Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire

Major Energy and Environmental News and Commentary affecting the Nuclear Industry.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Japan Nuclear Disaster Special Report - April 12, 2011


Japan raises nuclear disaster to Chernobyl level
Tokyo (AFP) April 12, 2011 - Japan upgraded its month-old nuclear emergency to a maximum seven on an international scale of atomic crises Tuesday, placing it on a par with the Chernobyl disaster a quarter-century ago. The reassessment to a "major accident" with "widespread health and environmental effects" was based on the total radiation released, which officials said was one-tenth of the 1986 accident in the then Sovi ... more


Japan PM says nuclear plant 'stabilising step-by-step'
Tokyo (AFP) April 12, 2011 - Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Tuesday that the tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear plant is gradually stabilising and that the amount of radiation being released is declining. "Step by step, the reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi power plant are moving toward stability," Kan said in a televised press conference. "The level of radioactive materials released is declining." Kan also asked ... more


Iran to build '4 to 5' research reactors: report
Tehran (AFP) April 11, 2011 - Iran will continue enriching uranium to 20 percent level to fuel "four to five" nuclear research reactors it intends to build in the "next few years," a top official told the ISNA news agency Monday. "In the next few years, four to five (research) reactors... of 10 to 20 megawatts will be built" in the country, the head of Iran's atomic energy organisation Fereydoon Abbasi Davani was quoted ... more


Britain's plans for nuclear waste on hold
London (UPI) Apr 11, 2011 - A plutonium waste reserve in the United Kingdom awaits reprocessing and sale, but in the wake of the Japanese nuclear disaster nobody wants it, officials say. The British government's plan to eliminate the country's growing plutonium stockpile centered on a technology intended to meet the demands of the Japanese market, but there are now fears that Japan is about to back out of the ente ... more


Switzerland says considering nuclear shutdown
Vienna (AFP) April 11, 2011 - Switzerland is considering abandoning nuclear power, President Micheline Calmy-Rey said Monday following talks with her Austrian counterpart Heinz Fischer in Vienna. "We are examining several scenarios, including exit scenarios," she said, without elaborating. Fischer, whose country renounced nuclear energy in a referendum in 1978, welcomed the news, saying Switzerland "would do anything ... more



Worst over, but dangers persist at Japan plant
Tokyo (AFP) April 11, 2011 - A month after a deadly quake-tsunami hit a Japanese nuclear plant, the risk of a huge radiation leak has fallen but the danger is far from over, experts say - a risk brought sharply into focus by a powerful tremor Monday. The 6.6-magnitude aftershock forced evacuation of workers from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant and briefly cut power to three stricken reactors, straining nerves again i ... more


TEPCO boss tells Japan disaster zone: 'I'm sorry'
Tokyo (AFP) April 11, 2011 - The president of the embattled operator of Japan's crippled nuclear plant visited Fukushima on Monday and apologised for the atomic emergency engulfing the area. Masataka Shimizu, the president of Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), had wanted to go to the offices of the Fukushima prefecture government in the hope of meeting governor Yuhei Sato, but a local official said no meeting had taken pl ... more


Singapore nuclear decision "long way away": government
Singapore (AFP) April 11, 2011 - Singapore is "a long way away" from a decision on whether to include nuclear power as part of its energy policy, a senior government official said on Monday. S. Iswaran, the Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry, said a "pre-feasibility study" was being carried out in order to "better understand the complex field of nuclear energy." But "even with the completion of the pre-feas ... more


Siemens says received EUR1.62bn for Areva NP stake
Berlin (AFP) April 10, 2011 - Siemens has received 1.62 billion euros ($2.35 billion) for the sale of its 34-percent stake in its joint venture with French group Areva, a spokesman for the German industrial giant said Sunday. "Areva has paid out the 1.62 billion, that's correct," Alexander Becker told AFP, confirming an earlier report set to appear in the Die Welt daily Monday. The sum corresponds to the amount estab ... more


Turkey-Japan talks on nuclear plant suspended: minister
Ankara (AFP) April 10, 2011 - Ankara has temporarily suspended talks with Japan on building a nuclear plant in northern Turkey after Japan's nuclear disaster, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said Sunday. "The negotiations were of course affected by the tsunami," the Anatolia news agency quoted Yildiz as saying, in reference to the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan's northeast coast and sparked a nuclear e ... more



Japan to widen evacuation zone around nuclear plant
Tokyo (AFP) April 11, 2011 - Japan on Monday said it was to widen the evacuation area around a crippled nuclear plant to include territory outside the current 20-kilometre (12-mile) exclusion zone. Top government spokesman Yukio Edano said within one month people will be told to leave the village of Katsurao, Namie town and Iitate village as well as part of Kawamata town and Minamisoma city, due to long term health conc ... more


Russia Urges Japan To Stop Radioactive Dumping Into Pacific
Moscow (RIA Novosti) Apr 11, 2011 - Russia hopes that Japan will disclose full information about the situation at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant and will stop dumping radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean, the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. "We hope that our Japanese partners will provide all interested parties with complete information about the radiation situation in the area around the Fukushima nuclear ... more


Researchers Improve Path To Producing Uranium Compounds For Advanced Nuclear Fuels
Los Alamos, NM (SPX) Apr 11, 2011 - Advances made by researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory could enhance the ability of scientists to develop advanced nuclear fuels in a safer, simpler manner. Uranium chemistry research relies heavily on a variety of uranium "starting materials"-solids and solutions-that are precursors to uranium compounds of oxygen, nitrogen, halogen, carbon, fluorine, and other elements, all of whi ... more


Japan minister visits stricken nuclear plant
Tokyo (AFP) April 9, 2011 - Japan's industry minister on Saturday met workers battling to cool overheating reactors and plug radioactive leaks in the first government visit to the country's tsunami-crippled nuclear plant. The visit came as one of the country's top nuclear officials called for a sweeping review of safety standards in the industry and Tokyo warned the crisis at the plant was far from over. Industry m ... more


Japan nuclear watchdog tightens safety rules
Tokyo (AFP) April 9, 2011 - Japan ordered all its nuclear power operators to secure more emergency generators Saturday, after an earthquake temporarily reduced one facility to relying on just a single electricity source. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency told all power companies that run nuclear plants to ensure they had at least two emergency diesel generators for each reactor, whether or not it is operating. ... more

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