*** Fukushima *** and other nuclear-----updates and links

This! ^^

Japan begins operating new tsunami warning system

Japan has begun operating a new tsunami warning system based on lessons learned from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The Meteorological Agency has significantly revised the system after its initial estimate of the March 11th, 2011 tsunami turned out to be much lower than the actual tsunami.

Under the new system launched on Thursday, the heights of tsunamis are divided into 5 categories, instead of the previous 8.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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US urges Iran to quickly accept IAEA inspection

A senior US envoy has urged Iran to immediately cooperate with experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency on inspections of the country's military facility.

US Ambassador to the IAEA, Joseph Macmanus, criticized Iran's refusal to accept inspections. He was speaking at the IAEA board meeting in Vienna, Austria on Wednesday.

Macmanus expressed his deep concern and said no more delays can be tolerated.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Japan's 'long war' to shut down Fukushima nuclear plant

TOKYO — Just months after Quince was deployed to inspect Japan’s tsunami-devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the $6 million robot got trapped in its dark and winding pathways.

Seventeen months later, the high-tech soldier is still missing in action - a symbol of a daunting decommissioning project that will take decades, require huge injections of human and financial capital and rely on yet-to-be developed technologies.

“It’s like going to war with bamboo sticks,” said Takuya Hattori, president of the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum and a 36-year veteran of Fukushima plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.
[link to www.japantoday.com]
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Fukushima police officers struggled with fears amid nuclear crisis

A poll showed Thursday many Fukushima police officers struggled with death fears and thought about fleeing when they were evacuating citizens from areas close to a crippled nuclear plant during the March 2011 nuclear crisis.

Of 125 polled police officers who worked near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant amid the crisis, 41 percent said they considered abandoning their duties due primarily to worries about their own and their relatives' safety, according to the poll conducted by Keio University Professor Yoshiki Kobayashi.

Some 68 percent feared death.
[link to english.kyodonews.jp]
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The propaganda machine strikes again... what a joke... hilarious BS...

Furious over sanctions, N Korea vows to nuke U.S.

SEOUL — North Korea on Thursday vowed to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States, amplifying its threatening rhetoric hours ahead of a vote by U.N. diplomats on whether to level new sanctions against Pyongyang for its recent nuclear test.

An unidentified spokesman for Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry said the North will exercise its right for “a preemptive nuclear attack to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors” because Washington is pushing to start a nuclear war against the North.

Although North Korea boasts of nuclear bombs and pre-emptive strikes, it is not thought to have mastered the ability to produce a warhead small enough to put on a missile capable of reaching the U.S. It is believed to have enough nuclear fuel, however, for several crude nuclear devices.
[link to www.japantoday.com]
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Majority in Taiwan against new atomic plant: polls

More than half of Taiwan's public want construction of a long-delayed nuclear plant to be halted due to safety concerns, according to two surveys released Thursday ahead of a mass protest.

Fifty-four percent of the 1,071 people interviewed in a survey commissioned by weekly magazine Business Today were in favour of scrapping the atomic power plant -- which would be Taiwan's fourth -- while 23 percent opposed it.

A total of 63.5 percent believed that nuclear power plants are unsafe against 2.5 percent who considered them safe, while only 11 percent said they have faith in the government's abilities to manage the plants, the poll said.
[link to www.nuclearpowerdaily.com]
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US may face inevitable nuclear power exit

In a 2012 report, the Obama administration announced that it was "jumpstarting" the nuclear industry. Because of the industry's long history of permitting problems, cost overruns, and construction delays, financial markets have been wary of backing new nuclear construction for decades.

The supposed "nuclear renaissance" ballyhooed in the first decade of this century never materialized. And then came Fukushima, a disaster that pushed countries around the world to ask: Should nuclear power be part of the energy future?

In the third and final issue in a series focused on nuclear exits, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, published by SAGE, turns its attention to the United States and looks at whether the country's business-as-usual approach may yet lead to a nuclear phase-out for economic reasons.
[link to www.nuclearpowerdaily.com]
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Your Sources are invalid and far away from the reality in Fukushima, the WHO and the IAEA cant lie about such a big issue like molten fuel pools, this is impossible and you need to accept this!

Provide inside knowledge, provide measurements because this is "your only chance" to prove that they are lie,
to say what you had said is childish when you are unable to provide better Material<

Maybe you should ask your self why we cant see any damage from a "Fuel-Rod Fire"
and maybe even more important you should also ask who and when a
Fuel Rod Fire was extinguished!

Or do you think they just burn down in the matter of a few Hours,
without very high temperatures and without enormous amounts of Radiation?

To call People "Ants" is a bad style too,
i do not believe every single word but the reports provide a much better quality
than all this other dubious sources
who may not even been in Japan!

