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Tepco eyes second test removal of Fukushima nuclear fuel debris

 Japan Times 29th Nov 2024, https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/11/29/japan/tepco-debris-removal-plan/

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings is considering conducting a second test to remove nuclear fuel debris from one of the three meltdown-hit reactors at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, company officials said Thursday.

As in the previous test, Tepco plans to use a fishing rod-shaped device to remove the debris from the plant’s No. 2 reactor.

Tepco collected 0.7 gram of debris in the first test, which started in September and ended on Nov. 7. The debris is currently under analysis at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency.

Nuclear Regulation Authority Chairperson Shinsuke Yamanaka has asked the company to collect more debris to gather more data.

Some 880 tons of nuclear debris, a mixture of melted fuel and reactor parts, is estimated to remain in the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 reactors at the plant, which was crippled by the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.

December 1, 2024 Posted by | Fukushima continuing, wastes | Leave a comment

Japan / Blow For Nuclear Programme As Regulator Blocks Tsuruga-2 Restart

 Nucnet By David Dalton, 14 November 2024

NRA cites presence of possible active fault lines underneath facility

Japan’s nuclear watchdog has formally prevented the Tsuruga-2 nuclear power plant in the country’s north-central region from restarting, the first rejection under safety standards that were revised after the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority said the unit, in Fukui Prefecture, is “unfit” for operation because owner and operator Japan Atomic Power Company (JAPC) failed to address safety risks stemming from the presence of possible active fault lines, which can potentially cause earthquakes, underneath it.

Tsuruga-2, a 1,108-MW pressurised water reactor unit that initially began commercial operation in 1987, is the first reactor to be prevented from restart under safety standards adopted in 2013 based on lessons from the 2011 Fukushima-Daiichi meltdowns following a massive earthquake and tsunami.

Those standards prohibit reactor buildings and other important facilities being located above any active fault…………………………………

Recent press reports in Japan said the NRA had decided Tsuruga-2 could not be restarted because it could not rule out the possibility that a fault line running under the reactor building is connected to adjacent active fault lines.

“We reached our conclusion based on a very strict examination,” NRA chairperson Shinsuke Yamanaka told reporters.

‘Data Coverups And Mistakes’ By Operator

The verdict comes after more than eight years of safety reviews that were repeatedly disrupted by data coverups and mistakes by the operator, Yamanaka said. He called the case “abnormal” and urged the utility to take the result seriously.

An older unit at Tsuruga, the 340-MW Tsuruga-1 boiling water reactor, began commercial operation in 1970 and was permanently shut down in 2015……………………………. https://www.nucnet.org/news/blow-for-nuclear-programme-as-regulator-blocks-tsuruga-2-restart-11-4-2024

November 25, 2024 Posted by | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

Nuclear reactor in 2011 disaster-hit area restarted

13 Nov 24, https://japantoday.com/category/national/update1-japan-nuclear-reactor-in-2011-disaster-hit-area-restarted-after-halt

A nuclear reactor in northeastern Japan, hit by the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami, was restarted Wednesday after a temporary suspension due to an instrument problem, the plant operator said.

In late October, the Onagawa plant’s No. 2 unit became the first reactor to operate in eastern Japan since the natural disaster, but it was halted earlier this month after a checking device became stuck inside the containment vessel.

Tohoku Electric Power Co, the operator of the Onagawa nuclear plant in Miyagi Prefecture, said it detected that a nut on a joint of a guide tube — designed to send devices into the reactor — was not tightened adequately when it was replaced in May.

The operator said it plans to begin power generation possibly this week after the reactor reaches stable criticality and hopes to start commercial operations around December.

The Onagawa unit cleared safety screening in February 2020 under stricter safety standards set after the 2011 nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. The reactor is the same type as those at the Fukushima plant.

November 14, 2024 Posted by | Japan, politics | Leave a comment

Nuclear debris retrieved from Fukushima reactor weighs 0.7 gram, (Just 880 tons to go)


 Japan Times 9th Nov 2024

The nuclear fuel debris collected on a trial basis from a crippled reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station weighs 0.7 gram, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings said Friday.

The collected substance will be analyzed at four facilities, including the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, for research toward full-scale extraction of nuclear fuel debris from reactors at the Tepco plant in Fukushima Prefecture…………………..

The company plans to spend the next few days preparing for the transportation of the fuel debris to the four facilities.

The four facilities will share the nuclear fuel debris and analyze its components and hardness over several months to a year.

