Nuclear

Hitachi is having difficulty persuading Japanese companies to share the burden of building a nuclear power plant in the U.K., raising the specter of a withdrawal from the project worth more than 3 trillion yen ($26.5 billion).

The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry plans to foster start-ups in the field of nuclear power, providing funds and human resources to researchers who have developed promising technologies, to help them commercialize those technologies.

People from Fukushima Prefecture living in Europe have started in earnest to campaign in Brussels to dispel concerns about foods from the northeastern prefecture following the 2011 nuclear crisis there.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday pledged continued efforts for the reconstruction of Fukushima Prefecture, especially areas near the site of the 2011 nuclear accident.“The government will make utmost efforts until the day the reconstruction of Fukushima is achieved,” Abe told reporters. The government-set postdisaster reconstruction support period is set to end in spring 2021.

On a side street near a darkened Ikata shopping arcade full of abandoned storefronts, the Sushi Ko restaurant is unusually busy on a weekday.Balancing a tray full of drinks, Sachiyo Ozaki said most of her restaurant’s customers were there because of an industry shunned elsewhere: nuclear power.

Twenty liters of water containing radioactive materials were accidentally released at a spent nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the village of Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, earlier this week, operator Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. has said.

A high court in western Japan on Thursday rejected a lawsuit to shut down Shikoku Electric Power's only operable nuclear reactor.

A team of nuclear experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency urged Japan this week to reach a decision quickly on what to do with treated water that contains low toxicity radioactive tritium, which is accumulating at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

Japan Atomic Power obtained a long-awaited approval on Wednesday to extend the life of its reactor northeast of Tokyo through November 2038, but the company still faces an uphill battle in winning community support before it can bring the station back online.

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. has launched an English-language online virtual tour of the interior of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 power plant, allowing website visitors to check the progress of decommissioning work following the 2011 meltdowns — one of the world’s worst nuclear crises.