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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 […]

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Fukushima risk of 26-meter tsunami

Fukushima risk of 26-meter tsunami Tokyo Electric Power Co. has warned its stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant could be hit by tsunami as high as 26.3 meters. The deluge would likely cause seawater to mingle with the radiation-tainted water accumulating in the basements of the reactor buildings at the six-unit plant, allowing 100 trillion becquerels of cesium to escape, according to an estimate that Tepco revealed Friday at a meeting of the Nuclear Regulation Authority. Tepco said a tsunami of that size occurs once every 10,000 to 100,000 years. The Fukushima No. 1 plant, more than 40 years old, was crippled by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami after waves as high as 15.5 meters inundated the facility, knocking out all power and disabling the vital backup cooling systems for reactors 1 to 4, triggering three core meltdowns. Tepco also said the nearby Fukushima No. 2 nuclear plant, […]

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Volcanoes May Be Next Hurdle for Nuclear Restarts in Japan

The volcanic eruption of Japan’s Mt. Ontake over the weekend may strengthen the argument of activists campaigning to keep the country’s 48 reactors shut. Japan’s atomic plants are off-line for safety checks as a result of the earthquake and tsunami that caused the meltdown of three reactors in Fukushima more than three years ago. The Nuclear Regulation Authority has said two reactors at a plant run by Kyushu Electric Power Co. (9508) in southern Japan meet new safety standards, indicating they are closest to restarting. Kyushu Electric’s plant, known as Sendai, is about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from another active volcano called Sakurajima. It’s also not far from a cluster of calderas, volcanic craters caused by past eruptions. “The NRA has been criticized for not taking the elevated risk of volcanic eruption into account,” Stephen Church, a Tokyo-based partner at equity researcher JI Asia, said in a note yesterday. […]

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Nuclear Plants Across Emerging Nations Defy Japan Concern

Three years after Japan closed all of its nuclear plants in the wake of the Fukushima meltdown and Germany decided to shut its industry, developing countries are leading the biggest construction boom in more than two decades. Almost two-thirds of the 70 reactors currently under construction worldwide, the most since 1989, are located in China , India , and the rest of the Asia-Pacific region. Countries including Egypt , Bangladesh , Jordan and Vietnam are considering plans to build their first nuclear plants, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance in London . Developed countries are building nine plants, 13 percent of the total. Power is needed as the economies of China and India grow more than twice as fast as the U.S. Electricity output from reactors amounted to 2,461 terawatt-hours last year, or 11 percent of all global power generation, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation […]

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Japan’s Idled Reactors, Weak Yen Drive Deficit on Energy

Few are as eager as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to see Japan ’s idled nuclear reactors brought back into operation. Since the country flicked off the switch to its nuclear energy program a little more than a year ago, expensive energy imports, particularly of liquefied natural gas, have worsened trade deficits. That’s placed an extra burden on an economy that contracted at an annualized rate of 7.1 percent in the second quarter, its worst showing since 2009, Bloomberg Businessweek reports in its Sept. 22 issue. Abe’s push to restore Japan’s 48 functioning reactors faces deep opposition from a public that can’t forget the radiation leaks from the Fukushima Dai-Ichi reactor complex following an earthquake and tsunami in 2011. Revelations of the regulatory lapses that led to the leaks galvanized local governments to keep Japan’s other reactors idle after they were shut down for scheduled maintenance. By September 2013 the country was without […]

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Japan Takes Another Step Toward Restarting Nuclear Power Plants

Japan ’s atomic regulator today approved a safety report for two reactors owned by Kyushu Electric Power Co., another step toward restarting plants shut after the Fukushima nuclear disaster more than three years ago. The report was approved by the regulator’s commissioners at a meeting in Tokyo today. The reactors must still clear two more steps in the stricter safety approval process set up by the Nuclear Regulation Authority after the meltdown of three reactors at the Fukushima plant north of Tokyo in 2011. The two units are unlikely to restart before the first quarter of 2015, Hidetoshi Shioda, a Tokyo-based analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc., said last month in a report. With all Japan’s 48 operational nuclear plants shut for safety reviews, the country will have functioned without nuclear power for one year on Sept. 15. Kyushu Electric is among 10 utilities that have applied for safety […]

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Power Plants Heading Out to Sea in Post-Fukushima Japan