@ Atom Boy^^^

Thread: Michio Kaku: 3 meltdowns in Fukushima, but uranium actually totally liquified… 1st time in history — “Reactor actually melted totally” (VIDEO) (Page 2)

For me it is logical, something that is melting change the physical form,
and i dont need someone like M. Kaku to understand it

Why do you not answer the question,
1. why do we cant see any traces of such a fire?
2. who extinguished this Fire and how had they done it?

Please tell me, tell us how this happened!!!
My head is round and i am able to change my opinion.

Some People need to understand that they are on the wrong path and it is stupid to hold up proven misinterpretations!

The fuel pools never had a fire because of the fuel,
there was a small fire in the surrounding because of
oil and fats but not because of the broken cooling cycle!

Prove that SFP4 did not boil away and expose the fuel rods.
Also remember... they forgot about it while dealing with the reactors.

A nice little song about Lady Judge (who is not a lady or a Judge, fyi)

Some more info about Tepco's new spokeswoman:

In 2004, Stephen Timms made Lady Barbara Judge the chairwoman of the Atomic Energy Authority that describes itself as "one of the world's leading nuclear decommissioning organisations."

The AEA was once one of Britain's leading nuclear commissioning agents, but it now concentrates on cleaning up its nuclear mess. AEA sites include Scotland's Dounreay complex (pictured), Winfrith in Dorset and Windscale in Cumbria.

I do not have the technical background to fully appreciate all the work at Dounreay, but then nor does Judge. I do have enough scientific education to say that her nuclear experience adds up to zero.

Like Sir Anthony Cleaver and like so many Labour appointments, she does have Tory links.

Born plain Barbara Thomas in the US, she achieved her impressive sounding title and name - she sounds like a cross between an aristocrat and a high court official - by marrying Sir Paul Judge. He was a director general of the Conservative Party and a board member of Rupert Murdoch's News International.

For decades, the AEA has hidden and lied about its nuclear waste, with explosions, disasters and nuclear dumps hidden from view. The AEA now needs managers who can face up to long-term liabilities with scrupulous honesty.

Somehow, the government thought that Judge fitted this "person specification," but I thought that Morning Star readers could judge her for themselves.
[link to www.morningstaronline.co.uk]

Maybe you should have a look for the Videos of the Nr. 4 Fuel Rods, the pool and the surrounding area

There is absolute no evidence of a Fuel Rod Fire
and i doubt that "they" are that stupid to fake it!

You cant work above a pool with molten material like we see since months,
this is impossible,

there was no Fire or melting process inside of Nr. 4!

You said also that Nr. 3 exploded, this is also wrong!

Many displaced Fukushima residents won't return

An NHK survey suggests that many Fukushima residents displaced by the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident in March 2011 are not planning to return to their former communities.

NHK conducted a survey from last December to this February. Of the 352 people who responded, 17 percent said they want to return and will do so. 10 percent said they have already returned home and will continue to live in the community.

52 percent of respondents said they want to return but can't and 19 percent said they don't want to return.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Robot developed to decontaminate Fukushima plant

A large Japanese electric equipment maker has developed a robot to remove radioactive substances inside nuclear reactor buildings at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant of Tokyo Electric Power Company.

A remote-controlled 1-meter tall robot was made by a firm from the Hitachi group, with a government subsidy.

The robot can wash away radioactive materials from walls and floors by jetting water from its arm at several hundred times the pressure of tap water. The removed substances are sucked up from the tip of the arm for recovery.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Govt., TEPCO to accelerate decommission timetable

Japan's government has launched a panel to accelerate the decommissioning of reactors at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant run by Tokyo Electric Power Company.

The panel is led by industry minister Toshimitsu Motegi and includes TEPCO president, Naomi Hirose, and presidents from major electrical equipment manufacturers. The panel is designed to speed up the decommission work and necessary research for the work.

At the panel's first meeting on Thursday, Motegi told the members to review a decommission timetable drawn up by the former Democrat-led government and set out a new one by the end of June.

Motegi said decommission work should be put on a faster track for the rebuilding of areas affected by the March 11th disaster in 2011.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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NRA not budging on judgment Tsuruga plant sits above active fault

Japan Atomic Power Co. on Friday continued to face difficulty in its attempt to overturn the determination by a Nuclear Regulation Authority panel that a geologic fault running directly beneath one of the company's nuclear reactors is likely to be active.

On Friday, the panel, consisting of an NRA commissioner and four outside experts, listened to Japan Atomic Power's arguments that the fault at the Tsuruga plant in Fukui Prefecture is not active and also had other academics look at a draft report that summarized the panel's discussions.

An official of the NRA secretariat told reporters later in the day that the content of the report could be improved so that it is more comprehensible to the public, but the outcome of the day's meetings are unlikely to change the conclusion reached earlier by the panel members.
[link to english.kyodonews.jp]
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The propaganda war has started...

N. Korean regime will "vanish from earth" if it uses nukes: S. Korea

South Korea on Friday dismissed North Korea's warning of a preemptive nuclear strike against it, warning that doing such a thing would doom its regime.

