Tokyo Electric Power Co

The operator of Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant said on July 21 that it is using an underwater robot in a renewed attempt to inspect damage suffered in a tsunami-induced meltdown.

Radiation levels inside a stricken reactor at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant have hit a record high capable of shutting down robots, in the latest challenge to efforts aimed at dismantling the disaster-hit facility.

TOKYO, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Japan's trade ministry has almost doubled the estimated cost of compensation for the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and decommissioning of the damaged Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant to more than 20 trillion yen ($177.51 billion), the Nikkei business daily reported on Nov. 27. 

The robots sent in to find highly radioactive fuel at Fukushima's nuclear reactors have "died;" a subterranean "ice wall" around the crippled plant meant to stop groundwater from becoming contaminated has yet to be finished.

Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant on Sept.14 began releasing previously contaminated water into the sea, but the man tasked with preventing another meltdown warned other highly radioactive fluid still stored on site could pose a major threat.  

The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant faced a fresh lawsuit July 29 from the family of a 102-year-old man who killed himself because he was depressed at having to leave his home.

Japan on July 28 approved an increase in compensation payments for the Fukushima crisis to 7.07 trillion yen ($57.18 billion), as tens of thousands of evacuees remain in temporary housing more than four years after the disaster. 

A  7.8-magnitude earthquake deep under the ocean off Japan's southern coast shook buildings in Tokyo on Saturday but no casualties or significant injuries and damage were immediately reported.

No tsunami alert has been issued. 

International advisers to Japan?s atomic regulator have raised concern a mandatory review of its performance could lead to a loss of independence for the body, which was set up in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.