Probe finds Japan withheld risks of nuke disaster

TOKYO (AP) — The Japanese government withheld information about the full danger of last year's nuclear disaster from its own people and from the United States, putting U.S.-Japan relations at risk in the first days after the accident, according to an independent report released Tuesday.

The report, compiled from interviews with more than 300 people, delivers a scathing view of how leaders played down the risks of the meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant that followed a massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The report by the private Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation also paints a picture of confusion during the days immediately after the accident. It says the U.S. government was frustrated by the scattered information provided by Japan and was skeptical whether it was true.

The U.S. advised Americans to leave an area within 50 miles (80 kilometers) of the plant, far bigger than the 12-mile (20-kilometer) Japanese evacuation area, because of concerns that the accident was worse than Japan was reporting.

The misunderstandings were gradually cleared up after a bilateral committee was set up on March 22 and began regular meetings, according to the 400-page report.

The report, compiled by scholars, lawyers and other experts, credits then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan for ordering Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility running the plant, not to withdraw its staff and to keep fighting to bring it under control.

TEPCO's president at the time, Masataka Shimizu, called Kan on March 15 and said he wanted to abandon the plant and have all 600 TEPCO staff flee, the report said. That would have allowed the situation to spiral out of control, resulting in a much larger release of radiation.

A group of about 50 workers was eventually able to bring the plant under control.

TEPCO, which declined to take part in the investigation, has denied it planned to abandon Fukushima Dai-ichi. The report notes the denial, but says Kan and other officials had the clear understanding that TEPCO had asked to leave.

But the report criticizes Kan for attempting to micromanage the disaster and for not releasing critical information on radiation leaks, thereby creating widespread distrust of the authorities among Japanese.

Kan's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.

Kan acknowledged in a recent interview with The Associated Press that the release of information was sometimes slow and at times wrong. He blamed a lack of reliable data at the time and denied the government hid such information from the public.

It will take decades to fully decommission Fukushima Dai-ichi. Although one of the damaged reactor buildings has been repaired, others remain in shambles. A group of journalists, including a reporter from The Associated Press, were given a tour of the plant on Tuesday.

Workers have used tape to mend cracks caused by freezing weather in plastic hoses on temporary equipment installed to cool the hobbled reactors.

"I have to acknowledge that they are still rather fragile," plant chief Takeshi Takahashi said of the safety measures.

The area is still contaminated with radiation, complicating the work. It already has involved hundreds of thousands of workers, who have to quit when they reach the maximum allowed radiation exposure of 100 millisieverts a year.

The report includes a document describing a worst-case scenario that Kan and the chief of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission secretly discussed two weeks after the disaster.

That scenario involved the possibility of more nuclear fuel rods burning, causing the release of more radiation and requiring the evacuation of a much wider region, including Tokyo.

The report also concludes that government oversight of nuclear plant safety had been inadequate, ignoring the risk of tsunami and the need for plant design renovations, and instead clinging to a "myth of safety."

"The idea of upgrading a plant was taboo," said Koichi Kitazawa, a scholar who heads the commission that prepared the report. "We were just lucky that Japan was able to avoid the worst-case scenario. But there is no guarantee this kind of luck will prevail next time."

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Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Okuma, Japan, contributed to this report.

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Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at http://twitter.com/yurikageyama and Mari Yamaguchi at http://twitter.com/mariyamaguchi

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Japan slow to improve nuclear regulatory system

FUKUSHIMA, Japan (AP) — Right after three reactors in northeastern Japan sank into meltdowns, the government vowed to crack down on the cozy relations between the nuclear industry and its regulators. One year later, it has yet to even appoint committee members to scrutinize the "revolving door" of officials landing jobs in the very industries they regulate.

There is little to suggest that the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl has brought a substantially new way of thinking to nuclear regulation in Japan, or brought a much stronger sense of urgency to improving safety at its 54 reactors. Regulators are still part of the trade ministry, which promotes nuclear power, rather than the environment ministry, as the government proposed months ago.

Only two plants have built up seawalls since the Fukushima Dai-ichi meltdowns, and one of them is Fukushima Dai-ichi. Only one plant has installed the kind of vents that could have prevented the hydrogen explosions that escalated the nuclear crisis. Officials are reviewing the chaotic evacuation of the radioactive zone to improve disaster response, but few concrete steps have been taken.

