Japanese Govt rams state secrets bill through lower house to cover up Nuclear Disasters at Fukushima

UPDATED: 2013 Nov 27th

Fukushiro Nukaga (top R), chairman of the lower house special committee, is surrounded by opposition lawmakers during a vote on a state secrets act at the parliament in Tokyo November 26, 2013. (Reuters/Toru Hanai)

Source: Russia Today

Japan’s lower house has passed a heavy-handed state secrets act despite fears that it will have severe repercussions for state freedoms. Officials will now face a maximum punishment of ten years in prison if they are found to have leaked to the press.

Japan’s Diet (parliament) passed the bill, which is aimed at expanding the definition of a state secret and place increasing penalties upon anyone deemed a leaker. The move will apparently prevent media accessing information on four sensitive areas: defense, diplomacy, counter-terrorism and counter-espionage.

The information will be further divided into 23 types. Top officials from all departments would have the power to declare issues ‘secret’. The ‘secrets’ could then be kept classified for up to 60 years.

Journalists and other private sector parties could also receive up to five years imprisonment if they are found to be using ‘grossly inappropriate’ means to acquire information.

Such restrictions could spill over into the nuclear industry. The topic is particularly sensitive in the face of March 2011’s Fukushima nuclear disaster, which drove over 160,000 residents from their homes.

“Information on the vulnerability of nuclear power plants could be classified as special secrets, along with plans on how to guard the plants,” Yutaka Saito, a lawyer and a member of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations' task force on the bill, told Reuters

 

Protesters raise their fists as they shout slogans during a rally against the government's planned state secrets act in front of the parliament building in Tokyo November 26, 2013. (Reuters/Toru Hanai)

“If so, anyone who has blown the whistle from the inside to warn of the danger of nuclear power plants will be punished,”Saito said.

The bill was adopted through majority vote by the ruling coalition after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), New Komeito, and the Opposition Your Party all agreed to revisions last week to gain the votes of small conservative opposition parties.

The move comes despite overwhelming public opposition, and after members of opposition parties - including the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), the Japan Restoration Party, the Japanese Communist Party and the People's Life Party – said that insufficient debate had been conducted prior to the vote. Critics allege that changes to the bill were merely cosmetic, and requested that it not be brought to vote. Regardless, the legislation was approved after only a few hours worth of delay.

 

Protesters raise their fists as they shout slogans during a rally against the government's planned state secrets act in front of the parliament building in Tokyo November 26, 2013. (Reuters/Toru Hanai)

Nearly 63 percent of respondents to a Kyodo news agency survey expressed concerns about the bill last week, and its discussion triggered protests by hundreds of people outside of parliament on Tuesday. Thousands gathered in a Tokyo park the previous week to rally against the bill.

“We revised the proposal as much as possible to address the concerns held by the public,” Gen Nakatani, an LDP director, said following the vote, while Atsushi Oshima, a DPJ director declared that it had been a “defeat for the legislative branch.”

The bill has now been sent to the Diet’s Upper House for consideration, where it will likely pass without any difficulty. The LDP and its junior partner hold a solid majority in both houses.

“Clearly, there will be a chilling effect on access to a wide range of information,” said Meiji University law professor, Lawrence Repeta, said. “It is clearly aimed at news media to block reporting in a way that may be critical of the government on a wide range of sensitive issues,” he added.

Abe has stated that the law is vital in the development of a US-style National Security Council to coordinate foreign policy and security while negotiating with allies such as the US over the possible sharing of information.

“My biggest concern is that it would be more difficult for the people to see the government's decision-making process,” said Kyouji Yanagisawa, a former defense official who was in charge of national security in the Prime Minister's Office in 2004-2009. “That means we can't check how or where the government made mistakes, or help the government make a wise decision.”

