‘Nervous and rushed’: Massive Fukushima plant cleanup work involves high radiation and stress
Experts say the hard work and huge challenges of decommissioning the plant are just beginning. There are estimations that the work could take more than a century. The government and TEPCO have an initial completion target of 2051, but the retrieval of melted fuel debris is already three years behind, and many big issues remain undecided.
By ASSOCIATED PRESS, 12 March 2025
OKUMA, Japan (AP) – The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant’s radiation levels have significantly dropped since the cataclysmic meltdown in Japan 14 years ago. Workers walk around in many areas wearing only surgical masks and regular clothes.
It’s a different story for those who enter the reactor buildings, including the three damaged in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. They must use maximum protection – full facemasks with filters, multi-layered gloves and socks, shoe covers, hooded hazmat coveralls and a waterproof jacket, and a helmet.
As workers remove melted fuel debris from the reactors in a monumental nuclear cleanup effort that could take more than a century, they are facing both huge amounts of psychological stress and dangerous levels of radiation.
The Associated Press, which recently visited the plant for a tour and interviews, takes a closer look.
A remote-controlled extendable robot with a tong had several mishaps including equipment failures before returning in November with a tiny piece of melted fuel from inside the damaged No. 2 reactor.
That first successful test run is a crucial step in what will be a daunting, decades-long decommissioning that must deal with at least 880 tons of melted nuclear fuel that has mixed with broken parts of internal structures and other debris inside the three ruined reactors…………………………………………………
Radiation levels are still dangerously high inside the No. 2 reactor building, where the melted fuel debris is behind a thick concrete containment wall. Earlier decontamination work reduced those radiation levels to a fraction of what they used to be.
In late August, small groups took turns doing their work helping the robot in 15- to 30-minute shifts to minimize radiation exposure. They have a remotely controlled robot, but it has to be manually pushed in and out.
“Working under high levels of radiation (during a short) time limit made us feel nervous and rushed,” said Yasunobu Yokokawa, a team leader for the mission. “It was a difficult assignment.”
Full-face masks reduced visibility and made breathing difficult, an extra waterproof jacket made it sweaty and hard to move, and triple-layered gloves made their fingers clumsy, Yokokawa said.
To eliminate unnecessary exposure, they taped around gloves and socks and carried a personal dosimeter to measure radiation. Workers also rehearsed the tasks they’d perform to minimize exposure…………………………………………………..
a growing number of workers are concerned about safety and radiation at the plant, said Ono, the decommissioning chief, citing an annual survey of about 5,5,00 workers……
Yokokawa and a plant colleague, Hiroshi Ide, helped in the 2011 emergency and are team leaders today. They say they want to make the job safer as workers face high radiation in parts of the plant.
On the top floor of the No. 2 reactor, workers are setting up equipment to remove spent fuel units from the cooling pool. That’s set to begin within two to three years.
At the No. 1 reactor, workers are putting up a giant roof to contain radioactive dust from decontamination work on the top floor ahead of the removal of spent fuel.
To minimize exposure and increase efficiency, workers use a remote-controlled crane to attach pre-assembled parts, according to TEPCO. The No. 1 reactor and its surroundings are among the most contaminated parts of the plant.
Workers are also removing treated radioactive wastewater. They recently started dismantling the emptied water tanks to make room to build facilities needed for the research and storage of melted fuel debris.
After a series of small missions by robots to gather samples, experts will determine a larger-scale method for removing melted fuel, first at the No. 3 reactor.
Experts say the hard work and huge challenges of decommissioning the plant are just beginning. There are estimations that the work could take more than a century. The government and TEPCO have an initial completion target of 2051, but the retrieval of melted fuel debris is already three years behind, and many big issues remain undecided.
Ide, whose home in Namie town, northwest of the plant, is in a no-go zone because of nuclear contamination, still has to put on a hazmat suit, even for brief visits home…….
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-14484347/Nervous-rushed-Massive-Fukushima-plant-cleanup-exposes-workers-high-radiation-stress.html
Life as a “displaced person”
Evacuated or not, we all need to protect ourselves from the radioactive contamination resulting from the Fukushima nuclear accident. “Evacuation” is a rightful act of a human being to avoid exposure to radiation so as to enjoy good health. In Japan, however, evacuees are subjected to discrimination and bullying, labeled as “rumor spreaders” since our very existence points out the dangers of radiation. Under this severe social pressure, we can barely express our rightful thought.
https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2025/03/09/life-as-a-displaced-person/
Fleeing the Fukushima disaster left many families fatherless, including my own, writes Akiko Morimatsu
I am Akiko Morimatsu. I left Fukushima to avoid radiation exposure caused by the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, and I have been living as an internally displaced person.
Fourteen years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011 and the subsequent accident at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The accident is far from over and the crippled power plant continues to contaminate the oceans, air, and land connected to the rest of the world. The situation is anything but “under control”, and I am outraged that none of the leaders of the Japanese State have acknowledged this fact.
