Washington: The US is expecting Iran to answer the 'serious' questions raised by the recent IAEA report on Tehran's nuclear programme, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said. Clinton made the remarks on Friday during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, Xinhua reported. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report says Iran continued nuclear weapons research and technology development after 2003, even after declaring a halt in...
09:48 AM, Nov 12, 2011
Vienna: The UN nuclear watchdog showed letters and satellite images on Friday as part of evidence pointing to military dimensions to Iran's atomic activities, diplomats said, but Tehran's envoy dismissed it as "lousy" intelligence work. Herman Nackaerts, head of nuclear inspections worldwide at the International Atomic Energy Agency, made an hour-long technical presentation of the IAEA's latest report on Iran's nuclear programme at a closer-door meeting for member states. The...
02:44 AM, Nov 12, 2011
Moscow: Russia has lashed out at the IAEA's latest report on Iran, saying it undermines the international effort to defuse tension around the Islamic republic's nuclear programme and holds it guilty without cause. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report does not contain any new data but is "a compilation of known facts that have been purposely twisted and given a political slant", the Russian foreign ministry said in a...
02:29 AM, Nov 10, 2011
Tehran: Iran won't retreat "one iota" from its nuclear program but the world is being misled by claims that it seeks atomic weapons, Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday in his first reaction since a UN watchdog report that Tehran is on the brink of developing a warhead. Ahmadinejad strongly chided the UN International Atomic Energy Agency, saying it is discrediting itself by siding with "absurd" US accusations. "This...
03:32 PM, Nov 09, 2011
United Nations: Despite the Fukushima crisis, the number of nuclear reactors in the world will steadily rise in the coming decades, with the most growth happening in countries like India and China who need to meet their growing energy demands, the international atomic watchdog estimates. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano told the 66th session of UN General Assembly that despite the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in...
11:54 AM, Nov 02, 2011
Tokyo: A team of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency will visit Japan this week to help with the massive cleanup of areas contaminated by a radiation-leaking nuclear power plant, officials said on Tuesday. Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said the 12-member team will help plan and conduct the decontamination during its nine-day visit starting on Friday. It will also visit the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, meet...
01:12 AM, Oct 05, 2011
Vienna: The UN nuclear chief proposed international safety checks on reactors worldwide to help prevent any repeat of Japan's atomic crisis, a plan which may face resistance from nations worried about outside involvement. Yukiya Amano, opening a ministerial meeting on Monday aimed at improving safety after the Fukushima emergency, also called on countries to carry out risk assessments on their nuclear power plants within 18 months. "Public confidence in the...
01:10 AM, Jun 21, 2011
Vienna: The head of the UN nuclear agency urged a worldwide rethink of safety measures to prevent new nuclear disasters, declaring that in the wake of the Fukushima catastrophe "business as usual is not an option." But Yukiya Amano, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, also acknowledged that improvements are only effective if countries apply them, in opening comments to the IAEA's conference on nuclear safety. While some countries...
06:29 PM, Jun 20, 2011
Tokyo: A rise in radiation halted the clean-up of radioactive water at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power station on Saturday hours after it got under way, a fresh setback to efforts to restore control over the quake-stricken plant. The power plant has been leaking radiation into the atmosphere ever since the March 11 quake and tsunami and both China and South Korea have expressed concern over the possibility of further leaks...
05:19 PM, Jun 18, 2011
Vienna: The UN nuclear watchdog voted on Thursday to report Syria to the UN Security Council for violating its safeguard agreements, citing Syria's undeclared construction of a covert nuclear reactor and refusal to supply information. The move by the International Atomic Energy Agency comes amid political protests in Syria, but Washington and its allies insist the timing of the recommendation has nothing to do with the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters...
02:54 AM, Jun 10, 2011
Tokyo: An International Atomic Energy Agency team says Japan's nuclear authorities underestimated the possibility of a massive tsunami hitting the Dai-ichi power plant but praised the overall response. The preliminary report submitted on Wednesday said Japan's response was exemplary. However, it added that the tsunami hazard for several nuclear sites was underestimated and called for greater preparation. The IAEA team was to submit its full report at an IAEA conference...
10:34 AM, Jun 01, 2011
Tokyo: Japan's unemployment rate in April rose for the first time in six months, while the nation's factory output posted a weaker-than-expected rebound amid sluggish output following the March earthquake and tsunami. The April jobless rate climbed to 4.7 per cent from the March unemployment rate of 4.6 per cent, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said Tuesday. The number of jobless people in Japan stood at 3.09 million...
08:07 AM, May 31, 2011
Geneva: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday said he would convene a high-level summit to discuss world atomic safety in New York in the wake of an accident at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant. "The September 22 high-level meeting will build on the forthcoming IAEA Conference in June in Vienna that will address measures needed to enhance nuclear safety in the wake of Fukushima," Ban told a UN conference on...
07:25 PM, May 10, 2011
Tokyo: Japan declared a 12-mile (20-kilometer) area evacuated around its radiation-spewing nuclear power plant a no-go zone on Thursday, urging residents to abide by the order for their own safety or possibly face fines or detention. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the order would take effect at midnight and was meant to prevent unrestricted entry into the mostly deserted area, which was ordered evacuated after last month's tsunami and...
10:49 AM, Apr 21, 2011
Tokyo: General Electric Co, which helped build the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant damaged by Japan's earthquake and tsunami, will help the plant's operator supply electricity in the coming summer when power demand soars. GE chief executive Jeff Immelt, on a visit to Japan, met with officials at Tokyo Electric Power Co Ltd about the crippled Fukushima plant, site of the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. "Immelt said GE...
07:09 PM, Apr 03, 2011
Vienna: Radiation measured at a village 40 km from Japan's crippled nuclear plant exceeded a criterion for evacuation, the UN nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday, the latest sign of widening consequences from the crisis. The finding could increase pressure on Japan's government to extend the exclusion zone beyond 20 km (12 miles) around the Fukushima power plant, which has leaked radioactive particles since it was hit by a huge earthquake...
07:46 AM, Mar 31, 2011
Tokyo: Highly radioactive iodine seeping from Japan's damaged nuclear complex may be making its way into seawater farther north of the plant than previously thought, officials said on Monday, adding to radiation concerns as the crisis stretches into a third week. Mounting problems, including badly miscalculated radiation figures and no place to store dangerously contaminated water, have stymied emergency workers struggling to cool down the overheating plant and avert a...
10:41 AM, Mar 28, 2011
Beijing: China has detected what it said were "abnormal" radiation levels on a Japanese merchant ship entering the port at Xiamen in eastern Fujian province, the country's quality and inspection watchdog said on Friday. The report did not say how high the radiation levels were on the ship, which belongs to Mitsui OSK Lines, or whether it had been turned away, Xinhua news agency reported. A notice, dated March 22,...
10:37 AM, Mar 25, 2011
Tokyo: Radiation injuries to three workers complicated the battle to control Japan's crippled nuclear plant on Friday and heightened global anxiety over the worst atomic crisis in 25 years. Hailed by Japanese as anonymous heroes braving unknown dangers, about 300 engineers have been working around the clock to stabilise the six-reactor Fukushima complex since an earthquake and tsunami struck two weeks ago. But they had to pull out of some...
06:55 AM, Mar 25, 2011
The Wikileaks India cables raise a lot of questions on US influence in India's actions. Karan Thapar spoke to India's former foreign secretary Shyam Saran on India's vote against Iran at the IAEA in 2005. Karan: India's decision to vote alongside the US against Iran at the IAEA in Sept 05 happened under American pressure.. the Cables tell that story very directly and distinctly, would you deny that? Shyam Saran:...
10:10 AM, Mar 20, 2011
