28 April 2021
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Japan s nuclear regulator today approved Tokyo Electric Power Company s (Tepco s) decommissioning plan for the four reactors at its Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant, close to the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant.
The Fukushima Daini plant (Image: Tepco)
Fukushima Daini is a four-unit boiling water reactor plant about 11km south of Fukushima Daiichi. The units entered commercial operation between 1982 and 1987. Although they experienced an emergency, the units were not damaged by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that caused the nuclear accident at the neighbouring Fukushima Daiichi plant. The four reactors have since been maintained in cold shutdown.
The company said in June 2018 that it was considering decommissioning the plant in conjunction with Fukushima Daiichi in response to local demands for a decision on the fate of the site. In July 2019, Tepco announced its official decision to decommission the units.
April 28th, 2021
It’s been ten years since the devastating 9.0 magnitude Tōhoku earthquake and its subsequent 46 foot-tall tsunami killed more than 18,000 people, obliterated entire towns, and crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Japan’s eastern coast. As the incident unfolded in March, 2011, the stricken power plant released massive amounts of cesium-137 into the surrounding environment (roughly 80 percent of the material running into the Pacific ocean) and continued to pour out around 30 gigabecquerel of cesium-137 and strontium-90 for the next two years. And, as of 2018, around 2 gigabecquerel of radioactive pollution still manages to escape the site daily.
Now, as a decommissioning project that is expected to take a generation to complete enters its second decade, Japan’s government announced a controversial decision regarding the site’s continued cleanup. The government reportedly has approved a plan to dump more than a million tons (~250 million gall
Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Nearly ‘Ended The Japanese State’
This article from Russian publication ‘Sputnik News.It makes insightful poits about the collusion between the nuclear industry and government – in Japan, and the USA. But it’s a pity that the Russian media doesn’t shed light on the situation in Russia, which is probably just as bad – perhaps worse.
Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Nearly ‘Ended The Japanese State’, Radioactive Waste Specialist Explains,
Sputnik News, by Mohamed Elmaazi 12 Mar 21, 10 years ago, on 11 March 2011, an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale triggered a tsunami that crashed into Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The effect of the resultant meltdown will continue to be felt for generations to come, although it could easily have been far worse, Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear tells Sputnik.