"I'm telling you this as a member of the human race, if North Korea attacks South Korea with nuclear weapons, Kim Jong Un's regime will vanish from earth by the will of humanity," defense ministry spokesman Kim Min Seok said in a briefing.

While such weapons were used to end World War II, if they were used to attack a free and democratic society like South Korea, "mankind would not forgive it," he said.
[link to english.kyodonews.jp]
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San Onofre issues leave operators with no money and more problems

There have been a lot of questions asked over the last year about the future of the San Onofre Nuclear Power Generating Station, amidst a constant hailstorm of forward-looking (aka marketing 101) statements from lobbying agencies and the nuclear industry, but none of the answers seem concerned about the public interest.  Ratepayers are still paying higher rates for the San Onofre reactors, even though they haven’t operated for a year, and some interests would like to force the consumers to pick up the check for even more debt.

There is no additional supply needed which is driving Edison to restart the San Onofre reactors, it is a financial need, which the public has no interest in.
[link to enformable.com]
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California's Biggest Utilities Shift Billions to Ratepayer Bills, Says Sierra Club

Five Top Money-Wasters Identified

SACRAMENTO, Calif., March 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- California's big utilities - Southern California Edison (SCE), Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) - are pushing billions of dollars onto customer bills in order to build unnecessary dirty power projects and support an outdated business model.  These utilities view rooftop solar as a threat to their old profit model built on dirty and expensive power plants and forcing their customers to foot the bill. It's the best way utilities in California can keep making huge profits. To that end, here are the top five money-wasters:
[link to www.nuclearpowerdaily.com]
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CLINTON: AUTOMATIC REACTOR SCRAM ON GENERATOR TRIP/TURBINE TRIP

While operating at rated electrical power, a main generator trip and subsequent turbine trip resulted in a reactor scram. The cause of the generator trip is under investigation. All systems operated as expected with no complications. The plant is stable in Mode 3."
[link to www.nucpros.com]
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WATERFORD: AUTOMATIC REACTOR TRIP DUE TO LOW STEAM GENERATOR LEVEL

At 15:51 CST, Waterford 3 experienced an uncomplicated automatic reactor trip from 84.5% reactor power. The actuations of the Reactor Protection System (RPS) and the Emergency Feedwater Actuation System (EFAS) resulted from Steam Generator #1 Low Level, which is at a nominal 27.4% narrow range setpoint. Safety systems responded as expected.

All three (3) Emergency Feedwater Pumps started and injected into Steam Generator #1. Auxiliary Feedwater pump has been started, feeding both Steam Generators (#1 and #2) at levels above the EFAS low level setpoint. All control rods inserted by the automatic RPS actuation. Electrical power is being supplied from normal off-site power and condenser vacuum is available for Steam Generator heat removal via the Steam Dump Bypass Control system. There are no safety systems out of service or inoperable, nor any safety system TS [Technical Specification] LCO [Limiting Condition for Operation] actions entered.
[link to www.nucpros.com]
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68,000 stage antinuclear protests in Taiwan

More than 68,000 people took to the streets across Taiwan on Saturday to oppose nuclear energy in the run-up to the second anniversary of the nuclear meltdown in northern Japan triggered by the devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011.

Protesters staged marches in northern, central, southern and eastern Taiwan, demanding that the administration refrain from earmarking more budgets for the fourth nuclear power plant and the builder and operator of the facility, Taiwan Power Co., and the company not begin loading fuel rods.

Taipower has said it plans to begin loading fuel rods next year and begin operating the nuclear plant in 2015.
[link to english.kyodonews.jp]
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44 economies still ban, limit Japan food imports over radiation fears

A total of 44 economies still ban or restrict imports of Japanese foods due to concerns over residual radiation ahead of Monday, the second anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, according to Japanese officials.

The Japanese government fears the economies could continue to impose the measures and that they could be a drag on Japan's food export business, they said.
[link to english.kyodonews.jp]
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M'bishi Heavy aware of design problem before radiation leak

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and a local utility firm in California were aware of a design flaw in Mitsubishi-made steam generators for a California nuclear reactor before a radiation leak in January 2012, according to a document recently released by the U.S. nuclear regulator.

A report submitted by Mitsubishi Heavy to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the accident showed that the Japanese manufacturer and Southern California Edison Co., the operator of the nuclear reactor, explored the possibility of changing designs in 2005 to curb the vibration of the fine tubing in the steam generators.

But the two companies decided not to change the design, according to the report. A steam generator is a critical part of a pressurized water reactor.
[link to english.kyodonews.jp]
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Protesters in Tokyo demand end to nuclear power

TOKYO — Thousands of people rallied in a Tokyo park Saturday, demanding an end to atomic power and vowing never to give up the fight, despite two years of little change after the nuclear disaster in northeastern Japan.

Gathering two days ahead of the second anniversary of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that sent the Fukushima Daiichi plant into multiple meltdowns, demonstrators said they would never forget the nuclear catastrophe, and expressed alarm over the government’s eagerness to restart reactors.
[link to www.japantoday.com]
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