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Kagoshima - The Japanese Meteorological Agency said Saturday that Mount Sakurajima in Kagoshima Prefecture is showing signs of increased volcanic activity, and residents should be prepared to evacuate. The volcano is 31 miles from the restarted Sendai nuclear plant. Mount Sakurajima, 990 kilometers south-west of Tokyo, is one of Japan's most active volcanoes, erupting almost constantly. Officials are saying a larger eruption than normal is expected, according to the Japan Times. The warning alert was raised to its second highest level Saturday morning after meteorologists began picking up increasing seismic activity. The volcano sits just off the coast of Kagoshima,...

A U.S. drone was shot down while flying over a nuclear facility in Iran, according to reports in the Iranian media. Iran's Fars news agency reported that lawmaker Ali Aqazadeh Dafsari, a member of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, had confirmed the unmanned spy plane was flying near the Fordo nuclear enrichment plant in Qom province when it was brought down by Revolutionary Guard soldiers. It did not say when the alleged incident happened. Dafsari told Fars that the drone was trying to gather information about the nuclear facility for the CIA. Fars also said Iranian military...

I mentioned the system called the WSPEEDI simulation system in passing when I wrote about SPEEDI data for the early period of the Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident (March 11 onward). When Professor Kosako resigned from his post as PM special advisor in protest of the 20 millisievert/year radiation limit for school children, he called for the release of WSPEEDI, which can cover much wider area ("several thousand kilometers", according to Professor Kosako). Well well. The Ministry of Education very quietly put the WSPEEDI simulation data on their webpage for SPEEDI data list on May 10, without any fanfare, without...

His assessment that seawater might cause recriticality in the Reactor 1 was what supposedly prompted Prime Minister Kan to order TEPCO to halt the seawater injection on the night of March 12, as I reported in my post yesterday. Now, Madarame, the head of the Nuclear Safety Commission and ex-Tokyo University Professor, says "I didn't say that." I'm sure that's the case, Mr. Madarame. Just like the comment you say you didn't make, that the 20 millisieverts/year radiation for school children is acceptable, or your current position that you knew from the beginning that it was a core meltdown and...

OKYO—Over the last several days, evidence has emerged indicating that the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was far more dire than previously recognized. The main evidence is extensive—rather than partial—melting of the nuclear fuel in three reactors in the hours after the 11 March earthquake and tsunami. Despite that bad news, however, today plant owner Tokyo Electric Power Co. pledged it would still meet the target set 17 April to stabilize the situation by January 2012 so 100,000 residents evacuated from around the plant can return to their homes and the decade-long process of demolishing the reactors...

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says workers may have manually shut down the No.1 reactor's emergency cooling system in order to prevent damage to the reactor. It says pressure inside the reactor had dropped sharply after the earthquake struck the plant on March 11th. Tokyo Electric Power Company on Monday disclosed records of its operations at the plant. They show that the reactor automatically halted operations after the earthquake. The emergency cooling system was automatically activated but stopped about 10 minutes later and remained off for about 3 hours until after the tsunami arrived. TEPCO says...

Tokyo Electric Power Co. concealed data showing spikes in radiation levels at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in March, one day before a hydrogen explosion injured seven workers. The Asahi Shimbun obtained a 100-page internal TEPCO report containing minute-to-minute data on radiation levels at the plant as well as pressure and water levels inside the No. 3 reactor from March 11 to April 30. The data has never been released by the company that operates the stricken plant. The unpublished information shows that at 1:17 p.m. on March 13, 300 millisieverts of radiation per hour was detected inside...

Accurate data shattered the overly optimistic assessment of Tokyo Electric Power Co. concerning the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and raised doubts about the company's game plan for ending the crisis. Measurements from a recently installed water gauge provided conclusive evidence that the condition of the No. 1 reactor at the plant was much more serious than TEPCO officials have acknowledged until now. TEPCO officials admitted on May 12 that a "meltdown" had occurred in the No. 1 reactor. Fuel rods had melted, and the molten fuel accumulated and caused small cracks at the bottom of the reactor...

