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Want to Burn Coal and Save the Planet? Japan Touts a Solution

An employee stands in front of stockpiles of coal inside a storage yard in Fukushima. Japan is the biggest backer of public coal financing globally, according to a June report co-authored by the Natural Resources Defense Council, a U.S. environmental group, and partners. For all the talk of a solar boom in Japan, coal still has a future there, and potentially a big one at that. Japan’s government and industry are backing emerging coal technologies they say are less damaging to the environment. While they’re pushing the most polluting fossil fuel at home and abroad, Japan’s government will be trying to burnish its environmental credentials at climate talks that begin at the end of the month in Paris. Japan is the biggest backer of public coal financing globally, according to a June report co-authored by the Natural Resources Defense Council, a U.S. environmental group, and partners. The country also […]

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Sechin: Russia can meet Japan’s entire demand for LNG

One of the most powerful men in Russia, Igor Sechin, says reserves are on hand to meet all of Japan’s demand for liquefied natural gas. File photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI TOKYO, Nov. 6 (UPI) — One of the most powerful men in Russia said the country has the reserves on hand to satisfy Japan’s entire demand for liquefied natural gas. "Gas resources are available and we are ready to satisfy all Japan’s gas demands on the account of our resources," Igor Sechin , the chief executive officer at Russian energy company Rosneft, said. Sechin opened the door Friday to Japanese investments in LNG development plans in the Far East. The invitation came as Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev outlined a $1.1 billion investment program for development in eastern Russia. Sechin, who served as deputy prime minister in President Vladimir Putin’s government until 2012, said Rosneft is ready to extend […]

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Exclusive: Toshiba tries to sell down $7 billion U.S. gas commitment

Visitors walk at Toyota Motor Corp’s booth at the 44th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan, November 5, 2015. Japan’s Toshiba, struggling with a major accounting scandal, is trying to sell down a $7.4 billion commitment to U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG), which it signed two years ago as part of a plan to sweeten sales of turbines for power plants. A plunge in Asian gas prices means an expected U.S. export bonanza has fizzled out before it even started, and has left the giant conglomerate potentially exposed to LNG processing fees of up to $370 million a year. Toshiba confirmed in an interview that it is looking to cut its commitment in the early years of the 20-year contract, but declined to comment on cost. "We have to admit the competitiveness of (U.S.) LNG is getting weaker compared to JCC prices," said Akira Nakatani, a manager in Toshiba’s […]

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Gas Golden Age Fades as Supply Boom Meets Japan Nuclear Rebirth

Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s Sendai Nuclear Power Plant stands in Satsumasendai, Japan. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg The golden age of natural gas lost some of its luster this month. Japan, the world’s biggest buyer of the fuel in liquid form, restarted a nuclear reactor on the island of Kyushu Aug. 11, re-embracing atomic power to shrink energy-import costs. A week later, a production milestone was marked at Santos Ltd.’s Curtis Island plant in Australia, a new liquefied natural gas project that’s part of a record annual capacity increase. Japan’s return to nuclear power after the 2011 Fukushima disaster and China’s economic slowdown are undermining the demand that prompted the International Energy Agency to envision a golden age four years ago. Companies including Chevron Corp. and BG Group Plc were counting on Asia’s consumption as they sank hundreds of billions of dollars into new supply. A glut will cap LNG prices […]

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Japan Returns to Atomic Club With Restart Amid Public Opposition

Protesters take part in a rally outside Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s Sendai nuclear power plant in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima prefecture, Japan on Aug. 9, 2015. Source: Jiji Press/AFP/Getty Images Japan is rejoining the group of nations using atomic power as it sweeps aside public opposition and fires up one of the reactors shuttered for safety upgrades after the Fukushima nuclear disaster more than four years ago. Kyushu Electric Power Co. will begin bringing online the No. 1 reactor at its Sendai facility on Aug. 11, start power generation as early as Aug. 14 and return it to normal operations next month, the company said in a statement. Two of its reactors on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu are the first to pass tougher safety checks set by the Nuclear Regulation Authority, the agency created after the Fukushima disaster, and to overcome legal challenges. “The Sendai restart is obviously a very […]

