Japan seeks Russian help to end nuclear crisis

Mon Apr 4, 2011 10:30pm GMT

* Japan seeks Russian radiation treatment ship
* Operators forced to release radioactive water into sea
* Bath salts, sea curtain sought to stop radiation leaks
* Nuclear crisis may weaken yen, economy to be hit
By Chizu Nomiyama and Shinichi Saoshiro

TOKYO, April 5 (Reuters) - Japan has asked nuclear superpower Russia to send a special radiation treatment ship used to decommission nuclear submarines as it fights to contain the world's worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl, Japanese media said late on Monday.

Japanese engineers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant have been forced to release radioactive waste water into the sea. At the same time they are resorting to desperate measures to contain the damage, such as using bath salts to try to locate the source of leaks at the crippled complex 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.

Three weeks after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and massive tsunami hit northeast Japan, sending some of Daiichi's reactors into partial meltdown, engineers are no closer to regaining control of the power plant or stopping radioactive leaks.

The quake and tsunami left nearly 28,000 people dead or missing and Japan's northeast coast a wreck.

The world's costliest natural disaster has caused power blackouts and cuts to supply chains and business hours. It is threatening economic growth and the yen, while a recent opinion poll suggested voters want embattled Prime Minister Naoto Kan to form a coalition in order to steer Japan through its worst crisis since World War Two.

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) was forced on Monday to release low-level radioactive seawater that had been used to cool overheated fuel rods after it ran out of storage capacity for more highly contaminated water.

A TEPCO official was in tears as he told a news conference: "We are very sorry for this region and those involved."

The water, which is being released to free storage capacity for more highly contaminated water, is about 100 times more radioactive than legal limits. Koichi Nakamura, a deputy director-general of Japan's Nuclear Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), told a news conference in Vienna about 11,500 tonnes of water would have to be discharged.

He also said Japan had not ruled out expanding the 20-km evacuation zone around the site.

Engineers planned to build two giant "silt curtains" made of polyester fabric in the sea to hinder the spread of more contamination from the plant.

Japan has also asked Russia for the "Suzuran", a ship which treats radioactive liquids, Kyodo and Jiji news agencies said.

The ship, a joint venture between Japan and Russia, was designed to help decommission nuclear submarines in Russia's Pacific fleet in Vladivostock, ensuring radioactive waste was not dumped into the Sea of Japan, Kyodo said.

It could take months to stem the leaks and longer to regain control of the power station, damaged by the March quake and tsunami, though a U.S. official in Vienna said there was no evidence the spent fuel in the reactors was restarting a nuclear reaction after being shut down.
DISASTER MAY SEE YEN WEAKEN

Japan, the world's third largest economy but also one of its most indebted nations, has estimated the damages bill may top $300 billion.

"The damage from the nuclear crisis and the subsequent power shortage will last for several years," said Eiji Hirano, former assistant governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ).

"There's a strong chance Japan's economy will contract in the current fiscal year," he told Reuters in an interview.

A former senior finance ministry official, Eisuke Sakakibara, said the yen would weaken in the coming months, possibly beyond 90 to the dollar, underlining expectations a near four-year rally in the currency may be over.

The yen traded at 84.05 per dollar early on Tuesday.

The disaster initially saw the yen soar on speculation Japanese would repatriate funds for reconstruction, prompting the G7 intervention to knock it back.

"This atomic power issue is an incident which would result in depreciation of the exchange rate," Sakakibara told reporters in Tokyo.

Unpopular and under pressure to quit or call a snap poll before the disaster, Prime Minister Kan has been criticised for his management of the disaster.

One newspaper poll said nearly two-thirds of voters wanted the government to form a coalition with the major opposition party and work together to recover from the disaster.

BATH SALTS, SEA CURTAIN

In their desperation to stop radioactive leaks, TEPCO engineers have used anything at hand. They have mixed sawdust and newspapers with polymers and cement in an unsuccessful attempt to seal a crack in a concrete pit at reactor No.2.

On Monday, they resorted to powdered bath salts to produce a milky colour in water to help trace the source of the leak.

TEPCO said it was also planning to drape a curtain into the sea off the nuclear plant to try to prevent radioactive silt drifting out into the ocean.

The exact source of the radiation leaks remains unknown. NISA is investigating a damaged embankment near a sluice gate at the No.2 reactor and the possibility it may be seeping through a layer of small stones below a concrete pipe.

TEPCO said it would build tanks to hold contaminated seawater, was towing a floating tank which will arrive next week, and was negotiating the purchase of three more.

"If the current situation continues for a long time, accumulating more radioactive substances, it will have a huge impact on the ocean," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.

Small levels of radiation from the plant have been detected as far away as Europe and the United States and several countries have banned milk and produce from the vicinity.

Singapore extended a ban on Japanese food imports on Monday after detecting radiation in more fruit and vegetable imports. Kan asked the European Union on Monday for a calm response to Japanese imports. The EU has urged radiation testing of Japanese food and feed imports. (Additional reporting by Yoko Nishikawa, Yoko Kubota, Linda Sieg, Leika Kihara, Tetsushi Kajimoto in Tokyo and Sylvia Westall in Vienna; Writing by Michael Perry; Editing by Daniel Magnowski, sourced Reuters)

France urges world nuclear review after Japan crisis

Thu Mar 31, 2011 10:24am GMT

By Chizu Nomiyama and Chisa Fujioka

TOKYO (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on Thursday for a reform of global nuclear standards by the end of the year during a first visit by a foreign leader to Japan since the earthquake and tsunami that triggered its atomic disaster.

Group of 20 chairman Sarkozy said France wants to host a meeting of the bloc's nuclear officials in May to fix new norms in the wake of the crisis at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant.

Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan supported the idea.

"In order to avoid recurrence of such an accident, it is our duty to accurately share with the world our experience," he said at a joint news conference.

The world's worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl in 1986 is proving hard to contain and has forced an international re-think of the benefits and safety of nuclear power.

It has also compounded an agonizing moment for the Asian nation after the quake and tsunami left more than 27,500 people dead or missing and caused damage that may top $300 billion (186 billion pounds).

First data on the economic impact of the March 11 disasters showed manufacturing slumped the most on record this month as factories shut and supply chains were disrupted, especially in the car and technology sectors for which Japan is renowned.

France, the world's most nuclear-dependent country, is taking a lead in assisting Japan. As well as Sarkozy's show of solidarity by his personal presence, Paris has flown in experts from state-owned nuclear reactor maker Areva.

"Consider me your employee," Areva Chief Executive Anne Lauvergeon told Japanese officials.

The United States and Germany have weighed in too, offering robots to help repair the damaged nuclear plant.

In a worrying development in Switzerland, two female employees were injured when a parcel bomb exploded in the offices of the local nuclear lobby, police said. It was not known who sent it.

Switzerland has frozen the approvals process for three new nuclear stations pending a safety review after Japan's disaster.

Pressure has been growing on Japan to expand the evacuation zone around the Fukushima Daiichi plant where radiation hit 4,000 times legal limits in nearby sea and hindered the battle to contain the world's worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl.

Both the U.N. nuclear watchdog and Japan's own nuclear safety agency have advised Kan to consider widening the 20-km (12-mile) zone round the plant on the northeast Pacific coast.

High radiation was detected at twice that distance away.

Government officials are pleading for Japanese, and the world, to avoid overreaction to what they say are still low-risk levels of radiation away from the plant.

HIGH RADIATION

More than 70,000 people have been evacuated from the 20-km ring. Another 136,000 who live in a 10-km (6-mile) band beyond that have been encouraged to leave or to stay indoors.

