Turkey’s first nuclear power plant project enters uncertain period amid Syria row

Uncertainties are rising over controversial nuclear power plant project in Turkey’s Akkuyu, for which Russia has spent $3 billion so far, amid rows between Turkey and Russia over Syria.

$3 bln spent on Akkuyu power plant so far

A total of $3 billion has been spent on the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant and work will continue although the required licenses have not been issued yet, said the company chief, adding that some delays are normal in nuclear power plant projects.

Fukushima plant water dumped into sea

Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant yesterday began releasing previously contaminated water into the sea, but the man tasked with preventing another meltdown warned other highly radioactive fluid still stored on site could pose a major threat.

Japan's Sakurajima volcano erupts in small scale

A volcano in Southwest Japan's Kagoshima Prefecture had small eruption, according to the prefectural weather agency on Wednesday, marking the first eruption after Japan's Meteorological Agency (JMA) raised its alert level for the volcano to level 4 on Saturday.

Japan nuclear power firm says no special precautions over volcano (video YT)

Japanese utility Kyushu Electric Power said on Monday that it was monitoring activity at a volcano near its Sendai nuclear plant, but did not need to take any special precautions after authorities warned of the risk of a larger-than-usual eruption.

Japan ends nuclear shutdown after 2-year hiatus

Japan has restarted its nuclear power programme, after a two-year shutdown sparked by public fears following the Fukushima crisis.

NY nuclear plant fire produced river oil slick

Part of a New York state nuclear power plant remained offline Sunday after a transformer fire created another problem: thousands of gallons of oil leaking into the Hudson River, officials said.

Explosion rocks nuclear power plant in New York

A large explosion has rocked the Indian Point nuclear plant in upstate New York, the facility's management reported. 

Entergy Corporation, the company running the plant, said the affected parts of the facility were "safely shut down" and in "safe and stable condition" after a transformer failure on Saturday.

Fukushima plant pumps halted, toxic water leaking into ocean

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Tuesday it has found all of the eight water transfer pumps halted at its stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, leaving radiation-contaminated water to leak into the Pacific Ocean.

Japan remembers Fukushima disaster victims four years on

On the fourth anniversary of the Fukushima disaster, Japan has remembered the thousands who lost their lives. The quake-tsunami disaster sparked a nuclear crisis which has left the country at odds over nuclear power. 

Japan to restart 2 nuclear reactors despite local opposition, safety concerns

Two nuclear reactors in the southwestern prefecture of Kagoshima have been cleared to be restarted by Governor Yuichiro Ito and prefectural assembly, making the prefecture the first to gain such approval to restart its idled reactors since new safety regulations were introduced after the 2011 crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

Clearance for the Nos. 1 and 2 reactors at Kyushu Electric Power Co.'s Sendai plant in the prefecture was given Friday by Ito and the assembly, with the governor telling a news conference that while he effectively had "no choice" in the matter, the restart was "essential" and that Japan's nuclear watchdog had approved the reactors' safety standards and compliance.

Japan local assembly okays restart of two reactors

A local assembly in Japan on Friday (Nov 7) approved plans to restart two nuclear reactors, removing a major hurdle to getting atomic power back online more than three years after the Fukushima disaster.

A majority of Kagoshima assembly members voted for the motion to resume operations at the Sendai plant in the southern Japanese prefecture, officials said. The move leaves as an obstacle only the formal approval of Kagoshima's powerful governor, which is expected later in the day, and marks a victory for the pro-nuclear government of Shinzo Abe in its campaign to re-fire atomic plants.

Japan to reopen 1st nuclear plant after Fukushima disaster - despite volcano risks

A local council has voted to re-open the Sendai Nuclear Power Plant on the outermost western coast of Japan, despite local opposition and meteorologists’ warnings, following tremors in a nearby volcano.

Nineteen out of 26 members of the city council of Satsumasendai approved the reopening that is scheduled to take place from early 2015. Like all of Japan’s 48 functional reactors, Sendai’s 890 MW generators were mothballed in the months following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Uranium shipment signals end of US-Russian nuclear deal.

MOSCOW - A 20-year-old deal that has powered American homes while reducing the risk of Russian nuclear material falling into the wrong hands approached its end on Thursday when the final shipment of uranium left St Petersburg for Baltimore.

Under the 1993 HEU Purchase Agreement, Russia downblended 500 metric tons of highly enriched uranium (HEU) from nuclear weapons into low-enriched uranium and sent it to the United States, where it was made into fuel for nuclear power plants.

Over much of the life of the deal, it was used to generate roughly half of all commercial nuclear energy produced in the United States, or nearly 10 percent of all US electricity, according to the US Energy Department.

Turkey and Japan sign formal agreement to build second nuclear plant in Sinop.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe signed on Oct. 29 the official agreement for building Turkey's second nuclear plant in the Black Sea province of Sinop.

The two countries signed a $22 billion deal in May for the construction of a plant with a total capacity of 4,800 megawatts (mW), by a Japanese-French alliance of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and French firm Areva.

Abe came to Istanbul to attend the official opening ceremony of the Marmaray tunnel, which has also been built by a Japanese firm.

China resumes construction of biggest nuclear plant

BEIJING —

China has resumed construction on a “fourth generation” nuclear power plant, suspended after the 2011 Fukushima disaster, which will be its biggest-ever nuclear facility, state media said Saturday.
Construction on the coastal Shidao Bay nuclear plant in Rongcheng, a city in eastern China’s Shandong province, resumed last month, the state-run China Internet Information Center reported, adding that the plant is “China’s biggest planned nuclear project”.
The plant, which will be cooled by high temperature gas, will become “the world’s first successfully commercialised fourth generation nuclear technology demonstration project”, the report said.
It is designed to be safer and cuts down on costs, the report quoted a spokesman from the China Huaneng Group, the biggest investor in the plant, as saying.
The plant, expected to begin supplying electricity to the grid by 2017, will have a final generating capacity of 6,600 megawatts, the report said, adding initial investment in the project will be three billion yuan ($480 million).

Japan: Abe to review Fukushima crisis before deciding on restarting reactors

TOKYO —

Japan’s incoming pro-nuclear Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Sunday his government will again investigate the Fukushima nuclear crisis, after which the country’s reactors could be restarted, reports said.
His comments will add to speculation that plans to ditch nuclear power in disaster-scarred Japan will be shelved by his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) when it takes power after scoring a landslide election win last week.
“We are yet to completely clarify what went wrong (in Fukushima),” he told a political show on Fuji TV on Sunday.

H ιστορία στο Τόκιο:Συνομιλίες υπουργών και εμπειρογνωμόνων στη Φουκουσίμα για την πυρηνική ασφάλεια (Nuclear Safety)

Η Διεθνής Υπηρεσία Ατομικής Ενέργειας από κοινού με την κυβέρνηση της Ιαπωνίας διοργανώνουν στη Νομαρχία της Φουκουσίμα διάσκεψη για την πυρηνική ασφάλεια.

Η διάσκεψη πραγματοποιείται στην πόλη Κοριγιάμα κοντά στον ατομικό σταθμό ηλεκτρικής ενέργειας της Φουκουσίμα, που είχε πληγεί λόγω του σεισμού και του τσουνάμι τον Μάρτιο του 2011.