Nuclear Plant

Govt urges states to consider setting nuclear plants, list power utilities

India's stringent nuclear compensation laws have hampered talks with foreign power plant builders

Foes on earth, pals on Moon: India-China may tie-up for lunar nuclear plant

India wants to join Russia's ambitious plans for a nuclear power plant on the Moon, which is part of a broader lunar base project in collaboration with China

Robot resumes mission to retrieve melted fuel piece from Fukushima reactor

An extendable robot on Tuesday resumed its entry into one of three damaged reactors at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to retrieve a fragment of melted fuel debris, nearly three weeks after its earlier attempt was suspended due to a technical issue. The collection of a tiny sample of the spent fuel debris from inside of the Unit 2 reactor marks the start of the most challenging part of the decadeslong decommissioning of the plant where three reactors were destroyed in the March 11, 2011, magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami disaster. The sample-return mission, initially scheduled to begin on Aug. 22, was suspended when workers noticed that a set of five 1.5-meter (5-foot) add-on pipes to push in and maneuver the robot were in the wrong order and could not be corrected within the time limit for their radiation exposure, the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings said. The pipes were to be used to push the robot inside and pull it back out when it finished. Once ..

UN nuclear chief Grossi visits Russia's Kursk atomic plant near front line

The safety of nuclear power plants has repeatedly been endangered over the course of the Ukraine war

Nuclear tourism: China opens atomic power plants to public, seeks support

Members of the public in China can now book visits to the country's power plants in nice cities, as the country moves to shore up public support to expand its clean energy generation capacity

Key parts yet to arrive, resumption in operations of TAPS delayed

The nation's first two nuclear reactors at the Tarapur Atomic Power Station (TAPS) that have been closed for repairs since 2020 will take another five months to resume operation due to a delay in the delivery of an essential component, officials said on Friday. Officials said they were waiting for some special metal pipes from Italy but the tubes did not arrive in time. The manufacturer is finding it difficult to produce the pipes as the order is quite small, they said. Initially scheduled for reactivation on May 9, the reactors will remain offline until October, pending the awaited supplies, an official said. The two Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs), each with a capacity of 160 megawatts, were installed in 1969 at TAPS, about 100 km from Mumbai on the country's western coast. The BWRs boil water which is converted into steam to run the turbine for electricity production and then recycled back to water through a condenser to be re-used in the heat-generation process. The overhaul, ..

Ukraine struck nuclear plant again, claims Russia; Kyiv denies attack

'The unique training centre of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant was attacked,' the Russian-controlled plant said in a statement. The drone fell on the roof of the training centre, it said

Treated wastewater discharge at Fukushima nuclear plant is safe: IAEA chief

The head of the UN atomic agency told local Japanese representatives at a meeting in Fukushima on Wednesday that the ongoing discharge of treated radioactive wastewater at the ruined nuclear power plant has met safety standards and that any restrictions on products from the region are not scientific. International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi joined local officials and representatives from fishing and business groups and reassured them that the discharges are being carried out with no impact to the environment, water, fish and sediment." Grossi, who arrived in Japan on Tuesday, visited Fukushima for the first time since the release of the treated water began in August. Grossi examined the discharge and sampling facility on Wednesday, escorted by Tomoaki Kobayakawa, president of the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings. He last visited the plant in July after issuing an IAEA review predicting only negligible impact from the discharges. An IA

IAEA chief in Russia to discuss safety of Ukrainian nuclear plant

The U.N.'s atomic watchdog agency chief is visiting Russia amid concern about a Ukrainian nuclear power plant caught in the crossfire since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in 2022 and seized the facility shortly after. IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi arrived at the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Tuesday evening, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti for talks on nuclear safety in Ukraine. Grossi announced the trip on Monday, the first day of a regular meeting of the agency's 35-nation board of governors in Vienna. The International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly expressed alarm about the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe's largest, amid fears of a potential nuclear catastrophe. The plant's six reactors have been shut down for months, but it still needs power and qualified staff to operate crucial cooling systems and other safety features. Speaking to reporters in Sochi on Wednesday, the IAEA chief said he had a very intensive and exhaustive workin

Fukushima NPP starts 3rd release of treated radioactive wastewater into sea

The tsunami-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant began its third release of treated and diluted radioactive wastewater into the sea Thursday after Japanese officials said the two earlier releases ended smoothly. The plant operator discharged 7,800 tons of treated water in each of the first two batches and plans to release the same amount in the current batch through November 20. Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO) said its workers activated the first of the two pumps to dilute the treated water with large amounts of seawater, gradually sending the mixture into the Pacific Ocean through an undersea tunnel for an offshore release. The plant began the first wastewater release in August and will continue to do so for decades. About 1.34 million tons of radioactive wastewater is stored in about 1,000 tanks at the plant. It has accumulated since the plant was crippled by the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck northeastern Japan in 2011. TEPCO and the government

Fukushima nuclear plant starts 2nd release of treated wastewater into sea

Japan's wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant said it began releasing a second batch of treated radioactive wastewater into the sea on Thursday after the first round of discharges ended smoothly. Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings said workers activated a pump to dilute the treated water with large amounts of seawater, slowly sending the mixture into the ocean through an underground tunnel. The plant's first wastewater release began Aug 24 and ended Sept 11. In the second discharge it plans to release another 7,800 metric tons of treated wastewater into the Pacific Ocean over 17 days. The wastewater discharges, which are expected to continue for decades, have been strongly opposed by fishing groups and neighboring countries including South Korea, where hundreds of people staged protest rallies. China banned all imports of Japanese seafood, badly hurting Japanese seafood exporters. Japan's government has set up a relief fund to find new markets and reduce the impac