TEPCO collected the debris from the No. 2 reactor Thursday, about two months after the trial work was launched Sept. 10. It was the first time that fuel debris has been removed from a damaged reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 plant.

A total of about 880 tons of nuclear debris, a mixture of melted fuel and reactor parts, is believed to remain in the No. 1 to No. 3 reactors………
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/11/09/japan/fukushima-tepco-nuclear-debris/

November 11, 2024 Posted by | Fukushima continuing, wastes | Leave a comment

Tepco removes [a tiny sceric]of nuclear fuel debris from Fukushima disaster site

The whole process is expected to cost around ¥23 trillion ($149 billion) and take decades to complete. About 880 tons of radioactive material, like melted fuel and metal cladding, are said to be stuck at the bottom of the three reactors at the plant.

By Shoko Oda, Bloomberg, Japan Times 7th Nov 2024
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/11/07/japan/tepco-debris-removal-demonstration/

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings says it has removed nuclear fuel debris left inside a reactor in a demonstration at its Fukushima No. 1 power plant, 13 years after a meltdown there.

Radioactive debris was removed from the Unit 2 reactor at the plant and was placed inside a sealed container for transportation, the power producer said in an emailed statement on Thursday.

The demonstration is part of Tepco’s cleanup plan for the site, after the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami overwhelmed the facility and led to the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. The whole process is expected to cost around ¥23 trillion ($149 billion) and take decades to complete. About 880 tons of radioactive material, like melted fuel and metal cladding, are said to be stuck at the bottom of the three reactors at the plant.

Tepco, which is decommissioning the plant alongside the government, is using a robotic arm that looks like a fishing rod with a claw grip to remove a small sample of the nuclear debris. The company had planned to remove just 3 grams as part of the demonstration.

The removed debris is set to be transported to Japan Atomic Energy Agency’s research facility for analysis, according to Tepco’s website.

The retrieval process began in September but faced challenges. A camera attached to the robotic arm stopped working, forcing Tepco to suspend the demonstration to replace the camera.

November 10, 2024 Posted by | Fukushima continuing, wastes | Leave a comment

Robot Removes First Bit Of Fukushima’s Nuclear Fuel Debris – Just 880 Tons More To Go

The radioactive ruins are still far too dangerous for humans.

Tom Hale, IFL Science 6th Nov 2024, https://www.iflscience.com/robot-removes-first-bit-of-fukushimas-nuclear-fuel-debris-just-880-tons-more-to-go-76669

robot has delved into the radioactive ruins of Fukushima to retrieve a tiny chunk of spent nuclear fuel. It’s the first time solid fuel debris has been removed from the plant – but they’ve still got a hell of a long way to go: 880 tons of the stuff to be precise. 

The remotely operated robotic arm, equipped with a telescopic camera, was able to grasp and retrieve a “small amount of fuel debris” from the floor of Unit 2’s reactor on October 30, according to the plant’s operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO).

“From the results of primary containment vessel internal investigations, we have deduced that the accumulated debris on the surface of the floor inside the pedestal is solidified molten material that consists of fuel elements and also may contain a lot of metal,” TEPCO said in a statement.

The fuel debris will now be taken away from the Fukushima site where scientists will analyze it to gain further insight into how to remove the rest of the debris. 

“By analyzing the attributes of the sampled fuel debris we will directly ascertain information such as the composition of debris at the sampling location and radioactivity density,” added TEPCO……………………………………………………………..

It’s estimated that the three impacted reactors contain an estimated total of 880 tons of melted fuel debris, all of which TEPCO hopes to remove during their decommissioning effort by the year 2031. The latest retrieval of a small chunk of radioactive debris is just the beginning of the mammoth feat ahead.

Along with solid debris, the decommissioning project has also had to deal with the colossal quantities of radioactive water that accumulated after being used to cool the damaged reactor cores. In August 2023, Japan began releasing some of the treated wastewater into the Pacific Ocean, much to the annoyance of their neighbors. 

TEPCO has expressed hope the entire clean-up operation will be completed in 30 to 40 years, although some speculate the target is overly optimistic.

Senior Journalist

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November 9, 2024 Posted by | Fukushima continuing, wastes | Leave a comment

Can quake-prone Japan ever embrace nuclear energy again?

Japan Times, By River Akira Davis and Hisako Ueno. The New York Times 4 Nov 24

A decade after one of the most devastating atomic energy disasters in history, Japan was finally getting closer to reviving nuclear power.

