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One of the reactors in the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant may have been relying on flawed steel to hold the radiation in its core, according to an engineer who helped build its containment vessel four decades ago. Mitsuhiko Tanaka says he helped conceal a manufacturing defect in the $250 million steel vessel installed at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi No. 4 reactor while working for a unit of Hitachi Ltd. (6501) in 1974. The reactor, which Tanaka has called a "time bomb," was shut for maintenance when the March 11 earthquake triggered a 7-meter (23-foot) tsunami that disabled cooling systems at the plant, leading to explosions and radiation leaks.

The earthquake-tsunami crisis caused up to $310 billion in economic cost in the seven worst-hit prefectures, a preliminary Japanese government estimate said. The government Wednesday also warned about the disaster's negative impact on the country's export and industrial output recovery, the Kyodo news service reported. The economic loss estimate ranged from 16 trillion yen or $198 billion to 25 trillion yen or about $310 billion, resulting from the destruction of social infrastructure, housing and corporate facilities in the regions worst-hit by the March 11 disaster in northeast Japan, the government said.

Two out of the six damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station are now under control in a state known as "cold shutdown" after engineers restored emergency water pumps using diesel generators. The reactors, Nos. 5 and 6, had already been shut down before last week's historic earthquake and tsunami, posing less of a risk than the other reactors at the plant. But their cooling systems were knocked out, and the fuel rods left inside the reactor started to heat up, together with spent fuel rods stored in a separate storage pool. "We are getting closer to bringing the situation under control," Tetsuro Fukuyama, the deputy chief cabinet secretary, said of the entire plant late Sunday. The Tokyo Electric Power Company, which runs the plant, had appeared to suffer a serious setback as officials said that pressure buildup at the ravaged No. 3 reactor would require the venting of radioactive gases. The reactor contains a highly toxic fuel that includes reclaimed plutonium. This announcement came after an all-out mission Saturday to cool the reactor by firefighters, who doused the it with 2,400 tons of water over 14 hours.

Around 2,000 anti-nuclear protesters demonstrated in Taiwan on Sunday, demanding an immediate halt to the construction of an atomic power plant. The march comes amid a crisis in Japan after a huge quake on March 11 unleashed a tsunami which crippled an atomic plant 250 kilometres (155 miles) northeast of Tokyo. "In the face of Japan's nuclear crisis... Taiwan should stick to the goal of building itself in a non-nuclear homeland, so that our offspring will be free from any fears of nuclear disasters," Lee Chuo-han, the secretary-general of the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union, told AFP. The flag-waving and chanting protesters demanded that work on the island's fourth nuclear power plant, which is nearly complete, be halted immediately

he Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is in no condition to restart and is most likely to be decommissioned as it has caused many critical problems since a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit northeastern Japan on March 11, the top government spokesman suggested Sunday. ''Looking at the situation objectively, (the answer to the question of) whether it can be operated again is clear,'' Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said at a news conference, when asked whether the government plans to close the plant once its overheating reactors are brought under control. It is the first time that a senior government official has mentioned about the likelihood of it being decommissioned.

17,000 British nationals could be evacuated as last ditch efforts are made to stop nuclear catastrophe Rich scramble to book private jets out the country as fleeing passengers pack Tokyo airport French say Japanese have 'visibly lost essential control' as they urge their citizens to get out Plans are being drawn up to evacuate every British national in Japan amid mounting fears of a nuclear catastrophe. Thousands of Britons were last night warned to leave Tokyo and all other areas under threat of radiation poisoning. The Foreign Office is even chartering additional planes to ensure that all British citizens can leave the country as thousands of terrified passengers cram into Tokyo airport attempting to flee. It comes as the Japanese authorities resorted to dumping water on over-heating reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant from helicopters in a desperate last-ditch attempt to stop a catastrophic meltdown.

The March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami off the northeast coast of Japan has led to a major, still evolving crisis at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power facility. UCS is providing information and analysis about the crisis and what is happening on the ground, as well as its broader implications for nuclear power safety and the future of nuclear power. Click the links below for timely information.

I was appalled at the NRC chairman Jaczko's press briefing yesterday when asked point blank how many nuclear reactors in the US were near faults… Instead of answering the question he said that all reactors near faults designed withstand both quakes and tsunami events. There was no follow-up question as to whether or not this country's evacuation plans would do any better than Japans.

Close-up pictures of the devastated No 4 reactor building show the gaping hole through which radiation is escaping into the atmosphere as the rods break down. Last night, the UN's nuclear safety body said it was "too early to say" whether desperate attempts to cool them by spraying water into the building had been a success. The Foreign Office issued an urgent statement advising any Britons within 50 miles of the plant to leave the area immediately, and arranged charter flights to get British citizens out of the country.

The unfolding disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant follows decades of falsified safety reports, fatal accidents and underestimated earthquake risk in Japan's atomic power industry. The destruction caused by last week's 9.0 earthquake and tsunami comes less than four years after a 6.8 quake shut the world's biggest atomic plant, also run by Tokyo Electric Power Co. In 2002 and 2007, revelations the utility had faked repair records forced the resignation of the company's chairman and president, and a three-week shutdown of all 17 of its reactors. With almost no oil or gas reserves of its own, nuclear power has been a national priority for Japan since the end of World War II, a conflict the country fought partly to secure oil supplies. Japan has 54 operating nuclear reactors -- more than any other country except the U.S. and France -- to power its industries, pitting economic demands against safety concerns in the world's most earthquake-prone country.

As the world collectively holds its breath to see how the Fukushima crisis plays out (the quote of the day has got to be: "The worst-case scenario doesn't bear mentioning and the best-case scenario keeps getting worse...") there's a positive story which is not yet being reported. Despite assertions by its detractors that wind energy would not survive an earthquake or tsunami the Japanese wind industry is still functioning and helping to keep the lights on during the Fuksuhima crisis.

This Greenpeace briefing serves to provide analysis and advice of the risks and potential health impacts following releases of radioactivity from Japan's Fukushima 1/Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was damaged by the March 11th earthquake and tsunami. Terminology Dose = total amount of radioactivity absorbed by the body over a certain period. Measuring units: − microSievert (µSv) − milliSievert (1 mSv = 1000 uSv) − Sievert (1 Sv = 1000 mSv). Dose rate = the amount of radioactivity absorbed per hour, expressed in − micro Sievert per hour (µSv/h) − milli Sievert per hour (mSv/h =1000 µSv/h)

"Having failed to accurately grasp the extent of actual damage to nuclear reactors and the amount of water contaminated with radioactive substances, Tokyo Electric Power Co. has been forced to revise its timetable for resolving the nuclear crisis at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The plant operator released Tuesday an updated version of its road map to end the crisis, making some changes to critical aspects of the plan, especially in regards to cooling the reactors. It has been more than two months since the crisis began following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. TEPCO had to review its strategy on cooling the reactors as it learned about an apparent leakage of a huge amount of contaminated water from a damaged containment vessel. The company said an estimated 87,500 tons of contaminated water has accumulated in the turbine buildings of the Nos. 1 to 4 reactors and elsewhere at the site. On Saturday, about 3,000 tons of contaminated water, which likely leaked from the containment vessel of the No. 1 reactor, was discovered in underground areas of the reactor building. Water had been pumped in to attempt to fill the containment vessel of the reactor and cool the fuel inside."

"The government has discovered thousands of cases of workers at nuclear power plants outside Fukushima Prefecture suffering from internal exposure to radiation after they visited the prefecture, the head of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said. Most of the workers who had internal exposure to radiation visited Fukushima after the nuclear crisis broke out following the March 11 quake and tsunami, and apparently inhaled radioactive substances scattered by hydrogen explosions at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant. The revelation has prompted local municipalities in Fukushima to consider checking residents' internal exposure to radiation."

"I received the following email a few days ago from a Russian nuclear physicist friend who is an expert on the kinds of gases being released at Fukushima. Here is what he wrote: About Japan: the problem is that the reactor uses "dirty" fuel. It is a combination of plutonium and uranium (MOX). I suspect that the old fuel rods have bean spread out due to the explosion and the surrounding area is contaminated with plutonium which means you can never return to this place again. It is like a new Tchernobyl. Personally, I am not surprised that the authority has not informed people about this. I have been following the Fukushima story very closely since the earthquake and devastating tsunami. I have asked scientists I know, nuclear physicists and others about where they find real information. I have also watched as the news has virtually disappeared. There is something extremely disturbing going on, and having lived through the media blackout in France back in April and early May 1986, and speaking to doctors who are deeply concerned by the dramatic increase in cancers appearing at very young ages, it is obvious that information is being held back. We are still told not to eat mushrooms and truffles from parts of Europe, not wild boar and reindeer from Germany and Finland 25 years later. "

"Tokyo Electric Power Co. admitted Wednesday that one of the critical cooling pipes at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant's reactor unit 3 may have been damaged in the March 11 megaquake. Tepco suggested earlier that no major damage, including ruptures in the facility's main steam pipes, had occurred at the reactor until the massive tsunami hit after the magnitude 9.0 quake. But if the temblor had actually damaged the High-Pressure Core Flooder system - which is used to supply coolant water to a reactor core in emergencies to keep nuclear fuel from overheating - power suppliers across the country might be forced to reconsider the quake resistance designs for their reactors."

"Not only the pressure vessels, but the containment vessels of the Nos. 1 to 3 reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant were probably damaged within 24 hours of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, according to Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s analysis of the nuclear crisis. In a report on the analysis, the utility said it carried out minute calculations on internal pressure and other measurements in the nuclear reactors after the earthquake. The report was submitted to the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency on Monday night. TEPCO said it found that an isolation condenser, a type of emergency cooling device, did not work properly at the No. 1 reactor. This caused the core meltdown to progress until it damaged the bottom of the pressure vessel about 15 hours after the earthquake. Along with the meltdown, the temperature inside the steel containment vessel, which contains the pressure vessel, rose until it reached 300 C in 18 hours after the quake, much higher than 138 C the vessel was designed for. It is believed the internal temperature continued to rise after that. Containment vessels are designed for a much lower temperature and pressure than pressure vessels, which can be exposed to temperatures close to 300 C and pressure reaching 70 bars when a reactor is in operation."

"Tokyo Electric Power Co. did not fully disclose radiation monitoring data after its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the government revealed Friday. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, after being informed by Goshi Hosono, a special adviser to Prime Minister Naoto Kan, told reporters that he instructed Tepco to sort out the data, make it public and make doubly sure no more information-withholding occurs. Coming a day after he blasted Tepco's flip-flop over the injection of seawater into the plant's reactor 1, Edano said the government "cannot respond to this matter on the premise" that no more undisclosed information will emerge."

"Diablo Canyon, home to Pacific Gas & Electric Co.'s lone nuclear power plant, is thousands of kilometers away from Japan's Fukushima disaster, but the vast Pacific isn't vast enough to prevent technology critics from insisting that these two sites share ominous traits. The Diablo Canyon Power Plant sits on a bluff just above the Pacific Ocean, not far from San Luis Obispo in central California, a few miles from the offshore Hosgri Fault and only a mile from the recently discovered Shoreline Fault. Operational since 1985 and contributing 20 percent of PG&E's total electricity output, the Diablo plant seemed a sure bet to gain a license renewal from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)-until Fukushima. In the wake of an unprecedented and unimagined tsunami on 11 March, which sent waves above Fukushima's seawall, Diablo Canyon has received its fiercest criticism since 1981, when opponents of nuclear power and the plant's peculiar location nearly succeeded in closing it down."

"Switzerland latest country to shelve nuclear plant plans - but many states still lack an alternative low-carbon energy supply guardian.co.uk, Sunday 29 May 2011 22.00 Moves to cut carbon emissions in line with international targets have come under renewed strain since the nuclear crisis in Japan led some countries to shelve plans to use the technology. Switzerland became the latest country to decide to phase out nuclear power last week, citing concerns over the accident at the Fukushima plant that was left stricken by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami in March. The Swiss deci"