U.N. body, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said radiation at Iitate village, 40 km (25 miles) from the plant, exceeded a criterion for evacuation.

Japan's chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the government was reviewing the issue daily but "at this moment, no decision to expand the evacuation area has been made".

Consistently high levels of radiation found in the sea near the complex could mean radiation is leaking out continuously, Japan's nuclear watchdog said. The source is still unknown, adding to the headaches for engineers on the site.

Radioactive iodine in seawater near drains running from the plant was 4,385 times more than the legal limit, the highest recorded so far during the crisis.

In a sign of the extraordinary times Japan is living, one newborn baby's first medical appointment was not with a paediatrician but a Geiger counter.

"I am so scared about radiation," Misato Nagashima said as she took her baby Rio, born four days after the earthquake and disaster, for a screening at a city in Fukushima prefecture.

Concern over radiation beyond Japan grew further after Singapore detected radiation nine times the limit in cabbages from Japan, while the United States reported "minuscule" levels of radiation in milk samples on its west coast.

Contaminated milk was one of the biggest causes of thyroid cancers after the 1986 nuclear accident in Chernobyl because people near the plant kept drinking milk from local cows.

Several nations have banned milk and produce from areas near the damaged nuclear plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo. Japan has itself stopped exports of vegetables and milk there.

While food makes up only 1 percent of Japan's exports, the nuclear emergency poses a risk to an economy burdened with public debt twice the size of its $5 trillion dollar economy and a fast ageing population.

Japan has called on World Trade Organisation nations not to impose "unjustifiable" import curbs on its goods.

LENGTHY BATTLE

Experts say the battle to control Fukushima's six reactors could take weeks, if not months, followed by a clean-up operation that may drag on for years.

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co could face compensation claims of up to 11 trillion yen (82 billion pounds) -- nearly four times its equity -- if the nuclear crisis drags on for two years, an analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch said.

As operators struggle to regain control of the damaged reactors, nuclear experts said the continued lack of a permanent cooling system was hindering efforts to cool down fuel rods.

Workers have been forced to pump in seawater to cool the rods, but this creates contaminated seawater around the stricken plant and is making it difficult to reconnect the plant's internal cooling system which contains radiation.

Radiation readings around the evacuation zone vary widely.

Daily readings published by the government show that 30 km (19 miles) northwest of the reactors levels are climbing up to 42 microsieverts per hour, about 6 times the cosmic radiation experienced during a Tokyo-New York flight.

Elsewhere at that distance around the reactor it is just 1.0-1.2 microsieverts per hour.

A Reuters reading in downtown Tokyo on Thursday showed a radiation level of 0.18 microsieverts per hour. This is still quite low by global standards as Japan has lower levels of natural background radiation than other places.

(Additional reporting by Chisa Fujioka, Kiyoshi Takenaka and Chizu Nomiyama in Tokyo, Dave Dolan in Fukushima City, Ben Gruber in Koriyama and Sylvia Westall and Fredrik Dahl in Vienna, and Andrew Callus in Geneva; Writing by Michael Perry and Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by John Chalmers, sourced : Reuters)

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Japan orders immediate safety upgrade at nuclear plants

Wed Mar 30, 2011 3:52pm BST
By Risa Maeda and Yoko Kubota

TOKYO(Reuters) - Japan ordered an immediate safety upgrade at its 55 nuclear power plants on Wednesday in its first acknowledgment that standards were inadequate when an earthquake and tsunami wrecked a facility nearly three weeks ago, sparking the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.

As operators struggle to regain control of the damaged Daiichi nuclear reactors 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, radiation leakage continued, with radioactive iodine in the sea off the damaged plant at record levels. The state nuclear safety agency said the amounts were 3,355 times the legal limit.

Smoke was reported coming from a second damaged nuclear plant site in Fukushima on Wednesday, with authorities citing an electric distribution board as the problem.

It is not known how serious the problem was at the Daini plant, which has been put into cold shutdown and is several miles from the stricken Daiichi power facility.

Anger at Japan's nuclear crisis saw more than 100 people, chanting "stop nuclear power", protest outside the Tokyo headquarters of nuclear plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) on Wednesday.

"We don't want to use electric power that can kill people," said Waseda University student Mina Umeda.

A Reuters investigation showed Japan and TEPCO repeatedly played down dangers at its nuclear plants and ignored warnings, including a 2007 tsunami study from the utility's senior safety engineer.

The research paper concluded there was a roughly 10 percent chance that a tsunami could test or overrun the defences of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant within a 50-year span based on the most conservative assumptions.

The new safety steps, to be completed by the end of April, include preparing back-up power in case of loss of power supply, and having fire trucks with hoses ready at all times to intervene and ensure cooling systems for both reactors and pools of used fuel are maintained, the Trade Ministry said.

Other measures such as building higher protective sea walls would be studied after a full assessment of the Fukushima disaster, officials said.

The immediate measures do not necessarily require nuclear plant operations to be halted, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Banri Kaieda told a news conference.

"These are the minimum steps we can think of right now that should be done immediately," said Kaieda.

"We shouldn't wait until a so-called overhaul or a comprehensive revision -- something major that would take a long time -- is prepared. We should do whatever we can if and when there is something (which safety authorities agree is) viable and necessary," he said.

Before the disaster, Japan's nuclear reactors had provided about 30 percent of the nation's electric power. The percentage had been expected to rise to 50 percent by 2030, among the highest in the world.

NO END IN SIGHT

The government and TEPCO conceded there was no end in sight to Japan's nuclear crisis.

"We are not in a situation where we can say we will have this under control by a certain period," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news briefing.

The discovery of highly toxic plutonium in soil at Daiichi had raised alarm over the disaster, which has overshadowed the humanitarian calamity triggered by the earthquake and tsunami, which left 27,500 people dead or missing.

TEPCO will test sprinkling synthetic resin in some areas of the Daiichi complex to prevent radioactive dust from flying into the air or being washed into the ocean by rain. The resin is water-soluble, but when the water evaporates, it becomes sticky and contains the dust.

Pollution of the ocean is a serious concern for a country where fish is central to the diet. Experts say the vastness of the ocean and a powerful current should dilute high levels of radiation, limiting the danger of marine contamination.

However, just how radiation is spilling into the ocean is unclear and controlling leakage from the plant could take weeks or months, making precise risk assessments difficult.

Tokyo Electric said it would take a "fairly long time" to stabilise overheating reactors, adding four of the six reactors would need to be decommissioned. Meanwhile, the head of the company was in hospital due to high blood pressure, adding to the disarray at Asia's largest utility.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan, whose government faces mounting criticism for its handling of the crisis, won assurances of American support in a telephone conversation on Wednesday with President Barack Obama.

The United States has already agreed to send some radiation-detecting robots to Japan to help explore the reactor cores and spent fuel pools at the stricken nuclear plant.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who chairs the G20 and G8 blocs of nations, is due to visit Tokyo on Thursday. He will be the first foreign leader in Japan since the disaster.

In further support, France flew in two experts from its state-owned nuclear reactor maker Areva and its CEA nuclear research body to assist TEPCO.

DRAG ON ECONOMY

Hundreds of engineers have been toiling for nearly three weeks to cool the plant's reactors and avert a catastrophic meltdown of fuel rods, although the situation appears to have moved back from that nightmare scenario.

Jesper Koll, director of equity research at JPMorgan Securities in Tokyo, said a drawn-out battle to bring the plant under control and manage the radioactivity being released would perpetuate the uncertainty and act as a drag on the economy.

