Radiation levels still up, but some Fukushima residents to go home
Fukushima residents cleared to return home (CNN) By Euan McKirdy, CNN April 1, 2014 — Hundreds of residents of an area contaminated by a catastrophic reactor meltdown at a nuclear plant in northeastern Japan have been allowed to return home three years after the disaster.
An evacuation order, declared in the aftermath of a devastating tsunami that crippled the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant in March, 2011, was lifted at midnight on Monday from the Miyakoji district of Tamura city in Fukushima Prefecture.
Residents of the town, who have been in limbo ever since, are now free to re-inhabit their homes following decontamination work in the area……..
Radiation worries
However, concerns remain about background radiation levels and uncertainty surrounding the safety of the area, especially given past concerns about the reporting of radiation levels in the area by Fukushima’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). Last month, Miyakoji residents were told at a community meeting that radiation contamination levels had lowered sufficiently to enable their return to the area — though some voiced concern over existing radiation levels despite decontamination efforts around some communities…….
Areas are declared suitable for habitation if residents are exposed to a maximum of 20 millisieverts of radiation per year. Officials have said they would like to get radiation exposure down to one millisievert a year……http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/01/world/asia/fukushima-miyakoji-return/
Japan’s Basic Energy Plan – a (bad) April Fools Day joke
Is the joke still on Fukushima this April Fools’? MAR 31, 2014 What’s wrong with this picture? Japan Times, Eric Johnson, Japan’s new Basic Energy Plan sees nuclear power as an important base load energy source. But whatever “base load” means politically, the public is lulled — fooled — into a sense that, despite Fukushima, nuclear will remain a logistically viable long-term option.
Yet the realities of Japan’s nuclear power industry show keeping nuclear are l
ikely to be far more problematic — and expensive — than the pro-nuclear lobby wants to admit. Here are the most obvious hurdles.
First, as of 2013, of the remaining 48 reactors, three were more than 40 years and 13 were over 30 years old. The reactors were supposed to be decommissioned after 40 years but can now apply for a maximum two-decade extension.
Want to keep those reactors, with their increased risk of technical problems and thus lower efficiency rates, running until they’re 60? Even if they meet new safety standards, local governments hosting the reactors are sure to demand funding for pork-barrel projects in exchange for agreeing to any extension. Guess whose tax money will be used to ensure a continued flow of “cheap” nuclear power. Hint: look in the mirror.
Even if restarted reactors run at pre-3/11 levels, estimates are their spent fuel pools will be overflowing like public toilets sooner rather than later. A Tokyo Shimbun calculation shows 33 reactors could see their pools full within six years. Government figures estimate the pools will be full within three to 16 years, with most filled to the brim within eight years.
What happens then? Tokyo is now pushing local governments to build interim storage facilities for the fuel before it’s sent to Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, for reprocessing. But despite promises of even more tax money for their coffers, no local government wants to host such a facility.
Finally, Japan’s population, about 127 million, will shrink to 107 million by 2040 while the working population, i.e. the large volume of electricity users, will decline by 30 percent. Furthermore, 21 percent of all Japanese will be 75 years or older, also by 2040. Who is going to need how much electricity?
So, the “nuclear will be an important base load” argument assumes: 1. Older plants can be run until they are 60 years without major problems and at a lower cost than other sources; 2. Within the next, say, 16 years, new storage facilities for spent fuel will be built somewhere; and 3. By 2040, a country with 16 percent less people than in 2010 and one-fifth the population over 75 will not use less energy than today.
What’s wrong with this picture?…….http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2014/03/31/issues/is-the-joke-still-on-fukushima-this-april-fools/
Japan’s ploy to return Fukushima evacuees – delaying radiation data
Withholding of radiation readings exposes gov’t push for evacuees’ return, Mainichi, 29 Mar 14, Recent revelations that a Cabinet Office team delayed the release of radiation measurements from three Fukushima Prefecture areas, planning to release them with lower, recalculated results, have exposed a government push to have residents’ return to nuclear disaster-hit areas.
Experts have raised questions about the government’s move, suggesting that officials intended to send residents back to those areas from the outset and that they manipulated data to achieve that purpose.
The three areas — the Miyakoji district of the city of Tamura, the village of Kawauchi and the village of Iitate — remain subject to evacuation orders imposed after the 2011 Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant meltdowns. The government plans to lift these orders in the near future. According to one source familiar with the measurement process, the original radiation exposure readings from new, individual dosimeters were higher than expected, prompting the Cabinet Office team to withhold the results. Officials feared the higher readings would discourage residents from returning……… http://mainichi.jp/english/english/perspectives/news/20140327p2a00m0na009000c.html
North Korea’s hostile response to South Korea
N Korea Assaults South Leader Over Nuclear Remarks Liberty Voice, by Fern 
Remedi-Brown on March 29, 2014. South Korea President Park Geun-hye has been on a mission to reunify with North Korea. On March 24 the South Korean leader met at The Hague with U.S. President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. In the meeting, the leaders of the three countries pledged to cooperate vis à vis N Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. In The Hague, Ms. Park gave a speech, warning that the North’s nuclear devices could land in the hands of radical extremists. In response to her remarks, the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, verbally assaulted her, likening her to a “peasant woman” who was “blabbering.” He also said she was a pawn in the hands of the U.S. and that she must learn to cease such reckless babble………http://guardianlv.com/2014/03/n-korea-assaults-south-leader-over-nuclear-remarks/
South Korea offers aid to North Korea
South Korea proposes aid for North if it halts nuclear arms programme First Post, Mar 29, 2014 SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean President Park Geun-hye proposed a broad range of economic aid for impoverished North Korea on Friday if it agrees to give up its nuclear programme. It was not immediately clear how the North would respond to the proposal, made in a speech in Dresden, Germany, but it has repeatedly rejected the idea of abandoning its nuclear programme, which it says is a necessary deterrent against U.S. hostility.
…………. http://www.firstpost.com/world/south-korea-proposes-aid-for-north-if-it-halts-nuclear-arms-programme-1455913.html?utm_source=ref_article
Powerful criticisms of Japan’s handling of the Fukushima nuclear crisis
(NaturalNews), March 27, 2014 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writerThe three-year anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster recently passed, and a prominent nuclear expert has come out in protest of the way both the Japanese government and the country’s nuclear industry continue to handle the situation. During a recent episode of the Nuclear Hotseat podcast, celebrity and lawmaker Taro Yamamoto lamented how the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) is still downplaying the threat of radiation, which he believes will end up “sacrificing” 99.99 percent of the Japanese population. In Japan, stated Yamamoto, it is still taboo to even talk about radiation, even though its effects have been felt throughout the country and even beyond its borders. Insinuating that the country as a whole has essentially buried its head in the sand on this important issue, Yamamoto called out the nuclear industry in particular for minimizing the radioactive impact of Fukushima, which many now believe to be the worst nuclear accident in recorded history.“Idiotic ideas — like restarting the nuclear plants — are being considered here in Japan,” stated Yamamoto during the interview. “I think it is wrong that people’s lives are being sacrificed because of money and the company profits… 99.99 percent of the people are being sacrificed.”
You can listen to this podcast episode here:
http://www.nuclearhotseat.com.
“[R]adioactive water is still leaking, there is still a very long way to go until it can be decommissioned, and we must be prepared for a long term battle which will go beyond the present generation,” wrote Fukushima resident Arao Shunsuke in a letter posted at DiaNuke.org. “Even now over 100,000 people from Fukushima are still living in miserable conditions in temporary housing.”
You can read Shunsuke’s full letter here:
http://www.dianuke.org………… http://www.naturalnews.com/044478_Japan_nuclear_industry_radiation.html#
Japanese municipality to sue central govt to stop new nuclear power plant
Hakodate assembly OKs lawsuit against nuclear plant http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/03/26/national/hakodate-assembly-oks-lawsuit-against-nuclear-plant/#.UzQ9eqhdV9UKYODO HAKODATE, HOKKAIDO – The municipal assembly of Hakodate in Hokkaido on Wednesday approved a plan to sue the central government and an electric utility to stop construction of a nuclear power plant in neighboring Aomori Prefecture.
The assembly plans to file the lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court as early as April 3 in what will be the first nuclear power-related lawsuit against the central government by a local government.Located at the southern tip of Hokkaido, Hakodate is only 23 km across the Tsugaru Strait from the Oma plant, which Electric Power Development Co., better known as J-Power, started building in May 2008.
