nuclear-news

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

Highly radioactive fish in seas near Fukushima

Asahi: Gov’t worried about highly radioactive fish — Why are radiation readings still 100s of times over official safe limits? http://enenews.com/asahi-govt-worried-about-highly-radioactive-fish-why-are-radiation-readings-still-100s-of-times-over-official-safe-limit
 November 13th, 2012
(Subscription Only) Title: Worries over highly radioactive fish prompt study
Source: Asahi
Author: HIROSHI ISHIZUKA
Date: November 13, 2012

Persistently high radioactivity in some fish caught close to the Fukushima nuclear plant has sparked a government investigation into the physiological basis for contamination and why radiation readings in some specimens remain hundreds of times over the official safe limit.

[…] The overall trend has been a decline in detected amounts of radioactive cesium.

However, in August, two greenlings caught 20 kilometers north of the Fukushima plant were found to have cesium levels of 25,800 becquerels per kilogram, the highest level ever measured in fish since the nuclear accident. The government standard for food is 100 becquerels per kilogram.

And in March, tests recorded a level of 18,700 becquerels per kilogram
in freshwater salmon in the Niidagawa river near Iitate […]

[…] cesium in freshwater salmon and char caught since March has not been decreasing, leading to restrictions on the shipment […]

The forthcoming study will analyze cesium levels in the fish’s otolith, a part of the inner ear. The otolith is widely used in such research because it is an organ where trace elements tend to accumulate over the animal’s lifespan, leaving a growth record that can be likened to the rings of a tree. […]

November 15, 2012 Posted by | Japan, oceans, Reference | Leave a comment

Japan’s desperate, endless battle with nuclear radiation

Top Nuclear Official: Japan in “desperate, seemingly endless battle with radiation” — “Seemingly infinite damage to the daily life of residents” http://enenews.com/top-nuclear-official-japan-desperate-seemingly-endless-battle-radiation-seemingly-infinite-damage-daily-life-residents
   November 12th, 2012 
Source: Proceedings of the Japan Academy, Series B; Vol. 88 (2012) No. 9 p. 471-484Title: (1.7MB pdf) Accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Stations of TEPCO —Outline & lessons learned

Author: Shunichi Tanaka, Chairman Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority
Date: Nov. 9, 2012
The severe accident that broke out at Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power stations on March 11, 2011, caused seemingly infinite damage to the daily life of residents. Serious and widespread contamination of the environment occurred due to radioactive materials discharged from nuclear power stations (NPSs). […]

The accident has seriously contaminated the environment, such as houses, farmland, forests and seacoasts, resulting in significant radiation exposure to residents. After one year, there seems to be no concrete program to recover from the damage to the environment and to nuclear power applications, while the nation is forced to struggle with a desperate, seemingly endless battle with radiation. […]

November 15, 2012 Posted by | environment, Japan | Leave a comment

Fukushima is not a city where people can live: Video

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko1t92IM44A   Mother: I want the world to know Fukushima is in a state of dying — I reaffirmed severe radioactive contamination — I alone can’t do anything, I tried (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/mother-world-fukushima-state-dying-alone-anything-severe-radioactive-contamination-video
November 11th, 2012

Title: Fukushima is not a city where people can liveWatch the video here  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko1t92IM44A

By: 148 Production
Date: November 10, 2012

If you do not want to die, run away from Fukushima.

[…]

Fukushima Mother: Since the government was hiding information about radioactive contamination has paralyzed our crisis management. […] I reaffirmed severe radioactive contamination […] I alone cannot do anything I tried to help Fukushima. So, I want to know in world, Fukushima is in a state of dying.

November 15, 2012 Posted by | Fukushima 2012, Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

Worsening working conditions at Fukushima – Video

NHK Documentary: Recently deteriorating working conditions at Fukushima plant causing workers to quit — Company hasn’t been able to recruit a single employee (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/nhk-documentary-working-conditions-deteriorating-fukushima-plant-many-workers-leaving-company-hasnt-able-recruit-single-worker-video
November 13th, 2012 
Title: WANTED: Workers for Fukushima Decommission
Source: NHK
Uploaded by: MissingSky101
Date: Nov 12, 2012
NHK Narrator: This company that manages and maintains nuclear plant
instruments hasn’t been able to recruit a single worker for the plant
since the accident.

Yukiteru Naka, Chairman: If nothing changes there will be no young
workers at the plant in future. I think that’s very clear.

[…]

NHK Reporter: Many workers in areas with high radiation levels are
quitting. They have to leave in around 3 months when their level of
exposure is at the safety limit.

