Toyota re-opens all Japan factories.

Quote:

Toyota resumed car production at all of its plants in Japan for the first time since the earthquake and tsunami, but said the factories will run at half capacity due to parts shortages.
The world's number one car maker said it was still struggling to secure around 150 types of components after the disaster destroyed factories in north-eastern Japan, causing severe shortages.
Toyota was forced to shut down all output in Japan except at three plants, which have been running at limited capacity since late March and early April to produce best-selling Prius, Lexus and Corolla cars.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress....

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/goldman....

Definitely worth reading.

FoxNews.com says Sony's annual earnings release is delayed a few days until May 26 due to the disaster.

I also saw a news story that Sony and Microsoft are both signaling no major console upgrades until 2014.

BoJ cuts economic forecast:

http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=....

Partial quote:

Quote:

Factory output fell 15.3 percent from February, the biggest drop since data began in 1953, and household spending slid 8.5 percent from a year earlier, the government said today. The Bank of Japan cut its growth estimate for the year ending March 2012 to 0.6 percent from a January prediction of 1.6 percent.

Quote:

I also saw a news story that Sony and Microsoft are both signaling no major console upgrades until 2014.

Which, according to moore's law, will leave them obsolete vs. cheap tablets.

Toyota profit sinks 52%

http://tickerforum.org/akcs-www?post=185....

Japan approves Tepco nuclear claims plan
Government will help power company compensate victims of the natural disaster
TOKYO — Japan on Friday announced a plan to help Tokyo Electric Power compensate victims of the crisis at its tsunami-crippled nuclear plant without going broke while it struggles to resolve the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.

The plan, agreed after weeks of wrangling between government officials, bankers and Tokyo Electric executives over who should pay for the crisis, allays investors' fears that a collapse of the power firm would roil financial markets.

It comes as engineers are still working to bring reactors under control at Tokyo Electric's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant north of Tokyo two months after the earthquake and tsunami that led to radiation leaks.

Ratings agency Standard and Poor's lowered Tokyo Electric, known as Tepco, to BBB from BBB+, saying in a statement: "The upper limit of compensation remains unclear at this stage, and we expect Tepco's profitability to remain under significant pressure for a very long period."

The government will issue special-purpose bonds to help finance a fund that will allow Asia's largest utility to handle compensation claims expected to run into tens of billions of dollars. No ceiling was set on Tokyo Electric's liabilities.

The government is also considering buying preferred shares from Tokyo Electric, also known as Tepco, if it runs short of capital. It did not provide details on the size of its planned fund injection but lawmakers told reporters earlier this week the bond issue would total about 5 trillion yen ($62 billion).

In return for public backing, the government said it will exert control "for a certain period of time" over management of Tokyo Electric and other power utilities, which will also be asked to pay annual premiums into the fund.

Though relieved that the worst may have been averted, investors sold utility stocks, unsettled by the prospect of the government's hands-on role in running the sector.

Bank shares also slid after Japan's top government spokesman said a distinction should be made between loans made before the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and those extended after the disaster and that banks should be asked to cooperate in easing Tokyo Electric's financial burden.

The market interpreted the comments from Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano as an indication banks may be asked to forgive loans or make other concessions. Shares of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, the utility's main creditor bank, dropped 3.8 percent.

"The government is infringing on private firms' profits. It has violated the profits of utilities and now it's trying to lower the burden for the taxpayer by encroaching on banks' profits," said Kiyoshi Noda, chief fund manager at MU Investments.

Public burden
Government officials made great efforts to fend off criticism of the scheme as an unjustified use of taxpayer funds. Some have argued the utility, which has a history of safety lapses and is known for its cozy ties with regulators, should have been allowed to fail.

"This framework is not meant as a bailout of Tepco. We made this framework so that compensation can take place swiftly for the victims ... and so that Tepco can supply electricity in a stable way," Trade Minister Banri Kaieda told reporters.

Ministers also sought to alleviate concerns that consumers would end up shouldering much of the burden either in the form of higher electricity tariffs or new taxes, saying the implications for both should be kept to a minimum.

The government will need to pass a new law in parliament to implement the plan and analysts said the opposition, however critical of the scheme, will find it hard to block it as it will effectively mean a delay in compensating disaster victims.

The special-purpose bonds can be turned into cash to handle the initial burst of payouts and Tepco said it aimed to make the first payments to farmers and fishermen affected by the disaster by the end of this month.

More than 70,000 people living in a largely rural area within a 20-km (12 mile) radius of the plant were forced to evacuate. About 136,000 people living within a zone extending another 10 km were advised to stay indoors.

Some analysts have estimated that compensation claims could be anywhere between $20 billion and $130 billion, depending on how long the crisis continues.

S&P said the likelihood that Tepco would receive extraordinary support from the government was very high, but among other factors an increase in radiation leaks from the nuclear plant could raise the risk of further ratings cuts.

Delay
While the government tried to navigate the political minefield surrounding the compensation plan, workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant 240 km north of Tokyo faced another setback after a water leak was discovered in one of the reactors this week.

