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05 Dec 2011 11:30

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World: Radioactive water leaks from Fukushima nuclear site

  • 45 metric tons of radioactive water got loose from Fukushima source
  • » How bad was it? The water leak was found Sunday on a device used to purify the seawater used to cool off damaged reactors. They stopped the leak by stacking sandbags against the concrete barrier surrounding the device. The water itself, authorities say, contained higher-than-usual levels of cesium 137, a radioactive substance. It’s not clear that any of this water made it to the Pacific Ocean. The reactor was greatly damaged during the March earthquake.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Sep 2011 11:05

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World: Ex-Japan PM Naoto Kan imagined uninhabitable Tokyo post-Fukushima

  • Deserted scenes of Tokyo without a single man around came across my mind. It really was a spine-chilling thought.
  • Former Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan • Offering a truly harrowing vision of a post-Fukushima future for Tokyo. The vision for the 20-million-strong city helped push Kan towards encouraging renewable energy during his final months as Prime Minister, when he was dealing with the march earthquake. We’re with him. That’s a scary thought and it’s understandable why he changed his track as a result. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Aug 2011 11:10

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World: Meet Yoshihiko Noda, Japan’s likely new Prime Minister

Now here’s a guy that shouldn’t get too comfortable. Noda will likely be Japan’s sixth Prime Minister in five years, and the track record for keeping this job isn’t great. Plus, Fukushima’s still an issue. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Aug 2011 13:23

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World: As expected, Naoto Kan quits as Japanese Prime Minister

  • The earthquake sealed his political fate. A mere 14 months after he began, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has just ensured that Japan will see its sixth prime minister in five years — and he outlasted most of them. However, his weak leadership during the earthquake — which should’ve proved an opportunity for him prove how his work as a self-made man ensured he was the right man for the job, after years of weak choices. Instead, he turned out to be a weak leader, too. “Mr. Kan is the outsider-turned-prime minister, who should have provided leadership,” noted close friend and adviser Takayoshi Igarashi. “The move to escape from nuclear power should have been his great chance to shine.” Not so much. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Aug 2011 10:18

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World: Fukushima radiation: What deadly radiation “hot spots” look like

  • See the red spots? You know, the ones surrounded by blue and green? Those represent 10 sieverts per hour of radiation. That is extremely high and could lead to death within seconds. And at the Fukushima site, that’s what they’re apparently still dealing with … mind you, five months after the fact. “Radiation leakage at the plant may have been contained or slowed but it has not been sealed off completely,” noted Osaka University professor and nuclear engineering expert Kenji Sumita. “The utility is likely to continue finding these spots of high radiation.” To put this in perspective, add three zeros to the number 10, to make it 10,000 millisieverts per hour (mSv). Then, take a look at this graphic. Yeah. Scary as hell, right? We’ll say. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Jun 2011 11:35

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World: Fukushima: Complications mar plant cleanup process

  • We’re at a point where merely opening a door can cause a radiation leak of some kind. That’s what plant operators had to deal with today, as they opened the doors to Fukushima’s No. 2 plant to cool things off and let some air inside. They hope to install a cooling system to prevent an explosion in the plant. Meanwhile, they hope to restart the cleanup process quickly, which was recently stalled. To give you an idea of what they need to clean up, let’s put it this way: 110,000 tons of highly-radioactive water, enough to fill 40 Olympic-sized swimming pools which absolutely nobody should swim in. Officials fear that things could get really bad — think water overflowing all over the place — if they don’t act soon to deal with the water. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Jun 2011 13:29

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World: Fukushima: Worse than was initially reported?

  • Is Fukushima worse than we think? That’s what this story from Al Jazeera suggests. One example they offer up: When seawater gets poured on the still-hot reactors, it produces radioactive steam that’s blown everywhere — even as far as the west coast of the U.S. One former nuclear industry executive, Arnold Gundersen, even put it as such: “Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind.” Is he right? Worth a read. (Photo via Flickr user Jun Teramoto) source
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

06 Jun 2011 08:30

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World: After huge losses, Tepco’s future leads its stock to nosedive

  • No one knows what will happen to Tepco in the future. We don’t even know whether the company will remain a private company or will the government take it over.
  • Fujimaki Japan’s Takeshi Fujimaki • Explaining why Tepco’s stock went down significantly today — at one point as far as 28 percent — after a financial report that suggested the company was in very bad shape. Simply put, many investors don’t think Tepco is long for this world as a private company and will need significant help from Japan to survive. The company could face $7 billion in losses for the current fiscal year — already on top of $15 billion lost in the prior fiscal year, which ended in March. That’s before any compensation costs are taken into account, by the way. Investors are betting on bankruptcy and/or public-sector takeover. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Jun 2011 12:07

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World: Post-Fukushima, Japanese businesspeople dress down to cool off

  • Why are these Japanese businesspeople dressed up like they’re about to go to a cookout? The reason actually has to do with March’s earthquake, if you can believe it. See, Japan has this campaign called “Super Cool Biz,” where the AC doesn’t go up nearly as high and businesses cut their electricity use by 15 percent. Which means that offices shouldn’t get cooler than 28 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit) and workers should probably dress down and stuff. While the campaign isn’t new — it was introduced in 2005 as a way to fight global warming — companies are finally starting to jump on board with the idea due to the earthquake. (Photo by Itsuo Inouye/Associated Press) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Jun 2011 10:25

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World: Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan still has some confidence left

Amid the Japanese earthquake, Kan survived a no-confidence vote and will likely outlast all of his recent predecessors, despite promising to resign after the crisis. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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