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Fuel removal at Fukushima plant: What's at stake

TOKYO (AP) — Workers started the difficult task Monday of removing nuclear fuel rods from a heavily-damaged reactor building at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant in Japan. It’s the first major step toward decommissioning the plant, a decades-long process fraught with uncertainty and challenges. Q: How many fuel rods are there, and how long will it take? A: There are 3,106 fuel rod assemblies, each holding about 60-80 rods, in four reactors, Units 1-4. The goal is to remove them over the next five years. What started Monday was the removal of the 1,533 assemblies in Unit 4, which is the only one of the four reactors being decommissioned that didn’t melt down. Unit 4, as well as Units 5 and 6, were offline for regular safety checks and maintenance at the time of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Unit 4 had no fuel rods inside it. […]

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Fuel removal at Fukushima plant: What’s at stake

TOKYO (AP) — Workers started the difficult task Monday of removing nuclear fuel rods from a heavily-damaged reactor building at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant in Japan. It’s the first major step toward decommissioning the plant, a decades-long process fraught with uncertainty and challenges. Q: How many fuel rods are there, and how long will it take? A: There are 3,106 fuel rod assemblies, each holding about 60-80 rods, in four reactors, Units 1-4. The goal is to remove them over the next five years. What started Monday was the removal of the 1,533 assemblies in Unit 4, which is the only one of the four reactors being decommissioned that didn’t melt down. Unit 4, as well as Units 5 and 6, were offline for regular safety checks and maintenance at the time of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Unit 4 had no fuel rods inside it. […]

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Japan Starts Removing Fukushima Nuclear Fuel

TOKYO—More than 2½ years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Tokyo Electric Power Co. 9501.TO +0.18% Tokyo Electric Power Co. Inc. Japan: Tokyo ¥ 557 +1 +0.18% Nov. 18, 2013 3:00 pm Volume : 34.96M P/E Ratio 3.87 Market Cap ¥893.50 Billion Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee ¥129,550,000 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 and is an important milestone 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 of the plant with an opportunity to regain a measure of public […]

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Japan dials back climate change emissions target

AP Photo TOKYO (AP) — Japan has drastically scaled back its target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, possibly complicating efforts to forge a global climate change pact. The new target approved by the Cabinet on Friday calls for reducing emissions by 3.8 percent from their 2005 level by 2020. The revision was necessary because the earlier goal of a 25 percent reduction from the 1990 level was unrealistic, the chief government spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, told reporters in Tokyo. He called that target “completely baseless.” The new target represents a 3 percent increase over 1990 emissions. Given Japan’s status as the world’s third largest economy and fifth largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, the decision to back away from the more ambitious target could be a significant setback for efforts to reach a new agreement at world climate talks now underway in Warsaw, Poland. Under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, Japan […]

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Japan Poised to Import Jet Fuel as Refinery Cuts Boost Prices

Japan ’s two biggest airlines are poised to import jet fuel for the first time in at least six years as the country’s shrinking refining capacity pushes up domestic prices. Japan Airlines Co. (9201) and ANA Holdings Inc. (9202) may begin buying the aviation fuel from abroad starting in April for overseas flights from Tokyo’s Narita airport , according to officials at the carriers. For the first time in a decade, the companies are paying domestic refiners a premium to regional benchmark prices in long-term supply contracts. JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp. and Idemitsu Kosan Co. will shut refineries next year amid closures that have reduced Japan’s processing capacity by 27 percent in the past thirty years. That’s driving up the cost of domestic jet fuel and prompting airlines to look further afield for supplies. “We are likely to begin full-scale jet imports in fiscal 2014 or after,” […]

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Ex-Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi urges zero nuclear power

TOKYO, Nov. 13 (UPI) — A former Japanese prime minister has urged the government to abandon plans to restart the nation’s nuclear power generating plants. Speaking at the Japan Press Club in Tokyo Tuesday, Junichiro Koizumi , who served as prime minister from 2001 to 2006 and led the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, said, “I think we should go to zero nuclear power now.” All 50 of Japan’s working reactors remain offline, pending safety checks after the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami. Shinzo Abe , the current prime minister and LDP leader, wants to have Japan’s reactors brought back online after the country’s nuclear regulatory agency declares them safe. He’s also in favor of selling Japan’s nuclear technology to other countries. “Restarting the reactors will only result in the buildup of more nuclear waste materials,” Koizumi said. Koizumi had, […]

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Japan passes law to launch reform of electricity sector

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s upper house passed legislation on Wednesday to start the most ambitious reform of its electricity sector since 1951, a process prompted by the Fukushima nuclear crisis that may end with the break-up of powerful regional monopolies. The reforms, including the establishment of a national grid and the liberalization of the power market for homes, are central to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s drive to overhaul the economy, as high energy costs threaten to derail efforts to reverse decades of stagnation. Regional monopolies, including Tokyo Electric Power Co and Kansai Electric Power Co, supply almost 98 percent of Japan’s electricity and terms for access to their transmission lines make it onerous for new entrants. Wrenching control of transmission from the monopolies to create a national grid became a big issue after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that sparked the Fukushima disaster and highlighted an inability to […]

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Fukushima Watch: Some Power Companies in Black without Nuclear Restarts

The latest earnings show that many of Japan’s major utilities generated a profit in the first half of this fiscal year, even without the help of their nuclear power plants. Amid uncertainty about whether nuclear restarts can win regulatory approval, that is good news for shareholders. But it puts the utilities themselves in a difficult position, since they have been loudly complaining that without their nuclear plants, they will remain in the red. Five of the nine regional utilities that have nuclear power plants posted a net profit for the six months ending Sept. 30. They include Tokyo Electric Power Co., whose Fukushima Daiichi plant in northern Japan was at the center of the nuclear crisis that led to the shutdown of nuclear plants amid safety concerns. Also making profits were Tohoku Electric Power Co., Hokuriku Electric Power Co., Kansai Electric Power Co. and Chugoku Electric Power Co. The […]

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For many Fukushima evacuees, the truth is they won't be going home

IWAKI, Japan (Reuters) – For many of Japan’s oldest nuclear refugees, all they want is to be allowed back to the homes they were forced to abandon. Others are ready to move away, severing ties to the ghost towns that remain in the shadow of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant. But among the thousands of evacuees stuck in temporary housing more than two and a half years after the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, there is a shared understanding on one point – Japan’s government is unable to deliver on its ambitious initial goals for cleaning up the areas that had to be evacuated after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster. "You can’t have a temporary life forever," said Ichiro Kazawa, 61, whose home was destroyed by the tsunami that also knocked out power to the Fukushima plant. Kazawa escaped four minutes before the first wave. Next year, […]

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For many Fukushima evacuees, the truth is they won’t be going home

IWAKI, Japan (Reuters) – For many of Japan’s oldest nuclear refugees, all they want is to be allowed back to the homes they were forced to abandon. Others are ready to move away, severing ties to the ghost towns that remain in the shadow of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant. But among the thousands of evacuees stuck in temporary housing more than two and a half years after the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, there is a shared understanding on one point – Japan’s government is unable to deliver on its ambitious initial goals for cleaning up the areas that had to be evacuated after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster. "You can’t have a temporary life forever," said Ichiro Kazawa, 61, whose home was destroyed by the tsunami that also knocked out power to the Fukushima plant. Kazawa escaped four minutes before the first wave. Next year, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple