Japan Nuclear Agency Adds to Mistrust - Wall Street Journal

TOKYO—An independent panel advising Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry confirmed Friday that the ministry's nuclear watchdog was involved in attempts by utilities to manipulate public opinion in favor of nuclear power, a conclusion likely to reinforce public mistrust in the nuclear industry and to raise further hurdles for the restart of idled reactors.

The ministry also announced later in the day that it has suspended former Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama for one month after finding he engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with a female staffer during working hours at the height ...

TOKYO—An independent panel advising Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry confirmed Friday that the ministry's nuclear watchdog was involved in attempts by utilities to manipulate public opinion in favor of nuclear power, a conclusion likely to reinforce public mistrust in the nuclear industry and to raise further hurdles for the restart of idled reactors.

The ministry also announced later in the day that it has suspended former Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama for one month after finding he engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with a female staffer during working hours at the height ...

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UN nuke agency meets on Iran, Syria, NKorea, Japan - The Associated Press

UN nuke agency meets on Iran, Syria, NKorea, JapanBy GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press – 5 hours ago 

VIENNA (AP) — The head of the U.N. nuclear agency on Monday announced plans to publish new information backing up his belief that Iran may be working on a nuclear warhead — developments that leave his organization "increasingly concerned."

The comments by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano were significant because it was the first time he revealed plans to release some of the most recent knowledge available to the IAEA leading to such worries. Such new intelligence would likely be detailed in the next report on Iran's nuclear activities in November.

Speaking at the start of a five-day meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation board, Amano also reiterated that — despite Syrian denials — a target hit in 2007 by Israeli warplanes was a nearly completed nuclear reactor meant to produce plutonium, which can be used to arm nuclear warheads.

At the same time, he announced that his staff would meet with Syrian officials next month to work out an "action plan" allowing Damascus to make good on promises to present new information on the site in its attempts to prove that the structure was a non-nuclear military facility.

He also had some positive words for Iran, saying it had demonstrated "greater transparency" than usual, in allowing a senior IAEA official to tour previously restricted nuclear sites last month.

At the same time, Amano urged the Islamic Republic to show more openness on other nuclear issues of concern. The agency, he said, "continues to receive new information" about Iranian attempts to develop a nuclear warhead, adding that he hoped "to set out in greater details the basis for the agency's concerns" in the near future.

Amano had already said he was "increasingly concerned" about possible warhead experiments by Iran in a report made available to The Associated Press earlier this month, when it was also shared with board members and the U.N. Security Council.

The phrase "increasingly concerned" — was also used by Amano in his remarks to the board Monday. It has not appeared in previous reports discussing Iran's alleged nuclear weapons work and reflects the frustration felt by him over the lack of progress in his investigations.

In its report, the International Atomic Energy Agency said "many member states" are providing evidence for that assessment, describing the information it is receiving as credible, "extensive and comprehensive."

The report also said Tehran had started installing equipment to enrich uranium at a new location — an underground bunker that is better protected from air attack than its present enrichment facilities.

Enrichment can produce both nuclear fuel and fissile warhead material, and Tehran — which says it wants only to produce fuel with the technology — is under four sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions for refusing to freeze enrichment.

It also denies secretly experimenting with a nuclear weapons program and has blocked a four-year attempt by the IAEA to follow up on intelligence that it secretly designed blueprints linked to a nuclear payload on a missile, experimented with exploding a nuclear charge, and conducted work on other components of a weapons program.

In a 2007 estimate, the U.S. intelligence community said that while Iran had worked on a weapons program such activities appeared to have ceased in 2003. But diplomats say a later intelligence summary avoided such specifics, and recent IAEA reports on the topic have expressed growing unease that such activities may be continuing.

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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UN nuke agency meets on Iran, Syria, NKorea, Japan (AP)

VIENNA – The head of the U.N. nuclear agency on Monday announced plans to publish new information backing up his belief that Iran may be working on a nuclear warhead — developments that leave his organization "increasingly concerned."

The comments by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano were significant because it was the first time he revealed plans to release some of the most recent knowledge available to the IAEA leading to such worries. Such new intelligence would likely be detailed in the next report on Iran's nuclear activities in November.

