Japan’s nuclear regulators have affirmed that Tokyo Electric Power Company is eligible to operate nuclear reactors again, but they have imposed some conditions.
The members of the Nuclear Regulation Authority made the decision at a meeting on Wednesday.
They have been debating whether or not to give the utility a green light to restart 2 reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture, central Japan.
TEPCO is the operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant.
During the meeting, a plan was put forth. According to the plan, TEPCO must express in its safety regulations its determination to tackle the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi plant and its determination to prioritize safety over economic efficiency. In return, the regulators will certify that the company is eligible to operate nuclear reactors.
The plan also requires the industry ministry to make its intention to supervise the company clear.
At the meeting on Wednesday, the regulators agreed to certify that TEPCO is eligible to operate reactors as long as the industry ministry and the president of TEPCO agree to the provisions in the plan.
The regulators will compile a report that will effectively certify that TEPCO has their approval to restart the 2 reactors in Niigata.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20170913_34/
September 14, 2017
Posted by dunrenard |
Japan | Eligibility, Tepco |
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The nation’s nuclear watchdog gave conditional approval Sept. 13 to Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s application to resume operations of its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant.
It marks the first time that reactors operated by TEPCO, which manages the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, have passed more stringent reactor regulations imposed by the Nuclear Regulation Authority after the triple meltdown in 2011.
The two reactors at the plant in Niigata Prefecture–the No. 6 and No. 7 units–are the first boiling-water reactors in Japan to clear the regulations. They are the same type as the reactors at the Fukushima plant.
The NRA already accepts that TEPCO has the technological know-how to operate the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, one of the world’s largest.
But it had harbored doubts about the company’s fitness to operate a nuclear plant, given its tendency to put its balance sheet ahead of safety precautions.
The NRA ordered TEPCO to provide in the legally required safety code a detailed explanation of procedures it will take to ensure that the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant is operated safely.
That way, the watchdog body aims to make the utility legally accountable if problems arise.
It will also closely monitor the utility’s actions in adhering to the safety code once the NRA approves the measures proposed by TEPCO.
The NRA will summon Tomoaki Kobayakawa, the new president of TEPCO, to request a more demanding safety code from the company.
As another condition for a restart, the NRA called for the industry ministry’s clear-cut commitment to oversee TEPCO’s compliance with safety if it is satisfied with the utility’s pledge to respond appropriately to the decommissioning of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. The industry ministry oversees the nuclear industry.
Despite the NRA’s conditional approval, the utility will need to gain consent from local governments for a restart.
Niigata Governor Ryuichi Yoneyama, who took office last year, has made it clear that he will not agree to the restart until the prefectural government completes its investigation into the Fukushima nuclear disaster to determine what went wrong. The investigation is expected to take several years.
In an effort to underscore its eligibility as an operator of a nuclear plant, TEPCO submitted a written pledge in August that it is “determined to take the initiative in addressing the needs of victims in Fukushima Prefecture and accomplish the decommissioning of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.”
If the safety code and the industry minister’s commitment are secured, the NRA concluded that the utility will be eligible to resume operations of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant.
Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the NRA, said at the Sept. 13 meeting that TEPCO’s vow in August is “binding.”
The NRA indicated that if TEPCO fails to adhere to its “promise” to heed to safety, it will exercise the power to suspend the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant’s operations or revoke its license to operate it.
The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant has seven reactors. The No. 6 reactor and the No. 7 reactor started operations in 1996 and 1997, respectively. Each has a capacity of 1.36 gigawatts.
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201709130058.html
September 14, 2017
Posted by dunrenard |
Japan | Kashiwazaki-Kariwa NPP, Restart |
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Global warming poses grave threat to the Himalayas, The Himalayan Times, September 12, 2017 Nepal, THT ONLINE/RASTRIYA SAMACHAR SAMITI, KATHMANDU: Increasing global warming caused by greenhouse effect and its subsequent impact has posed a grave threat to the Nepal’s mountain ranges, experts said.
They stressed the need of taking timely interventions to minimise the impact of climate change on the mountains.
The experts shared their views at an interaction programme on ‘challenges f mountaineering tourism and environmental impact’ organised by Management Association of Nepal on Tuesday.
Former President of Nepal Mountaineering Association Ang Chhiring Sherpa revealed the fact that increasing atmospheric temperature caused rampant snow melting and mountains were in the gradual process of turning into just rocky hills.
“This situation is dangerous for the entire mountain ecosystem. Mountaineering tourism is certain to be severely hit by this. Some settlements in the mountain region are in the need of relocation, following the water crisis there.”…….. KATHMANDU: Increasing global warming caused by greenhouse effect and its subsequent impact has posed a grave threat to the Nepal’s mountain ranges, experts said…… https://thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/global-warming-poses-grave-threat-himalayas/
September 14, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
ASIA, climate change |
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Japan commission supports nuclear power despite Fukushima, Kedger Enquirer
BY MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press, SEPTEMBER 14, 2017 TOKYO
Japan’s nuclear policy-setting Atomic Energy Commission called Thursday for nuclear power to remain a key component of the country’s energy supply despite broad public support for a less nuclear-reliant society.
The commission recommended in a report that nuclear power account for at least 20 percent of Japan’s energy supply in 2030, citing a previous government energy plan. It said rising utility costs caused by expensive fossil fuel imports and slow reactor restarts have affected Japan’s economy……..
Thursday’s report comes as regulators are making final preparations to certify the safety of two reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in northern Japan, also operated by TEPCO. The utility says restarting the Kashiwazaki plant, one of its three nuclear plants, is vital to finance the massive cost of the Fukushima cleanup and compensation for disaster-hit residents.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority on Wednesday deemed TEPCO “competent” to run the plant safely and its final greenlight is expected within weeks, though its actual restart could be months away, after an on-site inspection and local consent. Many Japanese oppose the Kashiwazaki plant’s restart, saying TEPCO should not be allowed to operate a nuclear plant until it fully investigates the cause of the Fukushima accident and completes the cleanup.
The report also endorsed Japan’s ambitious pursuit of a nuclear fuel cycle program using plutonium, despite a decision last year to scrap the Monju reactor, a centerpiece of the plutonium fuel program, following decades of poor safety records and technical problems. Japan faces growing international scrutiny over its plutonium stockpile because the element can be used to make atomic weapons.
Japan currently has a stockpile of 47 tons of plutonium — 10 tons at home and the rest in Britain and France, which reprocess and store spent fuel for Japan. Japan plans to start up its controversial Rokkasho reprocessing plant next year, but critics say that would only add to the problem.
Without the prospect of achieving a plutonium-burning fast reactor, Japan has resorted to burning a mixture of plutonium and uranium fuel called MOX in conventional reactors as a last ditch measure to consume plutonium. The report calls it “the only realistic method of making use of plutonium.”
The need to reduce its plutonium stockpile adds to Japan’s push for reactor restarts. It would require 16 to 18 reactors to burn enough MOX to keep its plutonium stockpile from growing, according to a pre-Fukushima accident target set by the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan, an umbrella group for Japanese utilities. The target is unchanged, though widely seen as too optimistic.
Follow Mari Yamaguchi on Twitter at twitter.com/mariyamaguchi
Her work can be found at https://www.apnews.com/search/mari%20yamaguchi http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/business/article173245106.html
September 14, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Japan, politics |
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1,200 Die as “Devastating” Climate Change-Linked Floods Submerge Parts of South Asia 8 September 2017 Indian floods: Families devastated after unprecedented monsoon season ITV News 8 September2017 Some of the victims of India’s worst ever flooding have shown the extent of the devastation as authorities face accusations they have abandoned families caught up in the disaster.
1,200 Die as “Devastating” Climate Change-Linked Floods Submerge Parts of South Asia
India is one of several South Indian countries to suffer huge floods in the this year’s unprecedented monsoon season.
More than 1,400 are thought to have died across four countries. Many more saw their homes washed away, families split up, and crops on which they depended to survive ruined.
The crisis has had relatively little worldwide coverage, with news organisations more focused on hurricanes on the other side of the world.
But both are linked to changing weather patterns due to climate change that are expected to drive more extreme weather in the years to come.
In India, the poverty-stricken northern state of Bihar was among the worst affected……
weeks after the flood first struck, there has been virtually no Government aid to help victims.
Instead, local charities have been left to deliver emergency supplies.
There were also questions over why there had no been warnings to evacuate or prepare ahead of the floods.
Ashish Ranjan, a volunteer flood relief coordinator, said deaths could have been prevented.
Imagine the misery people went through. If we had an early warning system, a lot of lives could have been saved.
People could have moved to safer places and they could save their belongings.
September 11, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
ASIA, climate change |
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MINISTRY: MORE THAAD LAUNCHERS TO BE DEPLOYED THURSDAY, Appsforpcdaily.com, Floyd Cook 10 Sept 17, South Korea says the US military will begin adding more launchers to a contentious high-tech USA missile defense system in South Korea on Thursday to better cope with North Korean threats.
The deployment of THAAD is of great concern to China. On Tuesday, Seoul Administrative Court has dismissed the claim of Seongju residents to suspend the government’s decision to allocate land for the THAAD missile system. Seoul’s Defense Ministry has said the USA military will begin installing the additional launchers Thursday.
Local residents worry about rumored health hazards related to the system’s high-powered radars and the possibility of being targeted in North Korean attacks.
Trump has repeatedly criticized the five-year-old South Korea-U.S. (KORUS) FTA as a frightful deal for creating a $27 billion U.S. trade deficit with South Korea last year. In August, about 900 people from the county shaved their heads to protest the government’s decision……..
Moscow has repeatedly opposed the THAAD deployment, as it could further deteriorate the nuclear crisis and provoke North Korean aggression.
Beijing has objected to the advanced anti-missile battery high-resolution radar system that can potentially monitor China’s military activities as a threat to its security, and had reportedly imposed informal restrictions on selected South Korean imports and tourism as retaliation.
A THAAD battery normally consists of six launchers that can fire up to 48 interceptor missiles, but only two launchers been operational at the site, on a former golf course. http://appsforpcdaily.com/2017/09/ministry-more-thaad-launchers-to-be-deployed-thursday/
September 11, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
South Korea, weapons and war |
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Japan fighter jets conducted drills with US bombers over East China Sea http://www.livemint.com/Politics/Y3kFeyZS7gpyGeeIVat8wL/Japan-fighter-jets-conducted-drills-with-US-bombers-over-eas.html
Japan fighters conduct an air exercise with US B1-B bombers above the East China Sea as South Korea braces for a possible further missile test by North Korea on its founding anniversary
Minami Funakoshi Tokyo: Japanese F-15 fighter jets on Saturday conducted an air exercise with US B1-B bombers in the skies above the East China Sea, Japan’s air self defence force (ASDF) said.
The joint drill comes as South Korea braces for a possible further missile test by North Korea on its founding anniversary, just days after its sixth and largest nuclear test rattled global financial markets and further escalated tensions in the region.
The exercise involved two US Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers flying from Andersen air force base on the US Pacific island territory of Guam, which were joined by two Japanese F-15 jet fighters.
On 31 August, Japanese F-15 fighter jets also conducted an air exercise with US B1-B bombers and F-35 stealth fighters in skies south of the Korean peninsula, two days after North Korea launched a ballistic missile over northern Japan. Reuters
September 11, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
China, weapons and war |
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China Worried Over Nuclear Radiation After North Korea Tests, Epoch Times, By NTD Television | September 10 2017 The Chinese regime is on high alert for radiation seeping into China from North Korea’s latest nuclear test.
The test took place less than 50 miles from China’s border. The magnitude-6.3 earthquake could be felt by locals and Chinese hundreds of miles away as the nuclear test went off. A smaller tremor followed. It could be from a structural collapse after the first earthquake. The worry is that radiation was emitted into the atmosphere due to underground shifting, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The Chinese regime said that testing centers haven’t detected radiation yet. Soil, air, and water will continue to be tested. Seismologist Steven Gibbons told WSJ that it may take days or weeks to detect radiation. An environmental issue could become a political issue if the regime thinks that it is being perceived as weak on North Korea.
Chinese officials are reported to have told South Korea’s former President Park Geun-hye that North Korea’s nuclear testing in 2013 contaminated the Yalu River, which runs across the border between China and North Korea. Chinese officials neither confirm nor deny the comment, but since 2013 China has added several radiation-monitoring stations……..http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/2294407-china-worried-over-nuclear-radiation-after-north-korea-tests/
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September 11, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
China, environment, North Korea, weapons and war |
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Times 7th Sept 2017, Japan should discuss hosting nuclear weapons on its territory, a former
defence minister said in a sign that the North Korean threat is changing
the military balance in the region. In what would once have been a shocking
breach of taboo in the only country to have suffered the ravages of atomic
bombs, Shigeru Ishiba said that Japan should debate the abolition of what
are known as the “three non-nuclear principles” — not producing or
possessing nuclear weapons or allowing them on Japanese soil.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/we-should-break-taboo-around-nuclear-weapons-former-japan-minister-says-jpr6sppl2
September 11, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Japan, weapons and war |
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https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20170910_02/ People in the Japanese city of Nagasaki have staged a sit-in to voice their opposition to the use of nuclear weapons. This comes amid growing concerns over North Korea’s military provocations.
The protest was held on Saturday as North Korea marked the 69th anniversary of the country’s founding.
Nagasaki suffered an atomic bombing toward the end of World War Two. The attack occurred on August 9th, 1945. A group of survivors and others hold an event to remember the bombing on the 9th of every month at the city’s Nagasaki Peace Park.
About 80 people, including survivors of the atomic bombing and high school students, took part in Saturday’s protest.