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20-Ton Debris Removed From Fukushima Daiichi Fuel Pool

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it successfully removed the largest piece of debris from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant’s Unit 3 reactor, which had fallen inside the spent-fuel pool following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami . According to Tepco, the company used two 600-ton cranes to lift the 20-ton fuel-handling machine , which was sitting on top of more than 500 fuel assemblies. While there were concerns that the procedure might damage the spent-fuel pool’s gates and reduce water levels, which could have heated up the radioactive fuel rods, Tepco said they experienced no trouble during the procedure. The lifting of the fuel-handling machine began at 11:55 a.m. on Sunday and ended at 1:18 p.m. A spokesman said that there was some fog in the area but that it didn’t affect the process. All other procedures at the nuclear power plant were halted while the debris was being removed. […]

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Panel forces indictment of former Tepco executives over Fukushima: Kyodo

Big black plastic bags containing radiated soil, leaves and debris from the decontamination operation are dumped at a seaside, devastated by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Tomioka town, Fukushima prefecture, near Tokyo Electric Power Co’s (TEPCO)… A Japanese citizens’ panel ruled on Friday that three former Tokyo Electric Power executives should be indicted over their handling of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, Kyodo news agency said. Tokyo prosecutors in January rejected the rarely used panel’s judgment that the three should be indicted, citing insufficient evidence. But the 11 unidentified citizens on the panel forced the indictment after a second vote, which holds sway over the prosecutors’ decision. (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Nick Macfie )

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Japan Building Giant Battery Systems to Store Solar Power

Japanese companies are building some of the world’s biggest battery systems to address one of solar power’s biggest problems–its volatility. Handling the surges in power when the sun shines and storing that energy for use when it is cloudy or dark is a major headache for solar power producers and the utilities they supply. Mitsubishi Electric Corp.6503.TO +0.79% and NGK Insulators Ltd.5333.TO +1.68% are assembling a 50,000 kilowatt battery system for Kyushu Electric Power Co.9508.TO +0.41% to study ways to better accommodate solar power. A slightly smaller, 40,000 kilowatt battery system is under construction in Minami Soma, north of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, for Tohoku Electric Power Co.9506.TO +0.52% to conduct similar research. The government is financing both projects at a total cost of ¥31.7 billion ($257 million), a government official said. Power companies have cited the volatility of supply as a reason for refusing to accept […]

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Japan Struggles to Find Balanced Energy Strategy

ENLARGE Protesters rally in Tokyo on May 1 in opposition to nuclear power. The government’s 15-year energy strategy calls for restarting most of the country’s nuclear reactors, which were taken offline in the years after the Fukushima disaster. Photo: European Pressphoto Agency TOKYO—Four years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan is finding old energy habits hard to shake. The government’s tentative energy plan for the next 15 years seeks to significantly increase renewable sources, but will still draw heavily on the country’s traditional energy suppliers: unpopular nuclear power and imported fossil fuels. Defenders of the energy strategy, released late last month, say it’s a balanced approach for a country with few natural resources of its own. Critics say it’s a blown opportunity for a bolder move toward energy self-sufficiency and future economic growth through the development of Japanese companies’ energy technologies. With Japan’s nuclear reactors shut down in the […]

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Fukushima Report Delayed as Tepco Gets New Chance to Explain

A building covering the Unit 1 reactor, left, is removed by a crane at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan on Nov. 12, 2014. Photographer: Shizuo Kambayashi/AFP Photo/Pool/Getty Images The reactor building of Unit 3 at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s (Tepco) Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power station in Fukushima, Japan. Source: Tokyo Electric Power Co. via Bloomberg The International Atomic Energy Agency delayed a report about meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to give Japanese officials another chance to explain radiation leaking into the Pacific Ocean. The IAEA’s report about mid- to long-term plans to decommission the stricken reactors will be published in “mid-May,” agency spokesman Serge Gas said in an e-mailed reply to questions. The report had initially been scheduled for release by the end of March on the plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. “The Japanese government invited IAEA […]

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