FUKUSHIMA (AFP-JIJI) – Radiation levels in groundwater under Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant are soaring, Tepco said Friday after taking samples from an observation well. Tepco said 400,000 becquerels per liter of beta ray-emitting substances such as strontium were detected in water sampled Thursday from the well located some 15 meters […]
By Yuka Obayashi and Mari Saito; Editing by Michael Perry10 October 2013 TOKYO (Reuters) – Radiation levels in seawater just outside one of the damaged Fukushima reactors spiked this week to the highest level in two years, the operator of the crippled Japanese nuclear plant said on Thursday. Radiation levels on Wednesday, the day six […]
[If, however, your nation wants a permanent underclass…] By KIMBERLY HEFLING 8 October 2013 WASHINGTON (AP) – It’s long been known that America’s school kids haven’t measured well compared with international peers. Now, there’s a new twist: Adults don’t either. In math, reading and problem-solving using technology — all skills considered critical for global competitiveness […]
October 6, 2013 (Al Jazeera) – Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Sunday that Japan is open to receiving overseas help to contain widening disaster at the crippled nuclear plant in Fukushima, where radioactive water leaks and other mishaps are now reported almost daily. “We are wide open to receive the most advanced knowledge from overseas […]
A woman paying a brief visit to her home walks under a sign reading ‘Nuclear power – the energy for a better future’, at the entrance of the empty Futaba town. Decades ago the citizens ofFutaba took such pride in hosting part of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex that they built a sign over a […]
14 September 2013 (Yomiuri Shimbun) – About 150,000 tons of radioactive waste, including contaminated soil left over from decontamination efforts, have been left out in the open in areas affected by the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, The Yomiuri Shimbun has discovered. This figure accounts for about 30 percent of all […]
By Phillip Inman and Terry Macalister 15 September 2013 (The Guardian) – Japan will switch off its last nuclear reactor on Monday, amid fears that a growing dependence on gas imports there could push up electricity bills in the UK. Kansai Electric Power’s only functioning reactor was scheduled to be disconnected from the power grid […]
By Mari Yamaguchi16 September 2013 TOKYO (AP) – A powerful typhoon lashed Japan with torrential rain Monday, leaving two dead as it damaged homes and flooded parts of the country’s popular tourist destination of Kyoto, where 260,000 people were ordered to evacuate to shelters. Typhoon Man-yi, packing wind speeds of 100 mph Monday night, was […]
3 September 2013 (BBC News) – Japan is to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into building a frozen wall around the Fukushima nuclear plant to stop leaks of radioactive water. Government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said an estimated 47bn yen ($473m, £304m) would be allocated. The leaks were getting worse and the government “felt it […]
By Jeremy Hsu31 August 2013 (LiveScience) – A radioactive plume of water in the Pacific Ocean from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant, which was crippled in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, will likely reach U.S. coastal waters starting in 2014, according to a new study published in Science. The long journey of the radioactive particles could […]