One thing Japan has done with its nuclear plants is shut them down after routine inspections. All but two are offline under a new regime of safety checks, and the remaining plants are expected to shut down by late April. It's unclear when the reactors will start producing power again, but even when shut down they require cooling and tsunami protection.

The checks use computer simulations to see if plants can hold up, or at least avoid a major crisis, if a big earthquake or tsunami hits. Critics say the tests should be more rigorous.

"This is our fate as a nation with so many nuclear plants. All we can do is pray a tsunami won't come," said Hideyuki Ban, who heads the anti-nuclear research group Citizens' Nuclear Information Center and sits on a government panel on atomic energy policy.

Japanese regulators have responded more slowly than their American counterparts did after the accident at Three Mile Island in 1979.

Sweeping changes by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission included emergency-response planning, worker training and radiation protection. Some critics say the action wasn't enough, but the NRC got started on most of these measures within a year. And unlike Japanese regulators, the NRC was never part of a government agency charged with encouraging development of nuclear energy, the U.S. Department of Energy in its case.

The March 11, 2011, disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant prompted widespread calls to make Japan's nuclear safety agency more independent by taking it out of the trade ministry. A year later, a law to make the change still hasn't passed, and when it might pass is uncertain.

The government also has yet to address the issue of officials who move back and forth between regulatory and industry jobs. The practice of doling out post-retirement jobs to government officials in many sectors is so common Japanese call it "amakudari" or "descent from heaven."

An Associated Press review last year found that of 95 people at three main nuclear regulatory bodies, 26 had been affiliated with the industry or groups that promote nuclear power, typically with government funding. The government has found that 68 former trade ministry officials got jobs at utilities in the last 50 years.

Among the regulators who landed such jobs was Susumu Nakamura, a former senior official at the government Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. He was hired in 2008 at Shikoku Electric Power Co., and was promoted to board member a year later — a job he still holds.

"Our company will continue to aggressively hire talented people, including former ministry officials who offer appropriate character, leadership and abilities," the company said Thursday in defense of Nakamura's appointment.

Kyushu Electric Power Co.'s Fukuoka city office chief Makoto Kakebayashi also once worked in the trade ministry setting policy. Kyushu Electric said his hiring was appropriate.

The government is in no better position now to discourage the revolving door than it was a year ago, when it simply urged regulatory officials to use "self-restraint."

Attempts to reform the bureaucracy date back decades. The latest campaign began in 2006 under the Liberal Democrats, but they were thrown out of power in 2009, putting change on hold again.

Masashi Nakano, professor at University of Hyogo who studies amakudari, said the cozy relationship between the government and private sector is so entrenched tough legislation and massive layoffs are needed for a proper fix.

"One would need to wield a giant ax. Otherwise, amakudari is here to stay," he said.

Amakudari is just one of the issues critics of Japan's nuclear regulators are pushing the government to address.

Poor coordination between central and local governments has been identified as a major problem in the evacuation of areas near the Fukushima plant, but local officials say little has been done to fix the problem or develop better evacuation plans.

Local officials say they learned of evacuation orders only when they saw them on TV. They received little or no information on the situation inside the plant. The central government had prediction data from sophisticated monitors that suggested certain towns were in the path of spewing radiation, but that information was not shared with residents.

Around Japan, towns near nuclear plants say they are not confident their plans would work any better than those at Fukushima. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says it is reviewing contingency plans.

The only seawalls built so far since the tsunami have been at disaster-struck Fukushima Dai-ichi and the nearby Fukushima Dai-ni plant, according to an AP survey of all Japan's 10 utilities.

Fukushima Dai-ichi went into meltdowns because it had been prepared for only 20-foot (6 meter) tsunami despite warnings from experts that far bigger tsunami could strike — like the 46-foot (14-meter) waves that hit last March.

Chubu Electric Power Co. is finishing the foundation for a 59-foot (18-meter) wall at the Hamaoka plant, which had to be shut down last year over estimates that that it faces about a 90 percent chance of being hit by a magnitude 8.0 or higher quake within 30 years. That wall won't be completed until next year.

One utility said its tsunami wall won't be completed until 2016. Two utilities had no plans at all to build seawalls because the reactors were built on enough high ground. One of two safety reports the government requires to restart reactors was submitted this week for one of those reactors.

