Category:

IAEA: Tepco Should Consider Controlled Discharge

TOKYO—The International Atomic Energy Agency has advised the operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant to consider discharging lightly contaminated water into the ocean, as storing radioactive water at the plant has become increasingly unsustainable. The IAEA’s advice reflects the dilemma facing the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., which must weigh risks from the storage of increasing amounts of contaminated water against those of releasing some partially cleaned water into the ocean, a move vehemently opposed by local fishing communities and residents. Groundwater flowing into the site and its reactors is continuously adding to about 400,000 tons of highly contaminated water stored in roughly 1,000 tanks at the site. Tepco said earlier this year that it had found contaminated water leaking from underground storage tanks. In addition to the leaks, concerns have also grown that the tanks will obstruct other work necessary to decommission the plant, which […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Japan's Tepco to start up 1.6 GW of coal-fired power generation capacity mid-Dec

Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Company is eyeing the commercial startup of 1.6 GW of coal-fired power generation capacity around mid-December, a company official said Thursday. Tepco expects to start up the 1-GW No. 2 coal-fired unit at the Hitachinaka power plant in eastern Japan mid-December. It began commercial operation of the 600-MW No. 6 coal-fired unit at the Hirono thermal power plant on Tuesday, the official said. The utility’s oil demand for power generation fell this year following successful test runs in April at the two coal-fired plants at Hitachinaka and Hirono. Another 1 GW of output was added following the complete restart of Tohoku Electric’s earthquake-hit 2 GW Haramachi coal-fired power plant in the northeast, where Tepco has rights to half of the total production in fiscal 2013-2014 (April-March). In December, Tepco plans to buy around 600,000 kiloliters (122,000 b/d) of crude […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Japan’s Tepco to start up 1.6 GW of coal-fired power generation capacity mid-Dec

Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Company is eyeing the commercial startup of 1.6 GW of coal-fired power generation capacity around mid-December, a company official said Thursday. Tepco expects to start up the 1-GW No. 2 coal-fired unit at the Hitachinaka power plant in eastern Japan mid-December. It began commercial operation of the 600-MW No. 6 coal-fired unit at the Hirono thermal power plant on Tuesday, the official said. The utility’s oil demand for power generation fell this year following successful test runs in April at the two coal-fired plants at Hitachinaka and Hirono. Another 1 GW of output was added following the complete restart of Tohoku Electric’s earthquake-hit 2 GW Haramachi coal-fired power plant in the northeast, where Tepco has rights to half of the total production in fiscal 2013-2014 (April-March). In December, Tepco plans to buy around 600,000 kiloliters (122,000 b/d) of crude […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Japan Finds Methane Hydrate in Sea of Japan

Japan has discovered methane hydrate lying over a large area in the Sea of Japan in northwestern Japan, in addition to previously discovered areas in the Pacific Ocean, the trade ministry said. The government plans to spend the next three years trying to determine the nation’s reserves of methane hydrate – a frozen gas known as “flammable ice” – as part of its goal to achieve commercial production within six years. A geological survey in June and July confirmed 225 “gas chimney” structures off Joetsu and Noto Peninsula, which likely contain methane hydrate, the ministry said. The survey also confirmed shallow methane ice forming over a large area within one of the structures. In March, Japan succeeded in producing 120,000 cubic meters of gas over six days from a test tapping of methane hydrate in the Pacific Ocean off Aichi Prefecture in central […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Japan Trade Deficit Widens as Fossil Fuel Imports Surge: Economy

Oil Refinery Japan posted its biggest October trade deficit on record, as a revival in exports to the U.S. and China was overwhelmed by the nation’s soaring costs for imported fuel in the wake of the nuclear industry’s shutdown. The shortfall of 1.09 trillion yen ($10.9 billion) extended a record run of deficits to 16 months, and was larger than all 28 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey, a finance ministry report showed today in Tokyo . Imports (JNTBIMPY) climbed 26.1 percent from a year earlier, while exports gained 18.6 percent. The yen’s slide has helped boost profit forecasts and pushed up stock prices of exporters such as Toyota Motor Corp, while at the same time raising the cost of imports. The deficits are likely to continue and may drag on growth in the world’s third-largest economy, according to economist Norio Miyagawa . “Exports are rebounding on a pick-up […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Japan Starts Removing Fukushima Nuclear Fuel

TOKYO—More than 2½ years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Tokyo Electric Power Co. 9501.TO -1.62% Tokyo Electric Power Co. Inc. Japan: Tokyo ¥ 548 -9 -1.62% Nov. 19, 2013 3:00 pm Volume : 23.23M P/E Ratio 3.81 Market Cap ¥893.50 Billion Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee ¥129,550,000 11/18/13 Fukushima Watch: Tepco Starts … 11/15/13 Fukushima Watch: Remote Contro… 11/13/13 Watchdog to Proceed with Tepco… More quote details and news » 9501.TO in Your Value Your Change Short position began Monday the painstaking and potentially dangerous process of removing fuel rods from one of the plant’s damaged reactor units. The operation, expected to take more than a year to complete, is Tepco’s first step toward dismantling the devastated plant in what is expected to be a 30- to 40-year cleanup process after one of the worst nuclear accidents in history. The removal of the fuel also provides the operator […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Fukushima engineers begin removing fuel rods from damaged reactor

Workers started removing radioactive fuel rods from a reactor building at the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant  on Monday, plant owner Tokyo Electric Power Co. said. The painstaking and risky task is a crucial first step toward a full cleanup of the earthquake- and tsunami-damaged plant in northeastern Japan. The removal of the rods is the most difficult and dangerous process undertaken since runaway reactors were brought under control two years ago, after being hit by an earthquake and tsunami that claimed nearly 16,000 lives. The rod removal follows months of setbacks and glitches that have stoked widespread criticism of the utility’s handling of the crisis, the worst nuclear accident in decades. The Unit 4 reactor was offline at the time of the March 2011 disaster, and its core did not melt as Units 1 through 3 did. But hydrogen explosions blew out the roof and walls of the Unit […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Japan lowers carbon dioxide emissions reduction target

TOKYO, Nov. 18 (UPI) — Japan has slashed its carbon dioxide emissions reduction target. Japan says it now tentatively aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 3.8 percent from fiscal 2005 levels by 2020 instead of the 25 percent cut from 1990 levels as promised in 2009. The announcement Friday from the world’s fifth-largest emitter of carbon dioxide struck a blow to the United Nations’ Nov. 11-22 climate talks in Warsaw, Poland. “I don’t have any words to describe my dismay,” Xinhua News Agency quoted China’s negotiator in Warsaw, Su Wei , as saying about the downwardly revised air pollution goal. Japan’s environment minister, Nobuteru Ishihara, said the new target “does not consider the possible effect of nuclear power plants reducing emissions” and that Japan “would set a more definite target” after it decided which sources of energy it would use in the future, The New York Times […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple