Plutonium nuclear reactor problems
Problematic ‘pluthermal’ era ” Japan Times Nov. 11, 2009 .……. Japan’s first reactor using plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) as fuel, attained nuclear criticality last Thursday and started trial operations Monday….. Thus “pluthermal” power generation has begun, but many problems remain unresolved…………. Continue reading
Japan’s fast breeder nuclear reactor plans are dangerous
Japan must take cautious approach toward use of nuclear fuel (Mainichi Daily News, editorial, Japan) November 6, 2009 At the present moment, the unresolved problems surrounding the nuclear fuel cycle touted by the Japanese government as a major pillar of its nuclear energy policy far outweigh its benefits. Continue reading
France supplies dangerous plutonium fuel to Japanese nuclear reactor
Controversial MOX fuel in use at Japanese reactor NTI Global Security NewsWire Nov. 5, 2009
A Japanese nuclear power reactor today began using French-made mixed-oxide fuel, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, July 17). Continue reading
Nuclear Disarmament Panel’s plans – too little, too slow
A-Bomb Victims, NGOs Dissatisfied With Nuclear Panel’s Action Plans HIROSHIMA, Oct 23 (Bernama)— Nuclear arms reduction plans crafted this week by an international panel in Hiroshima will take too long to bring about a world free of nuclear arms, atomic bomb survivors and anti-nuclear non-governmental organisations say. Continue reading
Nuclear “deterrence” makes Japan a target
Japan would be safer without extended deterrence
The Mainichi Daily News, by Dr Tilman Ruff (Mainichi Japan) October 10, 2009 The role Japan can play in achieving that critical goal cannot be overestimated. Continue reading
Safety doubts on Japan’s nuclear industry
Atomic power safety questions still unanswered BY KEISUKE KATORI AND AYAKO SUZUKITHE ASAHI SHIMBUN 5 Oct 09
Ten years after a nuclear accident killed two plant workers and shattered the “safety myth” surrounding atomic power generation, Japan still has much work to do in improving responses to cases of radiation exposure. Continue reading
Japan wanting to keep US nuclear pre-emptive strike policy?
Japan wary of ‘no first-strike’ proposal
TOKYO, Sept. 13 (UPI) — Japan is reluctant to agree to a proposal by a nuclear non-proliferation panel urging the United States to adopt a “no first-strike” policy, sources say. Continue reading
Hiroshima: A Visual Record
The Asia Pacific Journal: Japan Focus 27 July 09 by elin o’Hara slavick
On August 6, 1945, the United States of America dropped an atomic bomb fueled by enriched uranium on the city of Hiroshima. 70,000 people died instantly. Another 70,000 died by the end of 1945 as a result of exposure to radiation and other related injuries. Scores of thousands would continue to die from the effects of the bomb over subsequent decades………………
……………There are 258,000 names of A-bomb victims registered under the cenotaph. Each year on August 6, new names are added. The Flame of Peace is not an eternal flame because it will only burn until nuclear weapons are abolished. Hiroshima has 20/20 vision—a vision of a nuclear weapons-free world 75 years after the A-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. 2,000 cities outside of Japan participate in the annual conference of Mayors for Peace, an organization started in Hiroshima………………..
……… Parents who lost children, old parents, rush to see with slight hope if they can find a clue of their children. These parents are in their 80s and 90s now. Today there are over 30,000 nuclear weapons in this world. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not past events. They are about today’s situation.”
Delays at Japan’s ill-fated nuclear plant
Delays at Japan’s ill-fated nuclear plant
By Hiroyuki Koshoji
UPI Tokyo, Japan — Japan’s Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant, built to extract plutonium from the spent fuel produced in Japan’s nuclear reactors, continues to be plagued by technical difficulties that have pushed its start-up date for commercial operations to August this year.
The plant in Rokkasho in northern Japan was out of action for nine months from the end of 2007 due to problems in one of its vitrification facilities, a furnace that mixes high active liquid waste with molten glass to seal radioactive waste in glass canisters that can safely be buried in the ground.
Attempts to restart the plant failed last October as problems with the glass melting process persisted. Then in January, 150 liters of high-level liquid radioactive waste leaked from pipes in the vitrification cell, forcing Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. to postpone operations until August.
The problems at Rokkasho, especially with extracting plutonium from spent nuclear fuel, are a blow to Japan’s nuclear fuel-cycle program,………………. According to the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan, out of the 19,240 tons of total storage capacity available in Japan for spent nuclear fuel, 60 percent is already occupied. It is believed that storage capacities at Fukushima and the Tokyo Electric Power Company Inc. would be used up within two to three years.
Protests as nuclear ship docks
Protests as nuclear ship docks
Herald Sun May 18, 2009 10:00pm
AN armed vessel with a load of recycled nuclear fuel from France arrived amid heavy security today at a Japanese port where it was greeted by dozens of protesters.
The Pacific Heron – carrying a British police team to head off possible hijackers on its secretive two-month voyage – delivered a load of mixed-oxide or MOX fuel, a blend of plutonium and reprocessed uranium.
Several dozen anti-nuclear activists and residents rallied at a pier of the Omaezaki fishing port as the cargo ship docked under heavy police guard and cranes unloaded metal containers of the nuclear fuel.
Environmental group Greenpeace has called the cargo, which left France in March, “the largest shipment of plutonium in history”, saying the 1.8 tonnes would be enough to make 225 nuclear weapons.
The Pacific Heron is believed to have travelled around Africa, escorted by a second ship, the Pacific Pintail, which was not seen in the port.
Nuclear plant data falsified
N-plant pipe data falsified
The Yomiuri Shimbun 14 April 09 Hitachi Ltd. and Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy Ltd. announced Monday that they had found falsified data in the inspection records of components they manufactured for use in nuclear power plants.
The falsified data related to the welding of pipes to moisture separator reheaters manufactured by the companies for use in the No. 5 reactor of Chubu Electric Power Co.’s Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Omaezaki, Shizuoka Prefecture, and the No. 3 reactor of Chugoku Electric Power Co.’s Shimane nuclear power plant, which is under construction, in Matsue. .
Fire breaks out at Nuclear plant
Fire breaks out at N-plant
NIIGATA–A fire broke out Saturday night at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. in Kashiwazaki and Kariwamura, Niigata Prefecture, scorching the motor of an air conditioner. No radiation leaks or injuries were reported.
According to TEPCO, the fire broke out at about 10:25 p.m. at a storage space. Wiring connected to the motor burned out, and its steel cover was scorched.
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Though the machine has been in use since May 1992, its wiring was not periodically inspected.
The nuclear plant was struck by the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Offshore Earthquake in July 2007, and all its seven reactors were shut down. Since the earthquake, there have been nine fires at the plant, including the latest one.
………………….Kashiwazaki Mayor Hiroshi Aida on Monday summoned Akio Takahashi, the head of the power plant, to a meeting at which he demanded that the plant come up with preventive measures. Aida told Takahashi that he was concerned about the fact that a fire had broken out at a time when concerned municipalities are considering whether to approve the restart of the No. 7 reactor.
World’s largest nuclear plant catches on fire –
World’s largest nuclear plant catches on fire ABC News By North Asia correspondent
Mark Willacy 5 March 09A fire has broken out at the world’s largest nuclear plant in Japan, 200 kilometres north-west of Tokyo.
The operator of the facility says there is no threat of a radiation leak.
The operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, says a small fire broke out at the facility but was extinguished after 90 minutes.
It says a worker was taken to hospital with minor facial injuries.
The fire started just weeks after the company was given the green light to re-start one of the seven reactors at the plant, which had been suspended since an earthquake two years ago caused a fire and a small radiation leak.
World’s largest nuclear plant catches on fire – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Bloomberg.com: Japan
Japanese Company Accused of Exporting Nuclear Enrichment Parts
By Shigeru Sato and Yuji Okada
March 4 (Bloomberg) — Horkos Corp., a Japanese machinery maker, is accused of violated national security laws for exporting devices that can be used for nuclear fuel enrichment plants to China and South Korea, Japan’s trade ministry said.
Horkos Corp., which was founded in 1940 and is based in Hiroshima, produced and exported the unspecified devices to China and South Korea since 2001 without permission from the ministry, it said in a statement.
Police arrested four Horkos employees………………Investigations, which started in July last year, are continuing, the trade ministry said.
Japan – nuclear power woes
Hiccups causing major delays at nuclear plant THE ASAHI SHIMBUN BY EISUKE SASAKI AND HIDENORI TSUBOYA 3 March 09 “……………….technical failures, responsible for yet another delay in two- decade-old efforts to launch the plant, are far from last-minute crinkles.
Not only have they proved frustratingly difficult to iron out, the problems at the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant, conceived as a major link in Japan’s nuclear fuel recycling program, could shake the program to its foundations.
Plant operator Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. (JNFL) announced Jan. 30 it would postpone the end of testing from February to August–the 16th time it has delayed completion of the plant, which was originally due to go into full operation more than a decade ago, in 1997.
The technical troubles affecting one of its two glass melting furnaces, built to treat complex, heat-generating radioactive materials so that they can be buried safely in the ground, continue to confound JNFL.
When in operation, the Rokkasho plant will reprocess spent fuel from nuclear power stations in Japan to extract plutonium, which will be burned again to generate electricity. But the latest delay could jeopardize the nation’s nuclear fuel recycling policy.
The last five delays were due to malfunctions that occurred in the furnace in the process of vitrifying the liquid high-level radioactive waste…………………the Rokkasho plant employs technology developed in France,……………………Meanwhile, Japan’s fuel recycling program has come under scrutiny from the international community, which has asked questions about the country’s handling of weapons-grade plutonium. Among non-nuclear nations, Japan is the only country allowed under the international nonproliferation regime to produce plutonium in its reprocessing plant………………………….will leave a vast quantity of weapons-grade plutonium from the 31 tons already possessed by Japan–25 tons of which are in storage in Britain and France, where Japan sent spent fuel to be reprocessed from the 1980s, and 6 tons in Japan…………………the changing international political climate could affect Japan’s plans. Under the new administration of President Barack Obama, the United States will likely shift away from its nuclear fuel recycling policy.
asahi.com（朝日新聞社）：Hiccups causing major delays at nuclear plant – English
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