"The worst-case scenario is that this drags on not one month or two months or six months, but for two years, or indefinitely," he said. "Japan will be bypassed. That is the real nightmare scenario."

Japan's main stock index has fallen about 9 percent since the tsunami while TEPCO shares have fallen almost 80 percent. The government is considering a tax increase to pay for the damage it estimates at $300 billion in what could be the world's costliest natural disaster.

Already criticised for weak leadership during Japan's worst crisis since World War Two, Kan has been blasted by the opposition for his handling of the disaster and for not widening the exclusion zone beyond 20 km (12 miles) around Fukushima.

Kan said he was considering that step, which would force 130,000 people to move, in addition to 70,000 already displaced.

Hundreds of thousands whose homes and livelihoods were wiped away by the tsunami that obliterated cities on the northeast coast have heard next to nothing from the government about whether it will help them to rebuild.

About 175,000 were living in shelters on high ground above the vast plains of mud-covered debris with temporary housing for only a few hundred currently under construction.

(Additional reporting by Jon Herskowitz, Elaine Lies, Mayumi Negishi, Leika Kihara and Yoko Nishikawa in Tokyo, Roberta Rampton , Ayesha Rascoe and Deborah Zabarenko in Washington, Eileen O'Grady in Houston; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by John Chalmers and Alan Raybould, Reuters)

Japan finds plutonium in soil at stricken nuclear plant

Tue Mar 29, 2011 5:15am GMT

* Plutonium found in soil at Fukushima complex
* Japan's nuclear safety agency worried about reactor breach
* Radiation increases, bad news piles up from site
* PM Kan lambasted in parliament over disaster
* Plant operator seeks help from French companies

By Chizu Nomiyama and Kazunori Takada

TOKYO, March 29 (Reuters) - Plutonium found in soil at the Fukushima nuclear complex heightened alarm on Tuesday over Japan's battle to contain the world's worst atomic crisis in 25 years, while opposition MPs attacked the prime minister for his handling of the disaster.

Some opposition lawmakers lambasted Naoto Kan in parliament for not extending an evacuation zone around the plant. Kan said he was seeking advice on widening the area, which would force 130,000 people to move in addition to 70,000 already displaced.

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said plutonium was found at low-risk levels in five places at the facility, which was crippled by a massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

A by-product of atomic reactions and also used in nuclear bombs, plutonium is highly carcinogenic and one of the most dangerous substances on the planet, experts say.

They believe some of the plutonium may have come from spent fuel rods at Fukushima or damage to reactor No. 3, the only one to use plutonium in its fuel mix.

Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said while the plutonium levels were not harmful to human health, the discovery could mean a breach in the reactor's containment mechanism.

"Plutonium is a substance that's emitted when the temperature is high, and it's also heavy and so does not leak out easily," agency deputy director Hidehiko Nishiyama told a news conference.

"So if plutonium has emerged from the reactor, that tells us something about the damage to the fuel. And if it has breached the original containment system, it underlines the gravity and seriousness of this accident."

Sakae Muto, a Tokyo Electric vice-president, said the traces of plutonium-238, 239 and 240 were in keeping with levels found in Japan in the past due to particles in the atmosphere from nuclear testing abroad.

"I apologise for making people worried," Muto said.

PARTIAL MELTDOWN

Workers at Fukushima may have to struggle for weeks or months under extremely dangerous conditions to re-start cooling systems vital to control the reactors and avert total meltdown.

On Monday, highly contaminated water was found in concrete tunnels extending beyond one reactor, while at the weekend radiation hit 100,000 times over normal in water inside another.

That poses a major dilemma for Tokyo Electric, which wants to douse the reactors to cool them, but not worsen the radiation spread, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said on Tuesday.

"On the issue of pumping in water, we must avoid a situation in which the temperature (of the fuel rods) rises and the water boils off. So this cooling is a priority. On the other hand, on the standing water, under the circumstances work must proceed to remove it as quickly as possible," he said.

Japan says a partial meltdown of fuel rods inside reactor No. 2 has contributed to the radiation levels.

The crisis, the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986, has contaminated vegetables and milk from the area, as well as the surrounding sea. U.S. experts said groundwater, reservoirs and the sea all faced "significant contamination".

Facing a long and uncertain operation, Tokyo Electric has sought help from firms including Electricite de France SA and Areva SA (CEPFi.PA: Quote), the French government said.

Japan is also consulting Washington. The head of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Gregory Jaczko, met Japanese officials in Tokyo on Monday.

"The unprecedented challenge before us remains serious and our best experts remain fully engaged to help Japan address the situation," Jaczko said in a statement.

Experts have said the lack of information and some inconsistent data makes it hard to understand what is happening at Fukushima, which appears to have moved from a core-meltdown phase to one in which management of released radioactivity is paramount.

"There's a lot of radioactivity outside the containment barriers that poses a threat to workers and the public that needs to be addressed," said David Lochbaum, director of the nuclear safety project at the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists, a long-time nuclear watchdog group.

"That's the top priority."

NATIONALISATION FOR NUCLEAR OPERATOR?

The crisis has put enormous pressure on Tokyo Electric, criticised for safety lapses and a slow disaster response. Its boss, Masataka Shimizu, has barely been seen.

The government might discuss nationalising Tokyo Electric to deal with the crisis, National Strategy Minister Koichiro Gemba said. Its shares have tumbled 70 percent since the crisis.

Kan, leading Japan during its worst crisis since World War Two, was already deeply unpopular and under pressure to resign before the events of March 11.

He apologised for flying over the stricken nuclear site a day after the quake, which media reports said had delayed operations to cool the reactors. He also assured lawmakers the government was disclosing all the information it had.

More than 70,000 people have been evacuated from a largely rural area within 20 km (12 miles) of the facility.

But opposition MP Yosuke Isozaki blasted Kan for not ordering people living in a band between 20 km and 30 km (12-19 miles) from the plant to also leave, asking "is there anything as irresponsible as this?".

The 130,000 people inside that zone have been encouraged -- but not ordered -- to leave.

Environmental group Greenpeace has urged an extension of the 20-km evacuation zone while the United States has recommended its citizens who live within 80 km (50 miles) of the plant to leave or shelter indoors.

Even though Japan's culture stresses group efficiency over individual charisma, many are unhappy and a weekend poll showed a majority feel Kan has not shown good leadership.

"The characters involved are too weak to take decisive actions," said Jesper Koll, analyst at JP Morgan Securities.

Beyond the evacuation zone, traces of radiation have been found in tap water in Tokyo and as far away as Iceland.

Japanese officials and international experts have generally said the levels away from the plant were not dangerous for human beings, who in any case face higher radiation doses on a daily basis from natural sources, X-rays or flying.

The drama at the six-reactor facility has compounded Japan's agony after the double disaster left more than 28,000 people dead or missing in the devastated northeast.

With towns on the northeast coast reduced to apocalyptic landscapes of mud and debris, more than a quarter of a million people are homeless. The event may be the world's costliest natural disaster, with estimates of damage topping $300 billion.

Tags : Tokyo Electric Power Co, Japan, partial meltdown, Tokyo,

Highly radioactive water leaks from Japanese nuclear plant

Mon Mar 28, 2011 2:20pm GMT

* Battle to control Fukushima plant seen far from over
* Radiation in reactor due to melting fuel rods - Edano
* Plant operator seeks help from French companies - Kyodo
* Greenpeace says detects high radiation outside exclusion zone

By Mayumi Negishi and Chisa Fujioka

TOKYO, March 28 (Reuters) - Highly radioactive water has leaked from a reactor at Japan's crippled nuclear complex, the plant's operator said on Monday, while environmental group Greenpeace said it had detected high levels of radiation outside an exclusion zone.

Reflecting growing unease about efforts to control the six-reactor Fukushima Daiichi complex, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) had appealed to French companies for help, the Kyodo news agency said.

The plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, was damaged in a March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left more than 28,000 people dead or missing across northeastern Japan.

Fires, explosions and radiation leaks have repeatedly forced engineers to suspend efforts to stabilise the plant, including on Sunday when radiation levels spiked to 100,000 times above normal in water inside reactor No. 2.

A partial meltdown of fuel rods inside the reactor vessel was responsible for the high levels, although Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the radiation had mainly been contained in the reactor building.

But TEPCO later said radiation above 1,000 millisieverts per hour had been found in water in underground concrete tunnels that extend beyond the reactor.

That is the same as the level discovered on Sunday. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says a single dose of 1,000 millisieverts is enough to cause haemorrhaging.

TEPCO officials said the tunnels did not flow into the sea but the possibility of radioactive water seeping into the ground could not be ruled out.

The nuclear crisis has compounded Japan's agony after the magnitude 9.0 quake and huge tsunami devastated its northeast coast, turning whole towns into apocalyptic landscapes of mud and debris.

About a quarter of a million people are living in shelters and damage could top $300 billion, making it the world's costliest natural disaster.

The suffering may not be over.

Greenpeace said its experts had confirmed radiation levels of up to 10 microsieverts per hour in the village of Iitate, 40 km (25 miles) northwest of the plant. It called for the extension of a 20-km (12-mile) evacuation zone.

"It is clearly not safe for people to remain in Iitate, especially children and pregnant women, when it could mean receiving the maximum allowed annual dose of radiation in only a few days," Greenpeace said in a statement.

More than 70,000 people have been evacuated from an area within 20 km (12 miles) of the plant and another 130,000 people within a zone extending a further 10 km are recommended to stay indoors. They have been encouraged to leave.

Beyond the evacuation zone, traces of radiation have turned up in tap water in Tokyo and as far away as Iceland.

Japanese officials and international experts have generally said the levels away from the plant were not dangerous for people, who anyway face higher radiation doses on a daily basis from natural substances, X-rays or flights.

But Greenpeace urged the government to acknowledge the danger and "stop choosing politics over science".

Nuclear safety agency deputy Hidehiko Nishiyama said the environmental group's measurement was not reliable and hardly any people were still living in that area. A Greenpeace nuclear expert later defended the reliability of their findings.

CALL FOR HELP

At the weekend, the spike in radiation forced a suspension of work at the reactor, with experts warning that Japan faced a long fight to contain the world's most dangerous atomic crisis in 25 years.

"This is far beyond what one nation can handle -- it needs to be bumped up to the U.N. Security Council," said Najmedin Meshkati, of the University of Southern California.

TEPCO, which has conceded it faces a protracted and uncertain operation to contain the crisis, sought outside help from French firms including Electricite de France SA and Areva SA (CEPFi.PA: Quote), a French government minister said.

A spokesman for state-owned nuclear reactor maker Areva said the company was studying the request.

Murray Jennex, a nuclear power plant expert and associate professor at San Diego State University, said "there's not really a plan B" other than to dry out the plant, get power restored and start cooling it down.

"What we're now in is a long slog period with lots of small, unsexy steps that have to be taken to pull the whole thing together," he said by telephone. The good news, he said, was that the reactor cores appeared to be cooling down.

There was good news as well about the radiation levels in the sea just off the plant, which skyrocketed on Sunday to 1,850 times normal. Those had come down sharply, the nuclear safety agency said the next day.

Though experts said radiation in the Pacific would quickly dissipate, the levels at the site are clearly dangerous, and the 450 or so engineers there have won admiration and sympathy around the world for their bravery and sense of duty.

Last week, two workers at Fukushima were injured with radiation burns after water seeped over their shoes, and on Sunday, engineers had to abandon reactor No. 2 after the new reading.

The world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986 has prompted a reassessment of nuclear power across the world. It had its most direct political impact yet in foreign politics in Germany at the weekend.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats lost control of Germany's most prosperous state, Baden-Wuerttemberg, as anti-nuclear sentiment benefited her opponents in a regional vote.

Residents of the northeast have been rattled by aftershocks from the strongest earthquake in Japanese history, including a magnitude 6.5 tremor on Monday that triggered a tsunami warning.

"I lived through World War Two, when there was nothing to eat and no clothes to wear. I'll live through this," said Mitsuharu Watanobe, sitting cross-legged on a blanket in an evacuation centre in Fukushima city.

"But the scary thing is the radiation. There is a gap between what the newspapers write and what the government is saying. I want the government to tell the truth more."

The latest death toll was 11,004 people, with 17,339 people missing 17 days after the disaster.

U.S. halts Japan food imports, Tokyo water contaminated

Wed Mar 23, 2011 6:41am GMT

* U.S. to block milk, fruit, vegetable imports
* Radiation dangerous for infants in Tokyo water
* Engineers battling to stabilise Fukushima reactors
* Earthquake, tsunami left nearly 23,000 dead or missing

By Mayumi Negishi and Kazunori Takada

TOKYO, March 23 (Reuters) - Radiation danger from Japan's tsunami-smashed nuclear plant loomed on Wednesday with water in Tokyo showing hazardous levels for infants and the United States becoming the first nation to block food imports.

Tokyo authorities said water at a purification plant for the capital of 13 million people had 210 becquerels of radioactive iodine -- more than twice the safety level for infants.

"This is without doubt, an effect of the Fukushima Daiichi plant," a Tokyo metropolitan government official said, in reference to the damaged nuclear plant 250 km (150 miles) north of the city.

Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, however, said the radiation level posed no immediate health risk and water could still be used.

"But for infants under age one, I would like them to refrain from using tap water to dilute baby formula," he said.

Crystallising international concern, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it was stopping imports of milk, vegetable and fruit from four prefectures in Japan's crisis-hit northeast.

South Korea may be next to ban Japanese food after the world's worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl in 1986. France this week asked the European Commission to look into harmonising controls on radioactivity in imports from Japan.

At the six-reactor Fukushima plant, crippled by a March 11 earthquake and tsunami, engineers are battling to cool reactors to contain further contamination and avert a meltdown.

In a rapidly widening problem, Japan said on Wednesday above-safety radiation levels had been discovered in 11 types of vegetables from the area, in addition to milk and water.

Officials still insisted, however, that there was no major danger to humans and urged the world not to over react.

"We will explain to countries the facts and we hope they will take logical measures based on them," Japan's chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano, who has been the government's public face during the disaster, told a news conference.

The Asian nation's worst crisis since World War Two may have caused $300 billion damage, sent shock waves through global financial markets, and left nearly 23,000 people dead or missing, mostly from flattened coastal towns.

More than a quarter of a million people are living in shelters, while rescuers and sniffer dogs comb debris and mud looking for corpses and personal mementoes.

Worsened by widespread ignorance of the technicalities of radiation, public concern is rising around the world and radioactive particles have been found as far away as Iceland.

Japan has already halted shipment of some food from the area and told people there to stop eating leafy vegetables.

Asian neighbours are inspecting imports for contamination, and Taiwan advised boats to stop fishing in Japanese waters.

Although there has been progress in restoring power to the Fukushima site 13 days after the accident, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said it needed more time before it could say the reactors were stabilised.

DRAMA AT FUKUSHIMA

Technicians working inside an evacuation zone around the plant have successfully attached power cables to all six reactors and started a pump at one to cool overheating nuclear fuel rods.

