By Tadashi Narabayashi   Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) on May 17 decided not to lift the de facto ban on the operation of Tokyo Electric Power Co’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Niigata Prefecture. This was due to the insufficient improvement in two out of six requirements concerning counterterrorism measures.   The current NRA regulations are similar to the….Read more

Saturday’s Asahi and Nikkei reported that an IAEA team of experts and scientists took a tour of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on Friday. The dailies said that the 17-member group, which included atomic engineers from South Korea, China, and seven other countries, visited the trouble-hit station in response to a request from the Japanese government, which was aiming….Read more

TOKYO – Japan decided Thursday to boost its infrastructure support for emerging and developing nations, referred to as the “Global South,” in a bid to curb their dependence on China and Russia for vital materials and components for batteries and solar panels.   In updating its strategy to expand infrastructure exports, the government also refrained from mentioning economic cooperation with….Read more

On June 1, Kansai Electric Power Co. (KEPCO) said the timing of restarting the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors at the Takahama nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture remains undecided due to fire prevention measures. The company initially planned to restart the No. 1 reactor on June 3 and the No. 2 reactor on July 15. But in May,….Read more

It appears that the lessons learned from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster have been taken so lightly.   The government and a majority of the Diet are heavily responsible for pushing through a reversal of the nation’s nuclear policies without careful deliberation, shifting from a “reduction of dependence” on nuclear power and heading to its “maximum utilization.”   We must keep….Read more

By Nakamura Shimpei    Iwatani Corporation has announced it plans to increase the number of hydrogen stations it operates in California by at least five during the fiscal year ending March 2024, thereby almost doubling the current number of stations from six to eleven. The company anticipates the use of fuel cell vehicles (FCV) will spread.   California is a….Read more

TOKYO — Japan’s parliament passed a bill Wednesday that allows nuclear reactors in the country to be operated beyond the current limit of 60 years to help cut carbon emissions and ensure an adequate national energy supply despite lingering concerns over the safety of aging reactors.   The law on power sources for green transformation and decarbonization amends five laws….Read more

Tokyo, May 31 (Jiji Press)–The Diet, Japan’s parliament, on Wednesday enacted legislation to allow the extension of nuclear power reactors’ life span beyond the current limit of 60 years to ensure stable electricity supplies and realize a decarbonized society.   The legislation was approved at a plenary meeting of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, by….Read more