After battling radioactive water leaks for five years at Japan’s crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, the utility that ran it says it will need another four to finish the job. “We will bring an end to the problem by 2020,” says Yuichi Okamura, who led the Tokyo Electric Power Co. team dealing with water at Fukushima from the early days to last summer. The contaminated water, now exceeding 760,000 tons and still growing, has been a major challenge that has distracted workers from decommissioning the plant. It is stored in more than 1,000 industrial tanks, covering much of the vast plant grounds.
Big Story 8th March 2016 read more »
The exclusion zones of the Fukushima and Chernobyl nuclear disaster sites have not become wildlife havens in the absence of humans. Rather, the effects of radiation are being seen across plant and animal species, with widespread population declines and health problems being documented at both sites. Timothy Mousseau, Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of South Carolina, has been researching the effects of radiation on the wildlife at Chernobyl for over 15 years and Fukushima since the disaster five years ago. In 2015, he and his colleagues published five papers about the effects of radiation in Fukushima – with a particular focus on birds in the area: “The overwhelming conclusion is that many species of birds have shown dramatic declines over the four years. As best we can tell the impacts are continuing to increase at this point.”
IB Times 9th March 2016 read more »
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster exposed the myth of safe and cheap nuclear power. It’s no wonder those most impacted are choosing 100% renewable energy. About a year after Japan’s 2011 nuclear disaster, Fukushima Prefecture pledged to switch to 100% renewable energy. The people of Fukushima knew better than nearly anyone else that nuclear was not safe nor cheap. Even now, 100,000 people still can’t return home because of the disaster – from mutations in local flora and fauna, to radiation contamination off the coast, Greenpeace research shows that we are only just starting to understand the full impacts of the disaster. Nuclear is expensive, dirty and inherently dangerous. So what are the alternatives? Check out what what the Energy [R]evolution looks like with these 7 incredible projects…
Greenpeace 9th March 2016 read more »
It was billed as a future hot spot for disaster tourism but a plan by Japanese entrepreneurs to bring visitors to the Fukushima nuclear plant now lies in tatters.
Reuters 8th March 2016 read more »
Five years on, Japan still battles with the long term effects of the Fukushima nuclear incident. On 11 March 2011, following a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, a large tsunami flooded the Fukushima Daiichi plant, disabling the power supply of 12 emergency generators, and the cooling function of three reactors. Radioactive elements were released, posing an immediate health threat to hundreds of workers on the site, and to the more than 100,000 Japanese living in the area. Five years on, the trauma remains and Japanese society still faces unprecedented health challenges.
IB Times 8th March 2016 read more »