Nuclear Power & Radiation

"Despite being orchestrated by musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, novelist Kenzaburo Oe and other prominent figures, the Sayonara Nukes 100,000 Rally held on the July 16 national holiday in Tokyo often looked and felt like conventional old-left demonstrations.

The rally to demand a nuclear-free Japan drew a large number of labor union members, consumer and other old-time activists, waving flags of their organizations, among the estimated 170,000 participants in Yoyogi Park in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward.

"Despite promises from the nuclear industry to regulators and consumers that they learned from mistakes of the past, the nation's first two nuclear reactor projects built from scratch in 30 years are headed toward hundreds of millions of dollars in cost overruns and months, if not years, of delays."

"WASHINGTON, DC -- The same 'man-made' problems underlying last year's nuclear disaster in Japan exist today in the United States, warn five U.S. groups responding to the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission's report to Japan's Diet, or parliament."

"LOS ANGELES -- US nuclear regulators published an update on California's troubled San Onofre power plant Thursday, sparking an expert warning that the problem is more serious than first thought."

"The debate over making post-Fukushima Daichi improvements to American reactors is getting down into the details, and one focus is pressure relief vents."

"Lakes across eastern Japan are being contaminated with radioactive cesium from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, and scientists are warning of a growing problem in Tokyo Bay.

Radioactive mud carried down rivers is slowly accumulating in the lakes, in some cases making fish and shellfish dangerous to eat.

"LOS ANGELES - The future of the troubled San Onofre nuclear power plant could balance on an inescapable question: Is it worth the money to fix it?"

"TOKYO — The nuclear accident at Fukushima was a man-made disaster rooted in government-industry collusion and the worst conformist conventions of Japanese culture, a high-level parliamentary inquiry concluded on Thursday, in a report that also warned that the plant may not have stood up to earthquake damage — a worrying concern as the quake-prone country starts to bring its reactor fleet back online."

"TOKYO -- Protesters thronged the wide streets in front of the prime minister’s office in Tokyo over the weekend, and across the country they gathered about a quarter-mile from the entrance of a nuclear plant. They shouted “No to the restart” and parked cars in front of the plant’s access road to block workers from coming or going, according to Japanese media."

"Two prominent seismologists said on Tuesday that Japan is ignoring the safety lessons of last year's Fukushima crisis and warned against restarting two reactors next month."