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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
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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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Removing Fuel Rods Poses New Risks at Crippled Nuclear Plant in Japan

TOKYO — It was the part of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that spooked American officials the most, as the complex spiraled out of control two and a half years ago: the spent fuel pool at Reactor No. 4, with more than 1,500 radioactive fuel assemblies left exposed when a hydrogen explosion blew the roof off the building. In the next 10 days, the plant’s operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, is set to start the delicate and risky task of using a crane to remove the fuel assemblies from the pool, a critical step in a long decommissioning process that has already had serious setbacks. Just 36 men will carry out the tense operation to move the fuel to safer storage; they will work in groups of six in two-hour shifts throughout the day for months. A separate team will work overnight to clear any debris inside […]

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UN nuclear agency looking at Fukushima contamination

Inspectors from the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) arrived in Japan this week to monitor the ongoing cleanup and look into the continued leaking of contaminated water at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. This as the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) , the company nominally in control of the crippled facility, has again postponed the start of procedures to remove highly radioactive fuel rods from a severely damaged storage pool inside what used to be the Fukushima plant’s reactor No. 4.   Three reactors at Fukushima suffered core meltdowns after a massive earthquake and tsunami compromised containment and damaged cooling systems in March 2011. The three molten cores have now likely melted through the floors of their containment buildings and are somewhere underground, though plant and government officials have no clear picture as to exactly how deep. At the time of the Tohoku quake, the reactor at […]

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Natural gas could spell doom for nuke power

Page added on November 11, 2013 If today’s global fracking frenzy had kicked into high gear a decade ago, thousands of jobs at FirstEnergy Corp.’s Davis-Besse, Perry and Beaver Valley 1 and 2 nuclear plants in northern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania could have been imperiled by now. “That’s fair to say,” Jennifer Young, FirstEnergy spokeswoman, said. But while job security at those massive power-generation stations is never strong enough to put workers at ease — especially with economic pressures brought on by the natural gas boom jolting the nuclear industry — Ms. Young said the situation appears more stable for FirstEnergy’s holdings than it does for nuclear plants in other parts of the country. The era of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” of shale bedrock has caused a drop in natural gas prices, which has caused energy markets to react. Much of the hype is based on the anticipated fracking […]

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Tepco Prepares to Remove Fuel Assemblies at Fukushima

TOKYO—Operators of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant this month will begin a potentially hazardous operation to remove fuel rods from one of the reactor units, a critical step in what is expected to be a decadeslong cleanup of the site of one of the worst nuclear-energy accidents in history. Tokyo Electric Power Co. 9501.TO -1.14% Tokyo Electric Power Co. Inc. Japan: Tokyo ¥ 520 -6 -1.14% Nov. 8, 2013 3:00 pm Volume : 26.08M P/E Ratio 3.62 Market Cap ¥856.54 Billion Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee ¥129,550,000 11/07/13 Tepco Prepares to Remove Fuel … 11/07/13 Fukushima Watch: Daiichi Plant… 10/30/13 Fukushima Watch: Watchdog Appr… More quote details and news » 9501.TO in Your Value Your Change Short position , known as Tepco, plans to transfer 1,533 metal casings holding nuclear-fuel pellets from their precarious storage pool—130 feet above the ground in one of the plant’s reactors—to a common […]

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Fukushima nuclear plant set for risky operation

Fukushima Unit 4 More than 1,000 fuel rod assemblies need to be removed from a building that was badly damaged following the tsunami A task of extraordinary delicacy and danger is about to begin at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power station. Engineers are preparing to extract the first of more than 1,000 nuclear fuel rods from one of the wrecked reactor buildings. This is seen as an essential but risky step on the long road towards stabilising the site. The fuel rods are currently in a precarious state in a storage pool in Unit 4. This building was badly damaged by an explosion in March 2011 following the Great Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Moving the rods to safety is a high priority but has only become possible after months of repair work and planning. One senior official told me: “It’s going to be very difficult but it has to happen.” […]

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Fukushima Is Here  

Fukushima is Here.300dpi.jpg Page added on October 29, 2013   500 people assembled on October 19th on Ocean Beach in San Francisco and formed the letters with their bodies to demonstrate their growing concern about eventual fallout on the west coast. Credit and More Information: FukushimaResponse.org An ocean current called the North Pacific Gyre is bringing Japanese radiation to the West Coast of North America: The leg of the Gyre closest to Japan – the Kuroshio current – begins right next to Fukushima : While many people assume that the ocean will dilute the Fukushima radiation, a previously-secret 1955 U.S. government report concluded that the ocean may not adequately dilute radiation from nuclear accidents, and there could be “pockets” and “streams” of highly-concentrated radiation . Physicians for Social Responsibility notes : An interesting fact for people living on the US west coast is also included in the UNSCEAR [United […]

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Tepco shouldn't be in charge of Fukushima shutdown: Japan panel

TOKYO (Reuters) – Tokyo Electric Power Co should be stripped of the responsibility for shutting down its crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, according to a draft proposal by a panel of Japan’s ruling party. Tokyo Electric, or Tepco, has been widely criticized for repeated missteps, poor planning and a lack of disclosure in its efforts to clear up the site of the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. A task force formed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) suggests that responsibility for the massive work of decommissioning the Fukushima plant be stripped from the giant utility in its current form – either by creating a separate unit within Tepco, breaking the unit off as a separate company or hiving it off as a government-affiliated, but independent, administrative agency. A person familiar with the LDP panel’s deliberations said it favors the option of creating a separate […]

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Tepco shouldn’t be in charge of Fukushima shutdown: Japan panel

TOKYO (Reuters) – Tokyo Electric Power Co should be stripped of the responsibility for shutting down its crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, according to a draft proposal by a panel of Japan’s ruling party. Tokyo Electric, or Tepco, has been widely criticized for repeated missteps, poor planning and a lack of disclosure in its efforts to clear up the site of the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. A task force formed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) suggests that responsibility for the massive work of decommissioning the Fukushima plant be stripped from the giant utility in its current form – either by creating a separate unit within Tepco, breaking the unit off as a separate company or hiving it off as a government-affiliated, but independent, administrative agency. A person familiar with the LDP panel’s deliberations said it favors the option of creating a separate […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple