A year ago today, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake rocked Northern Japan. In the wake of this earthquake, a massive tsunami would flatten the Northern Tohoku region , killing nearly 20,000 people and knocking out power to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant
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Feed SubscriptionHow Safe Are U.S. Nuclear Reactors? Lessons from Fukushima
The meltdown started when water to cool the reactors fell to dangerously low levels four hours after a the fourth-largest recorded earthquake rattled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant .
Read More »Robotic Exoskeletons from Cyberdyne Could Help Workers Clean Up Fukushima Nuclear Mess
The Japanese government is searching for new ways to clean up the mess created by the reactor meltdowns earlier this year at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant . As lawmakers and officials study new energy policy options , which they plan to present by next spring, a company called Cyberdyne, Inc. is offering to help with the more immediate concern of removing radioactive debris in and around the reactors with the help of a robotic exoskeleton.
Read More »Fukushima Meltdown Mitigation Aims to Prevent Radioactive Flood
More than three months after a powerful earthquake and 14-meter-tall tsunami struck Japan, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant remains flooded with a salty mix of fresh and sea water--saltwater contaminated with the radioactive residue of three reactors and four spent fuel pools' worth of nuclear fuel. Every day an additional 500 metric tons of seawater is poured onto the still hot nuclear fuel in the stricken reactors and fuel pools.
Read More »Fukushima reactor has a hole, leading to leakage
By Yoko Kubota and Scott DiSavino TOKYO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - One of the reactors at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant has a hole in its main vessel following a meltdown of fuel rods, leading to a leakage of radioactive water, its operator said on Thursday. [More]
Read More »U.N. chief calls for nuclear safety boost
By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - Countries using nuclear energy must ensure their reactors are built to withstand multiple disasters after Japan's accident revealed gaps in safety standards, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday. [More]
Read More »Fukushima Crisis Worsens as U.S. Warns of a Large Radiation Release
The top U.S. nuclear regulator, Gregory Jaczko, gave a dire assessment of Japan's nuclear crisis yesterday, saying that lethal radiation from uncovered spent fuel above one of the reactors could force emergency workers to abandon their fight to prevent meltdowns of damaged reactor cores at the Fukushima Daiichi plant
Read More »Is Seawater a Last Resort to Cooling Japan’s Nuclear Reactors?
As the situation at Japan's 40-year-old Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant goes from bad to worse--four of the plant's six boiling water reactors have been damaged by explosions or fire and radiation has begun leaking into the atmosphere--officials there continue to pump the reactors with seawater in an attempt to cool down fuel rods and avoid a complete meltdown that could release radioactive fallout across much of country.
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