Japan on Saturday scrambled hard to prevent meltdowns at its nuclear power plants, declaring a state of emergency at five atomic reactors and evacuating thousands of residents, as it launched a mammoth relief operation in its northeast devastated by a massive earthquake that likely left over 1,000 people dead.
A massive tsunami triggered by Japan's most powerful earthquake in nearly a century on Friday wrought devastation in northeast coastal Japan, sweeping away houses, ships and cars and setting ablaze several buildings, killing over 360 people.
According to the criminal complaint unsealed on Thursday, Aldawsari conducted research on potential terror targets in the US including hydroelectric dams, nuclear power plants and the Dallas address for former President Bush.
'Nanda Devi is not an easy mountain to climb.'
US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke's robust meetings in Mumbai, includes a bilateral with the Governor of the RBIndia Dr D Subbarao and senior officials at the Department of Atomic Energy and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India, in addition to speeches to the Federation of the Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the National Association of Software and Service Companies, will also be punctuated with an interaction with the dabbawallahs or tiffin caterers.
"Brighton will invest Rs 2,880 crore and provide direct employment to 2,500 highly-skilled personnel...and indirect employment to another 10,000. The proposed plant will be set up on 800-acres at Nakkapalli in Visakhapatnam district," Major Industries Minister Geeta Reddy said after a meeting with the company President and CEO Kit Kung.
Pushing ahead with the controversial Jaitapur atomic power plant, government on Wednesda said it has decided to have a stand-alone safety system in the designs of each reactors, two of which are expected to be operational by 2019 and announced a bill would be brought to create an autonomous nuclear regulatory body.
Union Environment minister Jairam Ramesh on Friday ruled out any "re-think" on the proposed mega nuclear power plant at Jaitapur in Maharashtra but pressed for a separate safety system for each of its six atomic reactors in the light of the tsunami-triggered nuclear crisis in Japan.
Japan has decided to raise the severity level of the crisis at its tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to the maximum seven on an international scale from the current status of five.
The slow-moving disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan that is spreading a cloud of anxiety across the world has forced most nations to either suspend or review their nuclear power programmes, but not India.
As key world capitals scrutinise the Nuclear Liability Bill, passed by the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, for word on how the new legislation would affect potential civil nuclear agreements with India, a senior Union minister has said that private suppliers could still sign agreements with the Nuclear Power Corporation of India clearly stating that their responsibility ended with the handover of equipment and other material to the operator.
Workers attempting to salvage Japan's tsunami hit Fukushima nuclear reactor had to be evacuated after smoke was seen billowing in a latest in a series of troubles to hit the moves to stabilise the radiation leaking plant.
"We are very clear it is an absolute must in the bouquet of energy resources which have to be accessed," Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma told a gathering of top US c corporate leaders and those from the US government at the annual summit of the US India Business Council (USIBC).
As Japan's earthquake and tsunami triggers the global nuclear industry's worst crisis, it is time for India to rethink it ambitious nuclear power programme, says Praful Bidwai
India's indigenous nuclear-powered submarine INS Arihant will be ready for deterrent patrols in two years from now, completing the nation's capability to deliver strategic weapons from land, air and undersea.
United States President Barack Obama has said that he was not worried about radiation from the quake hit Japanese nuclear power plant reaching Hawaii.
GE is also bullish on India's power sector and has chalked out plans in electricity generation from various sources such as wind, solar, gas, etc.
"China's cooperation with Pakistan in nuclear power is for peaceful means and is supervised by the International Atomic Energy Agency, (IAEA). The US always questions Pakistan's nuclear activities, but how about its latest nuclear deal with India," Chinese newspaper Global Times quoted He Maochun, director of the Research Centre for Economic Diplomacy Studies of Tsinghua University, as probing.
China's reported move to construct two more nuclear power plants in Pakistan was expected to be discussed at the 46-member Nuclear Supplies Group's five-day meeting at Christchurch, New Zealand last month.
The four pillars on which the relationship rests strategic congruence; defence and space partnership; nuclear power generation; and hydrocarbons remain biased in favour of Russia. Putin's visit gave little hope that this was about to change.