Even after 14 years, many people continue to remain displaced. The number of evacuees registered with the government (Reconstruction Agency) is still approximately 29,000 people in all 47 prefectures of Japan, and they are in desperate need of government protection and relief.
However, the exact number of evacuees has never been counted by the Japanese government.
In fact, many more people than registered in official statistics have been compelled to flee their homes and are still in distress with no relief in sight, as they are not officially recognized as evacuees.
I have two children. At the time of the disaster, they were a 5-month-old baby and a 3-year-old toddler. For the past 14 years, my husband (the children’s father) lived in Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture, and I was living with my children in Osaka City, far apart one from the other.
Thus, people living in contaminated areas outside of the mandatory evacuation zones, made their not-easy-to-take decision to escape from the radiation source with only mothers and their children, who are more vulnerable to radiation. And this, without official aide or support. Even now, there are many people displaced living by their own means, and among them, a large number of households without fathers.
Evacuated or not, we all need to protect ourselves from the radioactive contamination resulting from the Fukushima nuclear accident. “Evacuation” is a rightful act of a human being to avoid exposure to radiation so as to enjoy good health. In Japan, however, evacuees are subjected to discrimination and bullying, labeled as “rumor spreaders” since our very existence points out the dangers of radiation. Under this severe social pressure, we can barely express our rightful thought.
I would also like to strongly emphasize that this issue is not only a problem for the people of Fukushima. I would like to share with everyone in the world the following question: when threatened with nuclear damage, will you stand on the side of those who impose radiation exposure, or will you stand on the side of those who protect people’s lives and health from radiation exposure?
If nuclear power is promoted as a national policy, fleeing will not be easily allowed, and the government can claim, as in Japan, that coexistence with radiation is possible, in order to preserve nuclear power. It is nothing but deception.
The year 2025 will mark 80 years since the end of World War II. Last year, Nihon Hidankyô, the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and hibakusha gave a speech to the world audience, drawing attention to the issue of radiation exposure.
We believe that now is the time to connect with people around the world concerned about nuclear damage. Avoiding radiation exposure to protect lives should be a universally recognized principle. As a victim of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, I, too, have renewed my determination to continue to raise my voice and strive for the establishment of this universal right. Let us continue fighting together.
Following the Great Earthquake and nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Akiko Morimatsu moved from Fukushima to Osaka with her two children aged 5 months and 3 years, leaving her husband who decided to continue working in Fukushima. She is the co-chair of the national coordination of the plaintiffs’ groups of the lawsuits filed by victims of the Fukushima nuclear accident, and the representative of the plaintiffs’ group in the Osaka metropolitan area. She lectures in Japan and abroad to defend the rights of nuclear accident victims. In 2018, she gave a speech at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. Translation from the Japanese by Kurumi Sugita, Nos Voisins Lontains 3.11.
14 years since Fukushima nuclear disaster: Greenpeace statement
Greenpeace International, 11 March 2025
Tokyo, Japan – 14 years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster devastated the northeast region of Japan. Greenpeace Japan extends heartfelt condolences to the victims and their families who are still suffering the aftermath of this devastating catastrophe……………………………
The risks of nuclear power plants increase with the length of time they have been in operation, as does their vulnerability to natural disasters such as earthquakes. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident occurred at a nuclear power plant that had been in operation for more than 30 years, and radiation levels remain so high that even 14 years after the accident, it is still impossible for humans to directly inspect the damaged reactors. Therefore, the change of policy to promote nuclear power is unacceptable.[1]
There is no prospect for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel while the existing storage facilities are already close to full capacity, and many local authorities have yet to put in place an effective method for the safe evacuation of residents living near nuclear power stations in the event of an unforeseen emergency.
In addition, the Japanese Government and the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), pushing aside the concerns of fishermen, residents and others, have decided to start deliberately discharging contaminated water containing radioactive substances from the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the environment. This discharge is expected to continue for about 30 years until 2051.
14 years ago, the then Government considered the possibility of evacuating 50 million people in the Tokyo metropolitan area. In fact, water treatment plants in Tokyo even introduced temporary restrictions on the amount of water that infants should drink. Due to the direction of the wind, much of the released radioactive material was carried out to sea, but a different wind direction would have resulted in a completely different outcome. The Prime Minister secretly drafted a statement at that time which stated that the worst case scenario had occurred. Have we, who experienced the accident, stayed true to the feelings we had in our hearts at the time?
The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake 30 years ago, the Great East Japan Earthquake 14 years ago, the Noto Peninsula Earthquake a year ago and other earthquakes and floods across the country have occurred in rapid succession. We can only prepare for these natural disasters as best we can, but nuclear disasters are different. Nuclear disasters are caused by our choice and use of nuclear power as a means of generating electricity in Japan. Fortunately, there are many possibilities in Japan to pursue comfortable energy savings, as the electricity supply can be replaced by renewable energies that use neither nuclear power nor fossil fuels.