Recently deteriorating working conditions are also making others leave.

November 15, 2012 Posted by | employment, Fukushima 2012, Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

Tons of radioactive water around Fukushma nuclear plant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDsSgVoJhuw  Japan Nuclear Engineer: “Mind-blowing… truly outrageous” — Many massive pools of contaminated water are spread around Fukushima plant http://enenews.com/japan-nuclear-engineer-mind-blowing-truly-outrageous-many-massive-pools-of-contaminated-water-are-spread-around-fukushima-plant
 November 12th, 2012 
Title: Japanese tread radioactive water, attempt damage control
Source: The Guilfordian
Author: Haejin Song
Date: Nov. 12, 2012

[…] “Water works well for this system since it has a very high capacity … and can be treated if it is contaminated,” said Angie Moore, associate professor of geology. “However, when there is a reactor accident like at the Fukushima, the systems that prevent nuclear contamination of the cooling water have failed and there is direct contact between the water and the radioactive material.”

Masashi Goto (Credit: Shunji Iwai)
[…]

“There are pools of some 10,000 or 20,000 tons of contaminated water in each plant, and there are many of these,” said nuclear engineer Masasahi Goto to news source Al Jazeera.

“To bring all these to one place would mean you would have to treat hundreds of thousands of tons of contaminated water which is mind-blowing in itself,” continued Goto. “It’s an outrageous amount, truly outrageous.” […]

Watch Goto’s presentation at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Japan here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDsSgVoJhuw

November 15, 2012 Posted by | Fukushima 2012, Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

As massive sea wall slowly erected, no sign of restart at Japan’s biggest nuclear plant

Four years before Fukushima, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant was damaged by an earthquake, triggering a fire and radiation leaks

Japan’s Tepco sees no quick re-start for biggest nuclear plant Planet Ark,  14-Nov-12  Risa Maeda and Aaron Sheldrick Tokyo Electric Power Co sees no imminent resumption of operations at the world’s biggest nuclear plant, shut down after last year’s Fukushima disaster, further raising its costs as it spends more on fossil fuels to generate electricity.

A wall to protect the 8,212-megawatt Kashiwazaki-Kariwa station’s seven reactors against tsunamis will not be finished until June next year, said Shiro Arai, deputy site manager.

“It is too premature to talk about when reactor restarts will happen,” Continue reading →

November 15, 2012 Posted by | business and costs, Japan, politics | Leave a comment

Running Oi nuclear reactor on an earthquake fault? – a silly decision

Under government guidelines atomic installations cannot be sited on a fault – the meeting place of two or more of the plates that make up the earth’s crust – if it is still classed as active, that is, one that is known to have moved within the last 130,000 years.

Mr Watanabe said a heavy burden rests on those tasked with ensuring public safety, citing the jail sentences imposed on six seismologists in Italy after a court said their underestimation of the possible effects of an earthquake had contributed to the death toll in the central city of L’Aquila.

‘Silly’ to run Japanese nuclear plant on fault line, Herald Sun, AFP November 11, 2012 JAPAN’S only working nuclear power plant sits on what may be a seismic fault in the earth’s crust, a geologist has warned.

Mitsuhisa Watanabe says the earth’s plates could move under the Oi nuclear plant in western Japan, causing a catastrophe to rival last year’s atomic disaster at Fukushima – although some of his colleagues on a nuclear advisory panel disagree. Continue reading →

November 12, 2012 Posted by | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

Rokkasho: Japan’s nuclear reprocessing plant – to keep nuclear industry alive

Rokkasho has grown dependent on the reprocessing complex for nearly all its jobs and income.

“Without Rokkasho, we would not get approval to restart the other reactors—not ever,” says a member of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).

Japan’s Nuclear Future, Rokkasho and a hard place The government’s fudge on its nuclear future remains unconvincing http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21566018-governments-fudge-its-nuclear-future-remains-unconvincing-rokkasho-and-hard-place Nov 10th 2012 | ROKKASHO   THIS remote north-eastern coastal village in Aomori prefecture would delight a North Korean or Iranian spy. Not because of the rolling countryside, but the uranium-enrichment facility, the plant undergoing testing to make nuclear fuel by reprocessing spent uranium and plutonium, and the stash of a good part of Japan’s stockpiles of more than nine tonnes of separated plutonium—enough, experts say, to make more than 1,000 nuclear warheads.

