Tag - nuclear-energy

 
 

NUCLEAR ENERGY

Japan’s biggest nuclear power plant, the Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture, is ready to restart but needs a green light from the local governor.
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2025
The revival of Japan’s biggest nuclear plant faces its last hurdle
If the restart is approved, the nuclear power plant could start producing power within the following month.
Rafael Grossi (left), director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya at a joint news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday
JAPAN
Feb 19, 2025
Japan and IAEA to boost cooperation on Fukushima No. 1 decommissioning
Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and IAEA chief Rafael Grossi discussed the nuclear plant and the release of treated water from the facility into the ocean.
The government has made a shift toward nuclear amid predictions of higher electricity demand stemming from semiconductor production and data centers for AI in the decades to come.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 18, 2025
Japan backs nuclear power in climate plan criticized as insufficient
The government is targeting emissions cuts of 60% by fiscal 2035, but environmental groups and businesses have called for more ambition.
Work to dismantle wastewater storage tanks are under way at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant as part of steps to decommission the entire facility.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2025
U.N. nuclear chief to view soil removed from Fukushima
Workers at the wrecked plant on Japan's northeast coast last week began dismantling wastewater storage tanks to free up space for tons of nuclear debris.
U.S. President Donald Trump listens alongside Elon Musk as he explains the administration's cost-cutting efforts in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 16, 2025
Fired U.S. nuclear bomb specialists recalled by Energy Department
The employees, responsible for designing and maintaining U.S. nuclear weapons, were part of a larger wave of mass dismissals, drawing alarm from national security experts.
The top lid of a tank at the "J9" area is removed at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings' Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, on Friday.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Feb 15, 2025
Tepco takes on challenge of making space for Fukushima nuclear debris
Workers at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant have started dismantling water storage tanks to free up space for tons of nuclear debris.
A Ukrainian serviceman watches an inspection of damage to the radiation containment shield of Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant following a Russian drone strike in Chernobyl, Ukraine, on Friday.
WORLD
Feb 15, 2025
Russian drone attack 'damaged Chernobyl plant's confinement structure'
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the International Atomic Energy Agency had earlier reported that radiation levels remained normal at the plant.
The structure that covers the remains of the damaged reactor 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is seen damaged on Friday.
WORLD
Feb 14, 2025
Russian drone 'struck' Chernobyl cover, but no radiation increase detected: Zelenskyy
Ukraine said Russia launched more than 100 drones across the country overnight targeting northern regions of the country where the Chernobyl power plant lies.
The treated water storage tanks planned for dismantling, shown to members of the press at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant on Thursday
JAPAN
Feb 13, 2025
High wind halts dismantling of Fukushima nuclear plant's water tanks
The dismantling had been seen as a milestone in Tepco's decades-long project to decommission the stricken plant, which went into meltdown after it was hit by a tsunami in 2011.
Kansai Electric Power's Takahama nuclear power station in Takahama, Fukui Prefecture
JAPAN
Feb 13, 2025
Kansai Electric proposes doubling Fukui-France nuclear waste shipments
It remains to be seen whether the prefectural government will support the revised plans. Fukui has long called for spent nuclear fuel to be taken out of the prefecture.
Plastic bags containing radiated soil are seen inside the exclusion zone around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, in March 2020.
JAPAN
Feb 12, 2025
Japan to pick final disposal sites for Fukushima soil around 2030
As of the end of December, about 14 million cubic meters of such soil had been transported to an interim storage facility.
The Takahama nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2025
Kansai Electric to ship more spent nuclear fuel to France
The move comes as Fukui Prefecture, home to several nuclear plants, urges Kansai Electric to address shrinking storage capacity for spent nuclear fuel, the sources said.
Tanks containing water from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant at the facility in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, in March 2023
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2025
Fukushima plant operator to dismantle treated water tanks next week
The step is a milestone of a sort as Tokyo Electric Power Company moves ahead with a decades-long project to dismantle the entire plant.
International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2025
IAEA chief to visit Japan nuclear power plants this month
Rafael Grossi will visit Tepco's Fukushima No. 1 power plant and an interim storage facility for soil from radiation decontamination work.
A Chinese flag atop a nuclear fusion reactor in Hefei, Anhui province, China, in November 2018
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 28, 2025
Images show China building huge fusion research facility, analysts say
China appears to be building a large laser-ignited fusion research center in the southwestern city of Mianyang, experts at two analytical organizations say.
Solar panels and a coal-fired power station in Fukushima Prefecture. Japan has not set a clear path for phasing out coal and its new draft energy plan foresees an important role for fossil fuels, especially gas, and nuclear power in its future energy mix.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 13, 2025
Japan’s energy plans endanger real climate solutions
The government's draft energy plans were not subject to open debate and their outcome shows an insufficient commitment to making the changes needed to tackle climate change.
Japan aims for nuclear power to make up 20% of its energy mix by 2040. However, the restart of the country's reactors is complicated by issues such as local opposition, as is the case for the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 10, 2025
Robust new nuclear target for Japan is shrouded in uncertainty
A new plan envisions nuclear power making up 20% of Japan's energy mix by 2040. But hurdles to reactor restarts and rising electricity demand cast a shadow on such ambitions.
Solar panels, which typically last 20 to 30 years, will begin to reach the end of their service life in the next decade.
JAPAN
Jan 5, 2025
Disposal of used solar panels emerging as challenge in Japan
The annual amount of solar panels discarded as waste is seen peaking at some 500,000 tons in the early 2040s, putting a major strain on industrial waste treatment facilities.
Nuclear fuel debris recovered from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant No. 2 reactor
JAPAN
Dec 26, 2024
Uranium detected in extracted Fukushima nuclear fuel debris
The debris was extracted from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant's No. 2 reactor.
Greenpeace activists protest nuclear power in Berlin in April 2023, just as Germany was shutting down its three remaining nuclear power plants. 
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2024
It's time for Germany to admit its mistake on nuclear energy
The main thing standing in the way of Germany rebuilding its nuclear sector is a stubborn insistence that it can’t be done.

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