal of full debris removal.

If TEPCO fails to take out all debris from the nuclear plant, the very premise for dismantling the facility and returning the plot to its original state will be undermined. Such a scenario would adversely affect the disaster recovery plans envisaged by the national government and the Fukushima Prefectural Government. While awareness about the difficulty of debris removal has been shared among concerned parties, the actual dismal situation had not been recognized until TEPCO conducted the first debris survey at the No. 2 reactor on Feb. 13.

In that survey, a remotely controlled special device that was injected into the No. 2 reactor’s containment vessel succeeded in lifting portions of sediment accumulated at the bottom, which were believed to be fuel debris. Officials involved were relieved because they “had been worried the material would not move at all,” according to Ono.

The radiation level of the material, measured at a distance of some 30 centimeters, was 7.6 sieverts per hour, far less than anticipated. If the sediment contained a good portion of nuclear fuel, the radiation doses ought to have been several hundred sieverts per hour, even eight years after the 2011 nuclear meltdowns.

This finding suggested that the sediment that TEPCO came in contact with in the survey was not the main nuclear fuel debris it was looking for. Many speculate that the surface of the sediment may mainly consist of metals including cladding tubes that used to cover nuclear fuels.

The question now is whether fuel debris exists beneath the surface of the sediment or if nuclear fuel still remains within the reactor pressure vessel, or even somewhere else. There are currently no prospects for TEPCO to ascertain an accurate distributions of debris.

The material that was lifted in the survey mostly comprised pebble-like sediment, weighing less than 1 kilogram in total. Meanwhile, fuel debris generated in the core meltdowns is estimated to total 237 metric tons at the No. 2 reactor alone and a combined 880 tons at the No. 1 through No. 3 reactors.

At the No. 2 reactor, TEPCO will conduct a more detailed survey on debris possibly in the latter half of this fiscal year and attempt to collect small amounts of samples. At the No. 1 reactor, several apparatus including a robot submarine will be used to launch a full-scale survey inside the reactor to try to collect debris this fiscal year. As for the No. 3 reactor, the power company is apparently planning to prioritize removal of spent fuel, as related devices have gone through a series of glitches.

Unlike the other reactors, the No. 2 reactor did not suffer a hydrogen explosion in the 2011 disaster. Therefore, the No. 2 reactor remains the primary candidate for the first full-scale debris removal work, which is hoped to start in 2021.

With regard to the No. 1 and No. 3 reactors, the utility has yet to be able to reach materials appearing to be debris. The decommissioning of the nuclear plant is scheduled to be completed in 2051, a full 40 years after the triple meltdowns, but a concrete path toward that goal is not yet in sight.

“We have no choice but to remove whichever debris we can,” said a senior official with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

Naoyuki Takaki, professor of nuclear engineering at Tokyo City University, commented, “There could ultimately be a decision to stop debris removal after pulling out as much debris as possible. In that case, we would have no option but to consider building a sarcophagus like the one at the Chernobyl nuclear plant.”

(Japanese original by Toshiyuki Suzuki, Science & Environment News Department)

April 11, 2019 Posted by Christina MacPherson | Fukushima continuing | Leave a comment

Japanese government partially lifts evacuation order in one Fukushima nuclear plant hometown

Gov’t lifts evacuation order in parts of Fukushima nuclear plant hometown https://japantoday.com/category/national/japan-lifts-evacuation-in-parts-of-fukushima-plant-hometown By Mari Yamaguchi 10 Apr 19, TOKYO

The Japanese government partially lifted an evacuation order in one of the two hometowns of the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant on Wednesday for the first time since the 2011 disaster.

Decontamination efforts have lowered radiation levels significantly in the area about 7 kilometers southwest of the plant where three reactors had meltdowns due to the damage caused by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The action allows people to return to about 40 percent of Okuma. The other hometown, Futaba, remains off-limits, as are several other towns nearby.

Many former residents are reluctant to return as the complicated process to safely decommission the plant continues. Opponents of lifting the evacuation orders in long-abandoned communities say the government is promoting residents’ return to showcase safety ahead of the Tokyo Olympics next summer.