Therefore, Greenpeace Japan, whose vision is to preserve the bounty of the earth for our children 100 years from now, believes that the only reasonable course to take is to stop nuclear power generation in order to prevent nuclear disasters from happening again. The government should clearly state its policy to phase out the use of nuclear power and fossil fuels, in order to ensure a stable energy supply and decarbonise the country. They should make great strides in energy conservation in a way that promotes health, comfort and efficiency, and the use of renewable energy in a way that is in harmony with local communities and nature, thereby aiming to make Japan an energy-saving and renewable energy powerhouse. We will do our utmost this year to work towards this goal.” https://www.greenpeace.org/international/press-release/73383/14-years-since-fukushima-nuclear-disaster-greenpeace-statement/
“Difficult-to-Return” zones
Some have returned to areas contaminated by the Fukushima disaster but they should never be considered safe, writes Ruiko Muto
https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2025/03/09/difficult-to-return-zones/ 9 Mar 25
Last summer, I had the opportunity to visit parts of the Difficult-to-Return zones in Fukushima. A hospital, where more than 50 patients died during evacuation efforts in the 2011 nuclear disaster, was now overgrown with dense trees and grasses. In a care home for older people, I saw disarrayed beds and scattered items, such as diapers, medicines and documents, all left untouched since the residents had to evacuate suddenly for safety. The meal plan for 11th March 2011 was still written on the whiteboard.
At a nearby primary school, I found dictionaries placed on each small wooden desk. Pupils’ bags, shoes, brush washers, and even fallen bicycles as well as helmets were still there – everything was left behind. No sounds were to be heard except for the hum of cicadas. There is no doubt that people lived here until just 13 years ago, but now, there is no one. These places remain abandoned even today.
Only a very small number of people have returned to the areas where evacuation orders were lifted. Empty houses need to be demolished one by one. Grand gates and storehouses, seemingly with centuries of history, are being torn down. New homes have been built nearby for disaster-affected families, with some residents with children moving in from outside Fukushima. A resident told me that the current indoor radiation level was as high as 0.3μSv/h, five to ten times higher than the levels before 2011. Part of the Difficult-to-Return zone begins just behind the fences surrounding these homes. Such living conditions should never be called safe.
Meanwhile, the Japanese government has removed its pledge to reduce reliance on nuclear energy from its Seventh Strategic Energy Plan, signalling their intention to revive the industry. To someone like me, who is acutely aware of the ongoing sufferings from the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the reality that local residents cannot safely stay or evacuate if a similar disaster were triggered by an earthquake in areas like the Noto Peninsula, the epicentre of a major earthquake in 2024, Japan’s continued reliance on nuclear energy seems inconceivably absurd.
In 2022, Japan’s Supreme Court ruled that the government was not liable for the 2011 disaster, dismissing the claims of many evacuees and victims seeking fair compensation and accountability. Since then, it has been revealed by a journalist that there was a collusion between the judge and the executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). The state of the judicial system in Japan is deeply concerning. Similar rulings in other Fukushima nuclear disaster related cases followed in lower courts, leaving those suffering in an incredibly difficult position.
The extraction of 0.7 gramme of nuclear debris from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has been recently reported, but the modest “success” was achieved only after repeated failed attempts. Harsh working conditions with high levels of radiation exposure and mismanagement by TEPCO — such as failing to send a company staff member to properly inspect a telescopic device — became evident during the process. No review of the plant’s decommissioning roadmap has been carried out to account for the radioactive decay period, even though no one believes the decommissioning process will be completed by 2051, as originally planned.
Having released contaminated underground water from the plant into the ocean despite strong opposition, Japan is now distributing contaminated soil to wider areas, touting it as a “recycled” material for rebuilding works. In doing so, the Japanese government continues to propagate nuclear safety myths, particularly among younger people, while asserting that they alone have the authority to determine which evidence is scientific and which is not.
Along the quiet Fukushima coastline, almost empty of people, lavish corporate facilities and state-of-the art laboratories have been built with generous subsidiaries under the guise of reconstruction efforts.
A nuclear disaster not only devastates your life and home, but it also deprives you of basic human rights. Confronted with this harsh reality even 14 years after the disaster, I cannot help but feel a sense of despair about the future of Fukushima.
With winter nearly gone and spring just around the corner, I long to be filled with good intentions and to see the world with discerning eyes. Encouraged by the knowledge that many friends around the world are tirelessly working to end nuclear energy production, I will continue to contribute as much as possible to this important cause.
Update: Last week the Japanese Supreme Court upheld the acquittals made by a lower court of two of the three TEPCO ex-executives charged. The charges against ex-chairman Katsumata Tsunehisa were dropped following his death in October last year. Lawyers from the criminal trial support group and Ruiko Muto, the plaintiff’s representative, held a press conference. The following are excerpts from Ms. Muto’s statement, translated from the original Japanese:
“Although the defendants were all acquitted by the District Court and the High Court, we put our hope in the dignity of judges and in the justice of the Supreme Court.
