Japan

From Hiroshima to Fukushima: Peace Boat Visit to London

From Hiroshima to Fukushima:

What happened in Japan could happen anywhere
21 June
5:30-7:00 pm

Public event beside the Cutty Sark, near the Gypsy Moth Pub (close to Cutty Sark DLR station)

The Japanese Peace Boat is visiting London and joining with CND and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) to create awareness of the humanitarian consequences of nuclear technologies used for weapons and energy.

Event Date and Time: 
Thu, 21/06/2012 - 5:30pm - 7:00pm

Concerns grow over stability of Japan nuclear plant

YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — As the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant crisis escalated in March 2011, Japan Prime Minister Naoto Kan secretly requested a worst-case scenario from the chairman of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission.

Fukushima Reactor 4 poses massive global risk

Date: Saturday May. 19, 2012 8:20 PM ET

More than a year after a devastating earthquake and tsunami triggered a massive nuclear disaster, experts are warning that Japan isn't out of the woods yet and the worst nuclear storm the world has ever seen could be just one earthquake away from reality.

Fukushima Reactor 4: The Most Important Story Nobody's Talking About

Written by Damien Gillis Monday, 21 May 2012 17:33

"It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of Japan and the whole world depends on No. 4 reactor."
-Former Japanese Ambassador to Switzerland Mitsuhei Murata to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Fukushima Daiichi’s Unit 4 Spent-Fuel Pool: Safe or Not?

By Phred Dvorak - The Wall Street Journal - May 21, 2012, 7:48 PM JST

Questions have been bubbling recently over how safe Japan’s stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant—in particular the pool atop Unit 4, where some 1,535 fuel rods are stored—would be if another big earthquake hit.

Full story: http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2012/05/21/fukushima-daiichis-unit-4-spent-fuel-pool-safe-or-not

NISA, Tepco knew in '06 of Fukushima tsunami threat

Kyodo - Wed, 16 May 2012

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency and Tokyo Electric Power Co. were aware at least by 2006 that the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant was at risk of having its power knocked out by massive tsunami, NISA officials said Tuesday.

Full story: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120516a5.html

The Worst Yet to Come? Why Nuclear Experts Are Calling Fukushima a Ticking Time-Bomb

Via AlterNet - By Brad Jacobson
 
Experts say acknowledging the threat would call into question the safety of dozens of identically designed nuclear power plants in the U.S.

Concerns mount over the growing threat from Fukushima’s spent fuel - will the experts’ warning call be heard?

Via Bellona - Vladimir Slivyak, 06/05-2012 - Translated by Maria Kaminskaya:

MOSCOW - More than a year since the catastrophic nuclear and radiation disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, concerns loom ever larger over the site as experts warn with increasing worry of the unstable condition of the cooling pond at Unit 4, where spent nuclear fuel holds ten times the amount of radioactive cesium that was blown into the atmosphere with the 1986 reactor explosion at Chernobyl. Russia would be well served to join their call for action – will it?