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Highly radioactive water is leaking directly into the sea from a damaged pit near a crippled reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, Japanese safety officials said Saturday, the latest setback in the increasingly difficult bid to regain control of the reactors. Although higher levels of radiation have been detected in the ocean water near the plant in recent days, the breach discovered Saturday is the first identified direct leak of such high levels of radiation into the sea. The leak, found at a maintenance pit near the plant’s No. 2 reactor, is a fresh reminder of the dangerous side...

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station says 3 of the plant's 6 reactors were shaken on March 11th by tremors exceeding forces they were designed to withstand. The Tokyo Electric Power Company, known as TEPCO, says reactor No.2 suffered the largest horizontal ground acceleration of 550 gals, which is 26 percent stronger than the reactor's design limit. TEPCO says the readings were 548 gals at the No.5 reactor, about 21 percent higher than its design limit; and 507 gals at the No.3 reactor, topping the capacity by about 15 percent. The power company says the strength of...

A U.S. simulation exercise conducted about 30 years ago of what would happen at a boiling-water reactor if all power sources were lost eerily matches what has unfolded at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. While the simulation demonstrated the dangers of losing all power sources, Japan's nuclear authorities took the optimistic position that power transmission lines and other power sources would be restored quickly. The simulation was conducted by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1981 and 1982. A report was later submitted to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which used the report's findings to establish safety regulations....

Tokyo Electric Power Company says it will review all data on radiation leaked from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, citing errors in a computer program. The utility says it found errors in the program used to analyze radioactive elements and their levels, after some experts noted that radiation levels of leaked water inside the plant were too high....

The mayor of Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, a city subject to a government directive for its residents to stay indoors to avoid radioactive fallout from a nuclear plant crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, has begun appealing to the world over the ''injustice'' of such an instruction. Speaking in a roughly 11-minute English-subtitled video posted on the video-sharing site Youtube on March 24, Katsunobu Sakurai said the government's directive has made life extremely difficult for local residents. ''Even volunteers and those delivering relief supplies have no choice but to enter (the city) at their own risk,'' said a grim-looking...

Workers at the disaster-stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan say they expect to die from radiation sickness as a result of their efforts to bring the reactors under control, the mother of one of the men tells Fox News. The so-called Fukushima 50, the team of brave plant workers struggling to prevent a meltdown to four reactors critically damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, are being repeatedly exposed to dangerously high radioactive levels as they attempt to bring vital cooling systems back online. Speaking tearfully through an interpreter by phone, the mother of a 32-year-old worker said: “My...

Thursday, March 31, 2011 Tepco Claims May Reach Y10-11tln If Nuclear Problems Drag On TOKYO (Dow Jones)--Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) could face compensation claims of up to Y10-Y11 trillion if problems at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant cannot be resolved in the next two years, according to estimates released Tuesday by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. "Shareholders are very likely to be held liable, through capital reductions of a certain amount," research analyst Yusuke Ueda wrote in the report. "But given the principle of maintaining stable supplies of electric power, a scheme involving a default on the company's...

Japanese officials have conceded that the battle to salvage four crippled reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant has been lost. The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power [Tepco], said the reactors would be scrapped, and warned that the operation to contain the nuclear crisis, now well into its third week, could last months. Tepco's announcement came as new readings showed a dramatic increase in radioactive contamination in the sea near the atomic complex. Tens of thousands of people living near the plants have been evacuated or ordered to stay indoors, while the plant has leaked radioactive materials in to the...

Govt buyout of TEPCO pitched / Public-funded takeover could help utility survive huge damages bill The Yomiuri Shimbun The government might place Tokyo Electric Power Co. under effective state control to help the utility survive if it has to pay massive amounts of compensation to businesses and individuals affected by its crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, according to government sources. A plan proposed by some members of the government would involve the government and other state entities acquiring a majority stake in TEPCO to help the beleaguered firm pay the damages, the sources said. One government source said...

TEPCO president hospitalized in Tokyo By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press – 14 mins ago TOKYO – The Tokyo utility that owns the leaking nuclear plant in northeastern Japan says the company's president has been hospitalized. A Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman says President Masataka Shimizu has been hospitalized with high blood pressure and dizziness. Shimizu has not been seen in public since several days after the March 11 quake and tsunami.

TOKYO – In planning their defense against a killer tsunami, the people running Japan's now-hobbled nuclear power plant dismissed important scientific evidence and all but disregarded 3,000 years of geological history, an Associated Press investigation shows. The misplaced confidence displayed by Tokyo Electric Power Co. was prompted by a series of overly optimistic assumptions that concluded the Earth couldn't possibly release the level of fury it did two weeks ago, pushing the six-reactor Fukushima Dai-ichi complex to the brink of multiple meltdowns. Instead of the reactors staying dry, as contemplated under the power company's worst-case scenario, the plant was overrun...