“The fact that this decision was made today just before March 11 shows the heartlessness with which the victims of the nuclear accident were truly treated. I wonder how many victims are disappointed and angry.
“The Fukushima nuclear accident is still ongoing. How much damage has been caused by this accident, how many lives have been ruined, how much negative legacy has been inflicted on future generations! Failure to hold accountable the management of the companies responsible for the accident could lead to another nuclear accident. It is very regrettable and disappointing that the court did not understand all this. We cannot challenge this decision in court, but we are not convinced of its validity. I believe that the responsibility for this accident will be challenged in many ways in the future, and we are determined to continue working towards that goal.”
Ruiko Muto is a Fukushima native and a longtime opponent of nuclear power who has spent more than 30 years in the anti-nuclear movement. Ms. Muto is also co-representative of the Nuclear Accident Victims Group Liaison Committee and the Chair of the Complainants for the Criminal Prosecution of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster. Translation from the Japanese by Japanese Against Nuclear (UK).
Fukushima victims angered, saddened by TEPCO acquittals.
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN, March 7, 2025, by Susumu Okamoto, Noriyoshi Otsuki, Yuto Yoneda and Takashi Endo. https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15659097?fbclid=IwY2xjawI5r7VleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHWN3s0dp9P01VgNx6-uHR7J7t09vvNY9N_2gIceMP_VQvQV1fbE1ExO8Qw_aem_q068mi2UQmCXSqQO2wrDJQ
Victims of the Fukushima nuclear disaster expressed outrage and sadness after the Supreme Court upheld the acquittals of two former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the stricken nuclear plant.
But for Yoshinobu Ishii, the March 5 decision came as no surprise.
“I expected this because the rulings of the first and second trials were ‘not guilty,’” said Ishii, 80, from Kawauchi, Fukushima Prefecture.
Ishii’s mother, Ei, died at the age of 91 after being forced to flee from the nuclear accident in March 2011.
“My mother is not coming back, even if I blame someone (for her death),” said Ishii, resigned.
The two former vice presidents at TEPCO were charged with professional negligence resulting in death and injury concerning the company’s preparations for a tsunami that could hit its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
However, the top court agreed with earlier rulings that said a tsunami of that scale could not have been foreseen and absolved them of criminal responsibility.
Ishii said he was concerned the ruling could further promote Japan’s return to using nuclear power generation for its energy needs.
EVACUATION PLAN ‘USELESS’
On the morning of March 11, 2011, Ishii’s wife, Aiko, 75, visited Ei at an affiliated facility near Futaba Hospital in Okuma, near the nuclear plant.
Ei, who had hurt her back, ate the grated apple and pickled radish that Aiko had brought, and then said her last words to her daughter-in-law: “Be careful on your way home. Come again tomorrow.”
The Great East Japan Earthquake struck that afternoon, unleashing a tsunami that caused the triple meltdown at the nuclear plant.
In the ensuing chaos, patients left behind in hospitals and related facilities were forced to take buses and other means on a harsh evacuation route exceeding 200 kilometers.
A week after the tsunami, the Ishii couple found Ei’s body wrapped in a white cloth in a high school gymnasium. Her death certificate read: “Cause of death: hypothermia” and “Date of death: around March 14.”
The former TEPCO executives were cleared of negligence charges concerning the deaths of 44 people, including hospital patients like Ei who died in evacuation.
Immediately after the nuclear accident, there was a growing movement to move away from nuclear power generation.
Now, however, nuclear reactors are increasingly being restarted around the nation.
“Japan is a country where many earthquakes occur, so ‘100 percent safety’ is impossible,” Ishii said. “That’s why the nuclear accident happened and why the evacuation plan was useless.”
FEELING HELPLESS
A group of victims in Fukushima Prefecture initiated the criminal procedures against the former TEPCO executives.
The group’s leader, Ruiko Muto, 71, ran a coffee shop in Tamura, Fukushima Prefecture, about 40 kilometers west of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
She had no choice but to close the shop after the accident.
“I wanted to make it clear through a criminal trial who should take responsibility to prevent a repeat of the same mistakes,” she said.
She had sat in the galleries of court rooms since the first hearing of the trial at the Tokyo District Court in 2017.
When she learned on March 6 that the Supreme Court had effectively finalized the not guilty verdicts, she felt frustrated and shed tears.
She fears the acquittals will intensify a sense of helplessness among those affected in Fukushima Prefecture.
“Victims of damage caused by the nuclear accident tend not to speak out,” Muto said.
FOCUS NOW ON CIVIL CASE
Yuichi Kaido, a lawyer representing plaintiffs in both the criminal case and a civil lawsuit against former TEPCO managers, criticized the Supreme Court’s decision at a news conference on March 6.