One of the biggest hurdles to building new power plants in Japan is finding a place that’s safe from earthquakes and tsunamis. That place may turn out to be 30 miles at sea. Sevan Marine ASA (SEVAN) , a Norwegian builder of offshore oil-drilling vessels, is proposing a $1.5 billion natural gas-fired power plant that will float on a cylindrical platform bigger than a football field moored off the Japanese coast. It’s one of several innovative efforts Japan is considering for generating electricity after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 prompted widespread public concern over how the country will produce electricity — and where. Already, plans are being made to dot the coast off Fukushima with some of the largest floating wind turbines in the world. “We are now focusing on mainly floating offshore wind, but we want to push various types of technical development and research” for floating […]

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Nuclear outage heightens UK energy supply fears

Heysham 1 and Heysham 2 nuclear power stations are seen near Lancaster, northern England…The Heysham 1 and Heysham 2 nuclear power stations are seen near Lancaster, northern England, July 11, 2006. Britain must build new nuclear power stations, generate more electricity from wind and waves and curb domestic demand in the battle against global warming, Trade Secretary Alistair Darling said on Tuesday. REUTERS/Phil Noble (BRITAIN) Heysham 1 and Heysham 2 nuclear power stations in Lancashire, northwest England Britain’s energy capacity shortage deepened on Thursday when EDF Energy warned that four nuclear reactors it had shut down for safety reasons might be out of action until the end of the year, two and a half months longer than expected. National Grid said on Tuesday it was seeking emergency electricity supplies because of shortages triggered partly by the shutdown of the nuclear plants. EDF said in August it had found a […]

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In Britain, Nuclear Reactors to Be Shut Down in Fault Investigation

LONDON — EDF Energy, the British subsidiary of the French state-controlled utility, said on Monday that it was shutting down three nuclear reactors and that a reactor with a fault that has been shut down since June would remain so. The facilities, which are being investigated as a precaution, generate nearly a quarter of nuclear capacity in Britain. The British Office for Nuclear Regulation said that there had been no release of radioactive material and no injuries. Industry experts did not anticipate much effect on electricity supplies or prices in the short term. EDF said that over the next few days it would idle a second reactor at the facility where the fault was found last year, Heysham 1, in northwest England. The company said it would also shut down two other reactors of similar design at Hartlepool in northeast England to investigate whether they had the same flaws. […]

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Russia, China to work on floating nuclear plants

A subsidiary of Russian state nuclear energy company Rosatom said Tuesday it signed an agreement to build floating nuclear power plants with China. "The potential use of floating nuclear power plants is significant," Dzhomart Aliev, chief executive officer at Rusatom Overseas, said in a statement . "The design provides for two options — self-propelled or barge-mounted floating nuclear power plants." The company signed a memorandum of intent to develop floating nuclear power plants with its Chinese counterparts, CNNC New Energy. The signing came as Chinese delegates spent a week touring St. Petersburg and Moscow. Russian interests have pivoted to the East, where Asian economic performance translates to greater demand for the energy products supporting the Russian economy. In May, Russian President Vladimir Putin and special envoy to the Far East Yuri Trutnev said they expected the region would attract as much as $65 billion in new investments. Aliev said […]

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Japan Rejoining Nuclear Club Leaves Fossil Fuel Appetite

Japan is poised to rejoin the world nuclear club — barely. Yesterday’s report vouching for the safety of Kyushu Electric Power Co. (9508) ’s atomic station in southern Japan means the utility’s two reactors in Sendai may begin operating as soon as October or November, according to Yoko Nobuoka, a Tokyo-based analyst with Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Two more units may be working by the end of the year, she says. The lengthy approval process — utilities began applying to restart their reactors more than a year ago — indicates Japan may remain nuclear-free throughout the summer when power demand is typically at its highest. Even with some nuclear capacity restored, the contribution to Japan’s energy mix will remain marginal, leaving the nation reliant on dirtier-burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and liquefied natural gas. “We still hold the view of not a wave of nuclear restarts, it’s […]

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Temporary Closing of Indian Point Power Plant Is Considered

Business groups and the operator of the Indian Point Energy Center have aligned against a proposal by New York state to close the nuclear power plant in spring and summer months to protect fish in the Hudson River, an idea drawing tentative support from some environmental advocates. Indian Point produces about 25% of the electricity consumed in New York City and the lower Hudson Valley. The state Department of Environmental Conservation, which is proposing the shutdown, hasn’t specified how the loss of power produced by Indian Point would be made up, though it said it would do what it could to prevent service disruptions. The DEC is advocating the shutdown as an alternative to proposed engineering changes to the facility that have largely been rejected by Entergy Corp. , the plant’s operator. Millions of fish and larvae are killed as Indian Point sucks in 2.5 billion gallons of Hudson […]

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Fukushima: Bad and Getting Worse

