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This nation has recovered from worse natural – and manmade – catastrophes. But it is the triple meltdown and its aftermath at the Fukushima nuclear power plant 40km down the coast from Soma that has elevated Japan into unknown, and unknowable, terrain. Across the northeast, millions of people are living with its consequences and searching for a consensus on a safe radiation level that does not exist. Experts give bewilderingly different assessments of its dangers.

Some scientists say Fukushima is worse than the 1986 Chernobyl accident, with which it shares a maximum level-7 rating on the sliding scale of nuclear disasters. One of the most prominent of them is Dr Helen Caldicott, an Australian physician and long time anti-nuclear activist who warns of "horrors to come" in Fukushima.

Chris Busby, a professor at the University of Ulster known for his alarmist views, generated controversy during a Japan visit last month when he said the disaster would result in more than 1 million deaths. "Fukushima is still boiling its radionuclides all over Japan," he said. "Chernobyl went up in one go. So Fukushima is worse."

Obviously, the last thing the nuclear power industry needed was another black eye. Yet even with ongoing disaster in Japan, the nuclear power revival is one that cannot be stopped — even by the combined power of an earthquake and a tsunami. Outside of the dramatic news coverage, the atomic beat goes on. Here's why... As desirable as it is to develop a safer alternative, nuclear power is still one of the bedrocks of the power generation that fuels the world economy.

All told, 442 nuclear power plants across the globe provide roughly 14% of its electricity generation. That figure is going to be impossible to finesse or eliminate... even under the best-case scenarios for the development of wind, solar power, and/or other forms of alternative energy. According to the International Energy Association (IEA), world electricity demand is likely to grow 2.7 percent a year from now until 2015, and then at 2.4 percent annually until 2030 — making nuclear power even more of a necessary evil.

Nuclear Revival Lives The result: The nuclear industry is experiencing a major global power surge. Worldwide, 65 reactors are already under construction with 344 more reactors planned. Add it all up and it makes for a 92% increase from today's levels for the global nuclear industry. Even through the lens of the Fukishima disaster, this trend will go on long after the current Japanese turmoil leaves the headlines

According to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, “We want the electricity of the future to be safe, reliable and economically viable.” And in her mind, nuclear power doesn’t fit the bill anymore. She’s wrong. The truth is, nuclear power is safe, reliable, clean and cheap. And that’s precisely why global nuclear capacity is going to keep increasing, by as much as 50% between now and 2020. It’s also the reason why the long-term investment thesis for uranium stocks remains compelling

Don’t Let Recent Events Mislead You As humans, we have a tendency toward recency bias. In other words, we give recent events extra importance when making decisions. The recent radiation crisis in Japan is an example.

believing that nuclear power is now suddenly unsafe is patently wrong. As the following chart shows, nuclear power is actually the safest form of energy production available. And if anything, the crisis at Japan’s 40-year-old Fukushima Daiichi plant is only going to increase the safety precautions at existing and new nuclear power plants

The U.S., after authorizing the release of 30 million barrels of oil from its emergency stockpile, is prepared to take additional action if needed to react to disruptions in world supplies, according to an Obama administration official. The decision to draw oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, part of an international move to release 60 million barrels, was made after months of consulting with allies and oil-producing nations, according to officials, who briefed reporters on condition they not be named.

The coordinated release of 60 million barrels by the U.S. and 27 other nations would provide about 2 million barrels a day within the first 30 days, according to the IEA.

Supply Concerns The release is being done in response to disruption caused by the Libya conflict and in anticipation of increasing demand during the U.S. summer driving season, the official said. It is intended more to ensure supply rather than affect prices, according to the official. The national average retail price for a gallon of regular gasoline is $3.612, according to a AAA survey.

It has been two years since Mohamed ElBaradei stepped down as head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, but the Nobel peace laureate still has nuclear technology very much on his mind.

But Mr. ElBaradei doesn't subscribe to the widely held view that Fukushima has killed off the nuclear industry for the foreseeable future. In fact, he argues countries exiting nuclear-power generation are the exception rather than the rule. "There will be, in the short term, a slowdown in some countries. But others like France, India or China [won't see] an impact on their [nuclear] programs," he says.

He also points to some nuclear newcomers, such as the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.

(Reuters) - Japanese utilities will largely avoid power shortages this winter despite prolonged reactor shutdowns amid public concerns over nuclear safety, but hurdles remain for next summer, the government said on Tuesday.