“In the event of an accident, Hakodate’s core industries of fishery and tourism would suffer devastating damage,” Mayor Toshiki Kudo said after the assembly unanimously approved the suit.Construction of the 1,383-megawatt plant was suspended in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011 but was resumed in October 2012.
J-Power plans to apply to the Nuclear Regulation Authority for safety assessment of the plant as early as this autumn. The plant will house an advanced boiling water reactor using plutonium-uranium mixed oxide fuel, which contains plutonium extracted from spent fuel.
Renewable energy projects funded jointly by India and UK
| UK and India jointly fund renewable energy R&D projects, Optic.org |
| 27 Mar 2014 |
| UK universities, Indian research center and Tata Steel aim “to revolutionize” solar energy collection and storage techniques. Researchers from the University of Surrey, UK, have been awarded funding “of the order of hundreds of thousands of pounds” by the UK and Indian governments to support two photonics-based R&D projects which will explore how nanotechnology can benefit the future of renewable energy – both in its generation and storage. Awarded to researchers from the Advanced Technology Institute (ATI) at the University of Surrey through the UK-India Education and Research Initiative, both programs, which commenced in the first quarter of 2014, will involve close collaboration between universities in the UK and India over the coming two years, as well as with Tata Steel Research and Development UK.
Project 1 – Solar energy The first project will bring together researchers from the University of Surrey and the University of Hyderabad, India, with collaborators from Tata Steel Research and Development UK to investigate how to better capture and store solar energy with an approach known as “inorganics-in-organics”, in which composite materials work together to increase efficiency. Tata Steel will provide its fuel cell expertise, partnering research with industry to provide technologies for improved energy generation and storage. Project 2 – ZnO gas sensors The second project will examine the use of zinc oxide nanomaterials in ultra-high sensitivity gas sensors. These gas sensors can be used in environmental monitoring devices to deliver improved sensitivity and increased energy efficiency…….http://optics.org/news/5/3/38 |
Over 800 laborers missing from Fukushima nuclear plant
KPFA in Japan: I’ve learned over 800 people have disappeared from Fukushima plant — “May have been killed or died during work” — “Gov’t 
actually in business with the Yakuza” (AUDIO) http://enenews.com/kpfa-in-japan-ive-learned-over-800-people-missing-from-fukushima-plant-they-may-have-been-killed-or-died-during-work-govt-is-actually-in-business-with-the-yakuza-audio?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29
KPFA Flashpoints, Mar. 10, 2014 (at 3:00 in):
Steve Zeltzer, reporting from Japan: One of the things I learned in Osaka from the president of the day laborers is that many of the day laborers being brought into the plant, they’re not being registered and they’re disappearing. There were over 800 day laborers who have disappeared from contact by the union, which means they may have been killed or died during work.
KPFA Flashpoints, Mar. 11, 2014 (at 4:00 in):
Zeltzer: The government now is in control of Tepco, which runs Fukushima plant, and they’ve allowed the use contract workers, through the Yakuza. So the government is actually in business with the Yakuza, allowing the Yakuza to bring in these workers, and we heard a report that many are not even being registered when they go into the plant so they’re not entitled to health care and also when they get sick and over-doses you can’t tell because they haven’t been registered, these are the contract workers at the plant. […] These workers are basically being used as cannon fodder. Some of them are not only day laborers but also immigrant workers who are being used as well to clean up the plant.
Renewed demand for solar PV in China
Solar PV rebounds as demand comes back with ‘a vengeance’ SMH, March 20, 2014 Solar manufacturers are returning to profit as demand in China soaks up a supply glut that gutted margins for more than two years.
The largest solar-panel maker Yingli Green Energy said it expects to be profitable in the third quarter. It joins peers including JinkoSolar, Trina Solar and JA Solar in guiding investors to expect both income and higher shipments in 2014.
Climbing demand for solar panels is countering a global oversupply of production capacity that erased profits across the industry and bankrupted more than a dozen companies. Developers installed 37.5 gigawatts of panels worldwide last year, up 22 per cent from 2012, and that figure may increase as much as 39 per cent this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
That growth is starting to “sponge up” much of the glut, especially among Chinese manufacturers, that resulted from a buildup in the late 2000s, Pavel Molchanov, an analyst at Raymond James & Associates in Houston, said in an interview. “That has made a real dent in the overcapacity.”
The largest solar manufacturers have cut expenses and are poised to take advantage of growth this year, said Nimal Vallipuram, an analyst at Gilford Securities Inc. in New York.
“They continue to do very well at reducing the costs and their volume is going up very strongly,” he said. “Demand has come back with a vengeance.” http://www.smh.com.au/business/carbon-economy/solar-pv-rebounds-as-demand-comes-back–with-a-vengeance-20140320-353ir.html
Rokkasho a big-box store for nuclear terrorists.
After spending tens of billions of dollars and decades on breeder-related programs, Tom Cochran said, countries find it hard to pull the plug.
“You have an entrenched bureaucracy and an entrenched research and development community and commercial interests invested in breeder technology, and these guys don’t go away,” Cochran said. “They’re believers … and they’re not going to give up. The really true believers don’t give up.”……..
“Stealing a weapon is too hard,” Cochran said. “But there is no big risk in fuel assemblies, or in taking things from a bulk handling facility that can be used to make weapons.” In this view, Rokkasho is a kind of big-box store for would-be nuclear terrorists.
A Washington-based physicist and nuclear contrarian, Cochran helped kill a vast plutonium-based nuclear industrial complex back in the 1970s, and now he’s at it again — lecturing at symposia, standing up at official meetings, and confronting nuclear industry representatives with warnings about how commercializing plutonium will put the public at enormous risk.
Where the story ends isn’t clear. But the stakes are large. Continue reading
China’s nuclear power ambitions fading?
Why China’s nuclear energy ambitions are falling flat http://qz.com/189731/why-chinas-nuclear-energy-ambitions-are-falling-flat/ By Lily Kuo @lilkuo March 19, 2014 At a time when other countries are scaling back their nuclear energy programs, China has been plowing ahead. Its largest nuclear energy companies are considering initial public offerings to raise over $2 billion, and Chinese researchers are racing to build the world’s first nuclear plant that runs on thorium. China’s nuclear reactors account for almost 40% of the world’s total. This year alone, the country plans to add 8.6 gigawatts of nuclear power capability—almost as much as the United Kingdom’s annual nuclear power capacity.
Thus, nuclear power’s contribution to China’s goal of reducing its reliance on coal—and, crucially, reducing the air pollution that is choking many of its major cities and contributing to global warming—is likely to be modest for decades to come.
Nuclear power has been underwhelming in China for many of the same reasons it has struggled elsewhere: it’s technically difficult, expensive, and resisted by parts of the public. Because nuclear power plants take so long to build, and China’s energy demands are imminent, other forms of renewable energy like wind and hydropower have taken precedence. (Nuclear reactors typically require at least six years to build, compared to around two years for geothermal power plants and just a few months for wind farms.)
Engineering problems and delays are also a major culprit, and may prevent China from meeting its scaled-down nuclear power goals. As Grist points out, even if all Chinese nuclear capacity currently under construction were to become operational in the next six years, China would have reached only 45 gigawatts by 2020, well shy of its 58 gigawatts goal. Advanced plants that could bring higher efficiency, like a thorium reactor, will still require years of work to resolve engineering issues, researchers say.
Moreover, one of the benefits of nuclear power is that it can be installed close to where it is in demand—in contrast to wind and hydropower—lessening the distance that electricity has to travel along a power grid where some of the power is inevitably lost. But China is spending over 1 trillion yuan ($162.8 billion) to upgrade and expand its grid. As of last year, 84% of the country’s wind capacity was connected to the grid, from 72% in 2011, and the amount of wind-generated electricity wasted in transfer has fallen to 11% from 16% over the same period,according to Fitch Ratings.
TEPCO leaves Fukushima to unskilled workers, pours resources into Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant
- Destitute Left to Clean up Fukushima, The Age March 19, 2014 Hiroko Tabuchi Naraha, Japan: “Out of work? Nowhere to live? Nowhere to go? Nothing to eat?” the online ad reads. “Come to Fukushima.”
That grim posting is one of the starkest indications yet of an increasingly troubled search for workers willing to carry out the hazardous decommissioning at the Fukushima No.1 nuclear plant.
The plant’s operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Co., known as TEPCO, has been shifting its attention away, leaving the complex clean-up to an often badly managed, poorly trained, demoralised and sometimes unskilled work force. At the same time, the company is pouring its resources into another plant, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, that it hopes to restart this year as part of the government’s push to return to nuclear energy three years after the disaster.
Regulators, contractors and more than 20 current and former workers interviewed in recent months say the deteriorating labour conditions are a prime cause of a string of large leaks of contaminated water and other embarrassing errors that have already damaged the environment and, in some cases, put workers in danger. Continue reading
Decades to solve problems of Thorium nuclear reactors
South China Morning Post, 19 March 14 ……….Researchers working on the project said they were under unprecedented “war-like” pressure to succeed and some of the technical challenges they faced were difficult, if not impossible to solve in such a short period.
They would also probably face opposition from sections of the Chinese public after the nuclear disaster at Fukushima in Japan….One of the technical difficulties is that the molten salt produces highly corrosive chemicals such as fluoride that could damage the reactor.
The power plant would also have to operate at extremely high temperatures, raising concerns about safety. In addition, researchers have limited knowledge of how to use thorium.
“We are still in the dark about the physical and chemical nature of thorium in many ways,” said Li. “There are so many problems to deal with but so little time.”
Western countries such as the United States have experimented with thorium reactors but gave up on the technology because of the engineering difficulties………
One of the technical difficulties is that the molten salt produces highly corrosive chemicals such as fluoride that could damage the reactor.
The power plant would also have to operate at extremely high temperatures, raising concerns about safety. In addition, researchers have limited knowledge of how to use thorium.
“We are still in the dark about the physical and chemical nature of thorium in many ways,” said Li. “There are so many problems to deal with but so little time.”
Western countries such as the United States have experimented with thorium reactors but gave up on the technology because of the engineering difficulties……The thorium reactors would need years, if not decades, to overcome the corrosion issue and the stability of accelerator-driven plants was also in doubt, he said.
“These projects are beautiful to scientists, but nightmarish to engineers,” he said…….After the Fukushima nuclear disaster three years ago, the central government withheld approval for new nuclear plants.
Part of the resistance came from the public, as many people were worried that nuclear plants would cause more serious contamination than the pollution created by coal-fired stations, Gu said.
Government agencies such as the Ministry of Water Resources also opposed the construction of nuclear plants in land-locked areas over concerns that radioactive waste would worsen river pollution.
China’s concern over Japan’s plutonium and enriched uranium
Japan and China’s Dispute Goes Nuclear, The Diplomat, Japan and China’s bitter PR campaign has now entered the nuclear realm. By Zachary Keck March 18, 2014 Japan and China appear to be trading nuclear barbs with one another.
For some weeks now, China has been raising concerns about the amount of enriched uranium and weapons-grade plutonium Japan currently stockpiles. “We continue to urge the Japanese government to take a responsible attitude and explain itself to international community,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said at the end of last month.
The following week, the same spokesperson asked: “Has Japan kept an excessive amount of sensitive nuclear material that is beyond its actual needs? Does one need so much sensitive nuclear material for peaceful use? Should one keep excessive weapons-grade nuclear material?” He added: “More importantly, does Japan have higher-enriched and weapons-grade uranium, and how much does it have? What are those used for? How can Japan ensure a balance between the demand and supply of nuclear materials? These are the real concerns and questions of the international community.”
Japan has one of the most advanced civilian nuclear programs of any country without nuclear weapons.According to NBC News, Tokyo has 9 tons of plutonium stockpiled in different places throughout Japan, while 35 tons of Japanese plutonium is stockpiled in different countries in Europe. Only about 5 to 10 kilograms is needed to produce a nuclear weapon. Japan also has an additional 1.2 tons of enriched uranium. It is also building a fast-breeder plutonium reactor in Rokkasho that will produce 8 tons of plutonium annually.
Many experts believe that Japan could produce nuclear weapons within 6 months of deciding to do so, and some believe that Tokyo is pursuing a “nuclear hedging” strategy. Japan has done little to mollify these concerns. In fact, it has often encouraged them, with a Japanese official recently saying off the record that “Japan already has the technical capability [to build a nuclear bomb], and has had it since the 1980s.”
Having a “bomb in the basement” largely suits Japan’s interests in its competition with China. …….http://thediplomat.com/2014/03/japan-and-chinas-dispute-goes-nuclear/
1 This Month
19 May – Webinar No To Nuclear: Why Nuclear Power Destroys Lives, Derails Climate Progress and Provokes War
1 June Webinar – The High Cost of Nuclear Power – Register
of the week– Nuclear Reactor Information Task Force
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