Fukushima: Bad and Getting Worse Fukushima’s radiation disaster is “far from over” There is broad disagreement over the amounts and effects of radiation exposure due to the triple reactor meltdowns after the 2011 Great East-Japan Earthquake and tsunami. The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) joined the controversy June 4, with a 27-page “Critical Analysis of the UNSCEAR Report ‘Levels and effects of radiation exposures due to the nuclear accident after the 2011 Great East-Japan Earthquake and tsunami.’” IPPNW is the Nobel Peace Prize winning global federation of doctors working for “a healthier, safer and more peaceful world.” The group has adopted a highly critical view of nuclear power because as it says, “A world without nuclear weapons will only be possible if we also phase out nuclear energy.” UNSCEAR , the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, published its deeply flawed […]

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Russia, Iran nuclear contract imminent

Russian plans to sign a contract with Iran to help expand the Bushehr nuclear power facility by the end of the year, Russia’s nuclear regulator said Monday. Sergei Kirienko , chief executive at Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corp., said talks with Iranian officials are close to completion. "We hope that by the end of this year we will move on to the final signing and additions to the intergovernmental agreement, and then the according contract," he said Monday. Russia supplies Iran with fuel needed to power its Bushehr nuclear reactor . In March, a spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said the agreement calls for the pair of 1,000-megawatt reactors to be built near the first unit of the Bushehr nuclear power plant . Russia is under pressure from a U.S. government frustrated with the Kremlin’s reaction to Ukraine’s move toward the European Union, […]

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LNG Rally Fading on New Supply as Nukes Set to Restart

The three-year rally in liquefied natural gas is cooling as Asia-Pacific supplies jump and demand slows from Japanese utilities preparing to restart nuclear reactors. LNG shipped to northeast Asia next winter may be sold at the lowest price since 2012 for that time of year, when demand typically peaks, according to a Bloomberg News survey of traders and analysts. Exxon Mobil Corp. and BG Group Plc are bringing new supplies to Asia this year before at least four projects start in 2015, including the first U.S. exports. Prices have doubled over the past three years since the Fukushima disaster in March 2011, as utilities turned to fossil fuels such as LNG to compensate for the loss of the atomic plants. Japan is preparing to restart at least two of 48 nuclear reactors that were shut in the wake of an earthquake and tsunami that hit the country. “We have […]

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China Regulators ‘Overwhelmed’ as Reactors Built at Pace

China is moving quickly to become the first country to operate the world’s most powerful atomic reactor even as France’s nuclear regulator says communication and cooperation on safety measures with its Chinese counterparts are lacking. In the coastal city of Taishan, 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the financial hub of Hong Kong , Chinese builders are entering the final construction stages for two state-of-the-art European Pressurized Reactors. Each will produce about twice as much electricity as the average reactor worldwide. France has a lot riding on a smooth roll out of China’s EPRs. The country is home to Areva SA (AREVA) , which developed the next-generation reactor, and utility Electricite de France SA , which oversees the project. The two companies, controlled by the French state, need a safe, trouble-free debut in China to ensure a future for their biggest new product in a generation. And French authorities have […]

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Fukushima Fires Up Atomic Industry’s Removal-of-Liability Drive

Japan will introduce legislation this year to ratify a controversial treaty backed by General Electric Co. and other atomic-plant manufacturers seeking protection from damage claims caused by nuclear accidents. The treaty, known as the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage or CSC, will encourage experienced U.S. companies to assist in the cleanup and decommissioning at the Fukushima atomic accident site, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement today. Protection from accident claims is needed because of the dangers and risks that remain at Fukushima, said U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel Poneman in an interview in Tokyo yesterday. The plant has three melted reactors and thousands of tons of radioactive water. “The important thing is to do everything that we can to facilitate the cleanup and decontamination of the Fukushima site,” Poneman said. The CSC is a means to support U.S. companies in that role, he said. Poneman was […]

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Officials fear melted reactor fuel is now exposed at Fukushima

Tepco: We don’t know at this point if fuel is uncovered — Large drop in water level — Experts ‘struggling’ to find condition of nuclear cores, nothing is known for all 3 reactors TEPCO: Water in reactor half expected level — Officials with the operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant say the water level inside the No.2 reactor’s containment vessel is about half what they had estimated. […] They found the water was around 30 centimeters [11.8 inches] deep. TEPCO officials […] say they don’t know whether the fuel is entirely submerged. […] They believe then flowing out of the reactor building through holes in the chamber. NHK WORLD , June 10, 2014: TEPCO officials are struggling to find […] the condition of the melted fuel […] Officials believe that at reactor number 2, water is leaking […] at the bottom of the containment vessel, but do […]

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Fukushima Watch: Tepco Eyes Radioactive Strontium-Removal System

