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"The nuclear meltdowns at Fukushima earlier this year shocked the world, but they shocked the Japanese people even more. For years they've been earnestly reassured by their governments and the energy companies that atomic power was safe, clean and cheap. Industry drove a well-oiled marketing machine, backed by buckets of government cash. A largely compliant, unquestioning media toed the line. For heavily industrialised, gadget and appliance obsessed, energy-hungry Japan, nuclear was the future. "

"As Japan approaches the six-month anniversary of its worst nuclear disaster, when an unprecedented meltdown occurred in three of the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant's reactors in a combination of natural and manmade calamities, the road to recovery is still long and unclear. In anticipation of the anniversary, the Mainichi looks back over the past six months to outline what has been done, learned, and where Japan currently stands on the issue in this time of crisis. On March 11, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake followed by a series of tsunami waves -- the worst in the history of Japan -- severely damaged the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO)-operated Fukushima No. 1 nuclear complex, located along the coast of the towns of Futaba and Okuma in Fukushima Prefecture. As a result of the disaster, all external power sources were lost, causing the supply of cooling water to the plant's No. 1, 2 and 3 reactors to stop. Hydrogen was generated as a result of a chemical reaction between fuel rods and water, leading to hydrogen explosions which badly damaged reactor buildings. The government, which initially estimated the accident level at 4 on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES), later raised the level to 7 -- the highest rank. This matched the level of the Chernobyl catastrophe, which at that stage was the worst nuclear accident in history."

"The consequences of the Japanese earthquake - especially the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant - resonate grimly for observers of the American financial crash that precipitated the Great Recession. Both events provide stark lessons about risks, and about how badly markets and societies can manage them. Of course, in one sense, there is no comparison between the tragedy of the earthquake - which has left more than 25,000 people dead or missing - and the financial crisis, to which no such acute physical suffering can be attributed. But when it comes to the nuclear meltdown at Fukushima, there is a common theme in the two events. Experts in both the nuclear and finance industries assured us that new technology had all but eliminated the risk of catastrophe. Events proved them wrong: not only did the risks exist, but their consequences were so enormous that they easily erased all the supposed benefits of the systems that industry leaders promoted."

"They scoop up soil from their gardens and dump it in holes dug out in parks and nearby forests, scrub their roofs with soap and refuse to let their children play outside. More than three months after a massive earthquake and tsunami triggered a nuclear meltdown at a nearby power plant, Fukushima residents are scrambling to cope with contamination on their own in the absence of a long-term plan from the government. "Everything and everyone here is paralysed and we feel left on our own, unsure whether it's actually safe for us to stay in the city," said Akiko Itoh, 42, with her four-year old son in her lap."

"Tokyo Electric Power Co. led Japanese utilities in rallying around a nuclear future, defying growing public opposition to atomic energy after the worst radiation accident in 25 years. Shareholders of Tepco, as Japan's biggest utility is known, voted to continue with nuclear power yesterday at the company's first annual meeting since the crisis at its Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant wiped about $36 billion off its market value. Kansai Electric Power Co. today reinforced the status quo, with shareholders rejecting a motion to halt reactors. The votes in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that caused meltdowns at Fukushima show Japan's reliance on atomic energy even as opposition grows. Shareholders of Tohoku Electric Power Co. and other regional energy providers also voted down proposals against nuclear power. "

"Radiation is expected to continue spewing for months from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that suffered a meltdown following an earthquake and tsunami in March, but despite grim reports from Japan, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has quietly stopped running extra tests for radioactive material in America's milk, rain and drinking water. The EPA initially ramped up nationwide testing in the weeks following the disaster in Japan, and radioactive materials like cesium and iodine-131 were detected on US soil. Citing declining levels of radiation, the EPA has abandoned the extra tests, even as reports from Japan indicate that the Fukushima plant continues to emit radiation and the disaster is one of the worst in world history."

"A Japanese nuclear power plant has come under fire for trying to sway the outcome of a public forum on atomic safety, dealing a fresh blow to the industry's credibility four months after the world's biggest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. An employee with Kyushu Electric Power Co instructed workers at the utility and its affiliates to pose as ordinary citizens and send e-mails backing the restart of nuclear reactors in southern Japan to a televised public hearing. A massive earthquake and tsunami crippled the coastal Fukushima-Daiichi power plant in northeast Japan on March 11, sparking a fuel-rod meltdown and the biggest nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986. The plant is still leaking radiation in a protracted disaster which prompted the government to go back to "scratch" on its nuclear energy policy. Only 19 of Japan's 54 reactors are still running. "

"The unprecedented disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, in which fuel meltdowns were found to have taken place simultaneously at three reactors, poses a massive challenge to the media. Looking back, did we promptly deliver accurate information that could save the lives of the public? Reflecting upon our experiences gathering information from the disaster areas, as well as from the Prime Minister's Office, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), and other groups and individuals, what can we say about our coverage of the ongoing crisis?"

"At last, victims of Japan's nuclear crisis can claim compensation. And they are angry. They are furious at the red tape they have to wade through just to receive basic help and in despair they still cannot get on with their lives seven months after the huge quake and tsunami triggered the world's worst nuclear disaster in 25 years. Shouts fill a room at a temporary housing complex where seven officials, kneeling in their dark suits, face 70 or so tenants who were forced to abandon their homes near the Fukushima nuclear plant after some of its reactors went into meltdown after the March 11 quake struck."

"30 October 2011 TOKYO - Thousands of people angered by Japan's nuclear power plant accident rallied in Fukushima on Sunday to demand full compensation for victims of the crisis, and swift decontamination of their neighbourhoods. The rally in Fukushima city, some 60 kilometres (40 miles) from the plant, was attended by around 10,000 people, its organisers estimated. 'Our town should be decontaminated at the earliest possible date and our life should be restored as it was before March 11,' Tamotsu Baba, mayor of Namie town, told the rally, according to Jiji Press. A 9.0-magnitude earthquake and monster tsunami on March 11 crippled the plant's cooling systems and sparked reactor meltdowns, a series of explosions and the release of huge amounts of radiation into the environment. All the 21,000 residents in Namie, just north of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, were forced to evacuate from their homes and remained sheltered in the region, also called Fukushima, and elsewhere in the country. More than seven months after the disaster, tens of thousands of people remain evacuated from homes and businesses in a 20 kilometre (12 mile) no-go zone around the plant and in pockets beyond. Fully decontaminating those areas is expected to take decades. "

What is Prince Andrew's new year's resolution? Not, it seems, to be any less controversial than he was in 2008. This column has learnt of a plan to hold a gala lunch on 5 February at Buckingham Palace for heavy hitters in the nuclear industry, which is, according to critics, a startlingly fraught arena for a member of the royal family to enter. The lunch is to be hosted by the prince as the UK's special representative for international trade and investment, the idea of the job being that he can use his royal clout to promote Britain abroad, although providing a publicity boost for nuclear energy within the UK is a departure.

Yet again, the issue of nuclear power has resulted in bickering within Germany's government in Berlin. Officially, the country is set to turn its back on nuclear power within 15 years. But Economics Minister Michael Glos wants the atomic phase-out to be phased out -- a proposal that has infuriated the country's environment minister.

Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. will go to court today to force Precision Nuclear Inc. of Mactaquac into receivership. AECL is worried delays allegedly caused by the company could delay the Point Lepreau refurbishment. According to an affidavit filed in the Court of Queen's Bench in Saint John by Robert DeGregorio, supply chain director for the AECL, "a delay by PNI (Precision Nuclear Inc.) in the completion of its Point Lepreau obligations would result in a domino effect and cause delays in other phases of a very large and complex project."

The grand plan for nuclear power in the UK has come to a grinding halt with EDF's decision to abandon buying British Energy It's not often that the blocking of a single deal brings a whole area of national policy to a grinding halt. Yet that is what has happened with the failed (for the moment) auction of British Energy (BE), our sole nuclear-power provider. When its sale to EDF, the French utility group, was halted on Thursday, government energy policy was derailed at the same moment.

The problems surrounding the Maple reactors and Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. should give Ontarians and their government considerable pause. First, Queen's Park is considering pouring billions of dollars into building several new reactors to alleviate Ontario's energy crunch. The woes of AECL, despite the fact that a federal Crown corporation would naturally be the favourite choice of the province, show the operation has major technical and administrative problems. That makes it difficult to choose its reactors for the province's energy build-out.

Toronto, May 12 /CNW Telbec/ - A group of radiation-poisoned Torontonians stricken and dying on the sidewalk. Rescue teams with Geiger counters, stretchers and gas masks. This was the scene at several locations in downtown Toronto today where Greenpeace activists staged the aftermath of an accident at the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station.

Kris Van Dijck is mayor of Dessel, a small municipality of some 9000 citizens in northern Belgium. He is also a member of the Flemish parliament. We met in Edinburgh on Monday morning, when Mr Van Dijck joined a panel session I was chairing at an international conference for those who communicate the nuclear industry's message around the world. Dessel has been home to various nuclear activities since 1952. Seven companies from the sector are currently active there, from headquarters to plants processing and storing low-level nuclear waste. It all adds up to 1830 jobs, 70% of them filled by local people. The people, observes their mayor, are fully informed about what the industry is doing locally and have the power to call a halt to anything that causes undue concern.

On a day when Parliament passed a bill to restart the Chalk River nuclear reactor, the Harper government came under fire for allowing the reactor to shut down in the first place, causing a global shortage of medical isotopes used to diagnose cancer. Late yesterday, the Senate passed an emergency bill that would restart the reactor for 120 days so that Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) can resume producing supplies of the highly sought isotopes. Health Minister Tony Clement said this means the reactor will be producing isotopes in roughly a week.