ASTANA, Kazakhstan--Toshiba Corp. will research decontamination technologies for the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant with Kazakhstan’s state-run atomic energy institute at a Soviet-era nuclear test site.
ASTANA, Kazakhstan--Toshiba Corp. will research decontamination technologies for the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant with Kazakhstan’s state-run atomic energy institute at a Soviet-era nuclear test site.Toshiba will conduct research at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan, for about three years, drawing on information provided by the National Nuclear Center, according to the agreement reached on May 1.Industry minister Yukio Edano and Aset Isekeshev, Kazakhstan’s minister of industry and new technologies, agreed on the same day that the two governments will support technological cooperation between the two entities.Toshiba will consider using new technologies in decommissioning reactors at the crippled Fukushima plant and decontaminating radioactive rubble around the plant.The National Nuclear Center owns data and technologies on nuclear facilities, decontamination in surrounding areas and decommissioning of reactors. Toshiba will also provide its information to the institute to advance decontamination research.Toshiba eventually hopes to use new technologies for the prevention of accidents at nuclear reactors and other nuclear facilities outside Japan.The government also plans to support development of technologies to prevent nuclear accidents.The Soviet Union conducted more than 400 nuclear tests above and underground in Semipalatinsk, with the first in 1949.