Around 2022, a majority of the public began to express support for restarting the nation’s nuclear plants, most of which have remained offline since an earthquake and tsunami caused a nuclear meltdown in Fukushima Prefecture in 2011. The governing Liberal Democratic Party pushed forward with plans to not only restart idled plants, but also build new ones.

The LDP made an urgent call to advance nuclear energy, which it said would help the heavily fossil-fuel-dependent country meet growing energy demands and fulfill its pledge to cut carbon emissions.

Then, this year, a series of disasters reminded many in Japan of their deep fears about nuclear energy, and the LDP lost their majority in the influential lower chamber of parliament. The fate of nuclear power in the country is again uncertain.

In January, the country’s deadliest earthquake in over a decade struck the Noto Peninsula. More than 400 people died, and many buildings were damaged, including an idled nuclear power plant.

In August, a tremor in southern Japan prompted experts to warn that the long-anticipated Nankai Trough megaquake, predicted to kill hundreds of thousands, could be imminent.

“With earthquakes erupting across the country, it is so clear that nuclear power is a harm to our safety,” said Hajime Matsukubo, secretary-general of the Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center in Tokyo. “This was made evident in 2011 and again during the Noto earthquake.”

A poll conducted by the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper a few months after the Noto earthquake revealed that 45% of respondents opposed restarting Japan’s nuclear plants, surpassing the 36% who supported it.

After the LDP’s losses in parliamentary elections Sunday, the party has less than a month to form a minority government or recruit other allies to regain a majority. The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, which won the second-most seats behind the LDP in the recent election, strongly opposes plans for Japan to build new nuclear reactors.

Within the next five months, Japan will release a revised energy plan that will define the nation’s target energy mix heading toward 2040. That means that the nascent government — in whatever shape it ultimately assumes — will be forced to confront two long-standing questions that have proved largely impossible to reconcile.

Is nuclear energy, widely considered [?] clean and [?] affordable, the best option for Japan — a nation heavily dependent on fossil fuels yet prone to frequent earthquakes and tsunamis? And if so, how can government leaders sell this to a populace still haunted by the memories of nuclear disaster?…………………………………………………………………………….  https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/11/02/japan/society/nuclear-fears-quake-prone-japan/

November 6, 2024 Posted by | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

Japanese nuclear reactor that restarted 13 years after Fukushima disaster is shut down again

A Japanese nuclear reactor that restarted last week for the first time in more than 13 years after it survived a massive earthquake and tsunami that badly damaged the nearby Fukushima nuclear plant has been shut down again due to an equipment problem

Mari Yamaguchi, 4 Nov 24, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/ap-japanese-tokyo-fukushima-b2640761.html

A Japanese nuclear reactor that restarted last week for the first time in more than 13 years after it had survived a massive 2011 earthquake and tsunami that badly damaged the nearby Fukushima nuclear plant was shut down again Monday due to an equipment problem, its operator said.

The No. 2 reactor at the Onagawa nuclear power plant on Japan’s northern coast was put back online on Oct. 29 and had been expected to start generating power in early November.

But it had to be shut down again five days after its restart due to a glitch that occurred Sunday in a device related to neutron data inside the reactor, plant operator Tohoku Electric Power Co. said.

The reactor was operating normally and there was no release of radiation into the environment, Tohoku Electric said. The utility said it decided to shut it down to re-examine equipment to address residents’ safety concerns. No new date for a restart was given.

The reactor is one of three at the Onagawa plant, which is 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of the Fukushima Daiichi plant where three reactors melted following a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, releasing large amounts of radiation.

November 5, 2024 Posted by | Japan, technology | Leave a comment

The global nuclear industry has no idea how to decommission Fukushima nuclear plant, but hopes that a tiny robot might help


Robot retrieves radioactive fuel sample from Fukushima nuclear reactor site

Plant’s owners hope analysis of tiny sample will help to establish how to safely decommission facility

Kevin Rawlinson and agency, Sun 3 Nov 2024

A piece of the radioactive fuel left from the meltdown of Japan’s tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has been retrieved from the site using a remote-controlled robot.

Investigators used the robot’s fishing-rod-like arm to clip and collect a tiny piece of radioactive material from one of the plant’s three damaged reactors – the first time such a feat has been achieved. Should it prove suitable for testing, scientists hope the sample will yield information that will help determine how to decommission the plant.

The plant’s manager, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco), has said the sample was collected from the surface of a mound of molten debris that sits at the bottom of the Unit 2 reactor’s primary containment vessel.

The “telesco” robot, with its frontal tongs still holding the sample, returned to its enclosed container for safe storage after workers in full hazmat gear pulled it out of the containment vessel on Saturday. But the mission is not over until it is certain the sample’s radioactivity is below a set standard and it is safely contained.

If the radioactivity exceeds the safety limit then the robot must return to find another piece, but Tepco officials have said they expect the sample will prove to be small enough.

The mission started in September and was supposed to last two weeks, but had to be suspended twice.

A procedural mistake held up work for nearly three weeks. Then the robot’s two cameras, designed to transmit views of the target areas for its operators in the remote control room, failed. That required the robot to be pulled out entirely for replacement before the mission resumed on Monday.

Fukushima Daiichi lost its cooling systems during the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, causing meltdowns in three of its reactors. An estimated 880 tons of fuel remains in them, and Tepco has carried out several robotic operations.

Tepco said that on Wednesday the robot successfully clipped a piece estimated to weigh about 3 grams from the area underneath the Unit 2 reactor core, from which large amounts of melted fuel fell during the meltdown 13 years ago.

The plant’s chief, Akira Ono, said only the tiny sample can provide crucial data to help plan a decommissioning strategy, develop necessary technology and robots and retroactively establish exactly how the accident had developed.

The Japanese government and Tepco have set a target of between 30 and 40 years for the cleanup, which experts say is optimistic. No specific plan for the full removal of the fuel debris or its final disposal has been decided.

November 4, 2024 Posted by | Fukushima continuing | Leave a comment

Onagawa nuclear plant’s restart sparks concerns over evacuation routes


 Japan Times 30th Oct 2024

Located on the intricate ria coast of the Oshika Peninsula, Tohoku Electric Power’s Onagawa nuclear power plant — which was restarted on Tuesday — sits amid a maze of narrow, winding mountain roads and remote islands with few transportation options.

When the Great East Japan Earthquake struck in 2011, several sections of evacuation routes along prefectural roads were closed. Residents now fear about their ability to escape if another disaster hits.

According to Miyagi Prefecture’s road management division, two main coastal prefectural roads along the peninsula were partially closed after the earthquake due to road surface collapses, while another inland road saw nine landslides that cut off isolated communities for around 10 days………………….(Subscribers only) https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/10/30/japan/society/onagawa-evacuation-challenges/

November 2, 2024 Posted by | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

A small amount of nuclear fuel debris retrieved at Tepco Fukushima plant


 Japan Times 31st Oct 2024
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/10/31/japan/fukushima-debris-catch/

A device has retrieved a small amount of nuclear fuel debris during trial work to remove debris from a reactor at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings’ Fukushima No. 1 plant, the company has said.

It is expected to take about a week to finish collecting the portion of debris.

If successful, it will be the first time for nuclear fuel debris to be removed from any of the three reactors at the plant that experienced meltdowns following the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.

The trial work began just before 10 a.m. on Wednesday.

A claw-like tool attached to the tip of a telescopic collection device was lowered toward debris at the bottom of the containment vessel of the No. 2 reactor at the plant in Fukushima Prefecture.

The remotely operated device retrieved a small amount of debris at 10:30 a.m.

Tepco was set to pull out the removal device from the containment vessel Thursday or later and put the debris in a transport container.

If radiation levels are higher than expected, the debris may be put back into the containment vessel to avoid workers being exposed to radiation.

If they are not higher than expected, however, the collected debris will be analyzed at a facility of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency.

About 880 tons of nuclear fuel debris are believed to sit inside the meltdown-stricken No. 1 to No. 3 reactors.

Removing the debris is viewed as the most difficult part of the process of decommissioning the Fukushima plant.

Tepco initially planned to begin the removal work in 2021.

It started in September this year about three years behind schedule due chiefly to delays in the development of the device and problems with preparing for the work.

November 2, 2024 Posted by | Fukushima continuing, wastes | Leave a comment

Japan struggles to find nuclear waste disposal site

Japan is facing difficulties selecting a final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste left from spent fuel at nuclear power plants across the nation.


 https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/10/27/japan/nuclear-waste-site-struggles/

First-stage surveys to find locations suited to host an underground storage facility have been conducted in three municipalities — two in Hokkaido and one in Saga Prefecture — despite continuing anxieties among local residents.

With nuclear power plants in Japan gradually going back online, there remains no clear timeline for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel, keeping the government’s goal of a nuclear fuel cycle out of reach.

High-level radioactive waste, which is vitrified after uranium and plutonium are extracted from spent fuel for reuse, presents a significant challenge. Japan’s plan for final disposal involves burying the waste more than 300 meters underground for tens of thousands of years, allowing its radioactivity to diminish over time.

Nuclear power plants in Japan, operating without a designated final dump site for waste, are often criticized for being like “a condominium building without a toilet.”

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Japan, or NUMO, responsible for managing final disposal, began inviting municipalities to host surveys for potential dump sites in 2002. To date, however, no location has been selected.

The research process for selecting a final repository site consists of three stages: a literature survey, a drilling survey, and a detailed investigation using an underground facility. Local governments that host such surveys receive subsidies from the central government.

Literature surveys, which involve reviewing geological maps and historical earthquake records, began in the town of Suttsu and the village of Kamoenai in Hokkaido in 2020, and in the town of Genkai, Saga Prefecture, in 2024. No other municipality has agreed to participate in site selection research, however.

The first-stage surveys concluded that all of Suttsu and most of Kamoenai are suitable for moving forward to the drilling survey phase. NUMO plans to release a report as early as this fall and hold briefing sessions for local residents.


Still, Hokkaido Gov. Naomichi Suzuki has expressed opposition to the drilling surveys, and Saga Gov. Yoshinori Yamaguchi has also voiced objections to conducting such a survey in Genkai. The consent of the prefectural governor is required to proceed with second-stage surveys.

The central government has emphasized its responsibility in its basic policies on the final disposal of nuclear waste and aims to conduct surveys in about 10 additional locations, following international precedents.


In the past, the town of Toyo in Kochi Prefecture and the city of Tsushima in Nagasaki Prefecture considered hosting surveys but ultimately declined. Central government representatives now plan to visit over 100 local governments, increasing opportunities to explain the process to residents.

Japan, which has relied on nuclear power for over half a century, currently holds around 19,000 tons of spent fuel at its nuclear power plants and other facilities, using about 80% of its total storage capacity.

As a resource-scarce nation, Japan has been promoting a nuclear fuel cycle, by which spent fuel is reprocessed and recycled for continued use in power generation. The reprocessing plant that is key to this cycle has yet to be completed, however.

Japan Nuclear Fuel started construction of the country’s first commercial reprocessing facility in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, in 1993, but its completion has been delayed 27 times.

In September, an interim storage facility in the city of Mutsu, Aomori Prefecture, took delivery of the first batch of spent fuel from Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings’ Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in Niigata Prefecture. This facility, not on the premises of any nuclear power plant site, will store the fuel for up to 50 years before it undergoes reprocessing.

Many local residents see the receipt of spent fuel as premature, given the unfinished reprocessing plant and the lack of a final disposal solution. They worry that storage at the facility may become permanent rather than temporary.

The central government has decided to rebuild nuclear power plants and extend their operational periods. This marks a reversal of the previous policy, which aimed to reduce reliance on nuclear energy following the March 2011 accident at TEPCO’s Fukushima No. 1 plant, caused by severe damage from the earthquake and tsunami the same month.

An official from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said that “as we have used nuclear power plants, we cannot avoid” the issue of final nuclear waste disposal.

Hideki Masui, president of Japan Atomic Industry Forum, emphasized the need for “a national debate” as Japan struggles to conduct surveys in additional areas for potential disposal sites, placing disproportionate burdens on certain regions.

October 30, 2024 Posted by | Japan, wastes | Leave a comment

Japan to resume trial removal of Fukushima nuclear debris, reports say

Storage tanks for radioactive water are seen at Tokyo Electric Power Co’s (TEPCO) tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima prefecture, Japan February 18, 2019. Picture taken February 18, 2019. REUTERS/Issei Kato


https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/10/25/japan/fukushima-debris-removal/
 The operator of the tsunami-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant will resume an operation to remove a sample of highly radioactive material next week, reports said Friday, after having suspended the effort over a technical snag.

Extracting the estimated 880 tons of highly radioactive fuel and debris inside the former power station remains the most challenging part of decommissioning the facility, which was hit by a catastrophic tsunami in 2011.

Radioactivity levels inside are far too high for humans to enter, and last month engineers began inserting an extendable device to try and remove a small sample.

However, operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings had to halt the procedure after noticing that remote cameras on the apparatus were not beaming back images to the control center.

