Japan nuclear plant

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Robot Emerges From Fukushima With a First Clue

Removal of tiny fuel debris sample is first step toward much bigger cleanup at Japanese plant

(Newser) - A robot that has spent months inside the ruins of a nuclear reactor at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi plant delivered a tiny sample of melted nuclear fuel on Thursday, in what plant officials said was a step toward beginning the cleanup of hundreds of tons of melted fuel debris. The...

Fukushima Has a Plan for Its Tainted Water

Nuclear plant will build an undersea tunnel and pump it out

(Newser) - The Fukushima nuclear plant is going to run out of room soon to store radioactive water that keeps building up. Solution: Japan will build an undersea tunnel and starting pumping the tainted water into the ocean, reports AFP . The water will be treated to remove most, though not all, of...

Verdict Issued in the Only Fukushima Criminal Case

And it's not the one protesters wanted to hear

(Newser) - Just one criminal case arose from Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster, and on Thursday, that case ended with a not-guilty verdict. Three former executives for Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco)—ex-chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, 79, and former vice presidents Sakae Muto, 69 and Ichiro Takekuro, 73—were indicted for professional negligence resulting...

Japanese Regulators Approve a Nuclear First

A 40-year-old reactor has been granted a 20-year operations extension

(Newser) - In a “move likely to be controversial,” Japanese regulators have granted an operations extension for an aging nuclear reactor similar to the ones at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant that melted down following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, Reuters reports. The 40-year-old Tokai Daini reactor, which was also damaged...

World's Biggest Nuke Plant Gets a Long-Awaited OK

TEPCO gets OK to restart nuclear reactors, to the displeasure of some

(Newser) - The biggest nuclear power plant in the world sits idle, as it has for nearly seven years. But that state is set to change, and not without public trepidation. The Guardian reports that Japan's nuclear watchdog this week gave Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) the green light to restart two...

Japan Marks 6 Years Since Devastating Tsunami

Region is still struggling to recover

(Newser) - Six years ago, more than 18,000 people died or went missing as a tsunami triggered by a massive quake engulfed coastal areas of northeastern Japan. Tens of thousands more people's lives were unraveled when they lost family members, friends, homes, and livelihoods. The displacement widened as entire communities...

Ultrasounds on Fukushima Kids Alarm Researchers
Ultrasounds on Fukushima Kids Alarm Researchers
NEW STUDY
Oct 9, 2015 8:05 AM CDT

Ultrasounds on Fukushima Kids Alarm Researchers

Study: Kids near the nuclear plant have thyroid cancer rates 20 to 50 times higher

(Newser) - For four years, nearly all kids living in Japan's Fukushima prefecture have received ultrasounds to gauge the effects of the nuclear disaster there in March 2011. Now a research team says the alarming results are in: Children living near the nuclear plant have thyroid cancer rates that are 20...

Fukushima Hot Zone Ready for Residents

District's 357 residents were booted 3 years ago

(Newser) - Some 357 Japanese citizens are getting the green light to return home after three years in exile—if they dare. The former residents of the Miyakoji area of Tamura were forced to leave their homes in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster three years ago; those homes were roughly...

Fukushima Springs Big New Toxic Leak

100 tons of radioactive water flow from tank

(Newser) - Almost three years after Japan's triple disaster, there has been yet another leak at the Fukushima nuclear plant, seriously shaking public confidence in the ongoing cleanup and containment effort. In the latest leak—the biggest since last August —around 100 metric tons of highly contaminated water overflowed from...

Gangsters Hiring Homeless to Wipe Up Fukushima Mess

There's some shady stuff going on, Reuters finds

(Newser) - Nearly three years after the Fukushima disaster in Japan, the $35 billion effort to scrub an area of Japan bigger than Hong Kong of radioactive fallout has become an enormous operation involving some pretty shady dealings. A lack of oversight is part of the issue: Between top government contractors and...

Japan's Nuclear Cleanup Enters Critical New Phase

Fuel-rod transfer poses serious danger

(Newser) - Teams working at the Fukushima power station are facing a critical—and extremely dangerous—new task: pulling 13-foot nuclear fuel rods from the Unit 4 structure slammed by the tsunami. "It's going to be very difficult, but it has to happen," an official tells the BBC . To...

Fukushima Springs a New Toxic Leak

Contaminated water likely went into Pacific Ocean

(Newser) - For the second time in less than two months , a tank holding highly contaminated water has overflowed at Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, Tepco said today. The tank was tilted on uneven ground and a worker misjudged its capacity; about 113 gallons of water spilled over a period as...

Earthquake Rattles Fukushima Area
Earthquake Rattles Fukushima Area
Sep 19, 2013 2:51 PM CDT

Earthquake Rattles Fukushima Area

No trouble reported after 5.3-magnitude quake

(Newser) - A 5.3-magnitude earthquake has hit the Japanese prefecture that is home to the shuttered Fukushima nuclear power plant. The US Geological Survey says the quake struck at a depth of about 13 miles under Fukushima Prefecture and about 110 miles northeast of Tokyo. The Japanese news agency Kyodo News...

Japan Will Go Nuclear Power-Free (Again) Tomorrow

Last reactor will be turned off

(Newser) - Japan will soon be completely without nuclear power. Again. The country is switching off the last of its 50 nuclear reactors—reactor 4 at Oi in western Japan—for maintenance tomorrow, and it's unclear if or when it will go online again, reports CNN . The country went completely nuclear...

Radiation Soars to Lethal Levels at Fukushima

18 times worse than previously thought

(Newser) - New tests at Fukushima have found radiation levels around its tanks are up to 18 times worse than previously thought—high enough to kill someone within four hours of exposure, reports the BBC . What's caused the alarming spike? More accurate measuring equipment, says plant operator TEPCO. The previous equipment...

Fukushima Alert Level Gets First Upgrade Since 2011

Meaning it's at its highest since the meltdown

(Newser) - With Fukushima's radioactive leak now leakier , Japan's nuclear agency plans to up the alert level of the problem from a one to a three, reports the BBC —that's from an "anomaly" to a "serious incident," per the UN's International Nuclear and Radiological...

Fukushima Has Massive Leak of Contaminated Water

And Japan is considering an ice wall to fix it

(Newser) - The Fukushima Dai-ichi nightmare just got even more nightmarish. A storage tank at the devastated nuclear plant has sprung a leak, spilling out roughly 300 tons of contaminated water, Reuters reports. And by contaminated, we mean that standing within a couple feet of it for an hour would give a...

Fukushima Leak Finally Declared Reality

TEPCO admits radioactive water likely seeped into the sea

(Newser) - More than two years after disaster struck the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, TEPCO has confirmed what pretty much everybody thought: radioactive water that leaked from the wrecked reactors is believed to have seeped into the underground water system, TEPCO officials finally admitted today at a regular news conference. Japan's...

Hero Fukushima Boss Dies of Cancer
 Hero Fukushima Boss 
 Dies of Cancer 
OBITUARY
Jul 10, 2013 12:30 AM CDT

Hero Fukushima Boss Dies of Cancer

Masao Yoshida defied orders in effort to prevent nuclear disaster

(Newser) - The Fukushima nuclear plant manager hailed as a hero for defying orders and putting public safety ahead of the company's bottom line has died of cancer at the age of 58. Masao Yoshida stayed at the plant to try to stabilize it after the March 2011 quake and tsunami...

More Bad Fukushima News
 More Bad Fukushima News 
Jun 19, 2013 12:54 PM CDT

More Bad Fukushima News

Radioactive substances found in groundwater

(Newser) - The fallout from Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant disaster continues . The latest: Tests found that groundwater there contained 30 times the legal level of the radioactive substance Strontium-90, and eight times the legal amount of the radioactive isotope tritium, reports the BBC . A TEPCO official says the working theory is...

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