Tag: Nuclear

TOKYO - Countries across the world shunned Japanese food imports on Thursday as radioactive steam leaked from a disaster-struck nuclear plant, straining nerves in Tokyo. The grim toll of dead and missing from Japan's monster quake and tsunami on March 11 topped 26,000, as hundreds of thousands remained huddled in evacuation shelters and fears grew in the megacity of Tokyo over water safety. The damage to the Fukushima nuclear plant from the tectonic calamity and a series of explosions

TOKYO - Japan restored power to a crippled nuclear reactor on Sunday in its race to avert disaster at a plant wrecked by an earthquake and tsunami that are estimated to have killed more than 15,000 people in one prefecture alone.
Three hundred engineers have been struggling inside the danger zone to salvage the six-reactor Fukushima plant in the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl 25 years ago. In one remarkable story of survival, an 80-year-old woman and 16-year-old

NEW YORK - A nuclear power plant about 40 miles north of New York City must review the earthquake threat and other risks if it wants to operate for another 20 years, New York state's attorney general said on Friday. "While the possibility of an intense earthquake is relatively low, the potential for harm is so catastrophic that it has to be taken into account," New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman told a news conference. The Indian Point plant, owned by Entergy Corp, is in

TOKYO - Japanese engineers conceded on Friday that burying a crippled nuclear plant in sand and concrete may be a last resort to prevent a catastrophic radiation release, the method used to seal huge leakages from Chernobyl in 1986. But they still hoped to solve the crisis by fixing a power cable to two reactors by Saturday to restart water pumps needed to cool overheating nuclear fuel rods. Workers also sprayed water on the No.3 reactor, the most critical of the plant's six.
It

SEOUL - South Korea on Thursday rejected an offer from North Korea to discuss its new nuclear programme and return to six-party disarmament talks, saying its neighbour must first show peaceful intentions. Foreign Minister Kim Sung-Hwan said Pyongyang should demonstrate its commitment to denuclearisation "not through words, but through action". "This (offer) is insufficient and does not fit the position of the (five) other countries that the right conditions should be created," he told

TOKYO - Japan's nuclear crisis appeared to be spinning out of control on Wednesday after workers withdrew briefly from a stricken power plant because of surging radiation levels and a helicopter failed to drop water on the most troubled reactor. In a sign of desperation, the police will try to cool spent nuclear fuel at one of the facility's reactors with water cannon, which is normally used to quell riots.
Early in the day another fire broke out at the earthquake-crippled

TOKYO - Japan put its top priority on Wednesday on efforts to cool down a plutonium-fuelled nuclear reactor, attempting at one stage to water-bomb the facility without success amid fears that authorities were running out of options to avert disaster. The No.3 reactor is the only one of the quake-stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant's six reactor units to be powered with plutonium, which is far more hazardous to health than uranium, which is used to power the other five reactors.
High

BEIJING - China's vast nuclear push is likely to slow after the government ordered a safety crackdown on Wednesday in the aftermath of Japan's nuclear crisis. The announcement by the State Council, or cabinet, was the clearest sign yet that the crisis at a quake-ravaged nuclear complex in northeast Japan could affect China's ambitious nuclear expansion, by far the world's largest.
But at least one expert said the measures were unlikely to stop China's expansion of nuclear power.

KARACHI - The Pakistan Peace Coalition (PPC) on Tuesday reiterated its stand on the dangers of nuclear technology in the backdrop of the recent catastrophe in Japan, which has again highlighted the potential hazards of nuclear power.
A statement issued by the PPC stated that the description of nuclear power as reliable, secure and a source of renewable energy has turned out to be a myth, as Japan learnt that nuclear energy is an irresponsible, expensive and unnecessary high-risk

PARIS - The unfolding nuclear accident in Japan is reviving the debate over safety in France, which relies on nuclear for 80 percent of its power needs, but there appears scant prospect it will turn its back on the industry.
In stark contrast with neighbouring Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel announced the suspension of her nuclear energy policy, France signalled it would not pull the plug on its flagship nuclear industry, one of the country's key exports.
French

SENDAI - A new explosion at a stricken nuclear power plant hit Japan on Monday as it raced to avert a reactor meltdown after a quake-tsunami disaster that is feared to have killed more than 10,000 people. Searchers found 2,000 bodies just in the northeastern region of Miyagi, while millions were left without water, electricity, fuel or enough food. Hundreds of thousands more were homeless after the tsunami drowned whole towns. Panic selling saw stocks close more than six percent lower

TOKYO - Nuclear fuel rods at a quake-stricken Japanese nuclear reactor are now fully exposed, Jiji news agency said, quoting the plant's operator, Tokyo Eletcric Power Co. The report referred to the Fukushima Daiichi complex's No.2 reactor, where levels of water coolant around the reactor core had been reported as falling earlier in the day. The Jiji report said a meltdown of the fuel rods could not be ruled out. A meltdown raises the risk of damage to the reactor vessel and a

ISLAMABAD/BHUBANESWAR - Pakistan and India tested their short-ranged nuclear missiles on Friday. Pakistan test fired its Surface-to-Surface (STS) Ballistic Missile Hataf-2 (Abdali) while India test fired a missile named Dhanush, meaning "archer's bow" in Sanskrit, in the morning from a naval ship in the Bay of Bengal off to the eastern Orissa state and the second missile, the Prithvi II, or Earth, blasted off soon afterwards from a testing range at Chandipur-on-Sea, 200 kilometres

WASHINGTON - A Pakistani national has been arrested and charged with a scheme to illegally export nuclear-related materials to Pakistan from the United States (US), the US Justice Department said on Wednesday. Nadeem Akhtar, 45, who lives in the a Washington suburb of Silver Spring, Maryland, was indicted for conspiring with others to illegally export restricted goods and technology to a Pakistani nuclear power plant and a Pakistani research commission. With an unidentified

TOKYO - President Asif Ali Zardari has said that since Japan is negotiating a deal with India to cooperate on peaceful uses of nuclear energy, the similar cooperation should be extended to his country. "If Japan is willing to cooperate with India in nuclear technology and (is) giving nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, I do not see any reason why we should not deserve the same," Zardari said in an interview with the Japanese media in Islamabad ahead of his departure for a

SEOUL - North Korea is digging tunnels at a site where it has launched two nuclear tests, suggesting it is preparing a third, the South's Yonhap news agency said on Sunday. Tensions rose on the divided peninsula when 46 sailors were killed in an attack in March on a South Korean naval vessel. North Korea, which has denied responsibility, shelled the southern island of Yeonpyeong in November, killing four people and sparking fears of possible all-out war.
The North was excavating

VIENNA - The UN atomic watchdog may soon spell out in more detail its concerns about possible military aspects to Iran's disputed nuclear programme, Western diplomatic sources say. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is considering including an annex on the issue in its next regular report on Iran's atomic activities due this month, ahead of a meeting in early March of its 35-nation governing board, one source said.
Such a move would signal the UN body's growing