The government has pushed for an aggressive decontamination program by removing topsoil, chopping trees and washing down houses and roads in contaminated areas, though experts say the effort only caused the contamination to move from one place to another, creating massive amounts of radioactive waste and the need for its long-term storage.

The meltdowns at three of Fukushima Dai-ichi’s six reactors caused massive radiation leaks that contaminated the plant’s surroundings, forcing at its peak some 160,000 people to evacuate their homes for areas elsewhere in Fukushima or outside the prefecture.

Evacuation orders in most of the initial no-go zones have been lifted, but restrictions are still in place in several towns closest to the plant and to its northwest, which were contaminated by radioactive plumes from the plant soon after its meltdowns. More than 40,000 people were still unable to return home as of March, including Okuma’s population of 10,000.

Town officials say the lifting of the evacuation order in the two districts would encourage the area’s recovery.

“We are finally standing on a starting line of reconstruction,” Okuma mayor Toshitsuna Watanabe told reporters.

A new town hall is opening in the Ogawara district in May and 50 new houses and a convenience store is underway. But the town center near a main train station remains closed due to radiation levels still exceeding the annual exposure limit and a hospital won’t be available for two more years, requiring returnees to drive or take a bus to a neighboring town in case of medical needs.

Anti-nuclear sentiment and concerns about radiation exposures remain high in Japan since the disaster, leaving many people skeptical about the safety declaration by the government and utility operators, as risks of developing cancer and other illnesses from low-dose, long-term radiation exposures are still unknown. Critics also say that the annual exposure limit of 20 millisievert, the same as nuclear workers and up from 1 millisievert before the Fukushima meltdowns, is too high.

Many people are reluctant to return home because of lingering concerns about radiation, and they have adapted to new jobs and homes after more than eight years away.

Only 367 people, or less than 4 percent of Okuma’s population, registered as residents in the two districts where the order was lifted. A survey last year found only 12.5 percent of former residents wanted to return to their hometown. The government hopes to allow some of Futaba’s 5,980 residents to return next year.

Okuma is also home to a temporary storage facility for the radioactive waste that came out of the decontamination efforts across Fukushima. A much delayed facility is still underway.

Fukushima plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., and government officials plan to start removing the melted fuel in 2021 from one of the three melted reactors, but still know little about its condition inside and have not finalized waste management plans.

April 11, 2019 Posted by Christina MacPherson | Fukushima continuing | Leave a comment

Nuclear challenge: How Japan has boosted food exports from disaster hit Fukushima – exclusive government interview

08-Apr-2019 By Tingmin Koe, Japanese authorities have been engaging both tourists and foreign governments in a double-pronged strategy to promote food products produced in areas that were hardest hit by the nuclear disaster in 2011, according to a senior government official.

HTTPS://WWW.FOODNAVIGATOR-ASIA.COM/ARTICLE/2019/04/08/NUCLEAR-CHALLENGE-HOW-JAPAN-HAS-BOOSTED-FOOD-EXPORTS-FROM-DISASTER-HIT-FUKUSHIMA-EXCLUSIVE-GOVERNMENT-INTERVIEW

April 9, 2019 Posted by Christina MacPherson | Fukushima continuing | Leave a comment

KEPCO to ship MOX nuclear fuel assemblies from France in 2020

klmùmùù.jpg A worker shows mixed oxide (MOX) fuel assemblies, which are the same type as those to be transported to Japan, in Marcoule, France, on March 14.

March 31, 2019

MARCOULE, France–Kansai Electric Power Co. (KEPCO) plans to transport 32 plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel assemblies from France to Japan in 2020 at the earliest to help reduce its stockpile overseas.

KEPCO plans to use the MOX fuel in the No. 3 and the No. 4 reactors of its Takahama nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture, which would reduce its plutonium overseas by about one ton from the current 11 tons.

The MOX fuel was produced in France using plutonium extracted from spent nuclear fuel generated in Japanese nuclear power plants.

