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Japan plans to restart some nuclear plants in 2015 after Fukushima shutdown

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, International Energy Agency, METI Previously one of the world’s largest producers of nuclear-generated electricity, Japan has relied heavily on fossil fuels following the meltdown at Fukushima Dai-ichi and subsequent shutdown of the country’s nuclear fleet. In 2013, when almost all of Japan’s nuclear fleet was shut down, more than 86% of Japan’s generation mix was composed of fossil fuels. In 2014, Japan’s nuclear generation was zero. The Japanese government anticipates bringing online a few nuclear facilities in 2015. Nuclear reactor restarts could begin as soon as May 2015, as Kyushu Electric’s Sendai Units 1 and 2 in southwestern Japan received approval to restart from the Japan’s Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NRA) and local authorities in November 2014. The NRA also approved Kansai Electric’s Takahama Units 3 and 4 at the end of 2014, although these units are still awaiting authorization from the local government. The […]

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6000% Increase in Cancer Rates at Fukushima Site

As reports from individuals like Chieko Shiina, a supporter of the Fukushima Collaborateive Clinic talk about exploding rates of thyroid cancer in children, as well as an epidemic of leukemia, heart attacks, and other health problems,  the Abe-led government and US continue to sweep the fall out of the Fukushima disaster under the rug. Cancer rates have exploded at an increase of almost 6000% in areas near the reactor meltdown. Aside from people-on-the-street interviews that a rare media outlet like “Hodo station” will report on, mainstream media stays completely silent. One Japanese resident,  Carol Hisasue, laments  that as the incident has disappeared from the media, it has also disappeared from people’s consciousness. So why does Fukushima continue to be a see no evil, hear no evil event? You can watch an over hour-long report that goes into detail, but to sum it up, people can’t even turn on their gas-stoves near Fukushima because […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Why Texas Is Now Home to Bargain-Hunting Japan Oil Buyers

A boat passes a refinery standing along the Houston Ship Channel in Houston, Texas,… Read More As U.S. lawmakers debate whether to free up more than the tiny amount of oil output currently eligible for export, buyers from Asia are moving in. Mitsui & Co. (8031) , Japan ’s second-biggest trader, has doubled employees relocated to Houston to 50 over the past two years while Tokyo-based Cosmo Oil Co. opened an office in the oil hub in April and South Korea ’s SK Innovation Co. is bolstering its presence in the region. They are now limited to buying a product called condensate, an ultra-light oil that accounts for about 8 percent of U.S. output, but are positioning themselves to purchase more if Congress ends export restrictions. Their move into Houston illustrates the challenge for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries as the highest American output in more than three […]

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Oil Rout Is Boon for Japan Stocks Easing Recession Sting

Stock investors waiting for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to figure out how to end Japan ’s latest recession got an unexpected boost from 5,689 miles away. The Topix index rallied 2.6 percent through yesterday since OPEC members decided at a meeting in Vienna on Nov. 27 to resist calls to cut oil output, sending crude tumbling. Two days into December, Japanese shares were the second-best performers among 24 developed markets tracked by Bloomberg on prospects cheaper oil will aid a nation that imports almost all its energy. As Abe prepares for parliamentary elections, the fall eases the burden on voters squeezed by falling real incomes and a higher sales tax . With Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda pumping unprecedented amounts of money into the economy in a bid to achieve 2 percent inflation, the decline takes him further from his goal and raises the possibility of further stimulus, […]

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Toyota aims to replicate Prius success with fuel cell Mirai

NEWPORT BEACH California/TOKYO (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp ( 7203.T ) will introduce its first mass-market fuel cell car next month, hoping to replicate the success of its Prius hybrid with a vehicle that runs on hydrogen instead of gasoline. The four-seater sedan, named Mirai, the Japanese word for "future", will first go on sale in four cities in Japan on Dec. 15. Sales in the United States and Europe will follow in the fourth quarter of 2015, the world’s biggest automaker said, unveiling the car simultaneously in California and Tokyo. The ultimate "green car", fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) run on electricity made by mixing hydrogen fuel and oxygen in the air – a technology first used in the Apollo moon project in the 1960s. Its only by-product is heat and water – water so pure the Apollo astronauts drank it. "This technology is going to change our world," […]

