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Massive signature campaign on nuclear power launched in Tokyo, Osaka mdn.mainichi.jp


Editorial: Japan needs more discussion before exporting atomic energy technology mdn.mainichi.jp

Two confirmed dead after Mexico quake tvnz.co.nz

Quake exceeded TEPCOs 10,000 estimates ajw.asahi.com

TEPCO to cut costs by 103 billion ¥ mdn.mainichi.jp

TEPCO considering 10% rise in power rates english.kyodonews.jp

CORRECTED: Radiation rose slightly after water leak at Genkai plant

SAGA, Japan, Dec. 11, Kyodo

A radiation reading at Kyushu Electric Power Co.'s Genkai nuclear power plant in Saga Prefecture rose slightly above the usual range after coolant water leaked there Friday, the prefectural government said Sunday.

The reading at an outlet for seawater cooling the No. 3 reactor's secondary cooling system was 473 counts per minute at 3 p.m. Friday, against the usual range of 433 to 472 cpm, not high enough to immediately impact human health, it said.

On Friday morning, 1.8 tons of primary coolant water containing radioactive materials leaked within the reactor's purification system. The utility claimed the radiation reading is unrelated to that leak and said it will investigate the cause.

Water used in treating low-level radioactive waste is sometimes discharged from the outlet, but that was not the case Friday, the local government said, adding the reading sometimes rises under natural conditions such as rain.

==Kyodo english.kyodonews.jp

TEPCO to look overseas for insurance. Nobody in Japan will insure them. This would mean Kashiwazaki would be uninsured too. No insurance company anywhere is going to underwrite this mess for any amount of money. The article mentions that extracting the fuel would become illegal. They really need to make this a national issue and disaster site, not a TEPCO one.

mdn.mainichi.jp

UPDATE1: Climate talks eye new framework with China, U.S. in 2020

DURBAN, South Africa, Dec. 11, Kyodo

Delegates to the U.N. climate talks agreed Sunday to launch a new framework in 2020 aimed at tackling greenhouse gas emissions including major emitters China and the United States, while extending the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012.

The agreement saved the U.N. climate conference in Durban, South Africa, from collapse and helped avoid a so-called blank period without binding greenhouse gas emission targets following the earlier-set expiration of the Kyoto pact in December 2012.

Countries participating in the so-called COP17 conference adopted a roadmap called the Durban Platform before it wrapped up Sunday. The roadmap proposes they begin negotiations next year in a special working group on matters such as new emission targets involving major emitters under the envisioned framework.

The countries will try to adopt the new framework by 2015 as a binding accord through coming negotiations on how to set high-level mandatory emission goals and the strength of legal force to give them, among other issues, delegates said.

The member countries of the 17th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change also agreed to designate a second commitment period under the Kyoto pact that will keep requiring participants to follow up on the maximum emission targets, following the first commitment period from 2008 to 2012.

They agreed the second period will start in 2013. But discussions on matters such as the length of the period and new targets for emissions reductions will be left up to future negotiations including next year's COP18 round in Qatar.

Japan, Canada and Russia have refused to take part in the proposed second commitment period under the Kyoto pact and that means fewer countries will be involved in the coming phase.

Japan has refused to accept fresh binding targets without a post-Kyoto framework requiring all major emitters of greenhouse gases to reduce emissions.

The Kyoto Protocol requires developed countries to cut emissions by at least 5 percent from 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. The United States, one of the world's two largest greenhouse gas emitters with China, never ratified it. Beijing ratified the pact but is not required to cut emissions.

==Kyodo english.kyodonews.jp

as it seems, they did not agree to further reductions of co2 until 2020.

Nuclear Event in Japan on Saturday, 10 December, 2011 at 04:43 (04:43 AM) UTC.

Updated: Sunday, 11 December, 2011 at 04:58 UTC
Description
Kyushu Electric Power Co. said Saturday that 1.8 tons of radioactive water leaked in the purification system of an idled reactor at the Genkai power plant in Saga Prefecture, and drew flak for failing to promptly disclose the incident to local authorities. The utility detected the leak Friday morning but only told local governments it was having pump troubles with its No. 3 reactor, which is undergoing a regular check. The lack of disclosure upset Genkai Mayor Hideo Kishimoto. "It should have been reported properly (to the town of Genkai and Saga Prefecture). I have been repeatedly telling Kyushu Electric to change its corporate culture," he said. The water leaked from an area involving the pumps, but all radioactive materials were contained within the reactor building, the utility said. The water has been completely recovered but the intensity of the radioactive matter it contained is unknown, Kyushu Electric added. On Friday, the company said the alarm system that sounds in the event of a leak was triggered after the temperature at the base of one of the pumps passed 80 degrees, but the leak wasn't identified as the water was contained within the purification system. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the leak within the purification system did not pose an immediate safety threat and urged Kyushu Electric to investigate the cause. The plant's reactor 4 resumed operation in early November, becoming the first to be restarted since the nuclear crisis erupted at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant. The reactor had been taken offline after developing a technical problem. hisz.rsoe.hu

City councils near Hamaoka voting to end nuclear power. mainichi.jp

　Passed the written opinion of the permanent shutdown and decommissioning seek so far, Higashiizu town, Izu, Izunokuni, Makinohara town Minamiizu, Matsuzaki-cho, Fuji City each Congress. The city council voted in June Higashiizu against central power, as well as decommissioning of 浜岡原発, which also requires a shift to renewable energy

A bunch of other cities are doing the same thing.

gingrich redefines palestinians www.washingtonpost.com which leads to the question: what are americans then, historically ? :)

Gunma volcanologist who has been reporting on Fukushima and one of the few sane voices in all of this has been officially reprimanded by the president of the University ex-skf.blogspot.com