Former Japanese prime minister Naoto Kan at a parliamentary commission in Tokyo. Photograph: Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images Fukushima inquiry: I felt helpless, says former PM Naoto Kan urges Japan to abandon nuclear power, as the industry attempts to bring closed reactors back into operation Japan‘s prime minister at the height of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis has admitted [...]
TOKYO (Reuters) — The amount of radioactive materials released in the first days of the Fukushima nuclear disaster was almost two and a half times the initial estimate by Japanese safety regulators, the operator of the crippled plant said in a report released on Thursday. Connect With Us on Twitter Follow@nytimesworldfor international breaking [...]
Concerns Grow Over Stability of Fukushima Fuel Pool 4 Next strong earthquake could cause release of far more radiation than the initial meltdown – Common Dreams staff link http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/05/23-8 Whether the spent fuel pool at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant Unit 4 can withstand another strong earthquake has become a growing concern around the world. Fukushima’s [...]
The nationalization of TEPCO, together with a legal practice called “channeling of liability” in which all liability related to the Fukushima nuclear disaster has to be channeled to TEPCO, means Japanese taxpayers and ratepayers will foot most of the bill.(Photo: Reuters)Last week, the inevitable finally happened. The company responsible for the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Tokyo [...]
The Worst Yet to Come? Why Nuclear Experts Are Calling Fukushima a Ticking Time-Bomb Monday, 07 May 2012 14:20By Brad Jacobson, AlterNet | Report Experts say acknowledging the threat would call into question the safety of dozens of identically designed nuclear power plants in the U.S. More than a year after the triple [...]
Operators have begun to shut down the third nuclear reactor (centre in foreground) at the Tomari plant in Japan. Photograph: AP Japan is shutting down its last working nuclear reactor as part of the safety drive imposed after the March 2011 tsunami triggered a meltdown at the Fukushima plant. The closure of the third reactor at [...]
An anti-nuclear protester takes part in a rally in front of Tokyo Electric Power Co’s headquarters in Tokyo. Calls for Nuclear Compensation Grow in Japan Radioactive contamination in shiitake mushrooms has raised public clamour for compensation by Suvendrini Kakuchi TOKYO – The discovery of radioactive contamination in ‘shiitake’ mushrooms grown in Manazuru town, Kanagawa prefecture, [...]
The Fukushima crisis “could have been prevented” if TEPCO had carried out simple preventive measures [EPA] Tokyo, Japan - The discovery of radioactive contamination in “shiitake” mushrooms grown in Manazuru town, Kanagawa prefecture, some 300 km away from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, has raised public clamour for compensation. Soon after the discovery, on [...]
Police officers remove “No Trespassing” signs at a checkpoint to the restricted zone of a 20km radius around the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan March 31. Op-ed contributor Kenichi Ohmae says, ‘If you cannot equip a nuclear facility with a reliable last resort of power for cooling reactors, you shouldn’t operate the [...]
Reactor 2 radiation too high for access 73 sieverts laid to low water; dose too high even for robots By MINORU MATSUTANI Staff writer Radiation inside the reactor 2 containment vessel at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant has reached a lethal 73 sieverts per hour and any attempt to send robots [...]
A view from above the water inside number two reactor, where the water is 60cms (24ins) from the bottom. Photograph: Reuters Fukushima reactor shows radiation levels much higher than thought Damage from disaster so severe that clean-up expected to take decades, according to latest examination of nuclear plant One of Japan‘s crippled nuclear reactors still has [...]
Mystery of lost Fukushima radiation emails ‘a major cover-up’ Published: 23 March, 2012, 17:19 Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) workers stand before stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant at Okuma town in Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan (AFP Photo / Yoshikazu Tsuno) (35.5Mb)embed video TRENDS:Earthquake in Japan TAGS: Health, Natural disasters, Nuclear,Accident, Japan link http://www.rt.com/news/japan-fukushima-email-deleted-285/ The Fukushima Prefecture government apparently deleted [...]