Tepco on Friday said it would resume the removal on Monday after replacing the cameras with new ones, the Asahi Shimbun daily and other local media reported.

Tepco officials could not immediately be reached to confirm the reports.

Three of Fukushima’s six reactors went into meltdown after a tsunami triggered by the nation’s biggest earthquake on record swamped the facility in one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents.

Japan last year began releasing into the Pacific Ocean some of the 540 Olympic swimming pools’ worth of reactor cooling water amassed since the catastrophe.

China and Russia banned Japanese seafood imports as a result, although Tokyo insists the discharge is safe, a view backed by the U.N. atomic agency.

Beijing last month said it would “gradually resume” importing seafood from Japan after imposing the blanket ban.

In a Tepco initiative to promote food from the Fukushima area, swanky London department store Harrods began selling peaches grown in the region last month.

October 28, 2024 Posted by | Fukushima continuing, wastes | Leave a comment

Japan PM Ishiba eyes more renewables, less nuclear in energy mix

New leader plans stimulus package for ‘structural transformation of the economy’

 Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Saturday stressed Japan’s potential to
develop renewable energy sources and vowed to raise their share in the
country’s overall power supply, indicating he will prioritize
decarbonization as his government prepares an economic stimulus plan.

“Japan has large untapped potential for renewable energy development,
including geothermal, wind and small-scale hydroelectric power,” Ishiba
said in an interview with Nikkei Asia.

 Nikkei Asia 12th Oct 2024 https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/Interview/Japan-PM-Ishiba-eyes-more-renewables-less-nuclear-in-energy-mix

October 15, 2024 Posted by | Japan, renewable | Leave a comment

Japanese anti-nuclear organisation awarded 2024 Nobel Peace Prize

ABC News, By Aoife Hilton with wires, 11 Oct 24

In short:

Japanese Hibakusha organisation Nihon Hidankyo has been awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize.

Hibakusha is the grassroots movement for survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings in 1945.

Norwegian Nobel Chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes said the organisation was chosen for its efforts to establish a worldwide “nuclear taboo”.

The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Japanese Hibakusha organisation Nihon Hidankyo, the Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee has announced at a press conference in Oslo.

Hibakusha is the grassroots movement for survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings in 1945.

Committee Chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes said Nihon Hidankyo had become “the largest and most influential Hibakusha organisation in Japan” and had made efforts for “a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating … that nuclear weapons must never be used again”.

He said the Nobel committee “wishes to honour all survivors who, despite physical suffering and painful memories, have chosen to use their costly experience to cultivate hope and engagement for peace”.

The ‘nuclear taboo’

He credited the organisation with contributing to the “nuclear taboo”, referring to the status quo wherein world powers avoid nuclear weapon use.

“Nuclear weapons are the most destructive weapons the world has ever seen,” he said.

“Today’s nuclear weapons have far greater destructive power.”

Mr Fryndes stressed it was “alarming that today this taboo against the use of nuclear weapons is under pressure” with new countries acquiring nuclear weapons and others bolstering their arsenals………………………………………………………………………………….

United Nations spokesperson in Geneva, Alessandra Vellucci, said the movement for Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors “fights against … even the idea that such a war can be fought again”.

“We’ve seen the effects of the bomb in the Second World War. We have got now weapons that are so many more times more powerful than those that we use in Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” she said…………………………………………………………………………………………..

Peace Prize winner compares post-war Japan to Gaza

Nihon Hidankyo’s co-head Toshiyuki Mimaki, a survivor himself, was standing by at the Hiroshima City Hall for the announcement.

He said the prize would give a major boost towards efforts to demonstrate that the abolition of nuclear weapons was possible.

“It would be a great force to appeal to the world that the abolition of nuclear weapons can be achieved.”

“Nuclear weapons should absolutely be abolished.”

He added the situation for children in Gaza is similar to the situation in Japan at the end of World War II.

“In Gaza, children in blood are being held. It’s like in Japan 80 years ago,” Mr Mimaki said……………………………………………

Prize will be presented in December

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has regularly put focus on the issue of nuclear weapons, most recently with its award to the the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), who won the award in 2017.

“The Hibakusha help us to describe the indescribable, to think the unthinkable, and to somehow grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons,” the committee said in a statement.

The Peace Prize is worth 11 million Swedish crowns, or about $1.57 million.

It is due to be presented in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will………………………… https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-11/nobel-peace-prize/104464170

October 13, 2024 Posted by | Japan, weapons and war | Leave a comment

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