UNDT'S REPORT OUT SOON April 17, 2012 - Nuclear Street - NEI: American Nuclear Plants Meet Deadline to Buy FLEX Safety Equipment - Every nuclear plant in the country has now purchased a long list of emergency equipment laid out in an industry-led effort to enhance preparedness following last year’s Fukushima Daiichi crisis. The Nuclear Energy Institute said Monday that all plant operators had met the March 31 deadline to buy the items, some of which have already been received. The gear includes diesel-powered pumps, air-driven pumps for flood equipment, hoses, generators, battery chargers, electrical switchgear, cables, fire trucks, satellite communications and material for emergency responders. The industry-favored FLEX strategy to enhance emergency preparedness seeks to place a wide range of equipment in diverse locations. It will be on hand in the event of beyond-design-basis accidents, unforseen events and extreme natural disasters like those that blacked out the Fukushima plant in Japan. "The nuclear industry is responding to the lessons learned from Fukushima with actions that provide the greatest safety benefit in the quickest amount of time," NEI Chief Nuclear Officer Tony Pietrangelo said in a release.
April 17, 2012 - Portland Tribune - Wyden calls on Japan to accept nuclear clean-up help - After personally touring the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facilities in Japan, Oregon U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden has written a letter to Japanese Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki strongly urging his company to accept international help to prevent more radioactive materials from being released into the environment. "The scope of damage to the plants and to the surrounding area was far beyond what I expected and the scope of the challenges to the utility owner, the government of Japan, and to the people of the region are daunting," Wyden wrote in an April 16 letter. "The precarious status of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear units and the risk presented by the enormous inventory of radioactive materials and spent fuel in the event of further earthquake threats should be of concern to all and a focus of greater international support and assistance."
April 17, 2012 - Bloomberg News - Japan may be atomic-power free next month - Japan may be without atomic- generated electricity for the first time in more than four decades next month when its last reactor still running after the Fukushima nuclear disaster shuts for maintenance. Since the crisis on March 11 last year, 53 of Japan’s 54 reactors have been shut either owing to damage from the earthquake and tsunami, government order, or mandatory maintenance. The plants provided 30 percent of the country’s electricity prior to March 11. The last one running on the northern island of Hokkaido goes offline from May 5. Japan may "momentarily" be without atomic power from that date, the Mainichi newspaper cited Industry Minister Yukio Edano as saying on April 15 after he spent the weekend in western Japan and failed to get immediate agreement from local authorities that reactors run by Kansai Electric Power Co. (9503) in Fukui prefecture passed safety tests and should restart. "Whether or not we can restart the reactors depends on future discussions," he said at a Tokyo news conference today. The utilities powering the world’s third biggest economy have been forced to turn to coal, oil and gas-fired power plants to keep factories, offices and households supplied with electricity. Buying and importing those fuels is driving up costs and may lead to higher electricity bills and another drag on an economy that’s contracted in three of the last four years.