Antinuclear

The Monju prototype fast-breeder nuclear reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, is pictured in this file photo taken from a Mainichi helicopter on Oct. 7, 2015

Employees of the operator of the troubled Monju prototype fast-breeder nuclear reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, which the government may decommission, say that the reactor is a failure or criticize the project in other ways, according to a labor union survey.

A survey conducted by one of the labor unions representing workers at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), the results of which the Mainichi Shimbun has obtained, shows that over half of the respondents said the government should consider decommissioning the trouble-plagued reactor.

The JAEA was founded in 2005 through a merger between the Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute (JNC) and the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp. (PNC). There are two labor unions within the JAEA — the Japan Atomic Energy Labor…

A panel of experts will discuss reforms at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc., including the costly plans to scrap its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Industry minister Hiroshige Seko said Tuesday.

The costs of decommissioning the plant, ravaged by the 2011 triple meltdown, is expected to far exceed the initial estimate of ¥2 trillion, prompting the government to review its financial aid to the utility with the help of the private sector.

The government-appointed panel will meet for the first time in early October and draft proposals by year-end, Seko said, as Tepco plans to revise its business plan, compiled in 2014, possibly early next year.

Members of the panel include Akio Mimura, head of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and other senior officials of major business groups. Tepco President Naomi Hirose will also join as an observer.

The utility’s business has been pressured by the…

A public-private sector consortium tasked with promoting alternative energy in Fukushima Prefecture will start building new power transmission networks next fiscal year.

The consortium, made up of central government agencies, the Fukushima Prefectural Government and electric power companies, met on Sept. 7. It formulated a plan to make the prefecture staggered by 2011 mega-quake, tsunami and nuclear disaster a pioneer in clean energy.

The prefecture has announced plans to create two new wind power generation zones.

The coastal zone, which is close to Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings Inc.’s crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, encompasses the cities and towns of Minamisoma, Namie, Futaba, Okuma, Tomioka, Naraha and Hirono.

The other is the inland Fukushima Abukuma zone, covering Tamura and the villages of Kawauchi and Katsurao. Together, the zones are expected to be among the biggest bases for wind power in Japan.

But due to the lack of power transmission…

Five years after the nuclear power plant meltdown, a journey through the Fukushima evacuation zone reveals some high levels of radiation and an overriding sense of fear. For many, the psychological damage is far more profound than the health effects.

A radiation monitoring station alongside a road in Namie, Japan.

Japan’s Highway 114 may not be the most famous road in the world. It doesn’t have the cachet of Route 66 or the Pan-American Highway. But it does have one claim to fame. It passes through what for the past five years has been one of the most radioactive landscapes on the planet – heading southeast from the Japanese city of Fukushima to the stricken nuclear power plant, Fukushima Daiichi, through the forested mountains where much of the fallout from the meltdown at the plant in March 2011 fell to earth.

It is a largely empty highway now, winding through…

From the Reality of Chernobyl and Fukushima

Date: Friday, October 7 – Monday, October 10, 2016
Venue: Main Hall, Fukushima Gender　Equality Centre 1-196-1 Kakunai, Nihonmatsu, Fukushima, 964-0904

The Citizen-Scientist International Symposium on Radiation Protection (CSRP), a politically, financially, ideologically and religiously independent non-profit organization, has been committed to keeping to minimum the damages on health and environment caused by the Tokyo Electric Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster that followed the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in March 11, 2011.

CSRP has been inviting administrative officials, researchers, NGOs, member experts of governmental inquiry commissions and international organizations working on radiation protection, etc. Since around the 3rd CSRP, this approach has started to bear fruit, because scientists and other stakeholders with different positions and paradigms began to share the same table of discussion, thus gradually making possible constructive exchange of views.

In the course of this approach…

“They never came back because the radiation levels were too high. The animal rescue teams knew the animals were abandoned and left there, so they had three weeks to go in there to find them,” said O’Connor, who added that farm animals usually had to be euthanized.

Akira Honda, founder of Nyander Guard Animal Rescue, shows photos of animals left behind in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan. The photos are on display at Ventura County Animal Services’ Camarillo shelter.

Shortly after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011 in Japan, nearby residents were immediately evacuated from their homes because of the risk of radiation exposure. They were forced to leave their animals behind.

Akira Honda, nicknamed Taicho, immediately raced to the disaster area from his hometown six hours away to help, and realized the need for an animal shelter near the radiation-contaminated…