Concern is high over reactor No. 1 after its temperature rose to near 400 degrees Celsius, above a design limit of 302.

As well as having its workers on the front line in highly dangerous circumstances, TEPCO is also facing accusations of a slow disaster response and questions over why it originally stored more uranium at the plant than it was designed to hold.

Vienna-based U.N. watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), expressed concern about a lack of information from Japanese authorities. It cited missing data on temperatures of spent fuel pools at the facility's reactors 1, 3 and 4.

"We continue to see radiation coming from the site ... and the question is where exactly is that coming from?" said a senior IAEA official, James Lyons.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he was concerned about radioactive fallout affecting the U.S. 55,000 troops in and around Japan, many involved in a massive relief operation for Washington's close ally. "We're also deeply concerned about the wellbeing of our Japanese allies," he said.

Experts said tiny traces of radioactive particles, measured by a network of monitoring stations as they spread eastwards from Japan across the Pacific, North America, the Atlantic and to Europe, were far too low to cause any harm to humans.

"It's only a matter of days before it disperses in the entire northern hemisphere," said Andreas Stohl, a senior scientist at the Norwegian Institute for Air Research
GLOBAL IMPACT

The Japan crisis has dealt a blow to the nuclear power industry around the world. Italy became the latest nation to re-assess its programme, announcing a one-year moratorium on site selection and building of plants.

Crisis in the world's third-biggest economy -- and its key position in global supply chains, especially for the auto and technology sectors -- has added to global market jitters, also affected by conflict in Libya and unrest in the Middle East.

Asian shares fell on Wednesday, with Tokyo's Nikkei shedding more than 1 percent as investors took profits from a two-session bounce. Japanese stocks are about 8 percent below their close on the day the 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck.

Toyota said it would delay the launch in Japan of two additions to the Prius line-up, a wagon and a minivan, from the originally planned end-April due to production disruptions.

The tsunami and earthquake are the world's costliest ever natural disaster, with the government estimating damage at 15-25 trillion yen ($185 billion-$308 billion.

The upper end of that range would equate to about 6 percent of Japan's gross domestic product.

The official death toll has risen to 9,199, but with 13,786 people still reported missing, it is certain to rise.

There are reports dozens of survivors, mostly elderly, have died in hospitals and evacuation centres due to a lack of proper treatment, or simply because of the cold. It is winter in Japan.

At one sports arena in Minamisanriku where 1,500 evacuees are staying, old people crowded at a counter stacked with pills and bandages, while about 30 people slept on beds or on the floor in a makeshift clinic with doctors on standby.

"It's less a problem of medical supplies now, but a problem of finding out what medicine is lacking where and centralising that information," said Nobuyuki Maki, a doctor.

"Many places in this area haven't restored mobile phone connections yet so there are still problems with communication."

WHO warns of "serious" food radiation in disaster-hit Japan

Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:08am GMT

* Radiation in food a "lot more serious" than first thought - WHO
* Power cables hooked up to all 6 reactors at crippled Fukushima plant
* Workers evacuated as smoke rises from badly damaged reactor
* U.S. energy secretary says worst of nuclear crisis may be over

By Junko Fujita and Kazunori Takada

TOKYO, March 21 (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation said on Monday that radiation in food after an earthquake damaged a Japanese nuclear plant was more serious than previously thought, eclipsing signs of progress in a battle to avert a catastrophic meltdown in the reactors.

Engineers managed to rig power cables to all six reactors at the Fukushima complex, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, and started a water pump at one of them to reverse the overheating that has triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years.

Some workers were later evacuated from one of the most badly damaged reactors when gray smoke rose from the site. There was no immediate explanation for the smoke, but authorities had said earlier that pressure was building up at the No. 3 reactor.

The amount of smoke later receded and Japan's nuclear safety agency said there was no significant change in radiation levels at the site.

The March 11 earthquake and tsunami left more than 21,000 people dead or missing and will cost an already beleaguered economy some $250 billion, making it the world's costliest ever natural disaster.

News of progress at the nuclear plant was overshadowed by mounting concern that radioactive particles already released into the atmosphere have contaminated food and water supplies.

"Quite clearly it's a serious situation," Peter Cordingley, Manila-based spokesman for the World Health Organisation's (WHO) regional office for the Western Pacific, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"It's a lot more serious than anybody thought in the early days when we thought that this kind of problem can be limited to 20 to 30 kilometres ... It's safe to suppose that some contaminated produce got out of the contamination zone."

However, he said there was no evidence of contaminated food from Fukushima reaching other countries.

TAP WATER

Japan's health ministry has urged some residents near the plant to stop drinking tap water after high levels of radioactive iodine were detected.

Cases of contaminated vegetables and milk have already stoked anxiety despite assurances from officials that the levels are not dangerous. The government has prohibited the sale of raw milk from Fukushima prefecture and spinach from a nearby area.

There were no major reports of contaminated food in Tokyo, a city of about 13 million people. City officials however said higher-than-standard levels of iodine were found in an edible form of chrysanthemum.

"From reports I have heard so far, it seems that the levels of radioactive iodine and caesium in milk and some foodstuffs are significantly higher than government limits," said Jim Smith, a specialist in earth and environmental sciences at Britain's Portsmouth University.

"This doesn't mean that consumption of these products is necessarily an immediate threat, as limits are set so that foodstuffs can be safely consumed over a fairly long period of time. Nevertheless, for foodstuffs which are found to be above limits, bans on sale and consumption will have to be put in place in the affected areas."

Japan is a net importer of food, but has substantial exports -- mainly fruit, vegetables, dairy products and seafood -- with its biggest markets in Hong Kong, China and the United States.

China would monitor food imported from Japan, the Xinhua news agency said, citing the country's quality control watchdog. South Korea said it would expand inspections for radioactivity to processed and dried agricultural Japanese food, from just fresh produce.

The prospects of a nuclear power plant meltdown in the world's third-biggest economy and its key position in global supply chains rattled investors worldwide last week and prompted rare joint currency intervention by the G7 group of rich nations to stabilise markets.

Moody's Investors Service said in a report that the downside risks from the crisis had increased over the past week for the economy, sovereign credit, banking, insurance and non-financial corporate sectors.

Tokyo's markets were closed for a holiday on Monday. The Nikkei index shed 10 percent last week, wiping $350 billion off market capitalisation, and at one point had lost as much as 20 percent in value.

In a much-needed boost for the battered market, billionaire investor Warren Buffett said the earthquake and tsunami were an "enormous blow" but should not prompt the selling of Japanese shares. Instead, he called events a "buying opportunity".

"It will take some time to rebuild. But it will not change the economic future of Japan. If I owned Japanese stocks, I would certainly not be selling them," Buffett said during a visit to a South Korean factory run by a company that is owned by one of his funds.

SITUATION CRITICAL AT PLANT

At Fukushima, 300 engineers have worked around the clock inside an evacuation zone to contain the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986.

They have been spraying the coastal complex with thousands of tonnes of sea water so fuel rods will not overheat and emit more radiation. Hopes for a more permanent solution depend on electricity cables reactivating on-site water pumps at each of the six reactors.

The most badly damaged reactors are No. 3 and 4, which were both hit by explosions last week.

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu , asked by CNN whether the worst of Japan's 10-day nuclear crisis was over, said on Sunday: "Well, we believe so, but I don't want to make a blanket statement."

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko added that radiation levels at the plant appeared to be falling.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan also said the situation at the nuclear plant was slowly improving.

If the cooling pumps cannot restart, drastic measures may be needed like burying the plant in sand and concrete.

Official tolls of dead and missing are rising steadily -- to 8,450 and 12,931 respectively.