Youtube video at link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxbm7iJTT8U&feature=player_embedded

ince the pressure inside the reactor building is lower than the outside by design, when TEPCO opened the double door the cooler outside air got sucked in, and the radioactive air that was inside the building was pushed up and out of the building through the roof that had collapsed by the explosion on March 12. And they chose to open the door at night, when the outside air was even colder. So the whole point of this exercise was to release as much radioactive air as possible out of the reactor building, it seems. They could have chosen to...

The first map of ground surface contamination within 80 kilometers of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant shows radiation levels higher in some municipalities than those in the mandatory relocation zone around the Chernobyl plant. The map, released May 6, was compiled from data from a joint aircraft survey undertaken by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the U.S. Department of Energy. It showed that a belt of contamination, with 3 million to 14.7 million becquerels of cesium-137 per square meter, spread to the northwest of the nuclear plant. After the 1986 Chernobyl disaster,...

That's diametrically opposite of what the government officials were apparently saying on May 1, when the PM's assistant was on record saying "there will be a large amount of radioactive materials released on May 8". No estimate or simulation of how low (or high) the level may be of the radioactive materials coming out of the Reactor 1 reactor building. No official (government) word. For the rest of us, we are supposed to take TEPCO's word and feel secure and comforted that radiation will be low. This is the company that somehow forgot (didn't bother, I might say) to inform...

They’re gonna flood the drywell? Posted on May 5, 2011 by wormme That’s what I get from this TEPCO proposal (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/betu11_e/images/110505e2.pdf). Correct me if I’m wrong. Since it is unusual to flood the primary containment vessel (dry/well)… Er…yes, that’s pretty unusual. As in, “never been done before, to my knowledge”. That’s a lot of water. But they seem confident the added stress won’t be problematic. And if I’m reading it right, they expect it to decrease the amount of rad material being spread from containment. The only adverse side effect I see is that they might get overflow into a...

Situation Update No. 2 On 03.05.2011 at 04:34 GMT+2 Leaks of radioactive substances from fuel rods are suspected to have occurred at a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, the Fukui prefectural government said Monday, citing a rise in the level of radioactive substances in coolant water. The operator, Japan Atomic Power Co., will manually shut down the No. 2 reactor of the plant on the Sea of Japan coast and examine the primary cooling system for it. The local government denied that the levels of radioactive substances could threaten the nearby environment. According to Japan Atomic, 4.2 becquerels of iodine-133...

Leaks of radioactive substances from fuel rods are suspected to have occurred at a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, the Fukui prefectural government said Monday, citing a rise in the level of radioactive substances in coolant water. The operator, Japan Atomic Power Co., will manually shut down the No. 2 reactor of the plant on the Sea of Japan coast and examine the primary cooling system for it. The local government denied that the levels of radioactive substances could threaten the nearby environment. According to Japan Atomic, 4.2 becquerels of iodine-133 and 3,900 becquerels of xenon gas were detected per...

An official at Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, admitted Wednesday that fuel of the plant's No. 1 reactor could be melting. To have fuller access to the Kyodo News website, it is necessary to subscribe.

The No. 1 reactor of the Onagawa nuclear power plant in Miyagi Prefecture on April 7 sustained a jolt greater than what it was designed to withstand during a strong aftershock from the powerful March 11 earthquake, according to nuclear safety officials. The finding raises further doubts about the viability of the assumed quake resistance at the Tohoku Electric Power Co. complex, even though it had been shut down safely after the deadly quake last month. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has instructed the regional utility serving northeastern Japan to analyze the impact of such a jolt on key...

... Edano said the amount of radiation detected in the milk would as much as one CT scan if consumed continually for a year while for spinach [if consumed for a year] it would be a fifth of one CT scan. A CT scan is a compressed series of X-rays used for medical tests. Low levels of radiation have been detected well beyond Tokyo, which is 140 miles (220 kilometers) south of the plant, but hazardous levels have been limited to the plant itself.

IAEA official says conditions at plant are serious but stable, as the agency faces renewed scrutiny for its record

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama next week will announce a loan guarantee to build the first nuclear power plant in the United States in almost three decades, an administration official said Friday. The two new Southern Co. reactors to be built in Burke, Ga., are part of a White House energy plan administration officials hope will draw Republican support. Obama's direct involvement in announcing the award underscores the political weight the White House is putting behind its effort to use nuclear power and alternative energy sources to lessen American dependence on foreign oil and reduce the use of other fossil...