The Rokkasho plant seems an anomaly in a country that forswearsnuclear weapons and that has shut down all but two of its 54 nuclear reactors. Yet the same government that says it wants to phase out atomic energy by the end of the 2030s also insists that it is committed soon to start reprocessing enough nuclear waste at Rokkasho to provide fuel for Japan’s nuclear-power plants to go flat out into the 2050s.

It does not take much prodding for officials to concede a potential contradiction, big enough to render Japan’s nuclear policy almost meaningless. Continue reading →

November 9, 2012 Posted by | Japan, reprocessing | 1 Comment

Women of Fukushima speak out

Filmmaker: Hope is hard to come by in Fukushima — To this day women having abortions for fear of genetic damage, families breaking up http://enenews.com/fukushima-filmmaker-to-this-day-women-having-abortions-for-fear-of-genetic-damage
November 6th, 2012 Title: Production Notes 
Source: ‘Women of Fukushima’ website

The full ramifications of the aftermath of the disaster that occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in March 2011 will take decades to unfold. Having shifted from the initial visceral drama to a more long-term, almost invisible threat, there is a real risk that the situations faced by residents of Fukushima Prefecture will simply vanish from the radar screens of the world’s media (or, in the case of Japanese media, remain non-existent). To this day, as a result of the meltdowns, children can’t play outside, families are breaking up, and women are even having abortions for fear of genetic damage to their unborn children. Hope is hard to come by in Fukushima.

However, after meeting a group of outspoken local women, we were compelled to capture their spirit and stories. […]
One month after the explosion, Kazue Morizono of Koriyama, fell sick with symptoms of vomiting, cold sores, diarrhea and joint pain. She was bedridden for months, but upon recovery she was out in full force, speaking up at public meetings and making heartfelt appeals to government and electric company officials— all of which fell on deaf ears. Vibrant, compassionate, angry and hurt, Morizono, like all of the Women of Fukushima, bears the burden of keeping the children safe.

“The government is 80-90% men and they are making all the decisions. It’s time for them to become enlightened to the fact that they are wrong. I want them to listen to us women; the women need to speak up, I feel that very strongly.”

November 9, 2012 Posted by | Fukushima 2012, Japan, women | Leave a comment

$125 billion and decades to clean up Fukushima – says TEPCO

The clean-up is expected to take decades, with scientists warning that some settlements may have to be abandoned.

The company said it would need more government help to meet the colossal figure

Fukushima operator warns clean-up ‘may cost $125 bn’ By Kyoko Hasegawa (AFP)  7 Nov 12 TOKYO — The cost of the clean-up and compensation after Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster may double to $125 billion, the plant’s operator warned Wednesday. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said decontamination of irradiated areas and compensating those whose jobs or home lives have been affected would cost much more than the five trillion yen it estimated in April. Continue reading →

November 9, 2012 Posted by | Fukushima 2012, Japan, wastes | Leave a comment

Russia sends radioactive products back to Japan

TV: 200% as many radioactive products returned to Japan this year than
in 2011 says Russian report (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/200-more-radioactive-products-sent-back-to-japan-this-year-than-in-2011-says-russian-report-video
November 7th, 2012 Title: Russia ShipBack #Radiation
Detected Goods from #Japan
Source: TBS/JNN
Translation & Subtitle: Jo2Rayden
Date Aired: Oct 25, 2012
Date Published: Nov 6, 2012
h/t junebloke

[…]

According to the Russian news agency Prima Media, from January to
September in this year, the radiation dose exceeded of Russia standard
value was detected from 319 goods,　such as used car, food, medical
supplies and others which were imported from Japan, to the Russian Far
East ports.

The Russia customhouse did not accept importing 284 goods, then, send
back to Japan.

145 goods send back to Japan in whole last year, due to the radiation
dose exceeded of standard value was detected in the Russian Far East
area.

But, It will reach almost double compared to 2011 with this year, even
until September.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWy3BkF7tQ4

November 9, 2012 Posted by | Japan, Russia, safety | Leave a comment

Shortage of workers at Fukushima – TEPCO fudges the numbers

NHK – TEPCO over-reports number of Fukushima workers   http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Voqq-DYQ48k
NHK: Concerns rising at Fukushima plant — 16,000 workers have quit, ‘severe working conditions’ blamed (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/nhk-concerns-rising-at-fukushima-plant-16000-workers-have-quit-severe-working-conditions-blamed-video
November 5th, 2012
Title: TEPCO over-reports number of Fukushima workers
Source: NHK
Date: Nov. 5, 2012
“Concerns are rising over whether Tepco has secured enough workers to decommission the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant”

[…] NHK found through an interview with TEPCO officials that only 8,000 workers are registered for the job, as of last month.

Earlier, the utility said there would be no manpower shortage as it had secured about 24,000 workers.

But this figure represents the total number of people who have worked at the crippled plant since the accident on March 11 last year.

16,000 workers have already quit the job. Many of them left due to severe working conditions. […]

November 7, 2012 Posted by | employment, Fukushima 2012, Japan | 1 Comment

USA pressure on Japan to keep with nuclear energy

U.S. needs Japan to remain nuclear, US expert says Relations in region not likely to change with Obama or Romney, even in China tiesJapan Times, By TAKASHI KITAZUME, 3 Nov 12  A “zero-nuclear” Japan will be a serious concern for the United States as its key ally both from economic and security standpoints, the chief of an influential U.S. think tank said at a recent seminar on Japan-U.S. relations.

The policy set out in September by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s Cabinet seeking to phase out nuclear power generation in Japan by the end of the 2030s — in response to strong anti-nuclear sentiments in the country following the triple meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant in March 2011 — is not viable given Japan’s vast economic needs, said John Hamre, president and CEO of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Hamre, a former deputy U.S. defense secretary, and his CSIS colleague Michael Green were speaking at a seminar organized by the Keizai Koho Center on Oct. 25 to discuss American policy on East Asia ahead of the U.S. presidential election as well as the imminent change in leadership in China.

Nuclear power generation in Japan over the past four decades has been an important part of Japan’s economic success that provided “a strong, reliable supply of base energy” for the historically energy-poor country, Hamre said.

While he said he understood that the Fukushima crisis shook people’s confidence in nuclear power — just as the 1979 Three Mile Island incident did for Americans — he noted there is “too much of a romantic idea about alternative energy in this country as a substitute for nuclear power.”

The Democratic Party of Japan-led government’s policy does not include a specific road map to achieve the goal, but assumes that renewable sources like wind and solar power will account for a greater portion of the nation’s energy mix in coming decades.

Citing U.S. experience in wind and solar power generation, Hamre said the low efficiency and output of these sources that rely on natural conditions will not “replace the base capacity of nuclear power generation.”……

Hamre said. “There can’t be any romanticism about alternative energy. If you’re going to be a modern, sophisticated economy, you have to address this question of making nuclear power a legitimate source of energy.”

Hamre also said the policy poses a security concern from the viewpoint of international control for nonproliferation of nuclear materials…..

If Japan is to give up nuclear energy — and if nuclear power is to wither in the U.S. due to competition with cheap natural gas and in Europe as in the case of Germany — “the countries that have given us the security system are going to diminish, and who’s going to replace them?” he said. “Americans cannot afford from a security standpoint to have Japan abandon nuclear power. It’s too important to us.”.….. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nb20121103d1.html

November 6, 2012 Posted by | Japan, politics international, USA | Leave a comment

Japan’s leaders cave in to pressure: will keep nuclear power

Japan’s leaders give up on quitting nuclear power Although Japan’s 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster set much of the public against nuclear power, politicians are not convinced. Christian Science Momitor By Gavin Blair, Correspondent / November 5, 2012 TOKYO In mid-September, Japan said it would close all 50 of its nuclear reactors by “the end of the 2030s.”

Days later, the administration backtracked in the  face of opposition from the main business lobby and some senior lawmakers in Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s own Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). Although the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster has profoundly increased the public’s antipathy toward nuclear power, politicians have yet to be convinced.

“The majority of Japanese people are now against nuclear power, but none of the major political parties are listening to them,” Continue reading →

November 6, 2012 Posted by | Japan, politics | Leave a comment

Earthquake fault under Oi nuclear reactor is definitely active

Gov’t Nuclear Expert: Immediately halt Japan’s only 2 operating reactors — “It’s certain there’s an active fault” http://enenews.com/govt-nuclear-expert-immediately-halt-japans-only-two-operating-reactors-its-certain-there-is-an-active-fault
  November 4th, 2012
Title: Panel at odds over fault at Oi nuke plant   Source: Kyodo Date: Nov. 5, 2012

A fault running under the Oi nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture is definitely active, an expert on a Nuclear Regulation Authority panel investigating the compound’s safety said Sunday, as other members continued to debate the potential danger.

Toyo University professor Mitsuhisa Watanabe is calling for the immediate halt of two reactors at the plant, the only nuclear facility reactivated since the Fukushima disaster last year, arguing evidence points to an active fault.

“It’s certain there is an active fault. Operations should be stopped and another investigation should be conducted” at the Oi plant, Watanabe said. […]

November 6, 2012 Posted by | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries     Next Entries »