A storage tank where highly radioactive water leaked at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. European Pressphoto Agency Still trying to work out the bugs in its water processing system, the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has decided to adopt technology to reduce risks posed by a deadly radioactive isotope stewing in water stored in a thousand tanks at the site. Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Monday that the new technology would remove radioactive strontium from the 400,000 metric tons of highly contaminated water. Kurion Inc., the provider of the technology, has already delivered the first set of equipment to the site for inspection and plans to ship the balance of equipment in the coming weeks, the company said in a statement. The California-based company said it expects the processing system, which can handle 300 tons of water a day, to be operational […]

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US DOE awards NuScale up to $217 million for small reactors

The US Department of Energy and NuScale Power signed an agreement in which NuScale will receive up to $217 million over five years for small modular reactor development, the company said Wednesday. NuScale joins Babcock & Wilcox in receiving money as part of a six-year program DOE initiated in 2012 to distribute $452 million to support licensing and development of small modular reactors. DOE defines SMRs as reactors of less than 300 MW that can be built in a factory and shipped to utility sites as demand arises. "It was only yesterday that we actually signed the cooperative agreement, which will provide up to $217 million to NuScale," John Kelly, DOE deputy assistant secretary for nuclear reactor technologies, said Wednesday at Platts’ annual Small Modular Reactors conference in Washington. Article continues below… Since 1960, Platts Nucleonics Week has been the leading source of global news for the commercial nuclear […]

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Thorium: the wonder fuel that wasn't

“ Thorium-Fueled Automobile Engine Needs Refueling Once a Century ,” reads the headline of an October 2013 story in an online trade publication. This fantastic promise is just one part of a modern boomlet in enthusiasm about the energy potential of thorium, a radioactive element that is far more abundant than uranium. Thorium promoters consistently extol its supposed advantages over uranium. News outlets periodically foresee the possibility of " a cheaper, more efficient, and safer form of nuclear power that produces less nuclear waste than today’s uranium-based technology."  Actually, though, the United States has tried to develop thorium as an energy source for some 50 years and is still struggling to deal with the legacy of those attempts. In addition to the billions of dollars it spent, mostly fruitlessly, to develop thorium fuels, the US government will have to spend billions more, at numerous federal nuclear sites, to deal […]

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Thorium: the wonder fuel that wasn’t

“ Thorium-Fueled Automobile Engine Needs Refueling Once a Century ,” reads the headline of an October 2013 story in an online trade publication. This fantastic promise is just one part of a modern boomlet in enthusiasm about the energy potential of thorium, a radioactive element that is far more abundant than uranium. Thorium promoters consistently extol its supposed advantages over uranium. News outlets periodically foresee the possibility of " a cheaper, more efficient, and safer form of nuclear power that produces less nuclear waste than today’s uranium-based technology."  Actually, though, the United States has tried to develop thorium as an energy source for some 50 years and is still struggling to deal with the legacy of those attempts. In addition to the billions of dollars it spent, mostly fruitlessly, to develop thorium fuels, the US government will have to spend billions more, at numerous federal nuclear sites, to deal […]

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Japan Court Blocks Reactor Restarts

A court ruled Wednesday that Kansai Electric Power Co. can’t restart two of its reactors due to safety concerns, dealing a setback to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to jump-start Japan’s idled nuclear power plants. The ruling marks the first time since the Fukushima nuclear crisis erupted in March 2011 that a court has ordered a power supplier not to bring a nuclear plant online. The Fukui District Court prohibited a restart of the Oi Nos. 3-4 reactors in western Japan. Judge Hideaki Higuchi cited uncertainty surrounding the plant’s ability to withstand earthquakes, local media reported. "If there is any real risk, it is natural to ban operations," Mr. Higuchi was quoted as saying. Kansai Electric, Japan’s second-largest utility after Tokyo Electric Power Co. , will appeal to the region’s high court, a spokesman said, although the decision probably won’t come this year. "It is deplorable that we couldn’t […]

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Panicked Workers Fled Fukushima Plant in 2011 Despite Orders, Record Shows

At the most dire moment of the Fukushima nuclear crisis three years ago, hundreds of panicked employees abandoned the damaged plant despite being ordered to remain on hand for last-ditch efforts to regain control of its runaway reactors, according to a previously undisclosed record of the accident that was reported Tuesday by a major Japanese newspaper. The newspaper, The Asahi Shimbun, said that the episode was described by Masao Yoshida, the manager of the Fukushima Daiichi plant at the time of the accident, in a series of interviews conducted by government investigators several months after the March 2011 disaster. The newspaper said it had obtained a copy of a 400-page transcript of the interviews, which had been referred to in government accounts of the accident but had never been released in its entirety. Such a transcript could represent the only testimony of the accident left by Mr. […]

