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Enthusiasm for solar power in Japan

The recent rush by home owners to cover their roofs with panels and companies to build “mega solar” farms have made solar cells a hot commodity.

“We are almost at grid parity here. Think of what would happen if Japan allows things to run their natural course and solar reaches grid parity

That all of Japan’s 50 nuclear reactors lie dormant amid public concern in the wake of Fukushima is an added boost for solar power

Solar makers bet on Japan nuclear crisis being a game-changer  

* Solar power firms to get boost from feed-in tariff

* Foreign players looking to grab slice of Japan’s solar market

* Companies say FIT will encourage economies of scale

* Public faith in nuclear power still in tatters after Fukushima

By Shinichi Saoshiro TOKYO, June 5 (Reuters) – Solar power firms are betting that the nuclear crisis in Japan will become a game-changer for renewable energy in the world’s third largest economy, with new foreign entrants such as Canadian Solar looking to go toe-to-toe there with some of the biggest utilities in Asia.

They will be given a big helping hand next month when the government introduces a generous subsidy for renewable energy via a so-called feed-in tariff (FIT), in a bid to encourage alternative energy sources, which currently only generate about 1 percent of power in Japan.

The FIT, which excludes large hydro-electric schemes, will require utilities to buy electricity generated by renewable sources such as solar, wind and geothermal heat at a premium for 20 years.  Continue reading →

June 6, 2012 Posted by | Japan, renewable | Leave a comment

A year after Fukushima disaster, and Japanese are growing even more opposed to nuclear power

“It is clear from surveys that the majority of the people think that we can survive this summer by conserving energy and transferring electricity among regions,”

Japanese more opposed to nuclear power a year after the tsunami, LA Times, 5 June 12, As Japanese authorities this week ponder whether to resume producing nuclear energy, a poll shows that opposition to nuclear power is strong and growing more than a year after the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear catastrophe that killed 20,000 and contaminated a broad swath of farmland.

Seventy percent of Japanese surveyed by the Washington-based Pew Research Center said they wanted nuclear power reduced or eliminated, while a year ago the nation was nearly evenly divided on the subject, with 44% urging a phaseout and 46% backing continued generation. Continue reading →

June 6, 2012 Posted by | Japan, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

New crisis dividing Japanese – dealing with radioactive debris

Japan’s Latest Nuclear Crisis: Getting Rid of the Radioactive Debris, The Atlantic, JUN 4 2012,   A plan to disperse the waste to incineration facilities across the country, meant to instill national unity, is doing the opposite, and further delaying Japan’s ability to move beyond Fukushima. KITA KYUSHU, Japan — Disposing the more than 20 million tons of rubble caused by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami is proving to be a difficult problem for Japan, not least because much of the rubble has been irradiated by the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The government’s plan — to destroy 4 million tons of potentially radioactive earthquake debris in garbage incinerators around the country — is dividing the nation and further delaying the country’s ability to put Fukushima behind it. Continue reading →

June 6, 2012 Posted by | environment, Japan | Leave a comment

Japan’s “wide area incineration” plan to manage radioactive debris

Japan’s Latest Nuclear Crisis: Getting Rid of the Radioactive Debris The Atlantic, JUN 4 2012“.……While the government insists on the necessity of removing rubble from the earthquake region as quickly as possible, critics point out that the government plan calls for 80 percent of the debris to be burned locally, and say that transporting only 20 percent of the feared waste to incinerators around the country makes little sense. After all, if the goal is to remove debris from the area, why is the vast majority of it staying there? Continue reading →

June 6, 2012 Posted by | Japan, wastes | Leave a comment

Radiation in Japan’s foodstuffs – the invisible hazard

Unlike harmful iodine 131, which disappears in matter of days, caesium 137 has a “half-life” of 30 years and lingers even longer.

Radioactive discharge from the crippled power station fell directly on crops and vegetables, and worked its way into the food chain when fish or animals in affected areas consumed contaminated plants.

Japan’s invisible enemy within TOKYO, Malaysian Insider,  June 2 — Before March 11, 2011, procuring food for an average Japanese household was a pretty straight-forward affair.

Following long-established traditions, a housewife — it is, still, almost always a woman in charge — did her best to ensure that every product brought to the table could be traced to Japanese soil or waters. This, it was widely held, was the best way to avoid eating fish, meat
or produce tainted with dangerous contaminants. Chinese imports were to be avoided whenever possible.
The accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, unleashed by a devastating earthquake and tsunami, shattered this age-old faith in the purity of Japanese produce. Continue reading →

June 4, 2012 Posted by | environment, Japan | Leave a comment

Perilous state of spent nuclear fuel rods pool at Fukushima reactor No. 4

The worries gained new traction in recent days after the operator of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co., or TEPCO, said it had found a slight bulge in one of the walls of the reactor building

 questions about whether Japan’s all-out effort to convince its citizens that nuclear
power is safe kept the authorities from exploring other – and some say safer – options for storing used fuel rods.

Radioactive waste at Fukushima threatens second nuclear catastrophe
http://www.watoday.com.au/environment/radioactive-waste-at-fukushima-threatens-second-nuclear-catastrophe-20120527 1zcxu.html#ixzz1wgpRdAiv  Hiroko Tabuchi, Matthew Wald May 28, 2012 TOKYO: What passes for normal at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant today would have caused shudders among even the most sanguine of experts before an earthquake and tsunami set off the world’s second most serious nuclear crisis after Chernobyl.

Fourteen months after the accident, a pool brimming with used fuel rods and filled with vast quantities of radioactive caesium still sits on the top floor of a heavily damaged building, covered only with plastic.

The public’s fears about the pool have grown in recent months as some scientists have warned that it has the most potential for setting off a new catastrophe. The three nuclear reactors that suffered meltdowns are in a more stable state, but frequent quakes continue to rattle the
region.

The worries gained new traction in recent days after the operator of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co., or TEPCO, said it had found a slight bulge in one of the walls of the reactor building, stoking fears over the building’s safety. Continue reading →

June 2, 2012 Posted by | Fukushima 2012 | Leave a comment

Japanese protest against restart of nuclear reactors

Japanese protest over planned restart of nuclear reactors Reuters TOKYO  Jun 1, 2012 – Hundreds of Japanese anti-nuclear protesters gathered outside the prime minister’s office on Friday, beating drums and chanting slogans against the planned restart of reactors a year after the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 25 years.

“We oppose restarts,” the crowd of about 1,000, which stretched for around 200 meters down the block, shouted in the peaceful demonstration. Public mistrust of nuclear power has grown since the earthquake and tsunami on March 11 last year triggered the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl….. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/01/us-japan-nuclear-protest-idUSBRE8500OE20120601

June 2, 2012 Posted by | Japan, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Japan – 37 tons of deadly plutonium, and planning to produce more

Other countries, including the United States, have scaled back the separation of plutonium because it is a proliferation concern and is more expensive than other alternatives, including long-term storage of spent fuel.

Fuel reprocessing remains unreliable and it is questionable whether it is a viable way of reducing Japan’s massive amounts of spent fuel rods

 Japan’s plutonium stockpile — most of which is stored in France and Britain — has swelled despite Tokyo’s promise to international regulators not to produce a plutonium surplus.

Japan to make more plutonium despite big stockpile, Fox News  June 01, 2012 Associated Press TOKYO –  Last year’s tsunami disaster in Japan clouded the nation’s nuclear future, idled its reactors and rendered its huge stockpile of plutonium useless for now. So, the industry’s plan to produce even more has raised a red flag.

Nuclear industry officials say they hope to start producing a half-ton of plutonium within months, in addition to the more than 35 tons Japan already has stored around the world. That’s even though all the reactors that might use it are either inoperable or offline while the country rethinks its nuclear policy after the tsunami-generated Fukushima crisis. Continue reading →

June 2, 2012 Posted by | - plutonium, Japan, reprocessing | Leave a comment

America’s CIA helped to ‘con’ the Japanese public into accepting nuclear power

the media mogul worked with the CIA to promote nuclear power.

Mr. Shoriki, backed by the CIA, used his influence to publish articles in the Yomiuri that extolled the virtues of nuclear power

Japan’s Nuclear Industry: The CIA Link, WSJ,  By Eleanor Warnock, June 1, 2012, “…….In the 15 months since the crisis at Fukushima Daiichi, Japan’s relationship with nuclear power has changed dramatically…….  all 50 of its plants remain offline. Restarting reactors — a step the government says is necessary to support the economy — is proving to be politically tricky as a skeptical public questions the safety of atomic energy.

Rewind almost 60 years and the government had a similar problem: how to persuade the public to support its ambition to become a nuclear nation only nine years after the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

According to one Japanese university professor, that ambition was achieved with help from an unlikely source: the CIA.  Tetsuo Arima, a researcher at Waseda University in Tokyo, told JRT he discovered in the U.S. National Archives a trove of declassified CIA files that
showed how one man, Matsutaro Shoriki, was instrumental in jumpstarting Japan’s nascent nuclear industry. Continue reading →

June 1, 2012 Posted by | Japan, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Majority of Japanese firms want abandonment of nuclear power

Critics accuse utilities of exaggerating potential power shortages in order to win public support to restart off-line reactors

 70 percent of firms are prepared to cooperate on power saving to the same degree as last summer

Three-quarters of Japanese firms oppose nuclear power, Chicago Tribune, by Tetsushi Kajimoto, TOKYO (Reuters) 25 May 12- Nearly three-quarters of Japanese companies support abandoning nuclear power after last year’s Fukushima disaster, although a majority set the condition that alternative energy resources must be secured, a Reuters poll showed on Friday.

The poll offers fresh evidence of the deep public distrust of nuclear
power, Continue reading →

May 26, 2012 Posted by | Japan, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Radiation released right after Fukushima accident was much more than first estimated

Fukushima radiation higher than first estimated,  By Kevin Krolicki TOKYO    May 24 (Reuters) – The radiation released in the first days of the Fukushima nuclear disaster was almost 2-1/2 times the amount first estimated by Japanese safety regulators, the operator of the crippled plant said in a report released on Thursday. Continue reading →

May 26, 2012 Posted by | Fukushima 2012, incidents | Leave a comment

Nuclear fuel rods at Fukushima’s reactor no. 4 – highly dangerous

The workers are like Samurai warriors, they’re like suicide workers. They know they are getting huge amounts of radiation going to the site. They can only go in, seconds to minutes, at a time doing work and then the next batch has to come in.

Chernobyl had a half a million workers who worked minutes at a time. Here we have a situation much worse than Chernobyl simply because we have basically five reactors that could go up. One reactor setting off the next reactor, that’s a huge amount of radiation, over ten times the radiation inventory found in Chernobyl.

“People don’t realize that the Fukushima reactor (Number 4) is on a knife’s edge; it’s near the tipping point.

includes videos and audio http://deathby1000papercuts.com/2012/05/large-crack-on-south-wall-of-fukushima-nuclear-reactor-number-four-photo/  Large Crack on South Wall of Fukushima Nuclear Reactor Number Four?   DBKP. May 20, 2012 By LBG1 We could have adisaster much worse, many times worse than Chernobyl.” Dr. Michio Kaku on the precarious state of the spent fuel rods in the severely damaged Fukushima nuclear reactor Unit Number Four building Continue reading →

May 24, 2012 Posted by | Fukushima 2012, safety | Leave a comment

Severe radiation risk at Fukushima’s nuclear reactor Unit 4

Concerns focus on Fukushima unit stability TOKYO, May 23 (UPI) — Whether a pool where spent fuel is stored at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant could withstand another strong earthquake has become a source of growing concern.

The concerns among activists, experts and politicians focus on Unit 4, which contains most of the plant’s spent fuel not stored in dry, hardened storage casks, Stars and Stripes reported Wednesday.

After the 9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami, an investigative report by the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation, an independent think tank started to investigate the causes of the plant disaster, cited among risks a loss of cooling water in Unit 4.

If left exposed, the spent fuel could heat and melt, releasing a huge amount of radiation.

The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., has said on its Web site Unit 4 is sound and the building could withstand an earthquake of the magnitude of the March 11, 2011, temblor.

But public trust in Tepco remains low, Stars and Stripes said, and calls for more efforts to empty and secure Unit 4 continue in Japan and beyond…… http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2012/05/23/Concerns-focus-on-Fukushima-unit-stability/UPI-67051337797686/#ixzz1vpwgvulJ

May 24, 2012 Posted by | Fukushima 2012, safety | Leave a comment

Fukushima workers at risk of cancer

Fukushima 1 workers risk cancer, Voice of Russia, May 24, 2012 About 170 people who worked at the Japanese nuclear power plant “Fukushima-1”, received doses of radiation, which have increased their risk of cancer according to reports published on Wednesday covering the results of studies conducted by experts of the Scientific Committee of the UN….
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_05_24/75768400/

May 24, 2012 Posted by | Fukushima 2012, health | Leave a comment

Infants in some areas at risk of thyroid cancer from Fukushima radiation

Infants in Namie were thought to have received thyroid radiation doses of 100-200 mSv, it added. The thyroid is the most exposed organ as radioactive iodine concentrates there and children are deemed especially vulnerable.

The report did not deal with radiation exposure suffered by emergencyworkers or people closest to the disaster site……

WHO releases mixed Fukushima radiation report Money Control , May 23, 2012  By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) – Spikes in radiation caused by the Fukushima nuclear disaster were below cancer-causing levels in almost all of Japan, but infants in one town appear to be at a higher risk of developing thyroid cancer, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday. Continue reading →

May 24, 2012 Posted by | Fukushima 2012, health | Leave a comment

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