Free Republic

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government is backing the construction of new reactors for the first time since the Fukushima disaster in 2011. It will have to convince a skeptical public first, says Bloomberg Opinion’s Gearoid Reidy.Just over a decade on from Fukushima, the northern Japanese region that became globally synonymous with the dangers of nuclear power, Tokyo seems ready to embrace atomic energy once more. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is set to push not just for the restart of operations including Tokyo Electric Power Co’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, the largest nuclear power facility in the world — he’s also looking to reverse...

Environmental authorities in Japan are planning to flush over one million tons of radioactive water into the ocean after running out of space to contain it, according to a report Tuesday from the Daily Telegraph.

For years nuclear scientists have talked about a revival of molten salt reactors, which are powered by a liquid fuel rather than solid fuel rods, that will help spark the long-awaited “nuclear renaissance.” Recent developments indicate that this alternative nuclear power technology is finally making progress toward commercialization. A consortium of research institutes and universities working under the aegis of the European Commission, including the Technology University of Delft (TU Delft), in the Netherlands, France’s National Center for Scientific Research, and the Commission’s Joint Research Center, in Brussels, in August embarked on a four-year research program designed to demonstrate the...

Japan’s nuclear watchdog has given the green light for two reactors to restart but the operator still has to persuade local communities they are safe. sendai-plant Widespread anti-nuclear sentiment has simmered in Japan ever since an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 caused meltdowns at the Fukushima power plant, sparking the worst atomic disaster since Chernobyl. The country’s nuclear reactors were switched off after the catastrophe. Two reactors were briefly restarted last year but all of Japan’s nuclear plants are currently offline. The go-ahead from the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) for two reactors at the Sendai plant (pictured) in southern...

TEPCO's worst-case scenario (here and here) pales in comparison with the analysis by the Institute of Applied Energy, also presented on November 30 at the workshop held by the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. From what Yomiuri Shinbun reported (01:01AM JST 12/1/2011): The analysis done by the Institute of Applied Energy commissioned by the national government, 85% of fuel dropped to the Containment Vessel in Reactor 1, and 70% of fuel dropped to the Containment Vessels in Reactors 2 and 3. The researchers at the Institute pointed out the possibility of the damage to the stainless-steel shroud that surrounds the...

In the midst of a still struggling and fragile global economy, Germany has announced that it will shut down seven nuclear plants by the end of the year--which means that Germans will be left to run their factories, heat their homes, and power their economy with 10% less electrical generating capacity. Nine more plants will be shut down over the next decade and tens of billions of dollars in investment will be lost. The grounds for this move, and similar proposals in Switzerland, Italy, and other countries, is safety. As the Swiss energy minister put it, “Fukushima showed that the...

Plutonium detected in rice paddy by a food manufacturer more than 50 kms away from Fukushima power plant: http://jbpress.ismedia.jp/articles/-/7890?page=2 また、ある食品メーカーが独自に調査した結果では、福島第一原発から50キロ以上離れた水田の土から、政府 が発表している数値よりケタ違いに高い放射線が検出されたという。 Additionally, a certain food manufacturing company conducted a survey by themselves. In a rice field is more than 50kms away from the Fukushima power plant, it was found that there was very high radiation that is very different to what the government released. (heading) 原発から50キロ以上離れた田んぼの土から高濃度のプルトニウム High density plutonium is in the rice field that was mentioned previously. この食品メーカーによると、現時点でその結果を公表するのは影響が大きすぎるため発表は控えているとのこと だが、その田んぼの土からは高い濃度のプルトニウムも検出されたそうだ。 According to this food manufacturing company, they currently don't announce these results due to the large influence* that this rice...

On March 28, 2011, I wrote an article entitled EPA to Help Mainstream Media Obscure The Truth About Radiation Exposure to Americans, in which I discussed the changes to the PAGs (Protective Action Guides) being proposed by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) that would raise the acceptable levels of radiation allowed in the environment, food, and even the general public themselves in the event of a nuclear emergency. Interestingly enough, an article was published on April 3, 2011, by Alexander Higgins citing Kopp Online and Xander News, stating that a similar rule change was occurring in the European Union. PAGs...

The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization shows how weather patterns this week might disperse radiation from a continuous source in Fukushima, Japan. The forecast does not show actual levels of radiation, but it does allow the organization to estimate when different monitoring stations, marked with small dots, might be able to detect extremely low levels of radiation.