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The cost of generating nuclear power in Japan is one-third higher than Tokyo's last cost assessment in 2004 and 50 percent higher if compensation costs for the recent nuclear crisis are included, but still cheaper than fossil fuels, a study showed this week. The study by the country's top energy research firm could provide fodder for both sides of Japan's nuclear power debate, which is expected to heat up amid public wariness over nuclear safety despite the prospect of protracted power shortages. Lawmakers and officials are working to come up with a new energy policy after the Fukushima radiation crisis made it difficult, if not impossible, to build more reactors in the world's third-biggest nuclear generator. Prior to the crisis, as part of its effort to fight climate change, Japan planned to boost nuclear capacity to meet over half of electricity demand by 2030 by building 13 more reactors.

"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."

When the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Japan was knocked out with one mighty wave, the all-but-forgotten anti-nuke movement suddenly powered up in the U.S. Paul Gunter, director at Maryland-based Beyond Nuclear, barely found time to sleep. Web traffic spiked, and Gunter's mailing list exploded with new members. David Kraft, who for 30 years has quietly operated a Chicago-based nonprofit committed to ending nuclear power, scored his organization's first face-to-face meeting with the governor of Illinois. The state boasts the largest number of nuclear plants in the country. And in Pennsylvania, Eric Epstein, chairman of Three Mile Island Alert, was deluged with media requests. He trekked to the infamous plant as many as 11 times a day for TV interviews about whether what happened in Japan could happen here. The renewed interest in nuclear power comes at a time when it has become more accepted, somewhat aligned with the green movement, and opponents had largely dwindled to a small band of scientists and aging hippies. "From my vantage point, many of our meetings look like AARP reunions," Epstein said. Prior to the accident in Japan, he said, "this younger generation was more interested in a rainforest in Brazil than they were a nuclear power plant in their backyard."

"The time series data provided by Marian Steinbech, "A Crowdsourced Japan Radiation Spreadsheet", was visualized with custom C/OpenGL software to overlay circles on geographic maps of Japan. Recent versions of the data, going back to March 1, can be downloaded from his blog here: http://www.sendung.de/Japan-radiation-open-data/. These moments in time were selected to highlight how the radiation has effected Ibaraki prefecture and Tokyo, and demonstrate that while direct gamma radiation dissipates with the square distance law, particle-based radiation also dissipates with distance due to weather scattering. Although much attention has been placed on Tokyo, a very interesting finding was that Ibaraki prefecture, population 2.9 million, has received a radiation dose equivalent to nuclear worker levels while its distance from Fukushima, 100km, places it outside the current evacuation zone of 30km."

" Cumulative radiation outside the 20-kilometer radius of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the past three months has reached as high as 82 millisieverts, more than four times the yardstick of 20 millisieverts a year, a science ministry estimate showed Tuesday. The highest level was detected in a part of Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, around 22 kilometers northwest of the nuclear plant crippled since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Namie is among the designated evacuation areas lying outside of the no-entry zone where radiation levels are feared to exceed the annual limit of 20 millisieverts. Of 160 monitoring sites in the designated areas outside the no-entry zone, 23 registered radiation levels exceeding 20 millisieverts over the three-month period, the ministry said. A man is scanned for levels of radiation in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, Sunday, March 13, 2011. (AP Photo/Mark Baker) A man is scanned for levels of radiation in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, Sunday, March 13, 2011. (AP Photo/Mark Baker) Outside the areas subject to evacuation, an area in the city of Minamisoma had an estimated cumulative radiation level of 20.4 millisieverts a year since the start of the crisis. (Mainichi Japan) June 22, 2011"

"A group of atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima on Wednesday protested over the start of talks between Japan and India aimed at sealing a bilateral civilian nuclear cooperation pact, saying the move runs counter to attempts at nuclear disarmament. To access full stories on Kyodo News English website, it is necessary to subscribe. Please contact Kyodo's International Department in Tokyo via e-mail at kokusai@kyodonews.jp or call 03-6252-8301. If you are outside Japan, please contact Kyodo News International in New York at kni@kyodonews.com or call +1-212-508-5440. Currently we offer subscriptions to only corporate clients such as newspapers, magazines, trade publications, research institutes, government and international organizations."

In 1965, then Prime Minister Eisaku Sato asked the United States to immediately use nuclear weapons if Japan was attacked with nuclear arms, according to Japanese diplomatic documents disclosed by the Foreign Ministry on Monday. On his first visit to the United States in January 1965 after taking office, Sato told then U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara that Japan expected the United States to launch retaliatory attacks with sea-based nuclear weapons. His visit followed China's successful nuclear test in October 1964.

An advertising watchdog has told the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan to come up with another slogan for its nuclear energy ads because the term "clean" is misleading, sources familiar with the matter said. In a nonbinding adjudication delivered Nov. 25, the Japan Advertising Review Organization Inc. said that a power federation ad published in a magazine in April 2008 inappropriately stated that "Nuclear power generation is a clean way to generate electricity," the sources said. JARO discussed the matter through a panel of seven experts after a man in Kanagawa Prefecture complained that nuclear power generation should not be described as clean because of the risk of radioactive pollution resulting from accidents.

Japan, an economic giant with almost no natural energy resources, is eyeing restarting its "dream nuclear reactor" this year after a raft of safety scares closed the plant for more than 13 years. The state-run Japan Atomic Energy Agency is putting the final touches to Monju, the nation's only fast-breeder reactor. It has repeatedly postponed the relaunch as problems keep coming up and it struggles to convince many residents of Tsuruga, 350 kilometres (220 miles) west of Tokyo, of the plant's safety.

When the leaders of Japan and South Korea met on Monday to discuss reviving their battered economies there was little time for the likes of Park Cheol-woo, whose arm was left withered by radiation from the Hiroshima atomic bomb. Park and the thousands of Koreans who survived the U.S. atomic bombings of Japan in the final days of World War Two have struggled for decades with debilitating illness, poverty and discrimination with little help coming from Tokyo or Seoul. "Our families were forced to go to Japan and than forced into labour, only to be bombed by nuclear weapons," said Park, who was four years old at the time.

Japan lodged a protest with the United States after an American nuclear submarine made an unannounced visit in southern Japan, the Foreign Ministry said Monday. The USS Providence arrived in the White Beach Naval Facility on the southern island of Okinawa on Monday without prior notice, a requirement under a bilateral agreement, and stayed there for two hours, the ministry said. "It is extremely regrettable that a U.S. submarine visited one of our ports without proper advance notice," the ministry said in a statement. "The United States must notify our government at least 24 hours before its nuclear submarines visit our ports."

A U.S. nuclear-powered submarine which has steadily been leaking a small amount of radiation for over two years stopped at three Japanese ports, as well as Guam and Pearl Harbor, the United States and Japan said on Thursday. Japan was notified by the United States last week that the nuclear-powered USS Houston had been leaking water containing a small amount of radiation, but was told at the time that it was unclear when the leak had started.

AOMORI, Japan (AFP) - As oil prices surge to record levels, Japan said Saturday it would help build nuclear power plants in the United States, sensing opportunities for Japanese companies. "We reaffirmed our commitment to promoting bilateral nuclear energy cooperation," said a joint statement after talks by Japan's Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Akira Amari and US Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman.

With an eye on the vast, emerging Asian market for nuclear power generation, Japanese industry, academia and government groups are stepping up joint efforts to train personnel from the region in legal, technological and safety areas. Amid concerns over global warming, more countries in Asia and elsewhere are moving to introduce nuclear power generation, giving rise to the need for a wide range of expertise. Such countries are counting on Japan's help in pushing their goal, while Japan-- vying with such rivals as France and South Korea-- hopes to gain business footholds in the Asian market through cooperation in human resources development. "Japan is highly rated for its safety regulations, nuclear nonproliferation efforts and manufacturing expertise," says industry ministry official Taizo Takahashi, director of the Nuclear Energy Policy Planning Division of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy.

Japan's parliament has unanimously adopted a call for a nuclear weapons-free world in a resolution passed by both chambers that cleared the upper house Wednesday. The resolution, which refers to U.S. President Barack Obama's call in April for a world without atomic weapons, and to North Korea's May 25 underground nuclear test, was submitted by a bipartisan group of legislators. "Japan, as the only nation to have been attacked with atomic bombs, has a responsibility to spearhead efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons around the world," the resolution says. "The government needs to make efforts toward eliminating nuclear weapons, by trying to extend the regional efforts over the issue of North Korea's nuclear program to the global level."

Japan launched an organisation Thursday to help other countries promote nuclear power generation which is increasingly in demand in the age of global warming, officials said. The new body, the International Nuclear Energy Cooperation Council, comprises representatives from government branches, power utilities, nuclear power plant makers and research organisations, they said. It will help the makers' overseas expansion while there are requests from Asian and Middle East countries for Japan's help in the field, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. "Nuclear power plants have been revalued from the viewpoints of ensuring energy sources and dealing with global warming," Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Toshihiro Nikai told an inaugural meeting of the council. "Japan has a long track record in safe operation of nuclear power plants and it has become a model for peaceful use of nuclear power," he said.

THE "rogue" highly radioactive nuclear material which got Sellafield into hot water with Japan will be on the move - to France. This is the batch of eight Mox fuel assemblies made at Sellafield and later found to be "falsified" in its specification data after being shipped out to customers in Japan. The faked pellets scandal led to loss of business confidence in BNFL and for a time Japan refused to strike any further deals with Sellafield. The fuel, a mixture of plutonium and uranium, was sent back to Sellafield - seven years ago.

Japan may entrust uranium enrichment to a Russian nuclear plant not inspected by the International Atomic Energy Agency, sources knowledgeable about Japan-Russia relations said Sunday. Such a move would indicate Tokyo is turning a blind eye to the principle of a recently struck bilateral deal that stipulates Moscow must accept IAEA checks. The purpose of the provision is to ensure that Japanese nuclear material is not taken advantage of for Russian military purposes.

An armed cargo ship carrying recycled nuclear fuel from France reached Japan on Monday. Environmental group Greenpeace says the ship's load of plutonium would be enough to make 225 nuclear weapons. A small group of local residents and anti-nuclear activists protested at the ship's arrival. "Using the mixed oxide, MOX fuel at the nuclear plant here is suicidal," said local activist Yoshika Shiratori in Omoaezaki fishing port on Japan's Pacific coast. "Once a big earthquake hits, there is no doubt this entire bay, the Pacific Ocean and all the seas around Japan would become contaminated," he told the AFP news agency.

*Kazakhstan aims to be world No.1 uranium exporter in 2009 *Mine to produce 3,000 tonnes uranium by 2014 *Output mostly destined for Japan KHORASAN, Kazakhstan, April 24 (Reuters) - Japan opened a major uranium mine in Kazakhstan on Friday, gaining access to alternative energy supplies from resource-rich Central Asia. Khorasan-1, tucked away in the arid steppes of southern Kazakhstan, is being developed by a group of Japanese firms including Toshiba Corp (6502.T), as well as Kazakh state uranium company Kazatomprom and a unit of Canada's Uranium One (UUU.TO).