Tepco said on Friday that the discovery of leaking water from the stricken plant's No.1 reactor could complicate its plan to set up a more permanent cooling system for the facility. Some outside experts have been skeptical for weeks about Japan's plan to stabilize the Fukushima Daiichi reactors by January.

Kaieda said a delay in that timetable was now likely.

"I think this is a major factor that will require a change in Tokyo Electric's road map for bringing the situation under control," Kaieda said.

Earlier in the week, Tepco said it had sealed a leak of radioactive water outside the plant's No.3 reactor. The No.2 reactor developed similar leaks which were sealed in April with liquid glass and other substances.

The 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that followed killed more than 15,000 people, the National Policy Agency said. More than 9,500 people are still missing.

Since the disaster disabled the Fukushima Daiichi plant's cooling systems, Tepco has poured water on the reactors to forestall disastrous meltdowns. The utility has scrambled to find means of storing the contaminated water, some of which has seeped into the ocean.

The world's worst nuclear crisis in a quarter of a century prompted Tokyo to rethink its energy policy that heavily relied on nuclear power as the main alternative to fossil fuels.

Last week, Prime Minister Naoto Kan asked another power utility to close a nuclear plant in an earthquake-prone area. He drew both applause for bold action and fire for what critics said was a rash and poorly planned policy move.

The move also rekindled fears that household and businesses will be hit by rolling blackouts during the summer when electricity use is the highest.

Tepco on Friday said it planned to restart conventional thermal plants shut since the March 11 quake and that by the end of July it should be able to supply enough power to meet peak demand.

Kaieda also said the government would do its best to avoid power blackouts.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43022541/ns/....

ZH wrote..

Increasingly we have come to believe that the real marginal economy over the next several quarters will be neither that of the contracting US, nor that of the rapidly tightening, yet still very much inflationary China, but the (arguably) third largest one: that of Japan. Over the past month we have suggested that in addition to already latent deflationary tendencies, the recent post-earthquake collapse will require a dramatic, and very political intervention in BOJ monetary policies (here and here), in order to avoid a global contraction. Yet as David Koo proposed yesterday, the (infra)structural changes will demand an overhaul so profound that the contraction will be not only severe but likely very extended due to spillover effects into energy commodity demand, thus creating a non-virtuous feedback loop. So for those who are still new to the Japan story, below we present an extended presentation compiled by The Tail Chaser blog which compiles the relevant bits and pieces on the Japanese economy to scare even the most optimistic fan of the land of the setting sun (which certainly is not Dylan Grice who recently suggested that a very possible outcome is a Weimar repeat as the BOJ takes the von Havenstein route to excess debt resolution).

More: http://www.zerohedge.com/article/complet....

As I look for "NUKE" news of Japan,I'll post "other' news here.

Japan plans additional $165 billion for reconstruction

Japan's government plans additional spending of 13 trillion yen ($165 billion) for reconstruction projects after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, on top of a combined 6 trillion yen already set aside in two extra budgets, a government source said on Thursday.

Investors are counting on reconstruction spending to help the world's third-largest economy pull out from a slump caused by the disasters and to resume moderate growth in the third quarter.

To raise the money, the government is considering issuing special bonds, scaling back other spending plans and selling national assets, said the source, who declined to be identified.

Assets the government could considering selling include shareholdings in NTT, Japan's largest phone company, and Japan Tobacco, the nation's largest cigarette maker, the Nikkei business daily said.

The government has yet to finalize the maturities for reconstruction bonds it will issue but the Ministry of Finance is planning on five-year bonds, while the government will consider raising taxes to repay them, the source said.

The markets had expected fresh spending beyond the first two extra budgets to exceed 10 trillion yen.

The 13 trillion yen would support projects worth a total of about 23 trillion to 25 trillion yen, the source said, with about 80 percent of those to be implemented over the next five years and the remainder to be completed within the following five years.

The Mainichi newspaper said the projects would include financial assistance to farmers in quake-hit areas, renewable energy development and the creation of special districts for rebuilding the fishing industry.

But the reconstruction plans do not include any spending, the source said, to address the crisis at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, which has been leaking radiation since in the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

The government is likely to struggle to generate cash to help pay for Japan's biggest rebuilding project since the period immediately after World War Two, as its ability to borrow is constrained by a debt pile already twice the size of the $5 trillion economy.

It avoided new borrowing when it funded the previous two extra budgets, by tapping fiscal reserves and reallocating spending.

A government advisory panel on reconstruction last month proposed a temporary increase in the corporate, personal income and sales taxes.

Tokyo has also floated the idea of share sales in NTT and Japan Tobacco but it would first have to amend laws that require minimum shareholdings in the two companies.

The government also owns shares in Tokyo Metro Co, the operator of Tokyo's subway systems, which could potentially generate cash with an initial public offering.

($1 = 78.865 Japanese Yen)

Tokyo refugees building homes in USA. Well specifically in my area for sure.

Japan's Food Chain Threat Multiplies as Radiation Spreads



Radiation fallout from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant poses a growing threat to Japan's food chain as unsafe levels of cesium found in beef on supermarket shelves were also detected in more vegetables and the ocean.

More than 2,600 cattle have been contaminated, Kyodo News reported July 23, after the Miyagi local government said 1,183 cattle at 58 farms were fed hay containing radioactive cesium before being shipped to meat markets.

Agriculture Minister Michihiko Kano has said officials didn't foresee that farmers might ship contaminated hay to cattle ranchers. That highlights the government's inability to think ahead and to act, said Mariko Sano, secretary general for Shufuren, a housewives organization in Tokyo.

"The government is so slow to move," Sano said. "They've done little to ensure food safety."




On July 22, Aeon Co., Japan's biggest supermarket chain, said 1,614 kilograms (3,558 pounds) of beef from cattle fed contaminated feed had been unknowingly sold at stores in Tokyo and nine other prefectures. Supermarkets started testing beef after the Tokyo Metropolitan Government found cesium in slaughtered cattle this month.

The government on July 19 banned cattle shipments from Fukushima prefecture, though not before some had been slaughtered and shipped to supermarkets. A ban on Shiitake mushrooms from another part of Fukushima was introduced on July 23 because of cesium levels, the health ministry said.

Seafood Concerns

As much as 2,300 becquerels of cesium a kilogram was detected in the contaminated beef, according to a July 18 statement from the health ministry. The government limit is 500 becquerels per kilogram.

Seafood is another concern after cesium-134 in seawater near the Fukushima plant climbed to levels 30 times the allowed safety standards last week, according to tests performed by Tokyo Electric Power Co, national broadcaster NHK reported.

"We need to monitor the cesium 134 level detected in seawater around the plant," Tetsuo Ito, the head of the Atomic Energy Research Institute at Kinki University in central Japan, said by phone today. "The increase could be from seawater churned by swells from the recent typhoon, but it's possible that contaminated groundwater leaked from the plant."




Voluntary Testing

Japan has no centralized system to check for radiation contamination of food, leaving local authorities and farmers conducting voluntary tests. Products including spinach, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, tea, milk, plums and fish have been found contaminated with cesium and iodine as far as 360 kilometers from Dai-Ichi.

Hay contaminated with as much as 690,000 becquerels a kilogram, compared with a government safety standard of 300 becquerels, has been fed to cattle. Cattle with unsafe levels of the radioactive element were detected in four prefectures, the health ministry said July 23.

A becquerel represents one radioactive decay per second, which involves the release of atomic energy that can damage human cells and DNA, with prolonged exposure causing leukemia and other forms of cancer, according to the World Nuclear Association.

Four months after the earthquake and tsunami damage to the Fukushima plant, local governments short of equipment, staff and funds are struggling to test all farm products.

Tainted Meat

The government is considering if it's feasible to test all cattle to prevent shipments of tainted meat to market, according to Yasuo Sasaki, senior press counselor for the agriculture ministry.

On June 6, Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the plant released about 770,000 tera becquerels of radioactive material into the air between March 11 and March 16, doubling an earlier estimate.




That's about 14 percent of the radiation emitted in the Chernobyl disaster in modern-day Ukraine. About 2 million people in Ukraine are under permanent medical monitoring, 25 years after the accident, according to the nation's embassy in Tokyo.

While 203 people were hospitalized and 31 died after the explosion at Chernobyl, about 400,000 children are considered to have received significant doses of radiation to their thyroid that merit monitoring, the embassy said.

Cases of thyroid cancer in Belarus, which neighbors Ukraine, increased for at least 10 years after 1986 in children younger than 14 and for almost 20 years among 20-24 year olds, according to research by Shunichi Yama****a of Nagasaki University, who was appointed as an adviser to Fukushima prefecture on radiation exposure.

Radioactive leaf soil sold nationwide after gov't prevention measures fail

Bags of leaf soil contaminated with highly radioactive cesium have been shipped and sold throughout the country for more than a month after the central government failed to detect the contamination and take preventative measures fast enough.

Leaf soil produced in Kanuma, Tochigi Prefecture, has been found to contain highly radioactive cesium. Some of the leaf soil contained fallen leaves from a resort area in Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture, about 100 kilometers from the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant. Bags of leaf soil were shipped and sold mainly at do-it-yourself stores across the country after the government did not set the allowable limit of cesium in leaf soil or did not give instructions to soil producers promptly.

The radioactive contamination was brought to light after someone posted video footage on YouTube on June 24. The video, which shows a radiation counter beeping when put on a bag of leaf soil at a do-it-yourself store, has so far amassed about 100,000 views. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries announced the allowable limit for cesium on Aug. 2 -- eight days after it released information on the radioactive contamination in leaf soil.

On July 25, about a month after the video was posted on YouTube, the Akita Prefectural Government announced that it had detected 11,000 becquerells of cesium in leaf soil per 1 kilogram at a do-it-yourself store in Akita. On July 27, the Tottori Prefectural Government said it had detected 14,800 becquerells of cesium in leaf soil per 1 kilogram at a do-it-yourself store in Tottori. They were produced by different leaf-soil makers but both of them are based in Kanuma. There are about 60 producers of soil for gardening and fertilizer in Kanuma, which is known for its high-quality "Kanuma soil." The leaf-soil producers talked about the video on YouTube from the beginning. One of the producers said, "We were in great fear because fallen leaves collected after the quake disaster were about to be shipped to shops. But we went ahead and shipped them because there were no instructions from the government."

Immediately after the cesium contamination was brought to light, 72,000 becquerells of cesium were detected in fallen leaves in the northern part of Tochigi Prefecture. The president of a fertilizer company which shipped leaf soil to a do-it-yourself store chain said, "I went pale ... We have caused great damage to the horticulture industry. If we had known the leaves were dangerous, we could have been more careful." The company mixed the fallen leaves collected after the quake disaster with other leaves procured earlier, and therefore it had to stop producing leaf soil completely.

A gardening company in Otawara, Tochigi Prefecture, which was collecting fallen leaves at the request of the fertilizer company angrily said, "We cannot pay salaries to our employees because we cannot receive money for the fallen leaves we delivered. Who will compensate us for that?" The company collects fallen leaves in resort areas in Nasushiobara and Nasu in northern Tochigi Prefecture from autumn to summer each year. Fertilizer companies then buy the fallen leaves and mix them with foreign bark and the like and ship them as leaf mold.

According to the Japan DIY Association, sales of gardening goods such as leaf soil have been steadily rising in recent years as gardening becomes popular. That's why the impact of the radioactive contamination has been spreading through the industry and consumers.

When the first case of contamination was announced on July 25, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries told prefectural governments to restrain the use, distribution and production of leaf soil made in 17 prefectures from Tohoku to Tokai regions. Then, Cainz Home, a major do-it-yourself chain, removed 179 kinds of gardening goods such as leaf soil and incubated soil from the shelves at its stores across the country. People in the industry complained that the government should have set safety standards much earlier.

Some of the radioactive cesium contained in soil can be absorbed by agricultural crops. Some shops have been recalling leaf soil. People who bought the product have been calling shops to ask whether it was safe to use it for their vegetable gardens and the like. "Even with leaf soil contaminated with the levels of radiation detected so far, it is hard to imagine that cesium in agricultural crops will exceed the allowable limit of radiation," said a farm ministry official.

News report(s)...
Post-disaster nuclear safety efforts continue in Japan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FpsIIKzY.... (June)

Post-disaster nuclear safety efforts continue in Japan JULY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq7-j0jir....

Livestock farmers in despair

OSAKI, Miyagi--Livestock farmers in Miyagi Prefecture are deeply concerned about the government's total suspension of beef cattle shipments from the prefecture after some local beef was found to be contaminated with radioactive cesium above permissible levels.

With some cattle overdue for shipment farmers don't know how long they can maintain their cattle's health and manage their farms.

Tomohiro Izumi, a 31-year-old cattle farmer in Osaki, Miyagi Prefecture, keeps 80 beef cattle. Six of the cows are over 30 months old, and the oldest cow is aged 33 months. The shipment period for these cattle has expired.

Izumi usually buys 10-month-old beef cattle at 400,000 yen to 500,000 yen each and ships them after raising them to about 30 months old. "I've never postponed shipment this long," he said, adding if he cannot ship the cattle, he will not earn enough to buy new calves.

In addition to beef cattle, Izumi also keeps about 60 cattle for breeding. He needs 1.5 million yen to 1.8 million yen a month to feed them.

In order to produce the marbled beef prized by the industry, Izumi increases the amount of a certain kind of vitamin-free feed, and feeds rice straw, to bovine aged between 13 and 20 months.

Cattle old enough for shipping must be handled with care. Weighing nearly 800 kilograms, they are prone to losing their balance and becoming ill due to the lack of vitamins.

According to the prefectural government's livestock division, about 900 cattle farmers are raising about 47,000 beef cattle in the prefecture.

Manabu Otomo, beef section chief at JA Furukawa, an agricultural cooperative in Osaki, said: "Cattle farmers are raising their cattle for longer periods than ever before. We don't have any reference data on this."

Hokkaido University Prof. Osamu Inanami, an expert in radiation biology, said livestock raising involves much fine tuning and controlling the meat quality requires adjustments to auction timing.

He is worried that some exhausted livestock farmers might discontinue business due to the suspension of shipments.

"The government should take measures to protect domestic cattle industry as well as alleviating consumer fears," he said.

Todays updates, there are quite a few....

Canada's Cameco affected by Fukushima

Canada's Cameco Corp. has lessened its demand forecast after Japan's Fukushima disaster, in which the six-reactor complex was damaged in March by an earthquake and a subsequent tsunami.

Despite the setback, Canada's uranium industry, with Japan as a major export market, has seen Cameco Corp. maintain its 2011 sales guidance and only made slight reductions to its long-term demand forecasts.

That, however, assumes the global demand for uranium, especially in the developing world, will overcome the negative publicity generated by the March 11 catastrophe at the Daiichi Fukushima TEPCO complex.