It also unveiled ways to bridge the gap next summer, when peak-hour demand is expected to exceed supply by 16,560 megawatts, compared with the biggest gap this winter of 2,530 MW in one area, if no reactors restart by then.

Utilities plan to secure additional fossil-fuel capacity of 4,090 MW by next summer, but other plans depend on how far policy initiatives, such as fiscal spending, can encourage energy conservation and the use of solar and wind power, leaving the risk of rolling blackouts.

Uranium takeovers are offering investors the biggest potential payoffs, less than a year after the partial meltdown of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant. Hathor Exploration Ltd. (HAT), the owner of a uranium deposit in northern Saskatchewan, yesterday traded 8.4 percent above a bid from Rio Tinto Group that topped an offer from Cameco Corp. (CCO) That signals investors are now betting Hathor will extract the biggest price hike of any pending North American deal greater than $500 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Kalahari Minerals Plc (KAH), which resumed talks with China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group after a takeover was derailed by Japan’s disaster, would now hand shareholders a higher return than the pre-Fukushima agreement, even with a 5 percent lower offer.

Hathor slipped 0.2 percent to C$4.49 in Toronto today, while Cameco fell 0.2 percent to C$20.88. Rio Tinto retreated 2.1 percent to 3,302.5 pence in London. Cameco, the world’s biggest uranium producer, took its takeover offer for Hathor directly to shareholders after the companies couldn’t agree on a price. The proposal would give Hathor’s shareholders C$3.75 a share in cash, valuing the uranium explorer at C$520 million ($530 million), according to the Aug. 26 statement.

After investors pushed the stock as much as 12 percent above Cameco’s offer, Rio Tinto, the world’s second-largest mining company, trumped the proposal last week. Rio Tinto’s bid valued Hathor at C$4.15 a share in cash, or C$578 million, according to the Oct. 19 statement.

On the 27th of October 2011, Fukushima women met government officials in Tokyo to demand that the government evacuate Fukushima children immediately. But, the government official only repeated the government’s policy of cleaning up the contaminated area in Fukushima. On the 27th of October 2011, hundreds of Fukushima women gathered in front of the governmental building (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) in Tokyo to protest against nuclear power plants. Among them, thirty Fukushima women met government officials. They handed a written request asking for the abolition of all nuclear power plants and the evacuation of Fukushima children, and demanded the government answer to it in writing by 11th of November.

A fortnight after writing $2.84bn (£1.84bn) off the value of its Fayetteville shale gas business in Arkansas, BHP is poised to reveal on Wednesday that the charge helped push down its profits by a massive 40 per cent – to $14.2bn – in the year to June 30.

The FTSE 100 mining giant was forced into the writedown after a decade-long stampede into the brave new world of US shale gas produced so much of the stuff that its price tumbled to 10-year lows, taking the value of its producers with them.

"The problem is exacerbated because the minerals leasing system in the US obliges lessees to drill fairly quickly or relinquish their drilling rights," he added.

11/22/2011, it turned out that Tepco estimated that they can cover all the electric consumption even without nuclear plants. By using pumped-storage power generation and steam-power generation ,next summer they can supply more than 57 million kilowatts, which is the maximum supply capacity of this summer. This year, we did not run out of power. 57 million kilowatts is even OVER supply. The annual peak of the electric consumption is late August in Japan. By proving that they can cover the potential demand of next summer, it has become clear that they don’t need nuclear power through a year. There are 54 nuclear plants in Japan. Tepco owns 17 of them.

As the full cost of the Fukushima nuclear accident continues to climb—Japanese officials now peg it at $64 billion or more—nuclear power’s future is literally headed south. Developed countries are slowing or shuttering their nuclear-power programs, while states to their south, in the world’s hotspots (think the Middle East and Far East), are pushing to build reactors of their own. Normally, this would lead to even more of a focus on nuclear safety and nonproliferation. Yet, given how nuclear-reactor sales have imploded in the world’s advanced economies, both these points have been trumped by nuclear supplier states’ desires to corner what reactor markets remain.

This spring, Germany permanently shut down eight of its reactors and pledged to shutter the rest by 2022. Shortly thereafter, the Italians voted overwhelmingly to keep their country nonnuclear. Switzerland and Spain followed suit, banning the construction of any new reactors. Then Japan’s prime minister killed his country’s plans to expand its reactor fleet, pledging to reduce Japan’s reliance on nuclear power dramatically. Taiwan’s president did the same. Now Mexico is sidelining construction of 10 reactors in favor of developing natural-gas-fired plants, and Belgium is toying with phasing its nuclear plants out, perhaps as early as 2015.