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Fukushima Seawater Radiation Rises To New All Time High

The mainstream media may have long forgotten about the Fukushima tragedy (as it certainly goes against the far more popular and palatable meme of a Japan “recovery” courtesy of Abenomics) but that does not mean it is fixed or even contained. Quite the contrary. As a rare update from Japan’s Jiji news agency reminds us, on Friday radiation at five monitoring points in waters adjacent to the crippled Fukushima No. 1 power station spiked to all-time highs according to the semi-nationalized TEPCO. The measurements follow similar highs detected in groundwater at the plant. Why the surge in radioactivity? Officials of Tepco, as the utility is known, said “the cause of the seawater spike is unknown.” This is the same Tepco which for years lied that there is nothing to worry about in Fukushima, which arbitrarily hiked the maximum radiation exposure threshold as it saw fit, and which with the […]

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China to set up nuclear emergency team

BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhua) — China is working to form a 300-member state-level rescue team specialized in nuclear emergencies, said a senior official here Monday. This team will respond to "serious nuclear accidents in complicated circumstances", said Yao Bin, head of the nuclear emergency and security division under the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND). They will be tasked to support operators of nuclear facilities to handle contingencies, such as cordoning the radioactive source in nuclear accidents, rescuing trapped people, controling the spread of contamination and minimizing the damage, said Yao, also deputy head of a national nuclear emergency response office. The fast-response team will be equipped with the latest devices, and the country will also build a training base for the team. The SASTIND and the General Staff Headquarters of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) are jointly working on this program, which is […]

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China Starts 19th Nuclear Power Reactor Amid Construction Push

China fired up its 19th nuclear reactor as the nation pushed to more than double its expansion of atomic power generation capacity this year, which may boost demand for imported uranium. The Ningde No. 2 reactor in the southern province of Fujian started commercial operations yesterday, according to a statement posted on the website of the State Council’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission today. The facility is owned by China General Nuclear Power, the nation’s biggest nuclear producer. Its No. 1 reactor resumed production on April 29 after maintenance , the statement shows. China may need to import more than 80 percent of its uranium by 2020 as it expands its nuclear construction and operations, compared with about 60 percent currently, Tian Miao, an analyst at North Square Blue Oak Ltd., a London-based policy researcher, said by phone today. The nation will add 8.64 gigawatts of atomic capacity […]

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Chernobyl: Capping a Catastrophe

Against the decaying skyline here, a one-of-a-kind engineering project is rising near the remains of the world’s worst civilian nuclear disaster. An army of workers, shielded from radiation by thick concrete slabs, is constructing a huge arch, sheathed in acres of gleaming stainless steel and vast enough to cover the Statue of Liberty. The structure is so otherworldly it looks like it could have been dropped by aliens onto this Soviet-era industrial landscape. If all goes as planned, by 2017 the 32,000-ton arch will be delicately pushed on Teflon pads to cover the ramshackle shelter that was built to entomb the radioactive remains of the reactor that exploded and burned here in April 1986. When its ends are closed, it will be able to contain any radioactive dust should the aging shelter collapse. By all but eliminating the risk of additional atmospheric contamination, the arch will remove the lingering […]

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ITER: How a new star will be born

The ITER project is truly at the frontier of knowledge, a collective effort to explore the tantalising future of free, clean and inexhaustible energy offered by nuclear fusion. Where the Large Hadron Collider at CERN pushes the boundaries of physics to find the origins of matter, the ITER project seeks to give humans an endless stream of power which could have potentially game-changing consequences for the entire planet. In this article, Robert Arnoux from ITER offers us his vision of nuclear fusion. Opinion: A new star will soon be born, a star unlike any other … a man-made star. ITER— both the Latin word for “The Way” and the acronym of International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor—will light up in the early years of the coming decade. From a scientific and technological point of view, it will be one of mankind’s major accomplishments. The creation of an artificial star and the […]

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Unskilled and Destitute Are Hiring Targets for Fukushima Cleanup

Fukushima Daiichi workers boarding a bus to take them to the damaged nuclear plant. The workers are housed in a village where, they said, there was little to do. NARAHA, Japan — “Out of work? Nowhere to live? Nowhere to go? Nothing to eat?” the online ad reads. “Come to Fukushima.” That grim posting targeting the destitute, by a company seeking laborers for the ravaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, is one of the starkest indications yet of an increasingly troubled search for workers willing to carry out the hazardous decommissioning at the site. The plant’s operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, known as Tepco, has been shifting its attention away, leaving the complex cleanup to an often badly managed, poorly trained, demoralized and sometimes unskilled work force that has made some dangerous missteps. At the same time, the company is pouring its resources into another plant, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, that it […]