North Korea conducts simulated "tactical nuclear attack" drill on Saturday

North Korea on Sunday announced that it carried out a simulated "tactical nuclear attack" drill on Saturday, Al Jazeera reported citing the state news agency KCNA

Water release just start of decommissioning at Japan's Fukushima plant

At a small section of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant's central control room in northeastern Japan, the treated water transfer switch is on. A graph on a computer monitor nearby shows a steady decrease of water levels as treated radioactive wastewater is diluted and released into the Pacific Ocean. In the coastal area of the plant, two seawater pumps are in action, gushing torrents of seawater through sky blue pipes into the big header where the treated water, which comes down through a much thinner black pipe from the hilltop tanks, gets diluted by hundreds of times before the release. The sound of the treated and diluted radioactive water flowing into an underground secondary pool was heard from beneath the ground during Sunday's first plant tour for media, including The Associated Press, since the controversial release began. The best way to eliminate the contaminated water is to remove the melted fuel debris, said Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings spokesperson Kenichi .

Fukushima nuclear plant releases radioactive waste water into sea

The operator of the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will begin releasing the first batch of treated and diluted radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean later Thursday, utility executives said. Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings executive Junichi Matsumoto, who is in charge of the project, said its final preparations and testing have cleared safety standards and the release will begin in the early afternoon. The release will begin more than 12 years after the meltdowns of three reactors at the plant that was heavily damaged by the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan's northeastern coast on March 11, 2011. Radioactive water both seeping groundwater and water used to cool the reactors have accumulated at the site ever since, and TEPCO and the government say the mass quantities of the water have hampered the daunting task of removing the deadly toxic melted debris from the reactors. The release of the ... treated water is a significant ...

Japanese PM Fumio Kishida visits Fukushima plant to highlight safety

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will make a brief visit to the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant on Sunday to highlight the safety of an impending release of treated radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean, a divisive plan that his government wants to start soon despite protests at home and abroad. His trip comes hours after he returned home Saturday from a summit with U.S. and South Korean leaders at the American presidential retreat of Camp David. Before leaving Washington on Friday, Kishida said it is time to make a decision on the treated water's release date, which has not been set due to the controversy surrounding the plan. Since the government announced the release plan two years ago, it has faced strong opposition from Japanese fishing organizations, which worry about further damage to the reputation of their seafood as they struggle to recover from the accident. Groups in South Korea and China have also raised concerns, turning it into a political and ...

India's first domestically built 700 MW nuke reactor starts ops in Gujarat

India's first indigenously developed 700 MW nuclear power reactor at the Kakrapar Atomic Power Project (KAPP) in Gujarat started commercial operations on Friday, a senior official said. "With great pleasure, this is to inform that our first indigenous 700 MWe Unit, KAPP-3, has become commercial on 30th June 2023 at 1000 Hrs," a senior KAPP official said. Presently, the unit is operating at 90 per cent of its total power, he said. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) is building two 700 MW pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs) at Kakrapar, which is also home to two 220 MW power plants. Various commissioning activities were underway at KAPP 4, which had achieved 96.92 per cent progress by May end, according to officials. The NPCIL plans to build sixteen 700 MW PHWRs across the country and has granted financial and administrative sanction for the same. Construction of 700 MW nuclear power plants is underway at Rawatbhata in Rajasthan (RAPS 7 and 8) and at Gorakh

UN nuke chief to visit Fukushima plant, see preps for release of wastewater

The chief of the UN nuclear agency will visit Japan next week to meet with Japanese leaders and see final preparations for the release of treated radioactive wastewater from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean, officials said Friday. Japan's government hopes the visit by International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Mariano Grossi will add credibility to the discharge plan. It has been strongly opposed by local fishing groups and by neighboring South Korea, China and some Pacific Island nations over safety concerns. Grossi will visit Japan July 4-7, Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said. He is expected to meet with Hayashi, Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and visit the Fukushima plant, which was damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011. Japan attaches great importance to the efforts of the IAEA, which serves an important role in promoting nuclear nonproliferation and peaceful uses of nuclear energy. We hope

Zelenskyy tells other countries to act before Russia attacks nuclear plant

Ukraine wants other countries to heed its warning that Russia may be planning to attack an occupied nuclear power plant to cause a radiation disaster, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. Members of his government briefed international representatives on Thursday on the possible threat to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. In his nightly address, Zelenskyy said he expected other nations to give appropriate signals and exert pressure on Moscow. Our principle is simple: The world must know what the occupier is preparing. Everyone who knows must act, Zelenskyy said. The world has enough power to prevent any radiation incidents, let alone a radiation catastrophe. The potential for a life-threatening release of radiation has been a concern since Russian troops invaded Ukraine last year and seized the plant, which is Europe's largest nuclear power station. The head of the UN's atomic energy agency spent months unsuccessfully trying to negotiate for a safety perimeter to protect the .

Japan nuclear plant conducts tests before discharging wastewater into sea

The operator of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant began tests on Monday of newly constructed facilities for discharging treated radioactive wastewater into the sea, a plan strongly opposed by local fishing communities and neighboring countries. The tests at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant use fresh water instead of the treated water, operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings said. Plant workers examined pumps and emergency shutdown equipment at the newly constructed seaside facility, which will dilute the treated water with large amounts of seawater. The diluted water then enters an undersea tunnel and is released into the ocean about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) from the coast. The undersea tunnel and other key facilities are near completion. TEPCO says the voluntary tests are expected to continue for about two weeks ahead of mandatory pre-operation checks to be conducted by the Nuclear Regulation Authority, possibly in early July. Japan's government announced plans in

Papers left on car roof may keep world's biggest nuclear plant shut

Safety lapses and strict regulatory process have stopped Japan from restarting most of its nuclear reactors shut in the wake of 2011 Fukushima disaster