China—nuclear power’s largest prospective market—suspended approvals of new reactor construction while conducting a lengthy nuclear-safety review. Chinese nuclear-capacity projections for the year 2020 subsequently tumbled by as much as 30 percent. A key bottleneck is the lack of trained nuclear technicians: to support China’s stated nuclear-capacity objectives, Beijing needs to graduate 6,000 nuclear experts a year. Instead, its schools are barely generating 600.

TONY EASTLEY: Still in Japan and the ABC has obtained documents revealing the lengths being taken to keep work at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant secret and to stop workers there from actually talking to the media.One former worker at the plant has told the ABC how they were given sub-standard protective gear after the accidents.North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy reports from Iwaki City in Fukushima.MARK WILLACY: Inside the leeching and twisted remains of the Fukushima nuclear plant 3000 workers are labouring to stabilise the melted reactor cores.It's dirty and dangerous work, and some workers claim they're being exposed and exploited.

: "I was not told how much radiation I would be exposed to or how high the radiation would be," says this man who worked at the Fukushima plant during the meltdowns. "They just gave me an anorak to wear and sent me to work. I worked at installing vents inside the reactor buildings to get rid of the steam so we could avert another explosion," he tells me.There's a good reason why this Fukushima worker doesn't want his identity revealed and that's because like others, he's been gagged.The ABC has obtained a document drawn up by one of the Fukushima subcontractors. It demands that its employees at the plant keep all of their work secret and under no circumstances are they permitted to talk to the media.

But that hasn't stopped Hiroyuki Watanabe from snooping about

Organizers of the Global Conference for a Nuclear Power Free World [in Yokohama] claimed 6,000 participants from some 30 countries [...] The conference shows all the signs of turning into a coherent, focused movement. [...] The conference’s call for “full transparency, accountability and responsibility by the Japanese Government and Tokyo Electric Power Company” is just as important. Without complete disclosure, progress toward grasping the causes of the problem and finding solutions cannot gain traction. The conference’s calls for ongoing data collection about the safety of food and materials will also be close to the hearts of all consumers. Already, consumers have been demanding basic information about foodstuffs and potentially contaminated materials. Last week’s discovery that radioactive gravel in concrete used to build a new condominium in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, is one more reminder that problems will continue for a very long time. Nuclear issues have come to home to roost. [...] it is clear that a practical consensus towards a different energy future is well underway. Now that is a weekend well spent!

Tokyo Shinbun is a regional newspaper covering Kanto region of Japan. It has been reporting on the Fukushima accident and resultant radiation contamination in a more honest and comprehensive manner than any national newspaper. (Their only shortcoming is that their links don't seem to last for more than a week.)Their best coverage on the subject, though, is not available digitally but only in the printed version of the newspaper. But no worry, as there is always someone who transcribes the article and post it on the net for anyone to see.

In the 2nd half of the January 27 article, Tokyo Shinbun details what kind of workers are currently working at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant: migrant workers young (in their 20's) and not so young (in their 60's), untrained, $100 a day. Some of them cannot even read and write.

Right now, 70% of workers at the plant are migrant contract workers from all over Japan. Most of them have never worked at nuke plants before. The pay is 8000 yen to 13,000 yen [US$104 to $170] per day. Most of them are either in their 20s who are finding it difficult to land on any job, or in their 60s who have "graduated" from the previous jobs."

In the next decade, LED lights will capture more than half of the world’s demand for new lighting, the author of a study on green economic opportunities said last night at a University of Chicago forum.

Robert Weissbourd, the president of RW-Ventures, was studying economic development in the Chicago region when he and other authors  of “The Chicago Region’s Green Economic Opportunities” (pdf) realized the potential of LED lighting.

“It’s projected that the shift to LED lighting is going to be huge. It’s going to capture 60 percent of the market globally in the next ten years.”

Temperatures can fall by up to 4C downwind of farms

Tory MPs write to PM demanding dramatic subsidy cuts

The team from the University of Illinois found that daytime temperatures around wind farms can fall by as much as 4C, while at night temperatures can increase

This rather mundane looking letter from 2000 talks about a number of concerns going on with the IAEA at that time. One concern was the Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran. “Indications that Russia’s efforts to complete the Bushehr reactor in Iran are plagued with severe safety considerations as witnessed by periodic visits by IAEA experts. ” Recently a whistleblower told that the Bushehr plant was a safety disaster and that it was hobbled together with disparate parts by second string engineers. The US had concerns about the lack of safety assistance at the Mayak nuclear site in Russia. This is similar to the Hanford nuclear site in the US and houses large amounts of volatile nuclear waste. Mayak was the site of an INES level 6 disaster in 1957 that sent a plume of highly radioactive cesium 137 and stronium 90 over a populated area nearby.  This disaster happened due to loss of cooling on a waste tank.

