Panel wants TEPCO execs charged over nuke crisis
By MARI YAMAGUCHI - AP - Thu Jul 31, 7:59AM CDT
TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese judicial panel has recommended that three former executives of the utility that operates the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant face criminal charges over their role in the disaster.
Underground lab tackles Japan nuclear waste issue
By MARI YAMAGUCHI - AP - Mon Jul 14, 9:17AM CDT
HORONOBE, Japan (AP) — Reindeer farms and grazing Holstein cows dot a vast stretch of rolling green pasture here on Japan's northern tip. Underground it's a different story.
Stigmatized nuclear workers quit Japan utility
By YURI KAGEYAMA - AP - Thu Jul 10, 3:54AM CDT
TOKYO (AP) — Stigma, pay cuts, and risk of radiation exposure are among the reasons why 3,000 employees have left the utility at the center of Japan's 2011 nuclear disaster. Now there's an additional factor: better paying jobs in the feel good solar energy industry.
Japan Fukushima nuclear worker dies in mudslide
AP - Fri Mar 28, 6:38AM CDT
TOKYO (AP) — A worker died Friday at the Japanese nuclear plant devastated by the 2011 tsunami after getting buried in a mudslide, in the first death from an accident during efforts to control and decommission the facility.
Fukushima nuke worker life gets recorded as manga
By YURI KAGEYAMA - AP - Tue Mar 25, 8:57AM CDT
TOKYO (AP) — First off, no one who works at Japan's wrecked nuclear power plant calls it Fukushima Dai-ichi, comic-book artist Kazuto Tatsuta says in his book about his time on the job. It's ichi efu, or 1F.
Contaminated water still troubles Japan nuke plant
By MARI YAMAGUCHI - AP - Mon Mar 10, 9:23AM CDT
OKUMA, Japan (AP) — The radioactive water that has accumulated at Japan's crippled nuclear power plant remains the biggest problem hampering the cleanup process three years after the disaster.
Japan sees future business in Fukushima cleanup
By MARI YAMAGUCHI - AP - Sat Mar 08, 1:29AM CST
TOKYO (AP) — There is something surprising in the radioactive wreck that is the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant: opportunity. To clean it up, Japan will have to develop technology and expertise that any nation with a nuclear reactor will one day need.
Hundreds sue makers of Fukushima nuclear plant
By MARI YAMAGUCHI - AP - Thu Jan 30, 9:15AM CST
TOKYO (AP) — About 1,400 people filed a joint lawsuit Thursday against three companies that manufactured reactors at Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, saying they should be financially liable for damage caused by their 2011 meltdowns.
5.3-magnitude earthquake hits Japan's Fukushima
By The Associated Press - AP - Fri Sep 20, 5:51AM CDT
DENVER (AP) — A 5.3-magnitude earthquake has hit the Japanese prefecture that is home to the nuclear power plant crippled in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Japan PM wants Fukushima plant entirely scrapped
By MARI YAMAGUCHI - AP - Thu Sep 19, 11:19AM CDT
OKUMA, Japan (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered the operator of the country's crippled nuclear power plant on Thursday to scrap all six reactors at the site instead of just four already slated for decommissioning and to concentrate on tackling pressing issues like leaks of radioactive water.
Powerful typhoon downgraded after lashing Japan
By MARI YAMAGUCHI - AP - Tue Sep 17, 9:18AM CDT
TOKYO (AP) — Crews were cleaning up wrecked houses and assessing damage Tuesday in the wake of a powerful typhoon that lashed Japan with torrential rains, leaving at least two people dead.
Powerful typhoon lashes Japan; thousands evacuate
By MARI YAMAGUCHI - AP - Mon Sep 16, 8:57AM CDT
TOKYO (AP) — A powerful typhoon lashed Japan with torrential rain Monday, leaving two dead as it damaged homes and flooded parts of the country's popular tourist destination of Kyoto, where 260,000 people were ordered to evacuate to shelters.
News Summary: Fukushima's complicated cleanup
By The Associated Press - AP - Fri Sep 13, 11:58AM CDT
BIGGER TASK: A former U.S. nuclear regulator says cleaning up Japan's wrecked Fukushima plant is a bigger challenge than the work he led at Three Mile Island and that ongoing radioactive water leaks are a minor part of that task.
Ex-US regulator: Fukushima cleanup complicated
By MARI YAMAGUCHI - AP - Fri Sep 13, 8:33AM CDT
TOKYO (AP) — A former U.S. nuclear regulator says cleaning up Japan's wrecked Fukushima plant is a bigger challenge than the work he led at Three Mile Island and that ongoing radioactive water leaks are a minor part of that task.
SKorea bans fish from NE Japan on radiation fears
By EUN-YOUNG JEONG - AP - Fri Sep 06, 5:52AM CDT
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea announced Friday that it was banning all fish imports from along Japan's northeastern coast because of what officials called growing public worry over radioactive water leaking into the Pacific Ocean near the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
Regulator: Fukushima operator gave misleading data
By MARI YAMAGUCHI - AP - Thu Sep 05, 2:26PM CDT
TOKYO (AP) — Japan's nuclear regulator harshly criticized the operator of the damaged Fukushima power plant on Thursday, saying it released misleading data about recent leaks of radioactive water that fanned fears excessively.
Regulator says Fukushima leak was exaggerated
AP - Thu Sep 05, 9:30AM CDT
TOKYO (AP) — Japan's nuclear regulator has criticized the operator of the country's wrecked nuclear plant for providing improper data and explanations about widening radiation-contaminated water leaks and unnecessarily fanning fears.
3 days ahead of vote, Tokyo fends off concerns
By STEPHEN WADE - AP - Wed Sep 04, 10:56AM CDT
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Three days ahead of the vote to choose the host of the 2020 Olympics, Tokyo bid officials on Wednesday tried to fend off concerns about a leak of radioactive water at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in northern Japan.
Japan's radioactive water leaks: How dangerous?
By MARI YAMAGUCHI - AP - Wed Sep 04, 9:55AM CDT
TOKYO (AP) — New revelations of contaminated water leaking from storage tanks at the tsunami-ravaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant have raised alarm, coming just weeks after Japanese officials acknowledged that radioactive water has been seeping into the Pacific from the plant for more than two years, The government announced this week that it would contribute 47 billion yen ($470 million) to build an underground "ice wall" around the reactor and turbine buildings and develop an advanced water treatment system. A look at the problem, and the potential risks to fish and the humans who eat them.
Japan to fund ice wall to contain reactor leaks
By MARI YAMAGUCHI - AP - Tue Sep 03, 12:10PM CDT
TOKYO (AP) — The Japanese government announced Tuesday that it will spend $470 million on a subterranean ice wall and other steps in a desperate bid to stop leaks of radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant after repeated failures by the plant's operator.