"To look beyond the headlines of Europe and Japan, it's clear the world's fastest-growing economies are not backing away from their plans to have greatly increased nuclear power capacity as part of their energy mix," Cameco Chief Executive Officer Tim Gitzel said in a conference call regarding second-quarter earnings.




Gitzel attempted to put a brave face on Cameco's current situation, stating, that while Germany's decision to phase out nuclear power, as well as the uncertainty of the future of nuclear power in Japan, has had a negative effect on uranium as a nuclear fuel, the impact of those decisions were limited.

"However, almost all other long-established nuclear plant operators in the world, the German nuclear phase-out has not proven contagious," he said on the call.

Gitzel's optimism comes in the wake of Cameco reporting a 23 percent drop in second quarter 2011 profits along with a 32 percent decline in 6-month net earnings, even as Cameco's production increased 16 percent during 2011's second quarter.

In the wake of the disaster in Japan, share prices of uranium companies dropped on expectations that the calamity would cause countries, particularly those in the developing world, to scale back their projected nuclear power development projects or even scrap them entirely, as Germany did.

But Gitzel saw possibilities, too.

Gitzel said that all 13 of the Peoples Republic of China's operating reactors have passed safety inspections and safety checks of the country's 27 reactors under construction should be finished within two months.

And, while Japan represents about 17-18 percent of Cameco's sales, the company could sell its output currently purchased by Japan to other customers at potentially higher prices in the event that Japan, following in Germany's footsteps, decides to abandon nuclear power.

Japan counts on its 54 nuclear plants -- 38 of which are offline -- to provide nearly one-third of the country's electrical needs.
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What's Mox? The loss of 600 jobs in Cumbria

On 03 August 2011, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) announced the closure of the Mox nuclear fuel manufacturing plant at the Sellafield complex in Cumbria with the loss of 600 jobs expected. A closure waiting to happen? It would certainly appear to be the case after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster in March this year.

Sellafield is holding 13 tonnes of Japanese plutonium oxide for treatment, capable of generating, once processed, a greater energy output than 26 million tonnes of coal, but the Japanese aren't looking to get their enriched energy source back any time soon. Sellafield's Mox facility appears to have been entirely dependent upon orders from the Japanese company, even to the point where Sellafield's current Mox manufacturing works cannot be economically altered to handle the latest generation of nuclear reactors and so bid for other potential orders.

This is a rather sad state of affairs in a country that once was a leader in nuclear technology. It has also turned out to be a pretty rum deal for the British tax payer. Construction of the Mox facility at Sellafield was completed in 1997 but has had an operational lifespan of under 10 years.

The plant was designed to produce up to 120 tonnes of Mox per year but in its first five years of operation managed to produce only five tonnes, no doubt a lack of rigour in the cost accounting department. The joke, however, is on the taxpayer to the tune of £1.34 billion to date. With virtually nothing to show for this treasure, has the NDA been sleepwalking its way to this decision? Not to mention the small matter of a stockpile of 112 tonnes of (civilian) separated plutonium - the largest of its kind in the world.

What is Mox and why is it important? Mixed Oxide Fuel, to put it as simply as possible, is a nuclear fuel formed by blending (separated) plutonium with natural, reprocessed or depleted uranium. The plutonium has itself been separated, mostly, from the spent nuclear fuel from civilian nuclear power stations. Some plutonium has been sourced from decommissioned nuclear weapons - "weapons grade" plutonium

A single recycling of plutonium increases the energy derived from the original uranium by 12 per cent and by recycling the uranium-235 after enrichment, together with the plutonium, this then increases to 20 per cent.

The fuel is used in thermal reactors, the most common type of nuclear energy plant producing heat through nuclear fission. A thermal reactor uses "slow" or "thermal" neutrons requiring a neutron moderator in order to achieve the reduction in neutron speed so that a nuclear chain reaction using uranium-235 can be maintained.

Most generally used as a moderator is ordinary (light) water and at the moment there are 359 light water reactors (LWR) in operation in 27 countries with a further 27 under construction. There are two varieties of LWR power plants - pressurised water reactors (PWR) and boiling water reactors (BWR).

The use of ordinary water makes it necessary to enrich the uranium fuel so that the critical nuclear chain reaction can be maintained. This is because light water absorbs too many neutrons to be used with unenriched uranium.

Research continues on a third type, probably a BWR refinement, the supercritical water reactor, holding out the promise of higher thermal efficiency and simpler, so by implication cheaper, design and construction. It will however, require greater fuel enrichment and is still some way off before becoming a reality.

At present, 30 reactors in Western Europe use Mox for about 30 per cent of their core reactor fuel and with modifications, some of these reactors will be able to use a 50 per cent Mox core fuel ratio. It is claimed that Canada's 17 pressurised heavy water (D20) deuterium-uranium reactors, can use a 100 per cent Mox fuel core.