It will not take long before the elites behind nuclear power are doing everything to get up and going again at full speed. After all profit is the only game to them. You may have noticed that there seems to be a call for more debate on nuclear power safety. What that means [...]
A year on, frustration dominates in Fukushima Those living closest to damaged nuclear plant deal with daily uncertainty, a year on from the earthquake and tsunami. D. Parvaz Last Modified: 11 Mar 2012 14:36 Email Print Share Send Feedback Fukushima City, Japan - In Fukushima Prefecture, home to the nuclear plant damaged in the March [...]
Muneo Kano has gone from fretting over his organic crops to studying patterns of radiation [D. Parvaz/ Al Jazeera] Iitate Village, Japan - Second-generation farmer Muneo Kano has not been able to tend to his cattle or grow crops since the Daiichi nuclear power plant contaminated land, air and sea after being damaged by last year’s [...]
Fukushima City, Japan - In Fukushima Prefecture, home to the nuclear plant damaged in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, spirits are low a year after the disasters struck. “People aren’t genki,” said Jun Kitsunai, a community volunteer, using a Japanese term for being happy or upbeat. The 30-year-old who owns [...]
Fukushima reactor facility fires A Meltdown in Communication: Nuclear Disaster and Corporate Accountability by Maria Tomchick A new report released by The Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation questions the safety of nuclear power, especially in the hands of private companies. A team of 30 lawyers, university professors, and journalists interviewed several hundred people involved with [...]
Japanese Govt Kept Secret Worst-Case Scenario Post-Fukushima Information “was so shocking,” would frighten the public Kyodo reports: – Common Dreams staff After the Japanese government was presented with a worst-case scenario by Japan Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Shunsuke Kondo in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster, they kept the report secret because “it was so [...]
“Fukushima,” writes Wasserman, “has taught us that as long as reactors operate, the apocalyptic clock is ticking.” 2012 Is the Year to Finally Bury Nuke Power by Harvey Wasserman The year 2012 has opened with news that Fukushima’s radioactive cloud may already have killed some 14,000 Americans, according to a major study just published [...]
Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Far from Resolved Japan Times Editorial Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Dec. 16 declared that the stricken reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant have entered the state of “cold shutdown” and that it has been confirmed that the nuclear crisis has “been resolved”(Shusoku [...]
Published on Thursday, December 22, 2011 by Inter Press Service Mothers Rise Against Nuclear Power in Japan by Suvendrini Kakuchi TOKYO – Japan’s nuclear power industry, which once ignored opposition, now finds its existence threatened by women angered by official opaqueness on radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after it was struck by an [...]
Not waiting for government help, locals make their own Geiger counters and decontaminate soil [D. Parvaz] Nine months after the worst earthquake and tsunami to ever hit Japan, the rubble is still being cleared, but the issue of nuclear contamination will take decades to deal with. Japan’s government on Wednesday announced that decommissioning the damaged and leaking Fukushima [...]
Japan nuclear operator scraps plan to dump contaminated water in sea Tepco, operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, forced to back down after fierce protests from fishing groups A Fukushima water purification building: the company had wanted to release water treated for radioactive contamination into the sea. Photograph: AP http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/09/japan-nuclear-operator-scraps-plans Tepco, the operator of Japan‘s Fukushima nuclear [...]
Returnees fear Fukushima’s invisible touch By Donald KirkMINAMISOMA, Japan – The lugubrious notes of Silent Nightwafted from an outdoor sound system on the near-empty main street to the station of this coastal city on the northern edge of the 20-kilometer “exclusion zone” around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The doleful refrain set the tone [...]
Workers decontaminate the roof of an Okuma town office near the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Photograph: Kyodo/Reuters Fukushima plant leaks radioactive water Radioactive water might have found its way into the Pacific ocean and experts believe it could contain strontium Large quantities of highly radioactive water have leaked through a crack in the [...]