“Its logic was too rough,” Kaido said.
But he said some good came out of the trial and appeals process, which took more than seven years to complete.
Many TEPCO employees and other related parties testified as witnesses.
“The testimonies at the trial have become invaluable evidence when discussing the nuclear accident,” Kaido said.
In the civil lawsuit, the Tokyo District Court ordered the former TEPCO managers to pay more than 13 trillion yen ($88 billion) in damages over the nuclear accident.
The defendants appealed the ruling, and the Tokyo High Court is expected to hand down its ruling in June.
“It is important to ensure the district court’s ruling is upheld,” Kaido said.
DISAPPOINTMENT
In the criminal case, prosecutors initially decided not to charge the former TEPCO executives.
But a citizens inquest panel twice ruled that they should be prosecuted, and mandatory indictments were applied.
(A third former TEPCO executive was charged, but his trial was terminated after his death in October last year.)
The four designated lawyers who acted as prosecutors in the trial held a news conference after the top court’s decision.
“The Supreme Court did not respond to our arguments,” Shozaburo Ishida said. “I wish they had made a more rigorous decision.”
9-year lawsuit fails to stop Ikata nuclear plant operations
By KAI NEMOTO/ Staff Writer, March 5, 2025, https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15655918
HIROSHIMA—The district court here rejected a request on March 5 by plaintiffs to stop operations at the Ikata nuclear power plant in Ehime Prefecture on the main island of Shikoku.
The Hiroshima District Court ended a nine-year lawsuit brought by 337 plaintiffs, including some who survived the Aug. 6, 1945, atomic bombing of Hiroshima, by rejecting the injunction request.
Although Hiroshima is located about 100 kilometers north of the Ikata plant, operated by Shikoku Electric Power Co., the plaintiffs argued that a serious accident would send radioactive materials spewing into the air and waters of the Seto Inland Sea that lies between Hiroshima and Ehime prefectures.
The main points of contention in the lawsuit filed in March 2016 were the safety of the Ikata plant against earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in Kyushu.
During the course of the trial, atomic bomb survivors testified about what they went through after Hiroshima was leveled 80 years ago.
The Ikata nuclear plant began operations in 1977, but only the No. 3 reactor is currently operating. The other two reactors are in the process of being decommissioned.
Similar lawsuits to stop operations have been filed in other district courts in the region, but in March 2024 the Oita District Court rejected the request by plaintiffs, who appealed to the Fukuoka High Court.
Debris extracted from Fukushima nuclear plant revealed to media
Friday, Feb. 21, https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20250221_08/?fbclid=IwY2xjawInSAlleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHSRSw2PSosgQ6p28ndBqzler46N1Sr9mAHZH_X5SQL5hfjsJ5Tr3M48JTg_aem_xXho8cY6EkFQUvxp6aOcZQNuclear fuel debris that was extracted from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant last year has been revealed to reporters for the first time.
The debris taken from the plant’s No.2 reactor consists of molten fuel mixed with surrounding structural components. The operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, successfully retrieved 0.7 grams of the material in its first test extraction operation through November last year.
The debris was first transferred to a research facility of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency in Oarai Town, Ibaraki Prefecture, for the initial analysis, including surface observation.
The researchers then split the debris into smaller pieces to be examined at five research facilities, including a large one in Hyogo Prefecture.
Reporters were given the opportunity to observe the samples, which were placed in two separate transparent containers at a facility in Ibaraki Prefecture. One container held a particle about 2 millimeters in size that appeared silver, while the other had multiple dark fragments.
So far, the researchers have detected uranium, which is contained in nuclear fuel, on the surface of the debris, as well as metals such as iron, which are believed to have come from the reactor’s structure.
The researchers plan to examine the characteristics of the debris, including its hardness and adhesiveness. They will also expose the samples to lasers to determine whether the uranium inside is prone to triggering a nuclear fission reaction.
The agency says it will use these analyses to evaluate potential methods for full-scale extraction of the debris, and to determine the risk of a renewed criticality event, in which a self-sustaining chain reaction could occur.
The agency plans to release the findings of the major analyses in the middle of this year.
Ogino Hideki, the chief engineer at the agency’s Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science, spoke to the reporters.
He said it is difficult to fully grasp the overall characteristics of the debris based on the ongoing analyses alone. But he expressed his commitment to contributing to the decommissioning efforts through analyzing the samples using the technology that he and his fellow researchers have developed.
It is estimated that there is a total of around 880 tons of fuel debris in the No. 1, 2 and 3 reactors.
5.0-magnitude quake strikes off Japan’s Fukushima: JMA
TOKYO, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) https://english.news.cn/20250221/1a62306993674102b4bf547c66308416/c.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawInSGJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHaLmlIJlO8LIDD4_tC9mDYzpZnPQTSalQEzW0hj-j5vNUxWQ8hVw_Wrelw_aem_JSAQL14AGKbnrwbZ10cXPA
— An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.0 struck off the northeastern Japanese prefecture of Fukushima on Friday, the country’s weather agency said.