Meanwhile, the USA is building a Mox plant at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. This "nuclear reservation" was built during the Cold War to make nuclear weapons, among other things, and covers 310 square miles - not short of room then! Its former Cold War foe, Russia, is still running, quite successfully and with no serious mishaps, its BN-600 sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor at Beloyarsk, Sverdlovsk Oblast - it too can use Mox.

The pity then, is that Sellafield should be on anyone's list in the market for "nuclear reprocessing", "uranium enrichment" and MOX!

The Independent on 05 August 2011, reported that:

"Local politicians and trade unions want the Government to agree to agree to a new mixed-oxide (Mox) fuel plant costing up to £6 billion in the wake of the announcement on Wednesday to close the controversial Sellafield Mox Plant..."

Six billion pounds! I wish them the very best of luck in the current climate but the alarm bells should surely have been ringing many years sooner.

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Last year's rice being hoarded over radiation contamination worries

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Consumers are beginning to hoard last year's rice as their dietary staple over concerns that freshly harvested rice may be contaminated with radioactive materials released from the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, retailers said Friday.

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry is working to establish a system for ensuring the safety of rice ahead of the harvest season in autumn, with plans to inspect the crop in two stages.

The buying spree, however, indicates deep public distrust of the government's handling of food safety issues in the wake of the nuclear crisis following a scare over contaminated beef.

A rice seller in Tokyo's Nerima Ward said regular customers began asking it to keep rice on stock just around the time the ministry disclosed its rice inspection plans on Wednesday.

A supermarket in Koto Ward, also Tokyo, said rice is selling at twice the normal pace at the outlet, while various rice brands were mostly sold out at a nearby shopping center.

"It's like a rice panic," said a store clerk at a supermarket in Chuo Ward, noting that given the strong demand for old rice, wholesalers are hesitant about quickly releasing their stock.

According to Kitoku Shinryo Co., a major rice wholesaler based in Tokyo, rice from the previous year does not sell much around this time of year ahead of the arrival on the market of freshly harvested rice. Retailers therefore tend to refrain from stocking it at their outlets, it said.

Noting that rice, which is mostly marketed after polishing, is not the kind of produce likely to show levels of contamination above the allowable limit, a Kitoku Shinryo official said, "The panic will probably subside once fresh rice starts to go around."

Some retailers are concerned, however, about how consumers would react if radioactive materials are found in rice even at levels below the limit.

"I know an acquaintance who has hoarded rice from last year," said a 53-year-old woman who was shopping at a mall in Tokyo's Koto Ward. "I would be lying if I said I'm not worried, because it's a staple."

Consumers are apparently motivated in part by their mistrust of the government for the way it has handled the contamination of cattle with radioactive cesium and the distribution of affected beef.

A 47-year-old designer in Chuo Ward said he believes that consumers must do what they can to protect themselves. "Contaminated beef got into the distribution chain. It would be too late if we were told afterwards that there were (excessive levels of radioactive materials in rice) after all."

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After-effects of quake, tsunami, nuclear crisis hobble job market in disaster-hit areas


The after-effects of the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and ensuing Fukushima nuclear crisis have cast a shadow over job opportunities for graduating students in the disaster-hit areas.

Eleven graduating students at Fukushima Prefectural Odaka Technical High School in Minamisoma have had informal job offers by local businesses canceled. Most of the companies that offered jobs to the students are situated in no-entry zones near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant and have been forced to suspend business or even close down.

Fortunately, however, all 11 found other jobs.

"There are no prospects that the crisis will come to an end in the foreseeable future. The number of job offers to those who are expected to graduate in spring next year has remained low," says Terumitsu Hoshi, 41, a teacher at the school in charge of career guidance.

The number of job offers from local companies decreased by 40 percent from normal years, forcing about 80 percent of third-year students, who will graduate next spring, to seek jobs outside the prefecture.

An 18-year-old graduate was due to join a security company at the beginning of April and work as a security guard at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant. As a result of the nuclear disaster, however, his entry into the company was delayed to mid-April, when he began work at another nuclear facility in the Tohoku region.

A classmate, who declined to join the company because he did not want to work at a nuclear power station, has yet to find another job.

At Miyagi Prefectural Fisheries High School in Ishinomaki, 68 students had received job offers but 14, or nearly 25 percent of them, had the offers revoked after many fisheries companies' facilities were destroyed by the tsunami.

Third-year students at the school will start job hunting in mid-September, but there are expected to be almost no job offers from local companies.

Three students who graduated from Iwate Prefectural University and two affiliated junior colleges in spring this year also had job offers revoked.
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NOTE: i've seen a couple Artical's that talks about Japan's whole "National" rice crop being "wiped out" but articals cannot be found today, scrubbed?

Japan to test rice crops for radioactive cesium

Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries announced Monday that at least 14 prefectural governments in north and east Japan will conduct tests to determine whether locally grown rice has been contaminated by excessive levels of radioactive cesium from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Following halts to beef cattle shipments from Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate prefectures due to the detection of radioactive cesium above government-set levels, public concerns over food safety are mounting as the radiation-leaking Fukushima nuclear plant has left beef, vegetables, dairy products, seafood and water being contaminated with radioactive materials above the safe limit.