KEPCO, based in Osaka, had asked French nuclear fuel company Orano (formerly Areva) to reprocess the spent nuclear fuel and extract plutonium from it.

The plans were revealed to The Asahi Shimbun by an Orano executive.

In July 2018, the Japanese government announced a goal of decreasing the total volume of plutonium, which is stockpiled in Japan and overseas by Japanese companies, from the current 47 tons.

Japanese companies must reduce their plutonium stockpiles before a reprocessing facility in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, starts operations in 2021 to extract plutonium.

In 2017, Orano concluded a contract with KEPCO to produce 32 MOX fuel assemblies.

Under the contract, Orano has extracted plutonium from spent nuclear fuel, which was transported from Japan, in its reprocessing plant in La Hague in northern France.

The French company plans to transport the plutonium to its facility in Marcoule, southern France, within 2019 to start production of MOX fuel.

Then, the MOX fuel will be transported from a port in Cherbourg, northern France, to the Takahama nuclear power plant in Japan on a sea route in 2020 at the earliest.

Since the 1970s, Japanese electric power companies have entrusted British and French firms to reprocess their spent nuclear fuel to promote nuclear fuel recycling.

Currently, MOX fuel is used in four reactors in Japan: the No. 3 and the No. 4 reactors of the Takahama plant; the No. 3 reactor of the Genkai nuclear power plant operated by Kyushu Electric Power Co.; and the No. 3 reactor of the Ikata nuclear power plant run by Shikoku Electric Power Co.

However, MOX fuel must be used at 16 to 18 reactors to steadily decrease the plutonium stockpile of Japanese companies overseas and up to seven tons of plutonium to be extracted at the Rokkasho facility a year.

If Japan’s stockpile of plutonium, which can be used as a raw material for nuclear weapons, increases, the country could be criticized by the international society.

Since 2018, the Japanese government has asked electric power companies to offer their plutonium to each other to decrease their stockpiles, particularly those overseas.

In the future, the three electric power companies of Kansai, Kyushu and Shikoku that are using MOX fuel could obtain plutonium from Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Chubu Electric Power Co., both of which can’t reduce their stockpiles as their reactors are idled.

“In order to decrease stockpiles, it is most efficient to burn MOX fuel at Japanese nuclear power plants,” said Orano CEO Philippe Knoche.

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201903310031.html?fbclid=IwAR3fLXPEpkjjS077woz09ocweWoFpmJt8T-Yb3NID3fTJ9jF-IUdyUmAW6I

April 8, 2019 Posted by dunrenard | Japan | Kepco, Mox Fuel | Leave a comment

Japan Business Federation, Keidanren, wants maximum service life of nuclear power plants extended to over 60 years

Keidanren wants maximum service life of nuclear power plants extended to over 60 years https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/04/06/business/keidanren-wants-lifetime-nuclear-power-plants-extended-60-years/#.XKpkBtIzbGg Keidanren will ask the government to consider extending the maximum service life of nuclear power plants beyond the current 60 years, informed sources have said.

Keidanren, also known as the Japan Business Federation, will also request that periods in which nuclear plant operations are halted be excluded from their operating life spans, the sources said Friday.

The requests will be announced by Chairman Hiroaki Nakanishi, also chairman of Hitachi Ltd., at a news conference Monday.

Keidanren, the country’s biggest business lobby, regards nuclear power as an energy source essential for the country to move toward the decarbonization of the power sector.

In the requests, Keidanren will stress that the use of existing nuclear power facilities that have been confirmed safe is important, according to the sources.

Japan effectively limits the service life of nuclear plants to 40 years. Under the current rule, the period may be extended by up to 20 years if state approval is given.

