Situation Report

Japanese meteorologist Satoshi Ebihara answers questions during a press conference in Tokyo, on July 7, 2014
(AFP Photo/)

news.yahoo.com - AFP - by Shigemi Sato - July 7, 2014

Japan was bracing Tuesday for one of its worst storms in over a decade as typhoon Neoguri barreled towards the southern Okinawa island chain, with 55,000 people urged to evacuate as the weather agency issued its highest alert.

The top-level warning means a threat to life, as well as the risk of massive damage from torrential rains and gusts of up to 250 kilometres (155 miles) per hour. . .

. . . Waves could reach as high as 14 metres (45 feet), a weather agency official said in a warning that was likely to revive memories of Japan's quake-tsunami disaster in 2011.

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A TEPCO employee in protective clothing works around tanks filled with radioactive water at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. (photo: AAP)

nytimes.com - by Hiroko Tabuchi - February 25, 2014

TOKYO — The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made its biggest push yet to revive Japan’s nuclear energy program on Tuesday, announcing details of a draft plan that designates atomic power as an important long-term electricity source.

The new Basic Energy Plan, which states that Japan will push to restart reactors that were closed after the disaster in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, overturns a promise made by a previous government to phase out the country’s nuclear reactors. The plan also leaves open the possibility of building new plants as well as restarting existing ones.

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Members of the media inside the Fukushima Daiichi plant on Thursday. The plant’s operator plans to start moving radioactive fuel to safer storage.  Pool photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi

nytimes.com - by Hiroko Tabuchi - November 10, 2013

TOKYO — It was the part of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that spooked American officials the most, as the complex spiraled out of control two and a half years ago: the spent fuel pool at Reactor No. 4, with more than 1,500 radioactive fuel assemblies left exposed when a hydrogen explosion blew the roof off the building.

In the next 10 days, the plant’s operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, is set to start the delicate and risky task of using a crane to remove the fuel assemblies from the pool, a critical step in a long decommissioning process that has already had serious setbacks.

Just 36 men will carry out the tense operation to move the fuel to safer storage; they will work in groups of six in two-hour shifts throughout the day for months.

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Double whammy feared; Izu braces for the worst

japantimes.co.jp - by Tomohiro Osaki - October 23, 2013

Less than a week after being hit by the largest typhoon in a decade, Tokyo is bracing for another strong storm that will likely reach the area Saturday, and it may get merged with an even stronger approaching tempest.

Though less powerful than Typhoon Wipha, incoming tropical cyclone Francisco is rated as “strong,” the Meteorological Agency said. But on a possible collision course is Typhoon Lekima, considered “more fierce.”

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