According to ministry officials, authorities in the local municipalities in the north and eastern regions of Japan -- that together comprise around 40 percent of Japan's rice production -- will test the rice before and after harvesting.

The officials said that if crops are found to be contaminated with radioactive cesium exceeding the government-set limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram, the central government will likely impose a ban on shipments of all rice produced in the vicinity of the tainted source.

"Continuous consumption of rice containing cesium above the government-imposed limit of 500 becquerels per kg over a year will result in internal radiation exposure above 5 millisieverts, one of the more conservative standards for radiation exposure set by the International Commission on Radiological Protection," the health ministry said Monday.

The ministry has already banned farmers from growing rice in wide areas likely to be exposed to radioactive pollution from the crisis-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, and the latest move from the government is expected to further hamper Japan's sensitive farming industry as recent inclement weather has and continues to damage crops.

Japan produced more than 8 million tonnes of rice last year of which the majority was consumed domestically, however, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan are notable importers of Japanese-grown rice.



Japan to test rice crops for radioactive cesium

Well, the "economic impact" in my brothers new start up sandblasting business is pretty darned good.

There's a company in my building that makes radioactivity sensors...and they're going ballz to the wall. They take these 5/16ths steel cylinders about 2 ft dia...and 2-1/2 foot tall, line them with about 8 inches of lead...then coat them with what appears to be copper...make really thick sturdy bottom and hinged top to them...stick some fancy sensors into them and they have an external port which can be hooked up to a laptop.

My bro started sandblasting a **** ton of them Friday...

Japan already took possession of 100 of these... and apparently will take possession of another 100 very soon, with an order for another 100 in the works.

Apparently things are still quite hot over there...

Parts of Tokyo are more radioactive than within 20 miles of Fukushima. There is a lot more to this than meets the eye. Google ENEnews.

Here's the link http://sleepny.lefora.com/2011/07/26/tok....

Holy ****..... this company in my building is working 24 / 7 now....even in this economy people are thinking about leaving this place....some such nonsense as being "over worked"

What
the
****
is
THAT?

Seems Japan is frying these things as fast as these guys can make them.

Having spent time over there myself, I can believe that.

Hurting retail, esp. those that sold outside of Japan.
This is a shop I visit online and have bought bass guitars from. This announcement is at the bottom of their page.

http://www.ishibashi.co.jp/u_box/ubox.cg....

Quote:

"Because of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster which had caused by the giant natural disaster on Mar.11, there is a possibility that we would suffer from power shortage this summer. Now all companies have been asked by the Japanese Government to reduce electricity use by 15%. Ishibashi Music is also doing our best in reducing electric use already and now have decided to finish our work at 8:00pm JST and not to work overtime. We are sorry but due to this situation, it may take us some time to respond to all e-mails, inquiries and orders which have been sent from you from half an hour or an hour before clock-out time. We appreciate your kind understanding in this regard."

Russia returns more than 70 goods to Japan over radiation fears
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Russian prosecutors office said Tuesday it has sent back to Japan more than 70 goods imported from the country due to fears of radiation contamination since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami triggered the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

The amount of radiation detected on most of the returned goods was a few times higher than the natural level in the air, but radiation detected on two cars shipped to a port in Slavyanka from Maizuru, Kyoto Prefecture, in August was 60 to 340 times the normal level.

Russia's Far Eastern customs has said it returned to Japan a total of 61 goods by the end of July, most of which were used cars, auto parts and heavy machinery.

--------------------------------
More in a bit..Will update as needed.

...another update..... apparently the company in my building is making what appears to be a "desktop" model...only 800lbs.....the plan is for these to be deployed in EVERY school within a 500 klick radius of the melt down to test the kiddies food.

Interesting map of radioactivity over US (March 20th, last year) here:

http://enenews.com/study-all-western-eas....

Well, I supposed now I can be thankful of the drought we had in central Texas.

Japan shutting down nuclear power industry

The nation's loss of atomic energy is having economic impact

All but two of Japan’s 54 commercial reactors have gone offline since the nuclear disaster a year ago, after the earthquake and tsunami, and it is not clear when they can be restarted. With the last operating reactor scheduled to be idled as soon as next month, Japan — once one of the world’s leaders in atomic energy — will have at least temporarily shut down an industry that once generated a third of its electricity.

With few alternatives, the prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, has called for restarting the plants as soon as possible, saying he supports a gradual phase-out of nuclear power over several decades. Yet, fearing public opposition, he has said he will not restart the reactors without the approval of local community leaders.

Japan has so far succeeded in avoiding shortages, thanks in part to a drastic conservation program that has involved turning off air-conditioning in the summer and office lights during the day. It has also increased generation from conventional plants that use more expensive natural gas and other fossil fuels in a nation already uneasy about its reliance on foreign sources of energy.

The loss of nuclear power has hurt in another way: economists blame the higher energy prices for causing Japan’s first annual trade deficit in more than three decades, which has weakened the yen and raised concerns about the future of the country’s export-driven economy. And as the weather warms, Japan faces a possible energy crisis, considering that last summer it still had 19 nuclear plants in operation.