Press Release (Mar 29,2011)Status of TEPCO's Facilities and its services after the Tohoku-Taiheiyou-Oki Earthquake (as of 4:00PM) Due to the Tohoku-Taiheiyou-Oki Earthquake which occurred on March 11th 2011, TEPCO's facilities including our nuclear power stations have been severely damaged. We deeply apologize for the anxiety and inconvenience caused. Below is the status of TEPCO's major facilities. *new items are underlined[Nuclear Power Station] Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station: Units 1 to 3: shutdown due to the earthquake (Units 4 to 6: outage due to regular inspections) *The national government has instructed the public to evacuate for those local residents within...

Exclusive: in their own words, members of the Fukushima Fifty - the emergency crew tackling Japan’s nuclear crisis - tell of the dangers and fears they face Read the article "Courage isn’t the absence of fear. It’s going on, even though you are terrified"

Highly radioactive water has been found for the first time outside one of the reactor buildings at Japan's quake-hit Fukushima nuclear plant, officials say. The leak in a tunnel linked to the No 2 reactor has raised fears of radioactive liquid seeping into the environment. Plutonium has also been found in soil at the plant, but not at levels that threaten human health, officials say. Earlier, Japan's government strongly criticised the plant's operator, Tepco, over mistaken radiation readings. Tepco announced on Sunday that a highly radioactive pool of water in the No 2 reactor was 100 times more radioactive than...

Amid the heroic efforts of workers fighting the crisis at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, reports are emerging about the shoddy safety management of plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. Three workers were exposed to high doses of radiation at the turbine building for the No. 3 reactor. Two of them were taken to a Fukushima hospital before all three were transferred Friday to the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Chiba. "Safety management has long been lax at TEPCO's nuclear power plants," said a nuclear engineer who knows how TEPCO operates.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. reported this afternoon (U.S. time) that it has restored electricity to the control room at the Fukushima Daiichi reactor 3. Lights in the control room were switched on for the first time since the earthquake 11 days ago. Electricity to the reactor 4 control room is expected to be restored shortly. Power restoration to the control rooms will help technicians as they seek to repair the two reactors' cooling systems. Workers are seeking to reactivate control room monitoring systems for reactor parameters, such as reactor coolant temperatures and water levels. The company also reported that thermometers...

NEI has added a new graphic to its website: Emergency Presparedness: Protecting the Public and Environment.UPDATE AS OF 6:30 P.M. EDT, MONDAY, MARCH 21: Japan's NHK broadcasting network reported that Tokyo Electric Power Co. confirmed that the March 11 earthquake and tsunami were beyond the Fukushima Daiichi plant's design standards. TEPCO believes the tsunami that inundated the Fukushima Daiichi site was 14 meters high, the network said. The design basis tsunami for the site was 5.7 meters, and the reactors and backup power sources were located 10 to 13 meters above sea level. The company reported that the maximum earthquake...

A two-part operation to spray water into the used fuel pool at Fukushima Daiichi reactor 4 ended just before 7 A.M. EDT. Japan's defense ministry announced that the Self Defense Force discharged more than 100 tons of water at the pool, and concluded that much of it reached inside the reactor building. This was the first time since the March 11 quake that reactor 4 has been doused. Yesterday the Tokyo elite fire services used a high-pressure fire truck to spray water for more than 13 hours into the fuel pool of reactor 3. The ministry also reported conducting surface...

Sunday, March 20, 2011 Tepco: No Need To Release Steam From No. 3 Reactor, Pressure Stabilized OSAKA (Dow Jones)--Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) confirmed Sunday that pressure levels inside the containment vessel of the No. 3 reactor at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have stabilized, and there is currently no need to release possibly radioactive steam. The company said at a news conference in Tokyo that pressure inside containment vessel began rising on Saturday evening, then stabilized at elevated levels.

Sunday, March 20, 2011 Tepco Reactors May Have Turned Corner As Some Cooling Functions Apparently Restored TOKYO (Dow Jones)--The battle to bring the troubled Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture under control may have turned a corner, with cooling functions at two reactors apparently working again, a development that could ease a nuclear emergency that has gripped the nation for more than a week. Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it managed to get temperatures at the waste fuel storage pools at reactors No. 5 and No. 6 close to regular temperatures, Kyodo News reported Sunday morning. A...