Speaking at the start of a five-day meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation board, Amano also reiterated that — despite Syrian denials — a target hit in 2007 by Israeli warplanes was a nearly completed nuclear reactor meant to produce plutonium, which can be used to arm nuclear warheads.

At the same time, he announced that his staff would meet with Syrian officials next month to work out an "action plan" allowing Damascus to make good on promises to present new information on the site in its attempts to prove that the structure was a non-nuclear military facility.

He also had some positive words for Iran, saying it had demonstrated "greater transparency" than usual, in allowing a senior IAEA official to tour previously restricted nuclear sites last month.

At the same time, Amano urged the Islamic Republic to show more openness on other nuclear issues of concern. The agency, he said, "continues to receive new information" about Iranian attempts to develop a nuclear warhead, adding that he hoped "to set out in greater details the basis for the agency's concerns" in the near future.

Amano had already said he was "increasingly concerned" about possible warhead experiments by Iran in a report made available to The Associated Press earlier this month, when it was also shared with board members and the U.N. Security Council.

The phrase "increasingly concerned" — was also used by Amano in his remarks to the board Monday. It has not appeared in previous reports discussing Iran's alleged nuclear weapons work and reflects the frustration felt by him over the lack of progress in his investigations.

In its report, the International Atomic Energy Agency said "many member states" are providing evidence for that assessment, describing the information it is receiving as credible, "extensive and comprehensive."

The report also said Tehran had started installing equipment to enrich uranium at a new location — an underground bunker that is better protected from air attack than its present enrichment facilities.

Enrichment can produce both nuclear fuel and fissile warhead material, and Tehran — which says it wants only to produce fuel with the technology — is under four sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions for refusing to freeze enrichment.

It also denies secretly experimenting with a nuclear weapons program and has blocked a four-year attempt by the IAEA to follow up on intelligence that it secretly designed blueprints linked to a nuclear payload on a missile, experimented with exploding a nuclear charge, and conducted work on other components of a weapons program.

In a 2007 estimate, the U.S. intelligence community said that while Iran had worked on a weapons program such activities appeared to have ceased in 2003. But diplomats say a later intelligence summary avoided such specifics, and recent IAEA reports on the topic have expressed growing unease that such activities may be continuing.

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Japan redesigns nuclear safety agency - CNN International

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant experienced a triple meltdown after a devasting tsunami and earthquake hit Japan.Day-to-day nuclear regulation will be placed under the Environment MinistryCritics have said regulators have been too cozy with Japan's nuclear industryThe decision follows the March nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi

Tokyo (CNN) -- Japan's nuclear safety agency will be placed under the control of the country's Environment Ministry, a top government official announced Monday in a move stemming from the triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

Japanese regulators have been accused of being too cozy with the nuclear industry in the years before the March disaster at Fukushima Daiichi, the worst nuclear accident in a quarter-century. Monday's decision will take the day-to-day regulation of nuclear plants out from under the Ministry of the Economy, Trade and Industry, which has promoted the use of nuclear energy, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.

The plan is to merge the existing Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency with the Nuclear Safety Commission, a largely advisory body. The new agency should be up and running by April and "will see to it that everything is done clearly," Edano said.

The agency has been tentatively designated the Nuclear Safety Agency, but Edano said he and other Cabinet members hope to add the word "regulatory" to the name before long.

"This agency will be handling regulation, and that is why regulation should be included in the name," he said.

Japan has launched a sweeping review of nuclear power since the disaster at Fukushima Daiichi, which has displaced more than 100,000 nearby residents. Engineers are still working to restore normal cooling in the three reactors that melted down after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and to pump out and decontaminate an estimated 100,000 tons of water that has pooled in the basements and service tunnels of the plant during five months of emergency measures.

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Japan Cabinet OKs new nuclear safety agency (AP)

TOKYO – Japan's Cabinet has approved a plan to expand the main nuclear regulatory agency and move it to the environment ministry from the trade ministry where it has been criticized as being too cozy with the industry it regulates.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Monday the new agency will also oversee nuclear security, radiation monitoring and crisis management.

The existing agency drew increased scrutiny after the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant suffered melting reactor cores after this year's massive tsunami. The agency was criticized partly for being part of the same agency that promotes nuclear energy.

Establishing the new agency will require parliamentary approval. It is planned for launch next April.

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