The death toll could jump dramatically since police said they believed more than 15,000 people had been killed in Miyagi prefecture, one of four that took the brunt of the tsunami.

The 9.0-magnitude quake and ensuing 10-metre (32-ft) tsunami made more than 350,000 people homeless. Food, water, medicine and fuel are short in some parts, and near-freezing temperatures during Japan's winter are not helping.

6.1 quake hits south of stricken Japan nuclear plant

Mar 19, 2011, 03.54pm IST AFP |

OSAKA: A strong 6.1 magnitude earthquake rattled Japan's Ibaraki Prefecture south of the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, the country's meteorological agency said, but no tsunami warning was issued.

The quake shook buildings in Tokyo, but no damage was immediately reported, public broadcaster NHK said, adding that flights at the capital's Narita Airport were temporarily suspended for safety checks.

Germany suspends deal to extend nuclear plants' life

Mar14, 2011 8:19pm GMT
By David Stamp

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany has suspended a coalition agreement to delay closing the nation's ageing nuclear power stations, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday after the Japanese crisis stiffened opposition to an unpopular deal.

Last year, the coalition agreed to prolong the life of the 17 nuclear plants -- some of which are well over 30 years old -- beyond their original planned closure dates. On Monday Merkel said this agreement would now be suspended for three months.

As Japanese engineers struggle to avoid a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear complex, Merkel faces a backlash on her nuclear policy before elections in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg later this month.

One of Germany's oldest nuclear reactors is in the state, where Merkel's conservative CDU party risks losing power in the polls two weeks from now, partly because of rising support for the opposition Greens.

"We will suspend the extension of the life of Germany's nuclear power stations, which was decided only recently. The moratorium will last for three months," Merkel told a news conference, saying safety tests would be applied "without taboos."

The government had decided to keep the nuclear plants -- operated by E.ON, RWE, EnBW and Vattenfall -- running for about 12 years beyond their original shutdown date, despite protests even before the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan on Friday.

HUMAN CHAIN

Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen said the moratorium meant that the Neckarwestheim I plant in Baden-Wuerttemberg, which is operated by EnBW, should be taken offline and was unlikely to start up again.

However, an EnBW spokesman said the utility would keep Neckarwestheim I operating pending talks with the government.

Later, a source quoted Bavaria's environment minister as saying that the Isar 1 plant in the southern state should also go offline.

On Saturday, anti-nuclear protesters formed a 45-km (27 mile) human chain from the Baden-Wuerttemberg capital of Stuttgart to Neckarwestheim I. Between 50,000 and 60,000 demonstrators took part, according to police and organisers.

A coalition source said RWE's Biblis A also faced a shut down. Under the original closure schedule both reactors, which began operating in the mid-70s, had been due to close this year.

Merkel said she was not worried about Germany's electricity supply as the country was a net exporter of energy. On Monday protesters gathered outside her office, waving banners saying "Atomic power? No thank you!."

Germany had been due to go nuclear-free after the last plant reached the originally planned end of its life in 2021. But pressure, largely from the power industry, grew to keep the stations open.

Last year's agreement was supposed to end months of division on the issue between the CDU and its junior coalition partner, the Free Democrats.

No new nuclear power stations have opened in Germany for decades because of public hostility, especially after the 1986 disaster when the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine exploded, spewing radiation across much of Europe.

(Additional reporting by Thorsten Severin, Andreas Rinke and Gernot Heller,UK.reuters)

Indonesia not ready for building nuclear plant: minister

Sat, Mar19, 2011 14:59:57

Jakarta, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia is not ready to build nuclear power plants due to human resources issues and public opposition, the Jakarta Post quoted a minister as saying on Saturday.

Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta said that nuclear power plants should be the last resort since the country still had several energy option.

Gusti's statement comes as the National Atomic Energy Agency ( BATAN) insists on going ahead with its nuclear plant program despite mounting opposition.

"There's no need to hurry to build a nuclear power plant except if we start running out of energy resources," he told the daily on Friday.

He said that Indonesia could explore cleaner energy options such as geothermal, wind or water to power electricity plants.

Aside from problems with the supply of raw materials, the government needs to ensure the public about the security aspect following Japan's ongoing nuclear crisis, he said.

"It is not easy to ensure a public that is skeptical about nuclear reactors in Indonesia," he added.

Under the 2009 Environmental Law, Gusti's office is responsible for issuing environmental impact analysis documents for strategic businesses, including for nuclear power plants.

The nuclear crisis in Japan, triggered by the 9.0 Richter scale- earthquake, has forced the Japanese government to evacuate an area up to 30 km from the plant site.

Like Japan, Indonesia is located within the ring of fire that is prone to earthquakes.

BATAN Head Hudi Hastowi has insisted that the office would go ahead with the plan since it had been mandated by law. Editor: Zhang Xiang

Time for nuclear review, Chernobyl nuclear disaster...now Japanese nuclear crisis

Saturday March 19, 2011

By Jeeva Arulapalam,

TWENTY-FIVE years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, fears that Japan's nuclear crisis may trigger similar ramifications have caused governments worldwide to review their adoption of nuclear energy.

Japan, hit with a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami last Friday, is now coping with its own nuclear crisis after the tsunami caused Fukushima Daiichi power station's reactor to start overheating, causing radiation.

This nuclear scare has caused many nations to exercise stress tests on exiting nuclear reactors, with some even shutting down older nuclear power plants.

But an industry observer highlights that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The shutting of nuclear power plants globally will result in higher utilisation of gas and coal (commodities that will not last forever), which will drive commodity prices up further. A London Commodity Brokers report issued on Thursday said that European coal futures for 2012 have added

9% to US$ 134/tonnes since Friday's close after the earthquake and resulting tsunami shut some Japanese nuclear power plants, potentially forcing the country to burn more coal.

Malaysia, which has expressed interests in developing nuclear energy for future usage, currently relies heavily on coal and gas for electricity supply, with coal almost entirely imported and gas supply from Peninsular Malaysia fast diminishing.

The import of gas needs to commence within the next few years, Performance Management and Delivery Unit director for oil, gas and energy under the New Key Economic Areas Dr Emir Mavani told StarBizWeek.

The total potential of green energy is limited to around 4,000 MW, based on the assessment by the Green Technology Corp of Malaysia.

Coal, oil, gas, hydropower and nuclear energy are widely considered as commercial energy sources, with established economic competitiveness and supply chains globally.

“In contrast, renewable energy sources, including solar power, are considered alternative energy sources and not expected to be capable of substituting commercial energy sources. Nevertheless, renewable energy sources are expected to play an important role in reducing commercial energy demand, by augmenting overall energy supply,” said Dr Emir.

Globally

In the wake of Japan's nuclear crisis, governments globally are re-looking at safety aspects of their current operating nuclear power plants and have also started to question the wisdom in relying on civil nuclear energy as part of an energy mix given the potential safety hazards in the eventuality of a nuclear power plant meltdown.

China, the world's second-biggest energy user, has taken pro-active measures by suspending approvals for new plants and those in the pre-development plans until nuclear safety regulations are approved. With some 13 reactors in operation now, the country is currently building roughly 27 new reactors as part of its proposed plan to have over 100 nuclear power plants in the coming years.

European Union (EU) energy ministers have collectively agreed to carry out stress tests on the 143 nuclear power plants spread across 14 EU countries, following the recent nuclear crisis in Japan.

The stress tests will include risk assessments of possible damage by earthquakes, terrorist attacks, power fallouts and tsunamis among others.

The EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger had also the raised the prospects of a nuclear-free future for Europe in a meeting held last Tuesday among EU nations to discuss the nuclear crisis and safety measures.