April 8, 2019 Posted by Christina MacPherson | Japan, politics | Leave a comment

Few evacuees are likely to return next week to parts of Okuma, host of Fukushima nuclear plant

Evacuees can return next week to parts of Okuma, host of Fukushima nuclear plant, but few likely to. Japan Times, 5 Apr 19, KYODO The government formalized on Friday its decision to partially lift from next Wednesday a mandatory evacuation order for residents of a town that jointly hosts the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

The town of Okuma — which saw all of its roughly 10,000 residents evacuate after one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters, triggered by a deadly earthquake and tsunami — will allow former residents to return for the first time in eight years, the government decided. The decision was said to be based on the lower radiation levels achieved through decontamination work.

Futaba, the other town that hosts the plant, remains a no-go zone.

Despite the decision, a very small number of residents are expected to return to Okuma. As of late March, only 367 people from 138 households, or around 3.5 percent of the original population of 10,341, were registered as residents of areas where the order will be lifted. …..

There will be no restrictions in place over approximately 38 percent of the town’s total area, but the rest will remain off-limits due to higher radiation levels……https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/04/05/national/evacuees-can-return-next-week-parts-okuma-host-fukushima-nuclear-plant-likely/#.XKfUetIzbGg

April 6, 2019 Posted by Christina MacPherson | Fukushima continuing | Leave a comment

New legal action compensation claim by 25 Fukushim evacuees

ACROnique of Fukushima 26th March 2019 25 people from Fukushima, who resettled in Ehime Province on Shikoku
Island, took legal action for better compensation. They claimed a total of
137.5 million yen (1.1 million euros) with the main argument that this
disaster could have been avoided if preventive measures had been taken to
protect the plant following the re-assessment of the earthquake risks. and
tsunami in 2006.

They believe that the compensation received is
insufficient in view of the harm suffered which has separated families and
cut ties with the community. They claimed 5.5 million yen (€ 44,000) per
person to cover stress, loss of property and relocation.

https://fukushima.eu.org/tepco-et-letat-japonais-condamnes-a-indemniser-des-personnes-deplacees/

April 4, 2019 Posted by Christina MacPherson | Japan, Legal | Leave a comment

France’s Orano (formerly bankrupt Areva) to send MOX fuel to Japan

ACROnique of Fukushima 31st March 2019 According to the Asahi , Orano is preparing to send MOx fuel to Japan from
2020. It is intended for the Takahama power plant , operated by Kansai Electric in Fukui province. The previous shipment dates from 2017. There are 32 nuclear assemblies that should sail to Japan. The amount of plutonium contained in these fuels is one tonne.

KEPCo will have yet to repatriate 10 tons of plutonium in the form of MOx fuel to clear its stock.
And Japan must also drastically reduce its stock in order to hope to start its reprocessing plant in Rokkashô mura, which is already 24 years behind schedule . However, only four reactors currently operate with MOx in Japan: Takahama 3 and 4, Genkai-3 and Ikata-3 ( see the state of the Japanese nuclear fleet ).

https://fukushima.eu.org/nouvel-envoi-de-mox-vers-le-japon-en-preparation/

April 4, 2019 Posted by Christina MacPherson | Japan, reprocessing | Leave a comment

Japanese panel says that people under 40 should have iodine tablets ready, in advance of nuclear emergencies

Panel: People under 40 should get iodine first http://www.newsonjapan.com/html/newsdesk/article/124669.php

NHK — MAR 31 2019,

A panel of doctors in Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority says iodine tablets should be distributed in advance to residents under 40 to mitigate the effects of radiation exposure due to a nuclear accident.

The panel compiled the proposal on Friday.

Iodine tablets are used to prevent the thyroid gland storing radiation.

World Health Organization guidelines say iodine tablets should be distributed to children and pregnant women first because they may face high risks of thyroid cancer after radiation exposure in a nuclear accident.

Iodine tablets are distributed mainly to residents within five kilometers of nuclear plants. But actual distribution is very slow, making it urgent to put children first.

The panel proposes that in principle iodine tablets should be distributed in advance to people under 40 as well as pregnant women and lactating mothers.

It also says people aged 40 or over can ask for the tablets if there are sufficient supplies, even though it has not been proved that cases of thyroid cancer due to radiation exposure will increase among this age group.

April 4, 2019 Posted by Christina MacPherson | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

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