Koichi Kawano, who heads a group of survivors, says he wants to urge the Japanese government to do more to discourage Pyongyang from conducting nuclear tests.
Another participant, Sachiho Mizoguchi, is one of the high school students who ask people to sign a petition calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons. She said she took part in the sit-in to protest against the North’s nuclear tests.
Eiji Okumura, a survivor of the atomic bombing, says North Korea conducted a nuclear test after the United Nations took a step toward the creation of a nuclear-free world by adopting a treaty that banned nuclear weapons. Okamura said he cannot tolerate the North’s latest nuclear test, and he wants to express his anger through the sit-in.
September 11, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Japan, opposition to nuclear |
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South Korea detects radioactive material following North Korean nuclear test, http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/09/08/south-korea-detects-radioactive-material-following-north-korean-nuclear-test.html, September 08, 2017 Traces of radioactive material were detected in South Korea by the nation’s nuclear safety agency Friday, less than a week after North Korea conducted its most powerful nuclear test.
South Korea’s Nuclear Safety and Security Commission discovered trace amounts of xenon gas, a radionuclide, in an analysis of samples from the air, ground and water collected following North Korea’s nuclear test, according to Yonhap News Agency.
North Korea defied international warnings Sunday, conducting its sixth and most powerful nuclear test. The country said it detonated a hydrogen bomb that can fit on an intercontinental ballistic missile. South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon said Thursday he expects its neighbor to launch a missile Saturday while celebrating its founding day. North Korea has already fired 21 missiles this year.
The radioactive material’s inflow is still being tracked to determine definitively if it came from the nuclear test, according to the agency.
The agency added the level of radioactive material detected in the analysis is not enough to cause any effects on South Koreans’ health.
September 9, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
radiation, South Korea |
1 Comment
How Kim Jong-un would escape in caves if a nuclear war occurs A NORTH Korea expert has revealed how Kim Jong-un could flee, warning he could be harder to find than Osama bin Laden. news.com.au 8 Set 17 Sam Webb, Grant Rollings and Martin Phillips, The Sun NORTH Korean dictator Kim Jong-un will escape to a vast complex of underground tunnels if a nuclear war breaks out — with a huge supply of his favourite cheese.
And a military expert says that if the brutal leader of the Stalinist regime does go underground he will be harder to take out than 9/11 terror mastermind Osama bin Laden………
September 9, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
North Korea, politics |
1 Comment
North Korea nuclear test site experiencing landslides: researchers, https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/north-korea-nuclear-test-site-experiencing-landslides-researchers-20170907-gycjvb.html, By William Broad, New York: Analysts peering at satellite images of North Korea after the latest nuclear test on Sunday, report they have spotted many landslides and wide disturbances at the country’s test site, in the North’s mountainous wilds. Tunnels for the nuclear blasts are deep inside Mount Mantap, a mile-high peak.
“These disturbances are more numerous and widespread than what we have seen from any of the five tests North Korea previously conducted,” three experts wrote in an analysis for 38 North, a website run by the US-Korea Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
Early readings from global networks that monitor shock waves suggest that the nuclear blast on Sunday had a destructive power equal to 120,000 tons of high explosives. If correct, that is roughly six times more powerful than the North’s test of September 2016, and eight times larger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
The new satellite images of the Punggye-ri nuclear test site were taken Monday, the day after the nuclear detonation. Planet, a company in San Francisco that owns swarms of tiny satellites, reconnoitered the secretive nuclear test site.
The three analysts, Frank Pabian, Joseph Bermudez jnr and Jack Liu, said the wide disturbances appeared to include numerous landslides throughout the rugged site “and beyond”.
They added that they could find no evidence of a surface crater that would have formed if the cavern carved out within the mountain by the blast’s violence and high temperatures had suddenly collapsed.
Sunday’s underground test resulted in two earthquakes, with other analysts suggesting the second could have been a tunnel collapse.
t comes as a nuclear scientist said the mountain could collapse due to the impact of five underground nuclear tests at the same Punggye-ri site, on the southern side of Mount Mantap. China Institute of Atomic Energy’s Wang Naiyan said it could cause an environmental disaster as “many bad things” could leak out.
September 9, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
North Korea, safety |
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Japanese nuclear plant may be on quake fault line https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jul/19/nuclear.japan
· Leak during tremor worse than originally admitted
· IAEA calls for openness in investigation of errors Justin McCurry in Tokyo , July 2007 The world’s biggest nuclear power station faces an uncertain future after it emerged yesterday that it may lie directly above the fault line that triggered Monday’s earthquake in which nine people died and more than 1,000 were injured.
The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant – the biggest in the world in terms of output capacity – shook violently when a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck Niigata prefecture in northern Japan on Monday morning. The plant was not designed to resist shaking caused by earthquakes of greater than magnitude 6.5.
On another day of embarrassment for Japan’s nuclear power industry, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), which operates the plant, said the amount of radioactivity in water that leaked into the sea during the earthquake was 50% higher than it had originally said. The firm blamed a calculation error and said the levels were still well within safety standards.
Late yesterday it also said that 400 drums – not 100 as first reported – of low-level radioactive waste had toppled over during the quake. About 40 lost their lids, spilling their contents on to the ground as they fell. The spillage was one of more than 50 malfunctions the plant experienced in the immediate aftermath of the quake.
International nuclear inspectors said they were concerned by Tepco’s apparent lack of preparedness for such a powerful quake.
“It is clear that this earthquake … was stronger than what the reactor was designed for,” Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters in Kuala Lumpur. “I would hope and I trust that Japan would be fully transparent in its investigation.”
The mayor of Kashiwazaki, Hiroshi Aida, ordered Tepco to close the plant indefinitely. “The safety of the plant must be assured before it is reopened,” he said. The closure has forced the firm to ask six other power utilities to supply it with additional electricity through to the end of September to avoid power cuts when demand peaks later this summer.
Tepco is under pressure to explain why it took so long to inform the authorities of radioactive leaks and why just four employees were on hand to tackle a fire inside an electrical transformer that was extinguished only after firefighters arrived almost 90 minutes later.
The mishaps have raised questions about the wisdom of building nuclear power stations in a country where earth tremors are recorded, on average, every few minutes. New safety regulations were brought in last year, but upgrading ageing reactors to withstand larger tremors will require huge investment.
Akira Fukushima, of Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said no irregularities had been found in critical areas of the plant, but added: “It is possible that the epicentre fault line does run beneath the power plant.”
Inspectors reportedly identified four fault lines in the area while conducting a geological survey before work began on the Kashiwazaki plant in 1980, but concluded that they were inactive.
The Citizen’s Nuclear Information Centre said that the fault believed to have triggered the earthquake was not discovered during pre-construction surveys. “Clearly Japan’s earthquake safety standards are inadequate,” it said in a statement.
Tepco’s president, Tsunehisa Katsumata, defended the firm. “It is hard to make everything go perfectly … I think fundamentally we have confirmed that our safety measures work,” he said.
Japan, which has very few indigenous energy sources, depends on 55 nuclear plants for 30% of its electricity. Despite mounting public opposition, it plans to increase capacity to 40% by the end of the decade.
September 9, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Japan, safety |
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World’s Largest Nuclear Power Plant One Step Closer To Operation http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Worlds-Largest-Nuclear-Power-Plant-One-Step-Closer-To-Operation.html By Irina Slav – Sep 07, 2017, The Kashiwasaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, the world’s largest, may get clearance to resume operations after six years of dormancy following the Fukushima disaster. The Japanese Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) granted the plant’s operator, Tepco, a qualified approval of its safety plan, and it could grant it effective approval as early as next week.
While the watchdog could issue a formal approval for Kashiwasaki-Kariwa’s restart later this fall, according to the Nikkei Asian Review, the actual resumption of the reactors is questionable: there is strong local community opposition to nuclear power as fears of another meltdown still linger.
Regulators have conducted technical safety evaluations of the plant, whose reactors are of the same kind as those that melted down in Fukushima, but there are still some reservations regarding Tepco’s safety efforts. The NRA has requested that Tepco’s proposed safety measures for Kashiwasaki-Kariwa be made more legally binding, and has set up a panel to devise ways to guarantee the utility keeps its word.
Even if the NRA approves the restart of the plant, however, the Niigata prefecture is unlikely to support it with an approval of its own. The governor, Ryuchi Yoneyama, is an outspoken opponent of nuclear power, and following the news of NRA’s pending approval said that the prefecture had “absolutely no intention of approving a restart” of the Kashiwasaki-Kariwa facility before an safety inspection of Fukushima was completed.
Tepco first applied for approval to restart two of Kashiwasaki-Kariwa’s seven reactors back in 2013, and has since worked to fulfill all safety requirements that regulators imposed. The company’s shares, however, jumped 3 percent on the news of NRA’s approval despite the slim chance of Kashiwasaki-Kariwa actually returning to operation.
The Fukushima disaster, caused by a tsunami in 2011, displaced 160,000 people, many of them permanently, and led to the shut down of all 50 nuclear reactors in the country. The cost of the disaster is estimated at US$197 billion.
September 9, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Japan, politics |
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nuclear-news 