2,029,900,000 Bq of Cs-134/137 leaked as contaminated water in Fukushima plant http://fukushima-diary.com/2016/03/2029900000-bq-of-cs-134137-leaked-as-contaminated-water-in-fukushima-plant/ Ship carrying plutonium leaves Japan for US A ship transporting plutonium from Japan to the United States is set to start the journey. The vessel is scheduled to leave a port in Ibaraki Prefecture, eastern Japan, on Tuesday. It will deliver 331 kilograms of highly pure plutonium to the US, where it will be processed. The amount is said to be enough to make 40 atomic bombs. The transfer is part of counterterrorism measures planned by Japanese and US leaders at a 2014 nuclear security summit in the Netherlands. Japan originally purchased the plutonium from some Western countries in the 1970s. It was used at a nuclear research facility in Ibaraki Prefecture. The Japanese government has not disclosed the means of transport or routes, citing security concerns. But sources said an armed ship flying British flags arrived at a port in the prefecture on Monday, and has been waiting to be loaded with cargo. Experts say the purity of the plutonium is so high, it could easily be used in nuclear weapons. The material will be processed at a facility in the US to prevent its use in weapons. Besides the shipment to the US, Japan has 47 tons of plutonium, both in and outside the country. It was created by reprocessing spent fuel from nuclear power plants. Japan had plans to use the stockpile in a fast-breed reactor that burns plutonium. But the reactor is still under development and is not likely to go into use in the near future. Japan's plutonium stockpile has attracted international attention, especially as plans for a new reprocessing plant could further increase it. TEPCO apologizes for meltdown announcement delay Tokyo Electric Power Company has apologized to a Niigata Prefectural Government panel for not realizing sooner that 3 reactors at its Fukushima Daiichi plant had melted down in March 2011. The panel is studying the safety of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in the prefecture. Niigata has made verification of the details of the Fukushima accident a prerequisite for the plant's restart. TEPCO waited 2 months after the Fukushima accident to announce the meltdowns. The panel had questioned the delay. But TEPCO insisted it had no basis for making the determination. Last month, nearly 5 years after the disaster, the utility revealed it could have declared the reactors had melted down 3 days after the accident if it had adhered to an in-house manual. On Wednesday, Managing Executive Officer Takafumi Anegawa apologized to the panel. He said the utility should have realized and reported the existence of the manual sooner. Panel members asked the utility why the manual went unnoticed for 5 years. They said the utility's longstanding and false claim that it had no standards for determining a meltdown makes it an untrustworthy nuclear plant operator. Screening of Kashiwazaki-kariwa plant to be halted Japan's nuclear regulator says it will suspend screening for restarts of 2 reactors at a nuclear power plant in central Japan. The reactors are the Number 6 and 7 units of the plant at Kashiwazaki-kariwa in Niigata Prefecture. The Nuclear Regulation Authority said on Wednesday that Tokyo Electric Power Company must supply more data for a new method of assessing quake resistance of facilities and buildings. The screening has focused on measures to prevent serious accidents, as the regulator judged that the 2 reactors have a new design and pose fewer safety risks. Niigata Governor Hirohiko Izumida says he wants the regulator to conduct thorough safety checks. He also suggests that finding the truth of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident is essential for ensuring the safety of nuclear plants. Govt., residents argue in court over Monju reactor A Tokyo court has begun hearing arguments in a lawsuit filed by residents seeking to revoke a government permit for a prototype fast breeder reactor in Fukui Prefecture. The facility has been mostly idle since an accident in 1995. Some 100 residents of Fukui and neighboring prefectures filed the suit to demand that Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority cancel its permit for Monju. They accused the reactor's operator, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, of incompetence, and cited risks of serious accidents triggered by earthquakes or tsunami. 'Small nuclear' reactors explained using bags of rice http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35868246 A NY nuclear reactor in the shadow of Fukushima http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/31372/20160323/a-ny-nuclear-reactor-in-the-shadow-of-fukushima A Hundred Years Of Ineptitude And A Century Of Nuclear Spin https://newmatilda.com/2016/03/24/a-hundred-years-of-ineptitude-and-a-century-of-nuclear-spin/

• published: 24 Mar 2016
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