The letter also talked about the financial constraint of needing to spend $3 million dollars to do mandated oversight at the Rokkasho Mura nuclear waste facility in Japan. It also spoke of a severe budget crisis by 2001 as countries were not putting more funding into the IAEA as the demands on the agency were increasing. The 2009 accounting of the IAEA’s budget.

As if the closing steel mills and automobile manufacturing plants weren't bad enough, some of the oldest, most risky atomic reactors in the U.S. are located in the Midwest. Worse still, they are on the shores of the Great Lakes, putting at risk the drinking water supply for 40 million people downstream in the U.S., Canada, and a large number of Native American First Nations. Altogether, 33 atomic reactors are located on the shorelines of the Great Lakes. Two of the most infamous of these radiologically risky "Rust Belt reactors" are Entergy Nuclear's Palisades in southwest Michigan, and FirstEnergy's Davis-Besse in northwest Ohio.

Last month, U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), a long-time watchdog on the nuclear industry, wrote the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) about an acidic, radioactive leak representing a "crisis in the control room at the Palisades nuclear power plant." The leakage had been ongoing for a year, and was being "contained" in glorified buckets referred to by Entergy PR spokesman Mark Savage as "catch basins." Although the leak came to light when Palisades was forced to shutdown after its rate reached more than 30 gallons per day, it had been ongoing for months at a rate of 15 gallons per day. The tritiated and borated water is leaking from a 300,000 gallon Safety Injection Refueling Water storage tank, which is safety critical for both reactor core and radiological containment cooling. Whistleblowers contacted Washington, D.C. attorney Billie Pirner Garde, who alerted Rep. Markey, who wrote NRC. The NRC Office of Investigations has launched a probe into potential Entergy wrongdoing. On July 17th, NRC issued a "Confirmatory Action Letter" which enables Palisades to keep operating into 2013, even if the leak increases to nearly 38 gallons per day!

Markey demanded a copy of an internal Entergy report surveying its own workers on "safety culture" at Palisades. Michigan Radio obtained a copy, which reveals "a lack of accountability at all levels," and a workforce deeply distrustful of management, fearful that they will be harassed and punished if they dare to raise safety concerns.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission will begin a special inspection at Progress Energy‘s Brunswick-2 unit in North Carolina after the utility said Friday the reactor pressure vessel’s lid was not adequately tightened when it restarted earlier this week.  Most of us are also paying close attention to the events at Brunswick Nuclear Power Plant, and today I talked with a former nuclear engineer  Chris Harris about the recent developments.

The unit shut Wednesday morning after the reactor leaked. An investigation showed the inadequately tightened reactor vessel head was a potentially “significant” safety issue, Progress said in a report filed Friday with the NRC. Workers seeking the source of the leak found that at least 10 of the 64 bolts that secure the reactor vessel head to the pressure vessel were not fully tightened, Progress spokesman Ryan Mosier said in an email Friday.

The unit had been in a maintenance outage, was in the process of restarting and was operating at 7% power when workers discovered the leak in the reactor coolant system, Progress said in an event report filed Wednesday with NRC. When the leak exceeded 10 gal/minute, the unit was shut, Progress said.

"Clean." "Green." What do those words mean? When President Obama talks about "clean energy," some people think of "clean coal" and low-carbon nuclear power, while others envision shiny solar panels and wind turbines. And when politicians tout "green jobs," they might just as easily be talking about employment at General Motors as at Greenpeace. "Clean" and "green" are wide open to interpretation and misappropriation; that's why they're so often mentioned in quotation marks. Not so for renewable energy, however.

people across the entire enviro-political spectrum seem to have reached a tacit, near-unanimous agreement about what renewable means: It's an energy category that includes solar, wind, water, biomass, and geothermal power.

Renewable energy sounds so much more natural and believable than a perpetual-motion machine, but there's one big problem: Unless you're planning to live without electricity and motorized transportation, you need more than just wind, water, sunlight, and plants for energy. You need raw materials, real estate, and other things that will run out one day. You need stuff that has to be mined, drilled, transported, and bulldozed -- not simply harvested or farmed. You need non-renewable resources: