Big Japan trade deficits? So? We don’t need no stinking nuclear plants!
A few months after most of Japan’s nuclear power plants shut down, some people starting saying, “Hey! All those plants shut down and the world hasn’t ended! Maybe Japan doesn’t really need those power plants! Maybe it was all hype!” Yeah. That’s right. It was all just hype.
He who pays the piper, calls the tunes
In 1954, a U.S. thermonuclear test at the Bikini atolls prompted the [[Japan] Meteorological Research Institute to begin nuclear research that year. Three years later, the institute began monitoring environmental radiation in the atmosphere and the oceans, which was still going on when Aoyama got the disturbing e-mail. The undertaking had already set a world [...]
They’re back! (Well, will be soon) – the Fukushima robots
TOKYO Nikkei–The Chiba Institute of Technology has built two improved versions of a robot designed to help with the cleanup efforts at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the school announced Monday. The Quince No. 2 and No. 3 nuclear-cleanup robots are more rugged than their predecessor.Dubbed Quince No. 2 and No. 3, the [...]
No Big Fukushima Health Impact Seen, UN Official Says: Scientific American
VIENNA, Jan 31 Reuters – The health impact of last year’s Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan appears relatively small thanks partly to prompt evacuations, the chairman of a U.N. scientific body investigating the effects of radiation said on Tuesday. … “What we have seen in Chernobyl – people were dying from huge, high exposures, some [...]
GE-Hitachi Proposes to Burn U.K. Plutonium Stockpile | The Energy Collective
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy has proposed to the U.K. government to build an advanced nuclear reactor that would consume the country’s stockpile of surplus plutonium. The technology is called PRISM, which stands for Power Reactor Innovative Small Module. If accepted, it would be very different than the other proposals to process plutonium, including those that [...]
Earthquake not a factor in Fukushima accident
The tsunami of 11 March was the ‘direct cause’ of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, concluded an official investigation report. It dismissed the idea that earthquake damage was a major factor in the accident. A safe emergency shutdown was achieved within seconds of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake, said the Fukushima Nuclear [...]
a fifth of the cesium fell on Japan, most of rest fell into Pacific
Update: Lost the link to the original article, but here’s another one – Japan nuke radiation higher than estimated Well, that’s a bit of a relief, isn’t it? But read the headline if you want to raise your blood pressure a few degrees: The Fukushima nuclear disaster released twice as much of a radioactive substance [...]
Radiation in Tokyo’s Setagaya-ku due to radium, unconnected with Fukushima
As I was grabbing some breakfast this morning, I caught the following bit of news about a radiation hot-spot in Setagaya-ku, Tokyo. Turns out, this may have nothing to do with Fukushima (and of course everyone assumed it did), which is funny because that blows out of the water the assumption that there ain’t no [...]
Slides for Wade Allison talk in Tokyo | Lenz Blog
This popped up in my reader, and I’ve just downloaded the slides and quickly scanned them with my ol’ eagle eye, and my objective, expert opinion is that, if you are at all affected by the Fukushima disaster, or know anyone who is, then you would be well advised to read this. My policy, based [...]
Japan – It’s A Wonderful Rife: Fungi Can Solve Japan’s Radiation Woes
Haven’t blogged about anything for a while – burnout, I guess, getting bored with the subject. But today I read an article that woke me up: Fungi Can Solve Japan’s Radiation Woes | Japan – It’s a Wonderful Rife. Pop over to Andrew’s blog to read the whole thing. It brightened my day. I sincerely [...]