The Fukushima Daiichi plant as the tsunami approached. Seawater flooded power lines, causing a meltdown in three of the six reactors. Photograph: Reuters Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant operator ‘ignored tsunami warning’ Tokyo Electric Power rejected report warning the nuclear plant could be at risk from 10-metre high tsunami, media claim reddit this Justin McCurry [...]
Tepco officials and journalists look at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant from inside a bus. Photograph: Reuters Japan‘s Fukushima plant opened to journalists Conditions inside stricken nuclear facility ‘grim and shambolic’, according to firsthand reports reddit this David Batty and agencies guardian.co.uk, Saturday 12 November 2011 12.30 GMT Article history Conditions inside the Fukushima [...]
Fukushima protesters urge Japan to abandon nuclear power Protesters gathered in Tokyo to call on the government to abandon nuclear energy following the Fukushima disaster. Photograph: Koji Sasahara/AP Tens of thousands join Fukushima protest march in Tokyo amid continuing fears over radiation reddit this Comments (0) Justin McCurry in Tokyo guardian.co.uk, Monday 19 September [...]
Ridding Fukushima of radiation contamination By D. Parvaz in Asia on Mon, 2011-09-12 15:11. Iwamura oversees a simulation experiment for his soil-decontamination system [D.Parvaz/Al Jazeera] FUKUSHIMA PREFECTURE – Nestled among the rice paddies and country roads is a workshop where engineers work with a singular focus on a vital project: A process to decontaminate soil from [...]
Takashige Kowata thought he was prepared for the worst when he opened the door to his house for the first time in six months. But the trauma of seeing his family home abandoned amid the panic of a nuclear meltdown was compounded when he noticed a broken bathroom window. “It looks like we [...]
Residents from a village near the Fukushima nuclear plant are checked for radiation exposure after returning briefly to their homes to collect belongings. Photograph: Koichi Kamoshida/EPA Residents who lived close to the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant are to be told their homes may be uninhabitable for decades, according to Japanese media reports. The Japanese prime [...]
Residents of Ohkuma-cho attend a memorial service for the victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami on 24 July 2011 in Ohkuma-cho, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, 20 km from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant [EPA] Fukushima radiation alarms doctors Japanese doctors warn of public health problems caused by Fukushima [...]
Anti-nuclear rallies marking the attack on Hiroshima don’t distinguish between nuclear energy and weapons [Reuters] There are battles being fought on two fronts in the five months since a massive earthquake and tsunami damaged the Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan. On one front, there is the fight to repair the plant, operated by [...]
TEPCO worker measuring extremely high radiation levels at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan [REUTERS] The aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis has been marked by an outcry in Japan over radiation leaks, contaminated food and a government unable to put the public’s fears to rest. Perhaps the most worrying aspect of the meltdown [...]
The clean-up process after the nuclear crisis has contributed directly to the losses incurred by TEPCO [EPA] Tokyo Electric Power Co, the operator of Fukushima nuclear plant, has announced a $7.4bn quarterly loss mostly due to a massive provision to compensate victims of this year’s meltdown. The March disaster at the Fukushima complex in northeast Japan spawned the [...]
The cleanup operation continues four months after an earthquake and tsunami damaged the nuclear plant [Reuters] Japan‘s prime minister says he wants the country to learn from its ongoing crisis and become less reliant on nuclear energy. Naoto Kan told a news conference on Wednesday the risk of nuclear energy is too high and he wants to [...]
Corporate Power? No Thanks Posted: 04 Jul 2011 11:38 AM PDT The machinations of the industry shouldn’t be allowed to spoil the case for nuclear power. By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 5th July 2011 Power corrupts; nuclear power corrupts absolutely. The industry developed as a by-product of nuclear weapons research. Its deployment was [...]
Government officials launched a PR campaign to ensure the accident at the Fukushima nuclear facility in Japan did not derail plans for new nuclear power stations in the UK. Photograph: AP British government officials approached nuclear companies to draw up a co-ordinated public relations strategy to play down the Fukushima nuclear accident just two [...]