Only one plant has added another key safety measure — new kinds of vents to allow hydrogen to escape from the reactors. At Fukushima Dai-ichi, hydrogen built up and exploded containment buildings. Utilities said they were making technical studies or considering the measure.

Another plant has built new doors that will shut tight during a tsunami and keep delicate equipment dry.

The government learns of such improvements only after they are made, and has no overall assessment on their progress, said Tomohiro Sawada of the government Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

"Their actions are not required by law and so we don't have a way of checking," he said.

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Associated Press Writers Eric Talmadge and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this story.

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Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at http://twitter.com/yurikageyama

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Japan says no decision yet on Iran oil import cuts

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's trade and foreign ministers said on Tuesday they have not yet reached an agreement with Washington on how much Tokyo will cut Iranian crude imports to win waivers from U.S. sanctions designed to starve Iran of oil revenue.

Japan is likely to reduce imports of crude oil from Iran by at least 11 percent per year, the Yomiuri newspaper reported, to earn an exemption from sanctions that could shut Japanese banks out of the United States.

The Yomiuri, citing unidentified sources, said Japan and the United States reached an agreement at talks last week, with a formal deal expected by the end of this month.

An agreement on lowering oil imports is essential to protect the Japanese financial sector's operations abroad, but it poses a risk to Japan's economy as reliance on energy imports has increased since last year's earthquake and tsunami triggered the Fukushima radiation crisis, leading to most of Japan's nuclear reactors being kept out of use.

"We are closely negotiating with the United States and are moving forward towards mutual understanding, but it is not the case that we have reached a conclusion," Trade Minister Yukio Edano told reporters.

The United States is pushing ahead with sanctions because it fears Iran might use its nuclear program to develop nuclear weapons.

The European Union has agreed to cooperate with the United States. In response, Iran ordered a halt of oil sales to Britain and France on Sunday in a move symbolic of Tehran's anger with the West.

Iran, the biggest producer in OPEC after Saudi Arabia, denies Western suspicions that its nuclear program has military goals, saying it is for purely peaceful purposes.

SPECIFIC DISCUSSIONS

The United States says it will punish financial institutions that deal with Iran's central bank, the main clearing house for oil revenues. A country can earn a waiver from the sanctions if it significantly reduces trade with Iran.

"Many countries have approached us to discuss their efforts to reduce purchases of Iranian crude which, by statute, could except them from sanctions," a senior official in U.S. President Barack Obama's administration said.

"We are discussing specific cases with specific countries. It would be premature to discuss any of them at this time."

Japan's Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba also said no agreement has been reached yet. Japan is offering to continue cutting Iranian oil imports but talks are ongoing, a foreign ministry official said earlier.

Japan is the third-biggest customer for Iranian oil. It needs to import more oil to make up for declining use of nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster last March triggered the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl 25 years ago.

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For a graphic on Japan's energy sector, click on: http://link.reuters.com/mej23s

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Public safety fears have prevented the restart of reactors halted for routine checks, and only two of the nation's 54 reactors are still operating. The last of those is due to be shut down by late April.

Japan's imports of Iranian crude fell 11.7 percent last year to 313,000 barrels per day (bpd), accounting for 8.8 percent of total oil imports, and have declined by more than half from 683,000 bpd in 2003.

If Japan cut Iranian oil imports by 11 percent from last year's level, as the Yomiuri reported, that would amount to a reduction of 34,430 bpd.

Cosmo Oil Co has already lowered its Iran crude imports to a little below 30,000 bpd from about 40,000 bpd since January.

Other refiners' imports are seen steady so far this year, but imports are likely to be down further from April, when most annual contracts are renewed. The oil refiners have been awaiting instructions from the Japanese government before launching talks with Iran on annual contracts.

Japan's top refiner, JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp, a unit of JX Holdings, said it has not received any instruction from the government on Iranian oil, including the reported 11 percent cut, and whether Japan will win waivers. Two other refiners also had heard nothing, industry sources said.

"We are worried because the government is not good at planning ahead," one source at a Japanese buyer of Iranian crude said.

By contrast, China and South Korea, the two other big Asian buyers of crude, increased imports from Iran last year.

(Additional reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka in TOKYO and Alister Bull in WASHINGTON; Writing by Stanley White; Editing by Michael Watson and Paul Tait)

View the original article here

Japan says no decision yet on Iran oil import cuts

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's trade and foreign ministers said on Tuesday they have not yet reached an agreement with Washington on how much Tokyo will cut Iranian crude imports to win waivers from U.S. sanctions designed to starve Iran of oil revenue.

Japan is likely to reduce imports of crude oil from Iran by at least 11 percent per year, the Yomiuri newspaper reported, to earn an exemption from sanctions that could shut Japanese banks out of the United States.

The Yomiuri, citing unidentified sources, said Japan and the United States reached an agreement at talks last week, with a formal deal expected by the end of this month.

An agreement on lowering oil imports is essential to protect the Japanese financial sector's operations abroad, but it poses a risk to Japan's economy as reliance on energy imports has increased since last year's earthquake and tsunami triggered the Fukushima radiation crisis, leading to most of Japan's nuclear reactors being kept out of use.

"We are closely negotiating with the United States and are moving forward towards mutual understanding, but it is not the case that we have reached a conclusion," Trade Minister Yukio Edano told reporters.

The United States is pushing ahead with sanctions because it fears Iran might use its nuclear program to develop nuclear weapons.

The European Union has agreed to cooperate with the United States. In response, Iran ordered a halt of oil sales to Britain and France on Sunday in a move symbolic of Tehran's anger with the West.

Iran, the biggest producer in OPEC after Saudi Arabia, denies Western suspicions that its nuclear program has military goals, saying it is for purely peaceful purposes.

SPECIFIC DISCUSSIONS

The United States says it will punish financial institutions that deal with Iran's central bank, the main clearing house for oil revenues. A country can earn a waiver from the sanctions if it significantly reduces trade with Iran.

"Many countries have approached us to discuss their efforts to reduce purchases of Iranian crude which, by statute, could except them from sanctions," a senior official in U.S. President Barack Obama's administration said.

"We are discussing specific cases with specific countries. It would be premature to discuss any of them at this time."

Japan's Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba also said no agreement has been reached yet. Japan is offering to continue cutting Iranian oil imports but talks are ongoing, a foreign ministry official said earlier.

Japan is the third-biggest customer for Iranian oil. It needs to import more oil to make up for declining use of nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster last March triggered the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl 25 years ago.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

For a graphic on Japan's energy sector, click on: http://link.reuters.com/mej23s

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Public safety fears have prevented the restart of reactors halted for routine checks, and only two of the nation's 54 reactors are still operating. The last of those is due to be shut down by late April.

Japan's imports of Iranian crude fell 11.7 percent last year to 313,000 barrels per day (bpd), accounting for 8.8 percent of total oil imports, and have declined by more than half from 683,000 bpd in 2003.

If Japan cut Iranian oil imports by 11 percent from last year's level, as the Yomiuri reported, that would amount to a reduction of 34,430 bpd.

Cosmo Oil Co has already lowered its Iran crude imports to a little below 30,000 bpd from about 40,000 bpd since January.

Other refiners' imports are seen steady so far this year, but imports are likely to be down further from April, when most annual contracts are renewed. The oil refiners have been awaiting instructions from the Japanese government before launching talks with Iran on annual contracts.

Japan's top refiner, JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp, a unit of JX Holdings, said it has not received any instruction from the government on Iranian oil, including the reported 11 percent cut, and whether Japan will win waivers. Two other refiners also had heard nothing, industry sources said.

"We are worried because the government is not good at planning ahead," one source at a Japanese buyer of Iranian crude said.

By contrast, China and South Korea, the two other big Asian buyers of crude, increased imports from Iran last year.

(Additional reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka in TOKYO and Alister Bull in WASHINGTON; Writing by Stanley White; Editing by Michael Watson and Paul Tait)

View the original article here

Japan says no decision yet on Iran oil import cuts

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's trade and foreign ministers said on Tuesday they have not yet reached an agreement with Washington on how much Tokyo will cut Iranian crude imports to win waivers from U.S. sanctions designed to starve Iran of oil revenue.

Japan is likely to reduce imports of crude oil from Iran by at least 11 percent per year, the Yomiuri newspaper reported, to earn an exemption from sanctions that could shut Japanese banks out of the United States.

The Yomiuri, citing unidentified sources, said Japan and the United States reached an agreement at talks last week, with a formal deal expected by the end of this month.

An agreement on lowering oil imports is essential to protect the Japanese financial sector's operations abroad, but it poses a risk to Japan's economy as reliance on energy imports has increased since last year's earthquake and tsunami triggered the Fukushima radiation crisis, leading to most of Japan's nuclear reactors being kept out of use.

"We are closely negotiating with the United States and are moving forward towards mutual understanding, but it is not the case that we have reached a conclusion," Trade Minister Yukio Edano told reporters.

The United States is pushing ahead with sanctions because it fears Iran might use its nuclear program to develop nuclear weapons.

The European Union has agreed to cooperate with the United States. In response, Iran ordered a halt of oil sales to Britain and France on Sunday in a move symbolic of Tehran's anger with the West.

Iran, the biggest producer in OPEC after Saudi Arabia, denies Western suspicions that its nuclear program has military goals, saying it is for purely peaceful purposes.

SPECIFIC DISCUSSIONS

The United States says it will punish financial institutions that deal with Iran's central bank, the main clearing house for oil revenues. A country can earn a waiver from the sanctions if it significantly reduces trade with Iran.

"Many countries have approached us to discuss their efforts to reduce purchases of Iranian crude which, by statute, could except them from sanctions," a senior official in U.S. President Barack Obama's administration said.

"We are discussing specific cases with specific countries. It would be premature to discuss any of them at this time."

Japan's Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba also said no agreement has been reached yet. Japan is offering to continue cutting Iranian oil imports but talks are ongoing, a foreign ministry official said earlier.

Japan is the third-biggest customer for Iranian oil. It needs to import more oil to make up for declining use of nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster last March triggered the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl 25 years ago.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

For a graphic on Japan's energy sector, click on: http://link.reuters.com/mej23s

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Public safety fears have prevented the restart of reactors halted for routine checks, and only two of the nation's 54 reactors are still operating. The last of those is due to be shut down by late April.

Japan's imports of Iranian crude fell 11.7 percent last year to 313,000 barrels per day (bpd), accounting for 8.8 percent of total oil imports, and have declined by more than half from 683,000 bpd in 2003.

If Japan cut Iranian oil imports by 11 percent from last year's level, as the Yomiuri reported, that would amount to a reduction of 34,430 bpd.

Cosmo Oil Co has already lowered its Iran crude imports to a little below 30,000 bpd from about 40,000 bpd since January.

Other refiners' imports are seen steady so far this year, but imports are likely to be down further from April, when most annual contracts are renewed. The oil refiners have been awaiting instructions from the Japanese government before launching talks with Iran on annual contracts.

Japan's top refiner, JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp, a unit of JX Holdings, said it has not received any instruction from the government on Iranian oil, including the reported 11 percent cut, and whether Japan will win waivers. Two other refiners also had heard nothing, industry sources said.

"We are worried because the government is not good at planning ahead," one source at a Japanese buyer of Iranian crude said.

By contrast, China and South Korea, the two other big Asian buyers of crude, increased imports from Iran last year.

(Additional reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka in TOKYO and Alister Bull in WASHINGTON; Writing by Stanley White; Editing by Michael Watson and Paul Tait)

View the original article here

Japan emperor enters hospital for heart surgery

BANGKOK/LONDON (Reuters) - The loudest noise that Thongma Danoi had ever heard was followed 20 minutes later by the strangest sight: a dazed and bloodied Iranian carrying two wire-adorned devices through the usually sleepy Bangkok neighborhood. "He was losing a lot of blood," said Thongma, 68, who saw the Iranian man, later …

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Japan emperor enters hospital for heart surgery

BANGKOK/LONDON (Reuters) - The loudest noise that Thongma Danoi had ever heard was followed 20 minutes later by the strangest sight: a dazed and bloodied Iranian carrying two wire-adorned devices through the usually sleepy Bangkok neighborhood. "He was losing a lot of blood," said Thongma, 68, who saw the Iranian man, later …

View the original article here

Japan emperor enters hospital for heart surgery

BANGKOK/LONDON (Reuters) - The loudest noise that Thongma Danoi had ever heard was followed 20 minutes later by the strangest sight: a dazed and bloodied Iranian carrying two wire-adorned devices through the usually sleepy Bangkok neighborhood. "He was losing a lot of blood," said Thongma, 68, who saw the Iranian man, later …

View the original article here