Germany, which has 17 nuclear reactors operating currently, has decided to shutdown seven of its oldest reactors for a three-month duration to conduct safety probes.

French President Nicholas Sarkozy said that the recent nuclear crisis has given rise to questions on safety of nuclear power stations and its importance in energy mix.

However, France, the second-largest producer of nuclear power worldwide after the US with some 58 reactors operating now, will continue relying on nuclear energy given that it is an essential element of the country's energy independence.

US President Barack Obama, who is a proponent of nuclear energy development, is still keen on pursuing nuclear power as the country's overall energy plan. He said the country would take lessons learnt from Japan and continuously update how the US approached nuclear safety, and has asked the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to conduct a “comprehensive review” of the safety of all US nuclear plants.

The US has some 104 nuclear reactors providing 20% of the nation's electricity. It was reported by various news agencies that no new nuclear power plant has been built in the country since it experienced its own nuclear disaster in 1979, when a reactor at the Third Mile Island power plant, Pennsylvania, overheated causing radioactive gases to be released.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with CNN that he was reconsidering nuclear energy for the country due to the radiation leaks stemming from Japan's nuclear crisis.

He was reported to have said that the uncertainty over how the crisis will play out has left a cloud' hanging over the world and he was not keen to pursue civil nuclear energy in the coming years.

Malaysia

Malaysia has started to look at the feasibility of utilising nuclear energy as part of the country's energy mix. This is due to the power sector facing a major challenge as declining gas production will have an impact on the power generation industry. Currently, 58% of power generated in Peninsular Malaysia is based on natural gas, with the remainder coming from coal (37%) and hydro (5%).

A foreign research analyst says the country has to look at other renewable energy options, such as nuclear energy, especially since rising coal prices were impacting the bottomline of the country's energy provider, Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB).

“It is unfair that TNB has to bear the brunt of rising coal prices without electricity tariffs moving up. What needs to be worked out is a proper cost-pass through mechanism,” she says.

However, she adds that renewable energies such as solar and wind depend very much on nature, which could impact the sustainable production of energy.

Under the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), Malaysia is exploring the option of deploying nuclear energy to meet future demand and diversify the energy mix for Peninsular Malaysia. A Nuclear Power Development Steering Committee, headed by the Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry, was set up in June 2009 to plan for the country's potential nuclear energy needs.

The committee will prepare a Nuclear Power Infrastructure Development Plan to be ready by 2013, of which the ETP says that a nuclear power pre-feasibility study and initial site selection study has already been undertaken.

The plan will lay out a development timeframe of 12 years from pre-project to commissioning of a twin-unit nuclear power plant with a total capacity of two gigawatts costing up to RM21.3bil, with the first unit to be operational by 2021.

The rational behind pushing nuclear energy adoption is that it would be cost-competitive, supplying the cheapest source of energy. Aside form this, nuclear power is a cleaner energy than coal and gas (zero grams of carbon dioxide equivalent per kwh vs 800 and 400 grams respectively.)

While these details have been made known in the ETP, what many may be interested to note is that a key enabler to the nuclear energy project taking off is public acceptance.

Many quarters have expressed concern over the development of nuclear power plants locally, with political figureheads as well as environmental and consumers groups urging the government to re-consider other renewable energy options instead of adopting nuclear energy.

Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Peter Chin Fah Kui said that the proposal to construct nuclear power plants for electricity has not been decided yet by the Cabinet.

The Environmental Protection Society Malaysia president Nithi Nesaduraio says that Malaysia does not need nuclear power plants, with such facilities left vulnerable to earthquakes, tsunamis and floods.

However, an industry source familiar with the country's nuclear development plans, says that it is premature to make any call on the impact to Malaysia's nuclear plan.

“Malaysia is not in an earthquake belt and the tsunami risk has been taken into account in the local nuclear power plant siting activity,” says the source.

It is good to point out here that the nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi power stations had shut off automatically after the earthquake but the emergency cooling systems failed to work after the tsunami damaged the plant's local backups. This has led the Japanese authorities to douse water onto the nuclear reactor from aerial and ground levels to keep it cool.

Back to Malaysia among the renewable energies up for consideration under the energy mix include hydro, solar and biomass. But the drawback of solar and biomass plants is that the energy output would pale in comparison to the output of nuclear power plants.

Dr Emir says a major constraint of renewable energy sources is availability.

For example, solar power supply is dependent on the availability of sunshine, which is constraint by climatic conditions, such as rain or clouds, and unavailable at night.

Hydropower is constraint by the catchment area and the size of the reservoir. The amount of electricity that could be generated by hydropower stations are limited by the volume of water that could be stored in the reservoir.

Dr Emir adds that to compensate for these constraints, redundant back-up electricity generation capacity need to be established, in the event that such renewable energy sources are not available in time of need. This would increase overall investment cost.

“Should Malaysia proceed with nuclear power plants, there needs to be an independent watchdog that is established to oversee the safety requirements on these plants,” says an industry observer.

As the world awaits to assess the potential damage from Japan's nuclear crisis, this may be the right time to reflect on the country's future energy mix and potential dependency on nuclear power.

Nuclear Power versus coal

Friday | March 18, 2011

Suppose that a giant hydro dam had crumbled under the impact of the biggest earthquake in a century and sent a wave of water racing down some valley in northern Japan. Imagine that whole villages and towns had been swept away, and that 10 people were killed - an even worse death toll than that caused by the tsunami that hit the coastal towns.

Would there be a great outcry worldwide, demanding that reservoirs be drained and hydro dams shut down? Of course not. Do you think we are superstitious savages? We are educated, civilised people, and we understand the way that risk works.

Okay, another thought experiment. Suppose that three big nuclear-power reactors were damaged in that same monster earthquake, leading to concerns about a meltdown and a massive release of radiation - a new Chernobyl. Everybody within a 20km (14-mile) radius of the plant was evacuated, but in the end there were only minor leakages of radiation, and nobody was killed.

Well, that was a pretty convincing demonstration of the safety of nuclear power, wasn't it? Well, wasn't it? You there in the loincloth, with the bone through your nose. Why are you looking so frightened? Is something wrong?

U.S., Germany reconsider

In Germany, tens of thousands of protesters demonstrated against nuclear power last Saturday, and Chancellor Angela Merkel suspended her policy of extending the life of the country's nuclear power stations until 2036. She conceded that, following events in Japan, it was not possible to "go back to business as usual", meaning that she may return to the original plan to close down all 17 of Germany's nuclear power plants by 2020.

And in the United States, Congressmen Henry Waxman and Ed Markey (Democratic), who co-sponsored the 2009 climate bill, called for hearings into the safety and preparedness of America's nuclear plants, 23 of which have similar designs to the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan.

The objections to a wider use of nuclear power in the US are mostly rational. Safety worries are a much smaller obstacle than concerns about cost and time: nuclear plants are enormously expensive, and they take the better part of a decade to license and build. Huge cost overruns are normal, and government aid, in the form of loan guarantees and insurance coverage for catastrophic accidents, is almost always necessary.

The cost of wind and solar power is steadily dropping, and the price of natural gas, the least noxious fossil-fuel alternative to nuclear power, has been in free fall. There is no need for a public debate in the United States on the desirability of more nuclear power: just let the market decide. In Europe, however, there is a real debate, and the wrong side is winning it.

Nuclear phase-out

The European debate has focused on shutting down existing nuclear-generating capacity, not installing more of it. The German and Swedish governments may be forced by public opinion to revive the former policy of phasing out all their nuclear-power plants in the near future, even though that means postponing the shutdown of highly polluting coal-fired power plants. Other European governments face similar pressures.