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Squelching Efforts to Measure Fukushima Meltdown

In the chaotic, fearful weeks after the Fukushima nuclear crisis began, in March 2011, researchers struggled to measure the radioactive fallout unleashed on the public. Michio Aoyama’s initial findings were more startling than most. As a senior scientist at the Japanese government’s Meteorological Research Institute, he said levels of radioactive cesium 137 in the surface water of the Pacific Ocean could be 10,000 times as high as contamination after Chernobyl, the world’s worst nuclear accident. Two months later, as Mr. Aoyama prepared to publish his findings in a short, nonpeer-reviewed article for Nature, the director general of the institute called with an unusual demand — that Mr. Aoyama remove his own name from the paper. “He said there were points he didn’t understand, or want to understand,” the researcher recalled. […]

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Japan Regulator Selects First Reactors for Possible Restart

Members of the media and Tokyo Electric Power Co. employees visit a control room at Fukushima Daiichi on March 10. Japan’s nuclear regulator said Thursday it would start wrapping up safety compliance screening of two reactors in southwestern Japan. TOKYO—Japan’s nuclear power regulator has chosen two reactors in southwestern Japan as the first candidates for being restarted under new regulations meant to prevent another disaster like the one at Fukushima in 2011. At its weekly board meeting Thursday, the Nuclear Regulation Authority selected Co. ‘s Sendai No. 1 and 2 reactors as the first on which it will aim to complete its screening process, with most major safety concerns having been cleared up during the past eight months of discussions. "There are still a few issues at Sendai. Please make sure they are solved before completion of the screening report," NRA chairman Shunichi Tanaka told fellow commissioners at the […]

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Scientists: Test West Coast for Fukushima radiation

Very low levels of radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster likely will reach ocean waters along the U.S. West Coast next month, scientists are reporting. Current models predict that the radiation will be at extremely low levels that won’t harm humans or the environment, said Ken Buesseler, a chemical oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who presented research on the issue last week. But Buesseler and other scientists are calling for more monitoring. No federal agency currently samples Pacific Coast seawater for radiation, he said. "I’m not trying to be alarmist," Buesseler said. "We can make predictions, we can do models. But unless you have results, how will we know it’s safe?" The […]

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After Fukushima, Utilities Prepare for Worst

Stored near the twin nuclear reactors here, safely above the flood level of the Susquehanna River, is a gleaming new six-wheel pickup truck with a metal blade on the front that can plow away debris from an earthquake or other disaster. Attached to the back is a trailer that carries a giant diesel-powered pump that can deliver 500 gallons of water a minute. If the operators at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan had owned such equipment when the tsunami struck three years ago Tuesday, they might have staved off disaster, plant operators say. Now, here at the Peach Bottom nuclear plant, which has the same […]

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Polar Vortex Emboldens Industry to Push Old Coal Plants

The polar vortex may give new life to aging coal and nuclear power plants in the U.S. Masses of arctic air rolling down from the North Pole have driven electricity prices to more than 10 times last year’s average in many parts of the country and have threatened some cities with winter blackouts. They’ve also emboldened energy companies to call for extending the lives of older and dirtier coal plants, as well as aging nuclear reactors. Despite a concerted campaign by environmentalists and public health experts to stanch its use, coal, the most plentiful and cheapest fuel in the world, is proving globally resilient. In the U.S., rising natural gas prices are prodding utilities to switch back to coal at levels not seen since 2011. Now, Edison Electric Institute, the Washington-based trade group of U.S. investor-owned utilities, is turning to the latest series of cold snaps to bolster their […]

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Robots Star in Cleanup of Japanese Nuclear Plant

On a routine day at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear-power plant, a snakelike robot is cleaning the floor of the reactor buildings while another maps radiation density with a 3-D camera. In the three years since several of the plant’s reactors suffered meltdowns caused by Japan’s March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, it has become clear that melted fuel rods and debris inside the reactor buildings have to be cleaned up before the risks of radioactive discharge from the site can be contained. That’s where the robots come in. Robots are crucial in the cleanup, but that doesn’t mean they are […]

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How To Take Apart Fukushima’s 3 Melted-Down Reactors

A radiation-proof superhero could make sense of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in an afternoon. Our champion would pick through the rubble to reactor 1, slosh through the pooled water inside the building, lift the massive steel dome of the protective containment vessel, and peek into the pressure vessel that holds the nuclear fuel. A dive to the bottom would reveal the debris of the meltdown: a hardened blob of metals with fat strands of radioactive goop dripping through holes in the pressure vessel to the floor of the containment vessel below. Then, with a clear understanding of the situation, the superhero could figure out how to clean up this mess. Unfortunately, mere mortals can’t get anywhere near that pressure vessel, and Japan’s top nuclear experts thus have only the vaguest idea of where […]

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1000 researchers, 400 reports on fusion progress

Nearly 1,000 of the world’s preeminent fusion researchers from 45 countries gathered last week in San Diego to discuss the latest advances in fusion energy. The 24th International Atomic Energy Agency Fusion Energy Conference, organized by the IAEA in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy and General Atomics, aims to “provide a forum for the discussion of key physics and technology issues as well as innovative concepts of direct relevance to fusion as a source of nuclear energy.”   Those in attendance in San Diego included Nobel Prize-winning physicist Burton Richter; Physicist Steven Cowley, CEO of the United Kingdom’s Atomic Energy Authority; Frances Chen, a plasma physicist and UCLA professor emeritus who wrote the book An Indispensable Truth: How Fusion Power Can Save the Planet; and keynote speaker William Brinkman, director of the Office of Science in the US Department of Energy. […]

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Thirteen Workers Exposed to Radiation at New Mexico Plant

More workers at a New Mexico nuclear-waste depository will be tested for radioactive exposure after results showed that 13 employees had been contaminated, officials with the U.S. Department of Energy said Thursday. The 13 employees at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in the outskirts of Carlsbad were working Feb. 14 when a radiation leak was detected at the facility. The government contractor that runs the plant, Nuclear Waste Partnership LLC, is now asking employees who were present the following day to also submit samples for testing, said Farok Sharif, the company’s president. The Energy Department is still in the process of determining the cause of the leak, the first ever reported at the site, which has been storing waste material from the research and production of nuclear weapons deep underground since 1999. But the agency said Wednesday that initial tests show the workers were exposed to americium, a contaminant […]

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Nuclear important in Japan's latest draft energy policy

Japan’s government on Tuesday released an energy policy document in which nuclear power is considered an important electricity source. The plan is a toned-down revision of a draft document released in December, which said nuclear power also serves as a "foundation" for the stability of the country’s energy supply, Kyodo News Service reports. The government is required to review its energy plan at least every three years. The last plan, in 2010, called for Japan to boost its reliance on nuclear power to about 50 percent of its total electricity in 2030. Prior to the Fukushima nuclear power plant crisis, triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, nuclear power provided nearly 30 percent of Japan’s electricity. The plan released Tuesday does not include any numerical targets for Japan’s medium- to long-term energy mix. "It was impossible to plan any energy mix, […]

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Nuclear important in Japan’s latest draft energy policy

Japan’s government on Tuesday released an energy policy document in which nuclear power is considered an important electricity source. The plan is a toned-down revision of a draft document released in December, which said nuclear power also serves as a "foundation" for the stability of the country’s energy supply, Kyodo News Service reports. The government is required to review its energy plan at least every three years. The last plan, in 2010, called for Japan to boost its reliance on nuclear power to about 50 percent of its total electricity in 2030. Prior to the Fukushima nuclear power plant crisis, triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, nuclear power provided nearly 30 percent of Japan’s electricity. The plan released Tuesday does not include any numerical targets for Japan’s medium- to long-term energy mix. "It was impossible to plan any energy mix, […]

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Nuclear should be Japan’s key baseload power source, govt report says

Nuclear power should serve as Japan’s "key base-load power source" along with coal, hydro and renewables as part of the country’s energy plan for the next 20 years, the government said in a final energy policy plan released Tuesday. In the final report which came out after a series of reviews, the government also said nuclear reactors that meet the safety standards set by the nuclear regulatory body should make progress on restarting. Before this final report, an energy policy committee at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry released a draft plan in December saying nuclear power would continue to be Japan’s "key base power source" from the perspective of stable supplies and cost, drawing comments from the public as well as policy makers. The plan released Tuesday will now be examined by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party before the Cabinet approval. The […]

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Nuclear should be Japan's key baseload power source, govt report says

Nuclear power should serve as Japan’s "key base-load power source" along with coal, hydro and renewables as part of the country’s energy plan for the next 20 years, the government said in a final energy policy plan released Tuesday. In the final report which came out after a series of reviews, the government also said nuclear reactors that meet the safety standards set by the nuclear regulatory body should make progress on restarting. Before this final report, an energy policy committee at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry released a draft plan in December saying nuclear power would continue to be Japan’s "key base power source" from the perspective of stable supplies and cost, drawing comments from the public as well as policy makers. The plan released Tuesday will now be examined by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party before the Cabinet approval. The […]

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US Government Issues Loans for the First Nuclear Reactors in 30 Years

US Government Issues Loans for the First Nuclear Reactors in 30 Years Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz will travel to Waynesboro, Georgia on Thursday to issue approximately $6.5 billion in loan guarantees for two new nuclear reactors at the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant . The reactors will be the first new nuclear facilities constructed in the U.S. in about three decades. The terms of the loan agreement were tentatively offered to Southern Company in 2010, but low natural gas prices, the Fukushima nuclear meltdown and a lack of a federal carbon policy have hampered nuclear power. The loan guarantee was also sidelined by Solyndra’s bankruptcy , which rattled the DOE loan program.  Since becoming the head of the U.S. Department of Energy, Moniz has repeatedly talked about  small modular reactors , pointing to their benefits in terms of cost and security. Last year, the DOE issued about $250 […]

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Tepco Finds New Leak of Radioactive Water at Fukushima Site

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) , operator of the crisis-ridden Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant, said it found a new leak near the tanks holding contaminated water at the disaster site. The utility, which serves 29 million customers in the Tokyo metropolitan area, is collecting soil where the leak occurred and doesn’t believe any water reached the ocean, company executives said at a briefing in Tokyo. About 100 metric tons (26,400 gallons) of water may have escaped a concrete barrier, the company said. “Such a water leak was found despite a variety of measures taken by the company,” Masayuki Ono, an official at the utility’s nuclear power and plant division, said. “We are sorry to have caused concern,” he said. The finding is a reminder of the task still facing Tokyo Electric as the utility, known as Tepco, battles to manage the plant almost three years since the earthquake […]

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Nuclear Issue in Limbo as Indecision Grips Japan

Several industrialized countries have turned their backs on nuclear power as a result of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, including one that has already begun permanently shutting functioning plants. That country is not Japan. “Germany chose to get rid of nuclear power because of Fukushima, while the United States is still in favor, but what about Japan, where the accident took place?” said Jun Tateno, who has written several books on nuclear power. “We still have not had a proper public debate about the most fundamental question: Do we want nuclear power’s low-cost electricity for growth, or do we want a safer, nuclear-free society?” Many analysts had hoped that last Sunday’s vote to choose the next governor of Tokyo would provide just such a forum to that question, which lies at the heart of Japan’s struggle to find its economic footing after two decades of malaise. But the […]

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Tokyo election win a victory for nuclear power?

The victory of Yoichi Masuzoe in Tokyo’s gubernatorial election Sunday could be a boost for Japan’s return to nuclear power, though the anti-nuclear camp still urges against it. Masuzoe wants less dependence on nuclear power in the long run, while his main rivals, former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa and Kenji Utsunomiya, a former head of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, favored an immediate end to nuclear power. Utsunomiya won about 983,200 votes and Hosokawa about 956,000 votes against Masuzoe’s approximately 2,112,000 votes, the Japan Times reported Monday. All of Japan’s 48 operable nuclear reactors remain offline, pending safety checks after the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami. Prior to the Fukushima crisis, nuclear power provided nearly 30 percent of Japan’s electricity Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe , who has called for restarting Japan’s idled nuclear […]

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India needs nuclear power, for now — minister

India needs to rely on nuclear power until it can further develop renewable energy, a government official said. New and Renewable Energy Minister Farooq Abdullah, speaking at the opening Thursday of Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 2014, cited India’s growing needs for energy amid its developing economy. "India is moving forward. India needs energy. Therefore, please forgive us. We have to use nuclear energy [until] renewable energy comes up to such a level that we are able to dispense with fossil fuels and nuclear energy," Press Trust of India quoted Abdullah as saying. India, the fourth largest energy consumer in the world after the United States, China and Russia, has increased its oil imports from about 40 percent of demand in 1990 to more than 70 percent of demand by 2011, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh , at […]

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Fukushima Wash-Up Fears in U.S. Belie Radiation Risks: Energy

Seaborne radiation from Japan ’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant will wash up on the West Coast of the U.S. this year. That’s raising concerns among some Americans including the residents of the San Francisco Bay Area city of Fairfax, which passed a resolution on Dec. 6 calling for more testing of coastal seafood. At the same time, oceanographers and radiological scientists say such concerns are unwarranted given existing levels of radiation in the ocean. The runoff from the Japanese plant will mingle with radiation released by other atomic stations, such as Diablo Canyon in California . Under normal operations, Diablo Canyon discharges more radiation into the sea, albeit of a less dangerous isotope, than the Fukushima station, which suffered the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. “There’s a point to be made that we live in a radioactive world and the ocean just has radioactive isotopes in […]

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