On a more fundamental level, the standoff over nuclear power underscores just how much the trauma of the Fukushima accident has changed attitudes in Japan, long one of the world’s most committed promoters of civilian atomic energy. Political and energy experts describe nothing short of a nationwide loss of faith, not only in Japan’s once-vaunted nuclear technology but also in the government, which many blame for allowing the accident to happen.

One year after disaster at Fukushima, town remains frozen in time

“March 11 has shaken Japan to the root of its postwar identity,” said Takeo Kikkawa, an economist who specializes in energy issues at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo. “We were the country that suffered Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but then we showed we had the superior technology and technocratic expertise to safely tame this awesome power for peaceful economic progress. Nuclear accidents were things that happened in other countries.”

Hoping to allay the safety concerns of local communities, the government has asked plant operators to conduct so-called stress tests: computer simulations designed to show how the reactors would hold up during a large natural disaster like the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that disabled the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, where three reactors melted down after the cooling systems shut down. But many local leaders say the stress tests are not enough, and want additional proof that the government has learned the lessons of the Fukushima accident.

The contest over the future of atomic energy in Japan is unfolding in this fishing town of 8,800 residents, 550 miles southwest of the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi plant and areas contaminated by its fallout. Two of the reactors at the Ohi Nuclear Power Plant were the first to finish the stress tests, making it a crucial test case of whether Japan’s nuclear plants can be restarted.

The sprawling plant here was not damaged by the earthquake or tsunami but sits idled anyway because of a standoff caused by a legal quirk: Japanese law requires reactors to be shut down every 13 months for routine checkups, which typically take three or four months. But over the last year the plant’s operator, Kansai Electric Power, has been forced to shut down all four of the plant’s reactors, unable to restart them because of opposition from local residents.

“After seeing what happened in Okuma, Futaba and Iitate, we cannot just turn these things back on,” said Shinobu Tokioka, the mayor of Ohi, naming evacuated communities near the Fukushima plant. He said he thought the reactors would eventually be turned back on because his and other host communities need the plant-related jobs and other revenues.


In many respects, Japan is already on the road to recovery from the huge earthquake and tsunami, which killed as many as 19,000 people, and to a lesser degree from the nuclear accident. The northeastern coastal towns that were flattened by the waves have cleaned up millions of tons of debris and are beginning to rebuild.

But it is the nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi that looks likely to have a more lasting impact, even though it has yet to claim a single life. Japan is just beginning what promises to be a radiation cleanup that will last decades of the evacuated areas around the plant, where nearly 90,000 residents lost their homes. The nation is also groping to find effective ways to monitor health and protect its food supply from contamination by the accident, which government scientists now say released about a fifth as much radioactive cesium as the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

Then there are the new feelings of distrust in technology and in the government, which many Japanese now blame for hiding the true dangers of the nuclear accident. At the same time, this resource-poor nation also knows that it has few realistic alternatives to nuclear power, at least in the short term.

This has left many Japanese torn about whether to continue using nuclear power. These conflicting feelings are apparent in host communities like Ohi, a once-impoverished town that has prospered from the jobs and the $450 million brought by the nuclear plant since the 1970s. After first installing indoor plumbing for most residents and improving roads, the town moved on to flashy public works projects, and now boasts a hot springs resort, a sports complex with an indoor pool and lighted baseball diamond, and an indoor children’s playground featuring a full-size mock sailing ship on a sea of rubber balls.

It is a similar story at other communities along this stretch of coast in western Japan’s Fukui Prefecture, which is known as Nuclear Alley because it has three other plants in addition to the Ohi plant.

“We had allowed ourselves to become addicted to nuclear money, until Fukushima broke the spell,” said Tetsuen Nakajima, 70, the abbot of Myotsuji, a 1,200-year-old Buddhist temple in Obama, a city next to Ohi. He said he now feared for the ancient temple’s safety from the nearby plants.

So far, the stress tests appear to have done little to ease public concerns, in part because they were begun before investigators had even reached conclusions about what actually caused the meltdowns at Fukushima. Last month, nuclear regulators responded with a list of 30 “lessons” from last year’s accident.

In an interview, Ohi’s mayor, Mr. Tokioka, said the list was not enough, and repeated his demand for new guidelines even though writing them might take months.

“The national government has to show us that it has learned from the mistakes at Fukushima Daiichi,” said Mr. Tokioka, 74.

At the same time, Mr. Tokioka said he thought the reactors would eventually have to be turned back on, especially if the shutdown begins to hurt the local economy or disrupts electrical supplies. Other residents expressed similarly conflicted feelings.

“No one wants to go back to living the same way we did 50 years ago, without cellphones or TVs,” said Mitsuyoshi Kunai, a 54-year-old fisherman who tended his nets just a few miles from the Ohi plant. “Fukushima showed us that nuclear power is dangerous, but we still need it.”
credits NYT's & http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46676913/ns/....