While stressing that bilateral talks between India and Pakistan are key to reducing heightened tension in the region, United States Central Command Chief General David Petraeus has warned that any Mumbai-type terror strike in India will certainly 're-ignite' hostility between the two nuclear powered nations.Testifying before the US Senate Armed Services Committee, General Petraeus said any significant terror strike in India will severely dent efforts to reduce tension.
The United States, he said, 'desires a new age of ambition' in its relationship with India. Asserting that the US has never been more supportive of India's security, he said New Delhi too, is an important partner and a key pillar of President Trump's foreign policy.
The implication of this stiff stance by China towards Pakistan could have far reaching consequences for the gains achieved in India-China relations including from last year's Copenhagen dividend and the high-level visits between the two, writes Srikanth Kondapalli.
At 1:23 am on April 26, 1986, operators in the control room of Reactor number 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power facility botched a routine safety test, resulting in an explosion, and a fire that burned for 10 days.
China is all set to announce its intent to provide to Pakistan two nuclear-power reactors, according to a prominent American nuclear expert who said this would breach international protocol about the trade of nuclear equipment and material.
The Rs 500 crore cap in the event of an accident, proposed in the controversial nuclear liability bill, could be raised as part of government's efforts to address concerns of the opposition over the issue. Indications to this effect were given by government officials at a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology and Environment on Tuesady.
Amid concerns over waste management at the proposed nuclear power plant at Jaitapur in Maharashtra, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said it was not an immediate problem for India and lamented a lack of balanced environmental approach towards nuclear energy.
Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit has criticised Indian External Affairs Minister S M Krishna for his remarks that any further terror attack on India originating from Pakistani soil would greatly severe relations, said Islamabad cannot be 'bullied' by such statements.
The Indian Nuclear Energy Pool, meant to insure risks from nuclear reactors, may take longer to be set up. While the idea of forming a pool was mooted earlier this year, it has reached a deadlock owing to differences among the stakeholders on certain clauses.
The US needs to find global support, especially from Russia and China, to make North Korea back down, says Claude Smadja.
Even as political acrimony over the Nuclear Liability Bill rages in and outside Parliament, India's old-time friend Russia has clearly told the Indian establishment that it will not accept any liability for the supply of equipment and other material to help India build its nuclear power plants, either in the present or future.
Scientist J R Kayal explains the why the monster quake that hit Japan caused such havoc and why it gave rise to a tsunami that compounded the misery.
The passing of the nuclear liability bill will be a political and diplomatic victory for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at a time when he is being seen as getting weaker and his government is drifting on all major national challenges like price rise, Kashmir and Naxalism.
India has placed ten of its nuclear reactors for review by the International Atomic Energy Agency as per the safeguard agreement reached with the United Nations monitoring body. "In accordance with the Separation Plan, so far, ten nuclear power reactors have been placed for review under the agreement between the government and the IAEA, for the Application of Safeguards to Civilian Nuclear Facilities signed in February 2009," a minister said.
British scientists have outlined a 20-year master plan for the global renaissance of nuclear energy, which they say will fill an energy gap as old nuclear, gas and coal fired plants are decommissioned.
The five United States origin terror suspects, who were arrested from Sargodha earlier this month, were planning to attack the Chasma nuclear power plant and other strategic establishments in the country, a private television channel has reported.The Daily Times reported Sargodha Cantonment Station House Officer, Amir Sherazi, as saying that the suspects had disclosed their plans during interrogations.Earlier, a local Pakistani court extended the custody of terror suspects.
A Chinese general on Friday termed as 'flagrant provocation' United States' plans to send a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to the Yellow Sea and said the country would retaliate if 'offended.'
A bomb explosion at the Idinthakarai coastal village in Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu has killed six people, including three children, who were all aged below five. The blast site is close to Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant.
Pakistan has pressed its demand for an atomic deal similar to the one granted to India by the US, saying the security of its strategic assets and growing energy needs qualify it for "civil nuclear cooperation at the international level".
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