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Defying Expectations, Japan’s Economy Falls Into Recession

TOKYO — Japan ’s economy unexpectedly fell into recession in the third quarter, a painful slump that called into question efforts by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to pull the country out of nearly two decades of deflation. The second consecutive quarterly decline in gross domestic product could upend Japan ’s political landscape. Mr. Abe is considering dissolving Parliament and calling fresh elections, people close to him say, and Monday’s economic report is seen as critical to his decision, which is widely expected to come this week. Rising sales taxes have been blamed for triggering the downturn by deterring consumer spending, and with Japan having now slipped into a technical recession, the chances that Mr. Abe will seek a new mandate from voters to alter the government’s tax program appear to have increased significantly. The preliminary economic report, issued by the Cabinet Office, showed that gross domestic product fell at […]

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Tokyo shares skid as Japan slips into recession

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese stocks skidded on Monday, helping the yen rebound from a fresh seven-year low against the dollar touched after news Japan unexpectedly fell into recession in the third quarter. Meanwhile, Shanghai .SSEC and Hong Kong .HSI opened around 1 percent higher but quickly erased gains on suspected profit-taking by traders who had positioned for the launch of the Stock Connect scheme that will let Hong Kong and Shanghai investors buy and sell shares on each other’s bourses. "The market had already responded to the stock link," Andy Wong, senior investment analyst at Harris Fraser (International) Ltd in Hong Kong said, referring to the Hong Kong market. "Short-term investors are taking profits from the market." Much of the cash flow is expected to be northbound at first, as foreign investors on the Hong Kong Exchange ( 0388.HK ) target mainland shares under a daily quota of 13 […]

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Fukushima radiation found in California

4712 Votes Fukushima radiation found in California Very small amounts of radiation from the 2011 meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant have been detected off the California coast, a scientist who has been monitoring the fallout said this week. Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, said trace amounts of telltale radioactive compounds were found 100 miles west of the northern California town of Eureka. Buesseler’s crowd-funded monitoring project has been taking ocean samples along the coast of California, Alaska and Canada. The blast and collapse of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant as a result of a devastating earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 released cesium-134 at unprecedented levels. This and other radioactive elements have been slowly making their way across the Pacific Ocean, becoming diluted as they go. The meltdown of three core reactors at the Fukushima plant amounted to the largest nuclear […]

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Sendai Vote Signals Quicker Pace on Reactor Restarts

Japan quickened its pace to restarting its idled atomic reactors after local officials voted to resume operations at Sendai’s nuclear plant on the nation’s southern island. Council members for the town of Satsumasendai on the island of Kyushu voted 19 to four to restart the reactors as soon as possible in an almost 3 1/2 hour meeting interrupted frequently by the shouts of protesters opposing the measure. “If they do manage to restart these, it would obviously make the follow-on reactors a lot easier to deal with,” Tom O’Sullivan, founder of Tokyo-based energy consultant Mathyos, said before the vote. “It kind of opens up the path to further restarts in different areas.” Sendai’s two reactors are the first of Japan’s atomic plants in line to restart under tougher safety rules set by the Nuclear Regulation Authority, the agency created after the Fukushima disaster to restore confidence in the industry. […]

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Freezing out Fukushima’s radioactive water

TEPCO is preparing to freeze the soil around the damaged reactor buildings to prevent water contamination [TEPCO] Tokyo, Japan – It’s been more than three-and-a-half years since the earthquake and tsunami that rocked northern Japan in March 2011, crippling the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, a disaster that continues to unfold to this day. Engineers at the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which owns the plant, still have a mammoth task in front of them: How to deal with millions of litres of water full of radiation resulting from the catastrophe. The plant site, badly damaged by hydrogen explosions and reactor core meltdowns after the earthquake and tsunami, is glutted with steel storage tanks filled to capacity with contaminated water pumped out of the reactor facilities. More than 1,000 tanks clog the site, and empty ones are being filled daily. As of September 23, the total volume of water […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple