ID :
184185
Tue, 05/24/2011 - 19:51
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https://oananews.org//node/184185
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Kaieda vows to cooperate with IAEA fact-finding team on nuke crisis
TOKYO, May 24 Kyodo - Japanese industry minister Banri Kaieda vowed Tuesday to provide all information the government has to a group of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency that has come to Japan for a fact-finding mission on the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.
Responding to Kaieda at the outset of their meeting, IAEA team leader Mike Weightman, the head of Britain's Nuclear Regulation Office, said, ''With regard to the nuclear accident, we're here to gather information and to seek to learn lessons that we can apply across the world to improve nuclear safety even to higher levels.''
The team of nearly 20 international and IAEA experts from countries around the world is scheduled to stay in Japan until June 2 so members can deliver their findings at a ministerial meeting on nuclear safety to be hosted by the IAEA from June 20 to 24 in Vienna.
The main focus of the investigation in Japan would be on three areas, namely the response to the March 11 earthquake and ensuing tsunami which triggered the nuclear crisis, the handling of the crisis at the nuclear plant and the emergency measures taken after the event such as issuance of evacuation orders.
''We want to learn the lessons about how you, in these severe circumstances of the roads, the electricity, the communications being severely disrupted...managed to have an effective response in such devastating circumstances,'' Weightman told reporters after meeting with Kaieda.
A summary of the team's draft report is expected to be handed to the Japanese government on June 1, a day before the team members leave Japan, an IAEA official said.
During Tuesday's meeting, Kaieda was also asked to attend the IAEA ministerial meeting, and he said he would go if Japan's parliamentary situation allows, said an official of Japan's nuclear regulatory agency, who briefed reporters about the meeting.
Kaieda also told the team he hopes the investigation would turn out to be productive, promising to ''make public all the information we have.''
The IAEA team plans to pay courtesy calls on Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano and other Japanese ministers on Wednesday, while conducting hearings from related ministry officials and others.
On Friday, the team will visit the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant in northeastern Japan, according to the official of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, which is under the wing of the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry.
Officials of the U.N. nuclear watchdog already entered the plant after the crisis occurred, but it would be the first time for an IAEA mission comprising experts from various countries to check the radiation-leaking complex operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co., the official said.
Tokyo Electric has not yet contained the crisis at the six-reactor Fukushima Daiichi plant, where many of the units have lost key functions to keep the nuclear fuel inside cool in the wake of the magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami.
The IAEA team includes Philippe Jamet, deputy team leader and commissioner of the French Nuclear Safety Authority, Jennifer Uhle from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and others from countries including Argentina, China, India, South Korea, Russia and Turkey.
Jamet also joined an IAEA mission in 2007 to examine Tokyo Electric's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture, which leaked a small amount of radiation after a magnitude 6.8 earthquake hit the region the same year.
Responding to Kaieda at the outset of their meeting, IAEA team leader Mike Weightman, the head of Britain's Nuclear Regulation Office, said, ''With regard to the nuclear accident, we're here to gather information and to seek to learn lessons that we can apply across the world to improve nuclear safety even to higher levels.''
The team of nearly 20 international and IAEA experts from countries around the world is scheduled to stay in Japan until June 2 so members can deliver their findings at a ministerial meeting on nuclear safety to be hosted by the IAEA from June 20 to 24 in Vienna.
The main focus of the investigation in Japan would be on three areas, namely the response to the March 11 earthquake and ensuing tsunami which triggered the nuclear crisis, the handling of the crisis at the nuclear plant and the emergency measures taken after the event such as issuance of evacuation orders.
''We want to learn the lessons about how you, in these severe circumstances of the roads, the electricity, the communications being severely disrupted...managed to have an effective response in such devastating circumstances,'' Weightman told reporters after meeting with Kaieda.
A summary of the team's draft report is expected to be handed to the Japanese government on June 1, a day before the team members leave Japan, an IAEA official said.
During Tuesday's meeting, Kaieda was also asked to attend the IAEA ministerial meeting, and he said he would go if Japan's parliamentary situation allows, said an official of Japan's nuclear regulatory agency, who briefed reporters about the meeting.
Kaieda also told the team he hopes the investigation would turn out to be productive, promising to ''make public all the information we have.''
The IAEA team plans to pay courtesy calls on Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano and other Japanese ministers on Wednesday, while conducting hearings from related ministry officials and others.
On Friday, the team will visit the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant in northeastern Japan, according to the official of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, which is under the wing of the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry.
Officials of the U.N. nuclear watchdog already entered the plant after the crisis occurred, but it would be the first time for an IAEA mission comprising experts from various countries to check the radiation-leaking complex operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co., the official said.
Tokyo Electric has not yet contained the crisis at the six-reactor Fukushima Daiichi plant, where many of the units have lost key functions to keep the nuclear fuel inside cool in the wake of the magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami.
The IAEA team includes Philippe Jamet, deputy team leader and commissioner of the French Nuclear Safety Authority, Jennifer Uhle from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and others from countries including Argentina, China, India, South Korea, Russia and Turkey.
Jamet also joined an IAEA mission in 2007 to examine Tokyo Electric's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture, which leaked a small amount of radiation after a magnitude 6.8 earthquake hit the region the same year.