The temblor occurred at around 10:01 p.m. local time at a depth of 50 km, measuring 4 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).
The epicenter was located at a latitude of 37.5 degrees north and a longitude of 141.5 degrees east.
There was no tsunami warning, the JMA added
Japan to pick final disposal sites for Fukushima soil around 2030
The Environment Ministry plans to decide around 2030 or later where to finally dispose of soil removed from the ground during decontamination work after the March 2011 disaster at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings’ Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant, it was learned Wednesday.
The plan was included in a draft timetable for the final disposal of such soil outside Fukushima Prefecture by March 2045, presented by the ministry at a meeting of a related expert panel on the day. The ministry will consider a process for selecting final disposal sites from fiscal 2025.
As of the end of December, about 14 million cubic meters of such soil had been transported to an interim storage facility straddling the Fukushima towns of Okuma and Futaba.
Three-quarters of the soil had radiation concentrations of 8,000 becquerels per kilogram or less and will be reused in public works, while the rest will be subject to final disposal.
Final disposal sites are estimated to require up to 50 hectares if the volume of the soil is not reduced, or 2 to 3 hectares if the volume is reduced. Meanwhile, radiation levels would be higher in the reduced soil.
The government is slated to draw up a basic plan as early as this spring for reusing some of the soil and finally disposing of the rest.
TEPCO takes on challenge of making space for Fukushima nuclear debris
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (Japan) (AFP) – Workers at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant have started dismantling water storage tanks to free up space for tonnes of nuclear debris, 14 years after the facility was hit by a devastating tsunami.…………………….
France24 15th Feb 2025, https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250215-tepco-takes-on-challenge-of-making-space-for-fukushima-nuclear-debris
India PM Modi ends foreign tour with nuclear deals in pipeline
By AFP, 14 February 2025 Daily Mail
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi concluded a whistle-stop diplomatic tour Friday having secured significant pledges of support from Washington and Paris to help step up his country’s nuclear energy programme.
New Delhi has vowed to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2070 partly by increasing the number of nuclear plants in the country from eight, which currently account for around three percent of power generation in India.
Modi’s White House meeting with President Donald Trump resulted in an agreement to build US-designed nuclear reactors in India.
“This path forward will unlock plans to build large US-designed reactors and enable collaboration to develop, deploy and scale up nuclear power generation with advanced small modular reactors,” a joint statement said Thursday.
India revealed a similar deal with France following Modi’s meeting with President Emmanuel Macron earlier this week.
Foreign secretary Vikram Misri said Wednesday that India and France aimed to initiate cooperation on developing small modular nuclear reactors, nothing that the technology was still in its “initial stages”.
“Our intent is to be able to cooperate in co-designing the reactors, co-developing them, and co-producing them,” he told reporters.
Both partnerships come days after Modi’s government announced plans to amend its strict nuclear liability law, which holds operators liable for any damage or accident, with exceptions made for certain situations including natural disasters……………………… https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-14396859/India-PM-Modi-ends-foreign-tour-nuclear-deals-pipeline.html
South Korea increases support for domestic nuclear industry
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy has announced KRW150 billion
(USD103 million) of financial support this year to companies within South
Korea’s nuclear power industry – an increase of KRW50 billion compared with
last year.
World Nuclear News 10th Feb 2025,
https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/south-korea-increases-support-for-domestic-nuclear-industry
Kansai Electric to ship more spent nuclear fuel to France
Fukui Japan Times 9th Feb 2025 https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/02/09/japan/japan-more-spent-nuke-fuel-to-france/
Kansai Electric Power is working to double the amount of spent nuclear fuel it will ship to France, increasing it by about 200 tons, informed sources said.
The move comes as Fukui Prefecture, home to several nuclear plants, urges Kansai Electric to address shrinking storage capacity for spent nuclear fuel, the sources said.
In 2023, Kansai Electric announced a plan to ship about 200 tons of the fuel from its Takahama plant in Fukui to France starting in fiscal 2027. Based on the Japanese government’s policy, the spent fuel will be used for research on technology to reprocess uranium-plutonium mixed oxide, or MOX, fuel.
At the Takahama plant, about 90% of the spent fuel storage capacity has already been used, and that amount is expected to reach the upper limit in about three years.
About 200 tons of spent fuel will be generated if the No. 1 to No. 4 reactors at the plant are operated for about three years. Kansai Electric has restarted all of its seven nuclear reactors.
The company initially planned to send spent fuel mainly to a reprocessing plant to be built in Aomori Prefecture, but the completion of the facility has been postponed.
Last September, the company notified Fukui Gov. Tatsuji Sugimoto of its intention to review the plan, and said that it would halt three reactors in the prefecture if it fails to come up with a proposal that can win the understanding of officials there by the end of fiscal 2024.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vows to further develop nuclear forces
Alarabiya, 9 Jan 25
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un criticized trilateral military cooperation among the United States, Japan and South Korea for raising tensions in the region and vowed countermeasures, including the further development of nuclear forces.
Kim said US deployments of nuclear strategic assets, war exercises and military cooperation with Japan and South Korea were inviting military imbalance in the region and raising a grave challenge to the security environment, state media KCNA reported on Sunday.
“The DPRK does not want unnecessary tension of the regional situation but will take sustained countermeasures to ensure the regional military balance,” Kim said during a visit to the defense ministry on Saturday to commemorate the founding day of its Army.
DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.
US President Donald Trump, after a meeting on Friday with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, said he would have relations with North Korea, as they expressed concern over its nuclear program.
But during the visit, Kim “clarified once again the unshakable policy of more highly developing the nuclear forces,” according to the report……………………………….
In a separate commentary released later on Sunday, North Korea’s KCNA again criticized South Korea’s military activity with the United States this year and warned that aggressive actions would be met by undesired consequences.
“Anyone could easily guess how we would take the fact that they carried out war exercises that were more intense than ever before at a time when diplomacy schedules were being canceled due to political turmoil,” KCNA said. https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2025/02/09/north-korean-leader-kim-jong-un-vows-to-further-develop-nuclear-forces
As China and the U.S. Race Toward A.I. Armageddon, Does It Matter Who Wins?
it doesn’t matter if the U.S. has no real enemies. The military industrial complex must continue to unceasingly grow, according to the logic of the Megamachine. It will invent enemies in order to justify that growth. That’s why we now have thousands of nuclear bombs and a sprawling, AI-driven, globally networked satellite and base infrastructure that encases the Earth like an iron maiden.
Koohan Paik-Mander CounterPunch , 7 Feb 25
A longstanding Sinophobia in the U.S. goes back to the 19th century, with the Chinese Exclusion Act, the tax on Chinese miners during the Gold Rush, and the exclusion from being able to testify in court.
Evidence of this entrenched history lingers today, in the trade sanctions against China, belligerent rhetoric from both Republicans and Democrats that led to a rash of violence against elderly Asian-Americans on American streets, as well as billions of dollars spent to fortify overseas bases in preparation for a U.S.-China war.
And the refusal to cooperate meaningfully with China on anything. As a result, the U.S. is thick in the midst of an AI arms race with China that is predicated on both nations’ dangerous faith in techno-salvation.
Thanks to the legacy of Sinophobia, it takes a whole lot to elicit an overwhelming embrace of China from average Americans, even if temporarily. But that’s what’s happened twice in the last month. The first time was the TikTok fiasco, when millions of distraught TikTok users had had their favorite platform snatched from them like a pacifier from a baby’s mouth. They found solace not in Meta nor X (as had been the plan), but rather, in the Chinese social media platform, Xiaohongshu, also known as “RedNote.”
The second instance was the debut of DeepSeek AI, which came on the heels of one of the most pompous pageants of delusional grandeur ever seen. It was Trump’s inauguration ceremony for his second term. Shortly thereafter, a press conference was held. Three tech oligarchs and the president bloviated about their Stargate AI project. It would cost $500 billion. That’s what they say is needed to stay ahead of the Chinese. (For some reason, the excuse of “staying ahead of the Chinese” seems to justify any astronomical expense.)
In the mean time, thousands of people have been left homeless due to wild fires in L.A., flooding in North Carolina, and even to this day, people from Lahaina, Maui are still without a place to call home. But none of these Americans got a press conference.
Instead, it was the oligarchs who took the stage. Oracle’s Larry Ellison, Masayoshi Son of Starbank, and Open AI founder Sam Altman described Stargate’s plans to build clusters of gigantic data centers across the country from sea to shining sea, each one bigger than any Walmart Superstore. It’s Manifest Destiny for data.
No one at the press conference mentioned that many of the data centers would be built on federal lands, would collectively use as much power as small European nations, require massive volumes of water, or would require a network of nuclear reactors. They did make the dubious promise their AI would cure cancer and heart disease. I think the guys who got wampum for Manhattan got a better deal.
A few days afterward, as if on cue, a Chinese company called DeepSeek that no one had ever heard of dropped their bombshell. The Chinese firm had released its own AI that was open-source, used fifty times less energy, performed on par with all the American AIs, and cost a gazillion times less to produce. Suddenly, the mirage of Silicon Valley’s invincibility faded away to reveal an overvalued industry that had gotten too fat, lazy and full of itself to innovate anything except marketing promises to investors. The very next day, a veritable trillion dollars peeled like a banana off the U.S. stock exchange tech sector. The story everywhere was that Chinese AI had officially “caught up” with the U.S.
