Nuclear Crisis

Stocks have closed sharply lower as the nuclear crisis in Japan weighed on global markets. The stock market dropped sharply at the start of trading Tuesday on news that dangerous levels of radiation were leaking from a crippled nuclear plant. The plant was damaged in last week's earthquake and tsunami. Japan, the world's third-largest economy, accounts for 10 percent of U.S. exports. "It's a situation where you sell, and you ask questions later," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at New York-based Avalon Partners.

WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission who was championed by watchdogs for his cautious approach to nuclear power but criticized by Republicans in Congress for an overly hard-charging style has announced he will step down. Gregory Jaczko, who led the commission's efforts to protect Americans in Japan during the nuclear crisis at Fukushima and played a key role in fighting the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain as a former top aide to Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.)

A fresh explosion rocked a crippled nuclear complex as rescuers from around the world converged on Japan's devastated earthquake zone, searching for survivors and ministering to the sick and hungry. With the death toll expected to ultimately reach the tens of thousands, more than a half-million people have been displaced by growing radiation fears and the massive swath of destruction. Japanese officials ordered people near the Fukushima No. 1 plant -- around which a 12-mile evacuation zone had already been carved out -- to stay indoors after a hydrogen blast in the containment building of one of its six reactors, similar to one that occurred Saturday in a separate reactor.

In a now familiar political ritual, Japan's ruling party on Monday picked a new prime minister -- the sixth in five years -- to lead the nation past a host of domestic ills, including a stagnant economy and a lingering nuclear crisis. In a tense runoff vote, Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda, known as a tight-fisted fiscal hawk, defeated his closest rival, Trade Minister Banri Kaieda, even though Kaieda's had the backing of a powerful but publicly disgraced party boss. The 54-year-old Noda replaces outgoing Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who resigned Friday after just 15 months in office, carrying through on a promise to step down amid criticism that he had mishandled the nation's response to the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

An awful realization is setting in for those trapped in the vicinity of the crippled Fukushima nuclear complex: People are afraid to help them. Residents describe spooky scenes of municipal cars driving down near-empty streets telling people to stay indoors, but they've seen few other signs of outside help. Aid agencies are reluctant to get too close to the plant. Shelters set up in the greater Fukushima area for "radiation refugees" have little food, in part because nobody wants to deliver to an area that might be contaminated.

Marco Gutierrez was taking no chances. With radiation still leaking this weekend from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant 150 miles away, the Tokyo resident joined the legions of foreigners — and a growing number of Japanese — fleeing the world's most populated city. "I have friends of friends who work for TEPCO, the power company [that operates Fukushima], and they all said that the worst of the radiation exposure was going to take place over the next two days," said Gutierrez, a 26-year-old consultant from Seattle, as he jostled among the crowds at Tokyo's Haneda Airport on Saturday for a flight to the southern island of Okinawa, one of the farthest points in Japan from the crippled reactors.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. President Masataka Shimizu resigned Friday in the face of increasing allegations that the utility has mishandled the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was damaged in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The anticipated resignation came on the same day that the troubled utility announced $15.3 billion in net losses for the fiscal year that ended in March, a consequence of the nuclear disaster that spewed radioactive isotopes into the air, soil and sea and forced the evacuation of thousands of residents in northeast Japan.

Kenji Kadota long followed the dual credo drilled into him during childhood: Hide your anger and trust the powers that be. Yet in the wake of last month's triple whammy of earthquake, tsunami and radiation release, the 55-year-old construction chief has thrown all such cultural lessons out the window. Kadota faults the firm that runs the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant for its mishandling of the nuclear crisis that has followed the March 11 natural disasters. He believes dithering public officials have compounded the public's anxiety by withholding information about the true dangers facing people who live near the plant.

Relations between the United States and Japan, already strained over the delayed relocation of an American military base on Okinawa, received no help this week when a retired U.S. envoy publicly criticized Tokyo's initial response in March to the nation's nuclear crisis. Comments by Kevin Maher, a former director of the State Department's Japan Office, shed light on Washington's mind-set during the early days of the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Speaking to reporters in Tokyo, Maher said U.S. officials worried about the lack of leadership shown by Prime Minister Naoto Kan's government after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami led to partial reactor meltdowns at the coastal plant.

Relations between the United States and Japan, already strained over the delayed relocation of an American military base on Okinawa, received no help this week when a retired U.S. envoy publicly criticized Tokyo's initial response in March to the nation's nuclear crisis. Comments by Kevin Maher, a former director of the State Department's Japan Office, shed light on Washington's mind-set during the early days of the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Speaking to reporters in Tokyo, Maher said U.S. officials worried about the lack of leadership shown by Prime Minister Naoto Kan's government after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami led to partial reactor meltdowns at the coastal plant.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. President Masataka Shimizu resigned Friday in the face of increasing allegations that the utility has mishandled the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was damaged in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The anticipated resignation came on the same day that the troubled utility announced $15.3 billion in net losses for the fiscal year that ended in March, a consequence of the nuclear disaster that spewed radioactive isotopes into the air, soil and sea and forced the evacuation of thousands of residents in northeast Japan.

A Japanese utility agreed Monday to take its reactors off-line at a seaside nuclear power plant, just days after Prime Minister Naoto Kan called for the shutdown over concerns that a strong earthquake and tsunami could provoke another nuclear crisis. Board members of the Chubu Electric Power Co., Japan's third-largest electric supplier, met behind closed doors over the weekend before announcing late Monday that the utility would temporarily shut down the three reactors at its Hamaoka facility not far from Nagoya.

Kenji Kadota long followed the dual credo drilled into him during childhood: Hide your anger and trust the powers that be. Yet in the wake of last month's triple whammy of earthquake, tsunami and radiation release, the 55-year-old construction chief has thrown all such cultural lessons out the window. Kadota faults the firm that runs the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant for its mishandling of the nuclear crisis that has followed the March 11 natural disasters. He believes dithering public officials have compounded the public's anxiety by withholding information about the true dangers facing people who live near the plant.

The tandem theme parks of the Tokyo Disney resort were scheduled to return to full operation Thursday for the first time since a devastating earthquake and tsunami struck Japan on March 11. Photos : Tokyo Disneyland reopens after the quake The Tokyo DisneySea theme park is expected to reopen at 9 a.m. Tokyo time Thursday, 47 days after being shut after the disasters, which also triggered a nuclear crisis....

The U.S. nuclear industry is turning up the power on old reactors, spurring quiet debate over the safety of pushing aging equipment beyond its original specifications. The little-publicized practice, known as uprating, has expanded the country's nuclear capacity without the financial risks, public anxiety and political obstacles that have halted the construction of new plants for the last 15 years. The power boosts come from more potent fuel rods in the reactor core and, sometimes, more highly enriched uranium.

Japanese nuclear regulatory officials Tuesday raised the severity rating at the earthquake- and tsunami-damaged Fukushima Daiichi power plant to the highest level by international standards, equaling the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown in the former Soviet Union. The country's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency announced that because of the amount of radioactive material released from the plant after the magnitude 9 earthquake a month ago, the rating would be changed to level 7, a "major accident" on the International Atomic Energy Agency's scale, up from a level 5, an "accident with wider consequences.

Although the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has not yet been stabilized, there is no evidence that overheating during the last month has resulted in any melting of the reactor vessels or their containment structures, Obama administration officials said Thursday. If that assessment is correct, then significant additional releases of radioactivity into the environment will be limited, and emergency crews should have a far better chance of preventing further damage to the plant's reactors.