Page 54 - Japan

Water release just start of decommissioning at Japan's Fukushima plant

At a small section of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant's central control room in northeastern Japan, the treated water transfer switch is on. A graph on a computer monitor nearby shows a steady decrease of water levels as treated radioactive wastewater is diluted and released into the Pacific Ocean. In the coastal area of the plant, two seawater pumps are in action, gushing torrents of seawater through sky blue pipes into the big header where the treated water, which comes down through a much thinner black pipe from the hilltop tanks, gets diluted by hundreds of times before the release. The sound of the treated and diluted radioactive water flowing into an underground secondary pool was heard from beneath the ground during Sunday's first plant tour for media, including The Associated Press, since the controversial release began. The best way to eliminate the contaminated water is to remove the melted fuel debris, said Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings spokesperson Kenichi .

Public outrage mounts across China over Japan's nuclear wastewater

Tokyo's move prompted swift retaliation from Chinese authorities, who banned all Japanese seafood imports starting Thursday

ASL acquires Japanese-built vessel, to pursue further fleet growth

Apeejay Shipping Ltd (ASL) on Friday announced the acquisition of a Japanese-built vessel with a deadweight capacity of 76,812 MT. The vessel adds significant strength to the Kolkata-based company's fleet, now totalling 10 vessels and boasting of a combined deadweight tonnage (dwt) of 671,332 MT. The cost and financing details of the acquisition were not shared. "We will continue to look for and acquire more ships and focus on expansion and growth," said Karan Paul, Chairman of the Apeejay Surendra Group. Officials shared that ASL, the third-largest ship owner in India, aims to achieve a capacity of one million tonnes in the future. The announcement of this acquisition coincides with the celebration of ASL's 75th year of existence. In 2022, the Union government announced a range of measures to enhance the tonnage of Indian shipping companies, including subsidies. Meanwhile, an ICRA credit report of July 2022, highlighted ASL's track record, noting its previous acquisitions of th

Indian, Japanese bodies partner on waste management, environment research

The Kolkata-based International Society of Waste Management, Air and Water (ISWMAW) and the Kyoto Beyond SDGs consortium of Japan have inked an agreement on academic, research and industry collaboration between the two Asian countries on various environmental issues. ISWMAW president Sadhan Kumar Ghosh said twenty students from India and 20 others from Japan will also visit each other's country as part of an exchange programme. He said 47 educational institutes are involved in the exercise - 40 in West Bengal and seven in Japan. The MoU was signed for establishing partnerships focussing on sustainable development goals to develop human resource exchanges and information exchange and research collaboration among the industry, academia and government. "Apart from visiting different academic institutions and places of interest and participating in different programmes, every visiting student will be put up at the house of a Japanese friend of his age as part of the initiative to know

Japan's top energy company keen on investing in Maharashtra: Fadnavis

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday said JERA Co Inc, Japan's largest power generation company, has expressed a strong desire to explore investment and partnership opportunities with the state government in areas of green hydrogen, ammonia, renewable Energy and liquefied natural gas (LNG). The deputy CM, who is on a visit to Japan, said Dr Masafumi Mori, also special advisor to Prime Minister of Japan, promised his government's support to the Versova-Virar Sea Link (VVSL), a big-ticket infrastructure project in the Mumbai region. Fadnavis said, Senior officials of the Maharashtra government made a presentation on green hydrogen policy of the state. Maharashtra is the first state to come up with a revolutionary green hydrogen policy which has captured the attention of many companies. JERA officials expressed a strong desire to explore investment and partnership with the state government in areas of green hydrogen and ammonia, renewable energy and LNG. ...

Japan is next country to shoot for Moon after India and Russia missions

As Japanese entrepreneurs try to build their space startups, they're getting some support from JAXA

China bans seafood from Japan after Fukushima plant releases wastewater

Chinese customs authorities banned seafood from Japan in response to the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant starting its wastewater release Thursday, customs authorities said in an announcement. The ban starts immediately and will affect all imports of aquatic products including seafood, according to the notice. Authorities said they will dynamically adjust relevant regulatory measures as appropriate to prevent the risks of nuclear-contaminated water discharge to the health and food safety of our country.

Fukushima nuclear plant releases radioactive waste water into sea

The operator of the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will begin releasing the first batch of treated and diluted radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean later Thursday, utility executives said. Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings executive Junichi Matsumoto, who is in charge of the project, said its final preparations and testing have cleared safety standards and the release will begin in the early afternoon. The release will begin more than 12 years after the meltdowns of three reactors at the plant that was heavily damaged by the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan's northeastern coast on March 11, 2011. Radioactive water both seeping groundwater and water used to cool the reactors have accumulated at the site ever since, and TEPCO and the government say the mass quantities of the water have hampered the daunting task of removing the deadly toxic melted debris from the reactors. The release of the ... treated water is a significant ...

In Japan's neighbours, fear, frustation over radioactive water release

Seoul office worker Kim Mijeong says she intends to stop eating seafood, as she deeply mistrusts the safety of Japan's release of treated radioactive wastewater into the sea from its crippled nuclear power plant. We should absolutely cut back on our consumption of seafood. Actually, we can't eat it, Kim said. I can't accept the Japanese plan because it's too unilateral and is proceeding without countermeasures. The International Atomic Energy Agency and many foreign experts already assessed the water discharge will cause negligible impact on the environment and human health. But ahead of the discharge of the wastewater starting Thursday, public fears and frustrations were being shared in its Asian neighbors, where many still bear strong resentment against Japan's wartime aggression. China summoned Japan's ambassador in Beijing earlier this week to register its complaints, and a government spokesperson called the discharge plan extremely selfish and irresponsible. Hong Kong and Macau

Economic data in Europe gets worse, ECB interest rate pause on cards

Wall Street futures also pointed to a bounce having been pressured on Tuesday by higher bond yields, which hit 16-year highs

Fanuc Corp's road to redemption runs through India and the US Fed

India is looking hot, though. Revenue growth at its wholly owned Fanuc India Private Ltd. doubled over the past two years, according to data filed with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs

A revived trilateral

Japan and South Korea are shoring up security

Ships, sub, aircraft: 4-nation naval wargame Exercise Malabar concludes

The exercise was conducted in two phases - a harbour (or planning) phase from August 11-15, and a sea phase from August 16-21

ISRO's next Moon mission with Japanese space agency gathers steam

ISRO's next likely Moon mission is in partnership with its Japanese counterpart, a venture that's gathering steam. Lunar Polar Exploration Mission (LUPEX) is a collaborative venture between Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the Bengaluru-headquartered Indian space agency. JAXA and ISRO are developing the rover and lander, respectively. The rover will carry not only the instruments of ISRO and JAXA but also those of US space agency NASA and European Space Agency (ESA). Vice-Chair of Japan's Cabinet Committee on National Space Policy and Director General, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Saku Tsuneta, visited ISRO headquarters here earlier this month and had a meeting with the space agency's Chairman Somanath S. They discussed the progress of the LUPEX mission. "Development of a smaller lander for the LUPEX mission was discussed, among other things," an ISRO official said. According to JAXA, the LUPEX mission is aimed at exploring lunar polar region suitabili

Japan to release treated radioactive water starting August 24; details here

Japan has said the radioactive wastewater release is safe, which has been backed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

North Korea plans to launch satellite within week between Aug 24-31: Japan

On May 31, Pyongyang attempted to put into orbit what it claimed was a military spy satellite but was unsuccessful

Japan to release Fukushima plant's treated water to sea as early as Thurs

The Japanese government announced Tuesday the treated and diluted radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will be released into the ocean as early as Thursday. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida gave the final go-ahead at a meeting of Cabinet ministers involved in the plan and instructed the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, to be ready to start the release Thursday if weather permits. The water release begins nearly 12 and half years after the March 2011 nuclear meltdowns caused by a massive earthquake and tsunami. Japanese fisheries groups have opposed the plan out of worry of further damage to the reputation of their seafood. Groups in China and South Korea have also raised concern, making it a political and diplomatic issue. The government and TEPCO say the water must be released to make room for the plant's decommissioning and to prevent accidental leaks. They say the treatment and dilution will make the wastewater safer than internation

N Korea may launch spy satellite in coming days after earlier failure

North Korea told Japan on Tuesday it plans to launch a satellite in the coming days, possibly a second try to put a military spy satellite into orbit three months after its first effort failed, Japanese officials said. In late May, a North Korean rocket carrying a spy satellite plunged into the sea soon after liftoff, posing a setback to leader Kim Jong Un's push to establish a space-based surveillance system to better monitor the U.S. and South Korea. North Korea had vowed to make a second attempt after studying what went wrong with the first launch. Japan's coast guard said North Korean authorities notified it about a plan to launch a satellite from Aug. 24 and the end of Aug. 30. Coast guard spokesperson Hiromune Kikuchi said that the notice didn't specify what type of satellite North Korea intends to launch but that he believes it possibly refers to one similar to the spy satellite in the May launch. The North Korean notice mentioned three maritime zones that could be affected b

Japan pledges support to fisheries during Fukushima plant water release

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday promised his government's full support for fishing communities during the decades-long process to release treated radioactive wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea. Meeting with fisheries representatives, Kishida promised measures to protect the fishing industry's reputation until the release ends. Masanobu Sakamoto, head of the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives, reiterated his organisation's opposition to the release. He said members of the fishing community have gained some confidence about the safety of the move, but that they still fear damage to their industry, and welcomed the government pledge for support. Scientific safety and the sense of safety are different, Sakamoto said. Even if it's safe, reputational damage occurs." Kishida later told reporters that Sakamoto's response signalled improved understanding and that key Cabinet ministers will meet Tuesday to set a date to start the relea

Japan makes final plea to gain fisheries' understanding for Fukushima plant

Japanese government officials sought understanding from fisheries groups on Monday for the impending release of treated radioactive wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea and pledged to support their livelihoods throughout the process that will take decades. Economy and Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura met with the head of the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives and promised that the government is doing everything it can to ensure the safety of the release and prepared measures to protect the fisheries industry's reputation. Nishimura told the fisheries official, Masanobu Sakamoto, that the water release is essential for the plant decommissioning and Fukushima's recovery and can't be postponed. He also said the government will stand by the concerns and needs of the fisheries community until the release ends decades later. Sakamoto, at the outset, stressed that his organization as a whole remains opposed to the release, but he said members of