When people cheered the scrappy Chinese underdog, it was as much a middle finger to the overblown hubris of the tech oligarchs as it was an embrace of Chinese innovation. It was motivated largely by the same class anger that rose up to lionize Luigi Mangione for killing a health insurance CEO with three inscribed bullets. People had been galled by the consolidated display of the broligarchy on the dais at the Trump inauguration, similar to the royals waving at the minions from the balcony at Buckingham Palace. Their message was unequivocal: We own you.
DeepSeek has been described as a Robin Hood of tech, taking from the rich to give AI to the poor. Sentiments of class anger buoyed admiration for the unknown company from China. They disregarded, for once, the stubborn stains of Sinophobia.
What was also overlooked in the midst of DeepSeek’s dazzling display of stock market disruption was responsible restraint around technology. As both China and the U.S. go hurtling ever faster toward Armageddon in the race to dominate in AI, they have both bought into techno-utopian ideologies, lock, stock and barrel………………………………………………………………….
China and the U.S. are entangled in a geopolitical rivalry, with existential stakes. Sure, it’s satisfying to enjoy the smarting blow that newcomer DeepSeek landed to the capitalist Goliath — China one, U.S. zero. But it’s not a boxing match. Such narrow framing loses sight of the fact that the race for accessible AI is a race for Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD).
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………The weapons industry wouldn’t tolerate the thought of degrowth, just like Microsoft, Google, Meta, Amazon et al. can’t bear it today. The war industry dealt with it by instead aggressively manufacturing enemies and reasons for war faster than it could manufacture more weapons. Now, forty years after the end of the Cold War with Russia, the war budget has increased every year and is now up to one trillion dollars, Los Alamos has begun manufacturing nukes for the first time in decades last year, we’ve got 800 bases around the world, rocket launchpads in wilderness areas, and thousands of satellites in the heavens.
It’s hard to get one’s bearings, especially in the midst of the engineered political maelstrom of the current moment. Fortunately, the books haven’t been burned (yet), so we can turn to the thinkers of the recent past for guidance.
The technology critics of the 20th century, such as Jacques Ellul, Lewis Mumford and Chellis Glendinning, urged us to conceptualize technology not just as a single artifact, such as a laptop, or just AI, or just a satellite, or just a nuclear weapon, but rather, as a whole way of thinking, a way of organizing society, our institutions, a way of being. Technology is not a one-off. It is systemic. Lewis Mumford called all of our technological society the Megamachine.
Every project, technology, organization, and endeavor is an expression of the Megamachine where the economic-growth imperative reigns supreme. It is all of a piece. It doesn’t matter if DeepSeek uses less energy. The growth imperative must be met……
Likewise, it doesn’t matter if the U.S. has no real enemies. The military industrial complex must continue to unceasingly grow, according to the logic of the Megamachine. It will invent enemies in order to justify that growth. That’s why we now have thousands of nuclear bombs and a sprawling, AI-driven, globally networked satellite and base infrastructure that encases the Earth like an iron maiden.
The poster child for the Megamachine in the digital age is Amazon. Former chair of the Federal Trade Commission Lina Khan’s seminal essay “Amazon’s Anti-trust Paradox,” tracks the logic of the behemoth’s growth over its history. She brilliantly unravels how Amazon decisively prioritized sheer growth over profit for its first eight years. The goal was to entrench a broad-spanning networked infrastructure that would guarantee a monopoly and continue to consolidate market dominion. They forwent profits for almost a decade expressly in order to monopolize the market. Again, the imperative for growth and global domination trumps decent common sense.
Former chair of the Federal Trade Commission Lina Khan’s seminal essay “Amazon’s Anti-trust Paradox,” tracks the logic of the behemoth’s growth over its history. She brilliantly unravels how Amazon decisively prioritized sheer growth over profit for its first eight years. The goal was to entrench a broad-spanning networked infrastructure that would guarantee a monopoly and continue to consolidate market dominion. They forwent profits for almost a decade expressly in order to monopolize the market. Again, the imperative for growth and global domination trumps decent common sense.
……………………………………………………………The sooner that the U.S. and China treat one another as fellow members of humankind, rather than adversaries, the real work of cooperation can begin. Both nations are home to millions of indigenous peoples who carry the know-how for surviving and thriving for generations into the future. Their wisdom is more precious than any AI. There’s no shortage of problems that our combined brilliance can improve if not solve: climate, nuclear weapons, species extinction, toxic waste clean-up, housing, microplastics, and last but not least, dangerous unregulated technologies. None of these colossal crises can be addressed as long as we are pointing fingers while locked in the downward spiral of a competition for global hegemony that the U.S. can never win.
Some of us remember the shining moment in history when the U.S. and Soviet Union built trust and signed a raft of nuclear arms control agreements. They modeled what ratcheting down tensions and the path to peace looks like. It would behoove the U.S. and China to follow their lead today, not only with nukes but also with AI and other emerging technologies. https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/02/07/as-china-and-the-u-s-race-toward-a-i-armageddon-does-it-matter-who-wins/
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