Tag - nuclear

 
 

NUCLEAR

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, occupied by Russian forces and seen from across the Dnipro River, in Ukraine.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Mar 21, 2025
Financial folly or pressure tactic? Trump eyes Ukraine's occupied nuclear plant
The vast plant is beset with problems and it would be years before there is even a hope of it making a return on investment.
Shikoku Electric Power's Ikata nuclear plant in Ehime Prefecture. The Matsuyama District Court has rejected a petition filed by some 1,500 residents near the nuclear plant in the town of Ikata over safety concerns.
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2025
District court rejects residents' petition to halt Ikata nuclear power plant
The petition was filed over safety concerns by some 1,500 residents living near the plant in Ehime Prefecture, which is operated by Shikoku Electric Power.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meet in Pyongyang in June 2024. Moscow has ditched its historic hostility to North Korea's nuclear program, a clear sign of Russia's scramble for allies amid its international isolation.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 18, 2025
It’s time to flip Russia’s script on North Korean nukes
Countries who want deterrence and stability must stop Russia from influencing perceptions of North Korea's nuclear program — one that, in an about-face, Moscow now supports.
Then-U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Joseph Yun arrives at a meeting with the media in Bangkok in December 2017.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 18, 2025
U.S. official says South Korea's watchlist status due to mishandling of lab data
The U.S. Department of Energy confirmed this week that it had designated South Korea a "sensitive" country in January, but did not explain why.
Chubu Electric Power removed the top lid of the No. 2 reactor at its Hamaoka plant Monday, marking the first time in Japan that the dismantling of a commercial nuclear reactor has begun.
JAPAN
Mar 18, 2025
Dismantling of reactor begins at Hamaoka nuclear plant
The dismantling process is the third stage of the decommissioning project at the plant in Shizuoka Prefecture.
U.S. President Donald Trump reviews troops aboard the USS Wasp in Yokosuka, Japan, in May 2019. The shifting global security landscape has sparked discussions in many countries, including Japan, about developing nuclear weapons in response to changing U.S. commitments.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 18, 2025
Changing U.S. commitments spark nuclear armament debates, including in Japan
Given Japan's unique history in 1945, it will take more than fear or harsh rhetoric to push the country into considering the development of nuclear weapons.
According to changes made to Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings' business plan, approved by the government on Monday, the restart of the reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture is expected to boost its earnings by around ¥100 billion per year.
JAPAN
Mar 17, 2025
Tepco aims to restart Niigata reactor in fiscal 2025
The restart of the reactor is expected to boost power utility' earnings by around ¥100 billion ($672 million) per year.
A U.S. Navy ship fires missiles at an undisclosed location, after President Donald Trump launched military strikes against Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis on Saturday over the group's attacks against Red Sea shipping, in this screen shot.
WORLD
Mar 16, 2025
Trump launches large-scale strikes against Yemen's Houthis
The strikes — which could last days and maybe weeks — are the biggest U.S. military operation in the Middle East since Trump took office in January.
The Tourville, a new French navy nuclear attack submarine, stops in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Friday.
WORLD
Mar 16, 2025
As Trump stirs doubt, Europeans debate their own nuclear deterrent
Talk of replacing the American nuclear umbrella over Europe with the small British and French nuclear armories is in the air, however vague and fanciful.
Then-U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean leader Yoon Suk Yeol attend an Indo-Pacific Economic Framework event at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco in November 2023.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 15, 2025
U.S. designated South Korea a 'sensitive' country amid talk of nuclear weapons
The move after the South Korean president briefly imposed martial law and amid talk of Seoul potentially developing nuclear weapons.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei looks on during a meeting with students in Tehran on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Mar 15, 2025
Despite tough talk, economic woes may force Iran to bargain with Trump
Behind the defiant rhetoric of Iran's leaders in public, there is a pragmatic willingness within Tehran to strike a deal with Washington.
Kansai Electric Power's Takahama nuclear plant in the town of Takahama, Fukui Prefecture
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 14, 2025
Nagoya court upholds NRA approvals extending use of reactors in Fukui Prefecture
The district court decision clears the operation of reactors at Kansai Electric Power's Takahama nuclear plant and Mihama plant for up to 20 more years, beyond the 40 year maximum.
Blue pipelines to transport seawater, part of the facility operated by Tepco where treated radioactive water is released from the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant into the sea, are seen during a treated water dilution and discharge facility tour for foreign media in the town of Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, in August 2023.
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2025
Tepco releases treated water from Fukushima plant for last time in fiscal 2024
The operator of the nuclear plant plans to discharge 7,800 tons of treated water containing tritium, a radioactive substance, into the Pacific during the current release.
If Russia emerges victorious from the Ukraine war, nuclear proliferation will ensue as states view armaments and not agreements as the only way to protect their sovereignty.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 12, 2025
Lessons from Ukraine: Allies are fickle, nukes are forever
If Russia emerges victorious from the Ukraine war, nuclear proliferation will ensue as states view armaments and not agreements as the only way to protect their sovereignty.
Protesters demonstrating in front of the Supreme Court in Tokyo on Tuesday against court rulings acquitting two former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings over the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima Prefecture.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 12, 2025
Acquittal of two former Tepco executives finalized
Lawyers acting as prosecutors did not file an appeal against the Supreme Court's decision last week that upheld the not-guilty verdicts against the executives.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who said he would do everything he could to reduce active nuclear reactors to close to zero, changed his stance once he became prime minister.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Mar 12, 2025
Government does about-face on nuclear policy 14 years after triple meltdown
The government cited the need to ensure stable electricity supplies and secure carbon-free energy sources.
A tank holds untreated waste from plutonium production at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, a site that was integral to the nation’s nuclear arsenal after World War II, north of Richland, Washington, in March 2023.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Mar 11, 2025
Most contaminated U.S. nuclear site is set to be the largest solar farm
Plans to transform Hanford had just begun inching forward when U.S. President Donald Trump started his second term.
Donald Trump’s skepticism of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty should push Japan to rethink its defense posture, increase military spending, expand arms exports and even consider the nuclear question instead of relying on outdated postwar norms.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 11, 2025
Use the bogeyman to confront Japan’s defense taboos
Donald Trump’s criticism of the U.S. security treaty with Japan is the perfect cover that Tokyo needs to confront outdated attitudes about defense.
A town hall meeting with residents of Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, one of the municipalities evacuated in the aftermath of the nuclear accident at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant. More dialogue is needed to foster truly participatory energy democracy in Japan.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 10, 2025
Japan needs collective public support to reach its nuclear goals
Over a decade after 3/11, Japan has the chance to foster truly participatory energy democracy by engaging its civic environmental organizations in nuclear policymaking processes.
Germany's chancellor-in-waiting and leader of the Christian Democratic Union party, Friedrich Merz, says he would like talks with France and Britain about sharing their nuclear weapons as part of a nuclear shield.
WORLD
Mar 9, 2025
Germany's Merz wants European nuclear weapons to boost U.S. shield
Germany, due to its Second World War past, has bound itself to non-nuclear defense in a number of international treaties but participates in NATO weapons-sharing arrangements.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’