Japan:
¶ Investigations into the Fukushima Disaster have still not provided a complete understanding of what happened. [The Daily Yomiuri]
… The government will continue investigating, using the new nuclear regulatory agency, when it is set up. [The Japan Times]
¶ The Japanese government is having difficulty finding regulators for their new agency who are knowledgeable on the nuclear industry, but are not too close to it. Cronyism is a serious problem, and is blamed for the Fukushima Disaster. [Wall Street Journal]
¶ A group of retired nuclear engineers is seeking the assistance of the United States as they seek to replace younger workers at Fukushima Daiichi. They had made the offer to TEPCO, because as older people they were less vulnerable to the effects of radiation, but the utility rejected the offer. [Infoshop News]
¶ Fukushima cleanup workers may have been illegally recruited, and may be illegally underpaid. [The Asahi Shimbun]
¶ Now that the investigative reports have been issuing, prosecutors are beginning to accept criminal complaints relating to the Fukushima Disaster. [AsiaOne]
World:
¶ Areva, the French utility known for its nuclear power plants, is investing in biomass technology. The involvement in biomass is not new, as the company already has 5 GW of biomass generating capacity. [Platts]
US:
¶ In the middle of a court case over fish kills in the Hudson River, effecting the operation of Indian Point, the NRC has decided to change to newer data, indicating the number of fish killed is only 0.1% of what earlier studies had found. [newjerseynewsroom.com]
¶ NRC Chairman Allison Macfarlane says the matter of Yucca Mountain was not currently before the NRC, though the matter of nuclear waste storage is. She studied Yucca Mountain five years ago, and concluded, “Yucca Mountain is neither seismically nor volcanically stable.” [Bloomberg]
¶ The first commercial tidal energy project in the US was dedicated Tuesday in Eastport, Maine. [The Boston Globe]
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