It's a bad bargain. Hundreds of miners die every year digging the coal out of the ground, and hundreds of thousands of other people die annually from respiratory diseases caused by the pollution created by burning it. In the long run, hundreds of millions may die from the global warming that is driven in large part by greenhouse emissions from coal-fired power plants. Yet people worry more about nuclear power.

It's the same sort of mistaken assessment of risk that caused millions of Americans to drive long distances instead of flying in the months just after 9/11. There were several thousand excess road deaths, while nobody died in the airplanes that the late lamented had avoided as too dangerous. Risks should be assessed rationally, not emotionally.

And here's the funny thing. So long as the problems at Fukushima Daiichi do not kill large numbers of people, the Japanese will not turn against nuclear power, which currently provides more than 30 per cent of their electricity and is scheduled to expand to 40 per cent. Their islands get hit by more big earthquakes than anywhere else on earth, and the typhoons roar in regularly off the Pacific. They understand about risk. (sourced The Gleaner)

Japan battles nuclear crisis, power effort crucial

Fri Mar 18, 2011 4:20pm GM

By Shinichi Saoshiro and Yoko Nishikawa

TOKYO, March 19 (Reuters) - Exhausted Japanese engineers scrambled to fix a power cable to two reactors at a tsunami-crippled nuclear power station on Saturday as they fought to prevent a deadly radiation release in the world's worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster.

The dangerous and complex challenge for about 300 workers at the Fukushima plant in northeastern Japan, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, has unsettled the world's financial markets and prompted an international reassessment of nuclear safety.

At the plant, from where people within 20 km (12 miles) have been evacuated to avoid radiation, engineers were hoping to attach power lines to two of the six reactors in order to
restart water pumps and cool overheated nuclear fuel rods.

Workers also sprayed water on the No.3 reactor, considered the most critical after steam was seen blowing off, a sign the rods could be becoming exposed.

If those tactics fail, the option of last resort may be to bury the sprawling 40-year-old plant in sand and concrete to prevent a catastrophic radiation release, the method used to seal huge leakages from Chernobyl after a huge blast there.

Japan has raised the severity rating of the nuclear crisis from Level 4 to Level 5 on the seven-level INES international scale, putting it on a par with America's Three Mile Island
accident in 1979, although some experts say it is more serious.

Chernobyl was a 7 on that scale.

The operation to avert a large-scale radiation leak has overshadowed the humanitarian aspect of Japan's toughest moment since World War Two, after it was struck last Friday by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and a 10-metre (33-foot) tsunami.

Around 6,500 have been confirmed killed in the double natural disaster, which turned whole towns into waterlogged wastelands, and 10,300 remain missing with many feared dead.

Some 390,000 people, including many among Japan's ageing population, are homeless and battling near-freezing temperatures in makeshift shelters in northeastern coastal areas.

Food, water, medicine and heating fuel are in short supply.

"Everything is gone, including money," said Tsukasa Sato, a 74-year-old barber with a heart condition, as he warmed his hands in front of a stove at a shelter for the homeless in Yamada, northern Japan.

Under enormous pressure over its handling of the combination of crises, Japan's government conceded it could have moved faster at the outset.

"An unprecedented huge earthquake and huge tsunami hit Japan. As a result, things that had not been anticipated in terms of the general disaster response took place," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters late on Friday.

Health officials and the U.N. atomic watchdog have said radiation levels in the capital Tokyo were not harmful, but the city has seen an exodus of tourists, expatriates and many
Japanese, who fear a blast of radioactive material.

"I'm leaving because my parents are terrified. I personally think this will turn out to be the biggest paper tiger the world has ever seen," said Luke Ridley, 23, from London as he sat at
Narita international airport using his laptop.

"I'll probably come back in about a month."

Amid their distress, Japanese were proud of the 300 or so nuclear plant workers toiling in the wreckage, wearing masks, goggles and protective suits sealed by duct tape.

"My eyes well with tears at the thought of the work they are doing," Kazuya Aoki, a safety official at Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, told Reuters.

Even if engineers restore power at the plant, the pumps may be too damaged to work.

The first step will be to restore power to pumps for reactors No. 1 and 2, and possibly 4, by Saturday, said Hidehiko Nishiyama, Japan's nuclear safety agency spokesman.

By Sunday, the government expects to connect electricity to pumps for its badly damaged reactor No.3 -- a focal point in the crisis because of its use of mixed oxides, or mox, containing
both uranium and highly toxic plutonium.

That could be a turning point.

"If they can get those electric pumps on and they can start pushing that water successfully up the core, quite slowly so you don't cause any brittle failure, they should be able to get it
under control in the next couple of days," said Laurence Williams, of Britain's University of Central Lancashire.

The last-resort option of burying the reactors could leave part of Japan off-limits for decades.

FINANCIAL INTERVENTION

The Group of Seven rich nations, attempting to calm global financial markets after a tumultuous week, agreed on Friday to join in a rare concerted intervention to restrain a soaring yen.

The U.S. dollar surged more than two yen to 81.80 after the G7's pledge to intervene, leaving behind a record low of 76.25 hit on Thursday.

Japan's Nikkei share index ended up 2.7 percent, recouping some of the week's stinging losses. It has lost 10.2 percent this week, wiping $350 billion off market capitalisation.

Expectations that Japanese insurers and companies would repatriate billions of dollars in overseas funds to pay for a reconstruction bill that is expected to be much costlier than the one that followed the Kobe earthquake in 1995 also have helped boost the yen.

The plight of those left homeless by the earthquake and tsunami worsened following a cold snap that brought heavy snow to worst-affected areas.

Nearly 320,000 households in the north were still without electricity, officials said, and the government said at least 1.6 million households lacked running water.

Aid groups say most victims are receiving attention, but there are pockets of acute suffering.

"We've seen children suffering with the cold, and lacking really basic items like food and clean water," said Stephen McDonald of Save the Children, in a statement on Friday.

(Additional reporting by Linda Sieg, Nathan Layne, Elaine Lies, Leika Kihara, Joseph Radford and Chris Gallagher in Japan; Fiona Ortiz in Madrid; Writing by Jason Szep and Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Daniel Magnowski, sourced :Reuters)


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Chernobyl disaster

The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine). It is considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, and it is the only one classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale.

The disaster began during a systems test on 26 April 1986 at reactor number four of the Chernobyl plant, which is near the town of Pripyat. There was a sudden power output surge, and when an emergency shutdown was attempted, a more extreme spike in power output occurred, which led to a reactor vessel rupture and a series of explosions. This event exposed the graphite moderator components of the reactor to air, causing them to ignite. The resulting fire sent a plume of radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and over an extensive geographical area, including Pripyat. The plume drifted over large parts of the western Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Northern Europe. Large areas in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia were evacuated, and over 336,000 people were resettled. According to official post-Soviet data, about 60% of the fallout landed in Belarus.

The accident raised concerns about the safety of the Soviet nuclear power industry, as well as nuclear power in general, slowing its expansion for a number of years and forcing the Soviet government to become less secretive about its procedures.

Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus have been burdened with the continuing and substantial decontamination and health care costs of the Chernobyl accident. More than fifty deaths are directly attributed to the accident, all among the reactor staff and emergency workers. Estimates of the total number of deaths attributable to the accident vary enormously, from possibly 4,000 to close to a million.[4][5] Despite the accident, Ukraine continued to operate the remaining reactors at Chernobyl until 2000, when the last reactor at the site was closed down.

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Brilliant Greenpeace video on Chernobyl