Fuel debris sample taken from Fukushima-2. (Photo: TEPCO)
Tokyo Electric Power Company has released the results of its initial analysis of a sample of nuclear fuel debris from Unit 2 of Japan’s damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The sample, which measured around 5mm by 4mm and totaled 0.187 grams, was taken from the floor of the reactor pedestal during a second trial removal of fuel debris conducted in April.
A worker replaces the end jig used to collect fuel debris samples from the damaged Fukushima reactor. (Photo: TEPCO)
Tokyo Electric Power Company is scheduled this week to begin retrieving a second sample of nuclear fuel debris from Unit 2 of Japan’s damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. This second retrieval comes after TEPCO improved the telescopic device used to gather samples.
The IAEA’s Rafael Mariano Grossi (far right) and other IAEA experts joined scientists from China, South Korea, and Switzerland as they collected seawater samples near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. (Photo: Dean Calma/IAEA)
International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Mariano Grossi visited Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi site on February 19, where he joined scientists from the Third Institute of Oceanography in China, the Korean Institute for Nuclear Safety in South Korea, and the Spiez Laboratory in Switzerland in collecting seawater samples from a boat near the damaged nuclear power plant.
William D. Magwood IV, director general of the OCED NEA, holds the framework agreement for the Generation IV International Forum. Magwood is joined by others who attended the agreement’s signing ceremony. (Photo: OECD NEA)
Japanese research scientists Sadao Momota (left) and Minoru Tanigaki conducted surveys at the West Valley Demonstration Project to test their radiation detectors. West Valley’s Main Plant Process Building, which is undergoing deconstruction, is shown in the background. (Photo: DOE)
Two research scientists from Japan’s Kyoto University and Kochi University of Technology visited the West Valley Demonstration Project in western New York state earlier this fall to test their novel radiation detectors, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management announced on November 19.
Radioactive decontamination waste is held in temporary storage in Iitate Village, Fukushima Prefecture, in 2019. (Photo: O. Evrard, J. P. Laceby, A. Nakao/Wikimedia Commons)
The International Atomic Energy Agency has found that Japan’s planned approach for recycling and disposing of soil and radioactive waste from decontamination activities after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident is consistent with the agency’s safety standards.
Tohoku University’s Sakura Hall was the site of a workshop coffee break and photo op. (All photos: University of Michigan/Tohoku University)
Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, was the site of an advanced nuclear reactor workshop in late May that was hosted by the Fastest Path to Zero Initiative of the University of Michigan and Tohoku’s Center for Fundamental Research on Nuclear Decommissioning. The event was co-organized by the U.S. Consulate in Sapporo, Japan, and the Atlantic Council, which is associated with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The workshop, “The Potential Contribution of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technologies to the Decarbonization and Economic Development of Japan and the U.S.,” featured numerous American and Japanese academic authorities, government policymakers, executives of utilities and advanced reactor developers, and leaders of nongovernmental organizations. Also participating were students from both the University of Michigan and Tohoku University.
Fig. 1. A photograph (left) and schematic figure (right) of JT-60SA.
(Source: Naka Institute)
JT-60SA (Japan Torus-60 Super Advanced) is the world’s largest superconducting tokamak device. Its goal is the earlier realization of fusion energy (see Fig. 1). Fusion is the energy that powers the Sun, and just 1 gram of deuterium-tritium (D-T) fuel produces enormous energy—the equivalent of 8 tons of crude oil.
Last fall, the JT-60SA project announced an important milestone: the achievement of the tokamak’s first plasma. This article describes the objectives of the JT-60SA project, achievements in the operation campaign for the first plasma, and next steps.
A screengrab from a video released by the STEP program on July 23 illustrating the future home of the prototype fusion power plant. (Image: UKAEA/STEP)
Japan’s recent moves to boost fusion power in the nation’s energy plan and accelerate the timeline for a prototype fusion power plant come in response to increased global attention on fusion energy. Even as ITER faces delays, more than 40 private fusion developers are pursuing different technologies and competing for attention. And so are other countries, including the United Kingdom, which announced its plans for a fusion pilot plant back in 2019. Fusion companies and nations alike are responding to a growing sense that there is a race—or at least collective momentum—to commercialize fusion energy.
FFC board members (from left to right) Kiyoshi Seko (KF), Stephen Bushby (CNL), Satoshi Konishi (KF), and Ian Castillo (CNL) in Tokyo, Japan.
Japan’s Kyoto Fusioneering, a fusion startup spun out from Kyoto University, and Canadian Nuclear Laboratories have announced the formation of Fusion Fuel Cycles Inc., headquartered in Chalk River, Ontario, Canada. The joint venture extends a strategic alliance formed between the two entities in September 2023 and aims to develop and deploy deuterium-tritium (D-T) fusion fuel cycle technologies.
Data from Fukushima ALPS-treated water discharge. (Image: IAEA)
An International Atomic Energy Agency task force has confirmed that the discharge of treated water from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is progressing in accordance with the plan approved by Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority.
U.S. deputy secretary of energy David M. Turk (left) and Japan’s minister of education, sports, science, and technology Masahito Moriyama, in Washington, D.C. (Photo: DOE)
During a state visit to the White House by Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida on April 10, the Department of Energy announced that U.S. and Japanese agencies had cooperated to remove all high-enriched uranium (HEU) from the Japan Materials Testing Reactor Critical Assembly (JMTRC) of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) two years ahead of schedule.
An IAEA task force visited Fukushima in October 2023 to review the safety of TEPCO’s discharge of ALPS-treated water. (Photo: TEPCO)
International Atomic Energy Agency experts have confirmed that the tritium concentration in the fourth batch of treated water released from Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is far below the country’s operational limit.