Japan‘s desperate ‘nuclear gypsies’ Rights groups say country’s poorest people are being exploited to repair Fukushima plant. Last Modified: 30 Jun 2011 20 Economic downturn has forced many of Japan’s poorest people to work at the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant, risking exposure to dangerous levels of radiation. The growing number of so-called nuclear gypsies, who come [...]
Demonstrators pass the headquarters of Tokyo Electric Power Co, the operator of tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, during an anti-nuclear power protest in Tokyo on Thursday. Photograph: Shizuo Kambayashi/AP Trace amounts of radioactive substances have been found in urine samples taken from children from Fukushima city, raising concerns that residents have been exposed internally [...]
Fukushima Spews, Los Alamos Burns, Vermont Rages & We’ve Almost Lost Nebraska By Harvey Wasserman http://warisacrime.org/node/58321 Humankind is now threatened by the simultaneous implosion, explosion, incineration, courtroom contempt and drowning of its most lethal industry. We know only two things for certain: worse is yet to come, and those in charge are lying about [...]
UK government‘s Fukushima crisis plan based on bigger leak than Chernobyl As Japan’s nuclear emergency unfolded, scientists devised a worst case scenario involving issuing iodine pills to Britons The earthquake and tsunami-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant from the air on 14 March 2011, following a second explosion. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images The British government made [...]
Japanese nuclear regulators failed to review and approve steps taken after 2002 to protect against tsunamis at the Fukushima plant and these proved insufficient to prevent the disaster three months ago, a UN report showed. A detailed assessment by an expert team from the International Atomic Energy Agency – the first outside review of Japan’s nuclear [...]
Radiation spike halts Fukushima clean-up Operator of Japan’s stricken nuclear power unable to remove pools of radioactive water at risk of spilling into the sea. Last Modified: 18 Jun 2011 04:53 Email Print The operator of Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant has suspended an operation to clean up radioactive water only hours after it had [...]
Fukushima nuclear plant may have suffered ‘melt-through’, Japan admits Fuel rods have probably breached containment vessels – a more serious scenario than core meltdown – according to report Share100 Justin McCurry in Tokyo guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 8 June 2011 07.39 BST Article history Japan’s prime minister, Naoto Kan, said transparency about Fukushima was essential to [...]
Japan pledges fresh nuclear safety measures Japan says it was unprepared for nuclear disaster in report due to be submitted to UN’s atomic agency. Last Modified: 07 Jun 2011 16:38 Email Print Share Send Feedback Japan has admitted it was unprepared for a disaster on the scale of the Fukushima nuclear crisis in a report [...]
This is an oldie but a goodie from the Guardian.! George Ikners ikners.com a WordPress site Japanese nuclear workers enter Fukushima reactor Ventilation equipment being connected to try to absorb radiation in Japanese power plant damaged by earthquake and tsunami Share8 Associated Press guardian.co.uk, Thursday 5 May 2011 08.37 BST Article history Fukushima nuclear [...]
Japan nuclear firm aims to end crisis within nine months Tepco reveals two-stage process to bring Fukushima plant under control but declines to say when evacuees can return home Share69 Justin McCurry in Tokyo guardian.co.uk, Sunday 17 April 2011 12.01 BST Article history Chair of Japan nuclear operator Tepco, Tsunehisa Katsumata, announces the ‘cold shutdown’ [...]
AMY GOODMAN: Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan tried Tuesday to calm fears about radiation levels and food safety in the region around the heavily damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant. His comments came after Japan raised the severity rating of its nuclear crisis to the highest possible level, heightening concerns about the magnitude of the disaster. [...]
There is a tendency to rate disasters so that people seem uninterested unless the latest one is the biggest the worst and the like. Any nuclear event is a major problem even if it only shows up the need for better organisation etc or the need not to use that form of power at all. [...]