 

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks during a lower house special committee on a state secrets act at the parliament in Tokyo November 26, 2013. (Reuters/Toru Hanai)

Close up Footage of Fukushima Ruins – March 21 – 2011

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UPDATE: 2013 Nov 27th

Analysis on Unit 4, evidence on Unit 3, Plume-Gate highlights

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PDF: Leaked Documents - N.R.C. Official Transcript of Proceedings:

Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Audio File Communication - March 12^th, 2013

Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Audio File Communication - March 16^th, 2013

NRC Transcript – TEPCO relayed information Unit 4 SFP Dry – Walls collapsed and incapable of holding inventory – Unit 3 “everything else gone”

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'Fukushima leaks equal 168 Hiroshimas'

A view of crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/195704.html

Japanese nuclear scientists say the amount of radioactive cesium-137 released from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the environment is 168 times that of Hiroshima bomb.

According to a government calculation published in the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper, the levels of cesium-137 leaked from the crisis-stricken plant has been estimated at 15,000 terabecquerels, AFP reported on Thursday.

That compares with the 89 terabecquerels released by "Little Boy" -- the nuclear bomb the United States dropped on Japan's western city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 as World War II was in its final stages.

Tokyo government, however, argued that the comparison was not valid since there is no logical comparison between Hiroshima bomb and Fukushima disaster.

"An atomic bomb is designed to enable mass-killing and mass-destruction by causing blast waves and heat rays and releasing neutron radiation," the Tokyo Shimbun daily quoted an unnamed government official as saying.

"It is not rational to make a simple comparison only based on the amount of isotopes released,” the official added.

An estimated 140,000 people died instantly in Hiroshima or succumbed to burns and radiation sickness soon after the attack and another 70,000 were injured.

Sixty-six years after the mass-killing and mass-destruction, the United States still refuses to apologize to Japan.

The Fukushima plant has leaked radiation into air, soil and the Pacific Ocean ever since it was hit by a 9-magnitude earthquake and a devastating tsunami on March 11.

The tremor triggered a nuclear crisis by knocking out power to cooling systems and the reactor meltdowns at the nuclear power plant on Japan's northeast coast.

The number of the dead and missing from Japan's March 11 quake and tsunami stands at over 28,000, according to the Japanese National Police Agency. The crisis has also displaced thousands of residents from around the plant as well.

Sudan blocks South's oil shipment

Port Sudan (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/192589.html

Sudan has prevented a shipment of oil produced in South Sudan from leaving port after Juba refused to pay customs fees, escalating tensions between the neighbors.

"Sudan has blocked the ship in Port Sudan... When the ship leaves the port, the South has to pay the customs authorities. This is the first time they didn't pay," Sudan Foreign Ministry spokesman Al-Obeid Meruh was quoted by AFP as saying on Friday.

The spokesperson earlier said Juba had refused to pay the north's fees for the use of its oil infrastructure, such as its pipeline, and therefore the cargo of 600,000 barrels had been blocked.

Meruh went on to say that Sudan and South Sudan have not reached an agreement about the transit fees, adding that Khartoum is asking for $32 per barrel.

South Sudan says other states charge a fee of $1.8 per barrel for providing the same facilities, urging the north to consider international standards in setting the fees.

The event intensifies a row between the neighbors in which Juba accuses Khartoum of making efforts to impede its economic growth.

"They want to stop the shipment so that it prolongs the whole [negotiating] process. Khartoum is trying to sabotage the economy of South Sudan," said David Loro, undersecretary for South Sudan's Ministry of Energy and Mines.

Loro added that a southern committee is holding negotiations with Sudanese authorities in Khartoum over the issue of transit fees.

The landlocked South has to use the north's infrastructure to pump oil, which according to the World Bank, accounts for nearly 95 percent of its total revenue.

Japan to fire top nuclear officials

Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Banri Kaieda

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/192263.html

Japan's Industry Minister Banri Kaieda plans to fire three senior nuclear officials amid criticisms leveled at the Japanese government over the ongoing nuclear crisis in the East Asian country.

"Regarding the personnel changes at the ministry of economy, trade and industry, we have been discussing that for about a month," Japan's minister of economy, trade and industry said on Thursday.

"We want to refresh and revitalize the ministry," he told reporters.

"I'll have new people rebuild the ministry," he went on to say.

The three officials are Vice Minister for Economy, Trade and Industry Kazuo Matsunaga, Head of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency Nobuaki Terasaka and Head of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy Tetsuhiro Hosono.

The government of Prime Minister Naoto Kan has been severely criticized over its handling of the country's nuclear crisis which began following a destructive quake and the ensuing tsunami that hit Japan's northeastern coasts on March 11 and damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The double disaster and the nuclear fallout at the Fukushima Daiichi have been described as Japan's worst crisis since World War II as they left thousands of people dead and displaced many others.

Only 19 of Japan's 54 reactors are currently working and a lot more are expected to shut down for regular checks, forcing people to save power.

Radiation hits highest in Japan Nuclear plant

Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/191866.html

Radiation at the quake-hit Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan reaches its highest levels since the outbreak of the nuclear crisis in March, a report says.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the operator of the damaged power station, said on Monday more than 10 sieverts per hour of radiation was recorded on the surface of a pipe located outdoors between reactor 1 and reactor 2 of the atomic facility, DPA reported.

The plant has emitted radioactive material into the environment since 11 March when a massive earthquake and tsunami hit Japan's northeastern coasts.

The double disaster and the nuclear fallout at the Fukushima Daiichi have been described as Japan's worst crisis since World War II as they left thousands of people dead and displaced many others.

The crisis prompted the government of Japan to elevate the maximum annual limit for plant workers from 100 millisieverts to 250 millisieverts. The government also raised the severity level of the situation at Fukushima from 5 to 7 - the worst on an international scale -- weeks after the crisis.

Severity level of 7 had only been applied to the 1986 Chernobyl accident in Ukraine.

An explosion and ensuing fire in Chernobyl nuclear power plant resulted in a severe release of radioactivity into the environment, claiming the lives of at least 4,000 people.

US plans nuclear talks with Saudi Arabia

US President Barack Obama and Saudi Arabia's king Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/191546.html

Senior officials at the White House have said that the Obama administration is planning to resume talks with Saudi Arabia about a potential nuclear cooperation.

A team of US diplomats are expected to visit the Saudi capital of Riyadh to "discuss the possibility of moving forward on a nuclear cooperation agreement," a congressional aide said on the condition of anonymity, AFP reported.

Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, a lawmaker from the Republican Party has criticized the move, saying that "its ties to terrorists and terror financing alone should rule it out as a candidate for the US nuclear cooperation."

"I am astonished that the administration is even considering a nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia," she added.

Washington and Riyadh signed a tentative agreement on developing civilian nuclear technologies in 2008.

The Obama administration, like its predecessor, has sought to promote nuclear cooperation with allies.

Washington also signed a nuclear cooperation deal with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2009. The deal meant that the UAE would renounce their plans to enrich and reprocess uranium in exchange of having the right to purchase the material from international suppliers.

Furthermore, Saudi Arabia has also been pursuing nuclear cooperation agreements with South Korea, Japan, France and Russia.

In February, 2011, France singed a nuclear cooperation deal with Saudi Arabia, offering the kingdom nuclear know-how.

South Sudan becomes independent

Citizens of the new country celebrate independence of the South Sudan at midnight in the capital Juba, July 9, 2011

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/188209.html

South Sudan has become independent, making it Africa's newest nation and the world's newest country.

South Sudan became independent several minutes ago, shortly after midnight local time on July 9.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Sudanese President Omar Bashir, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Yehia al-Gamal, and other prominent political figures travelled to the South Sudan capital Juba on Friday to attend the independence ceremony of the new Republic of South Sudan.

Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell, the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, and the head of the US military's Africa Command, Gen Carter Ham were also in Juba for the independence day celebrations.

President Bashir, who forged the 2005 peace deal with the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), expressed readiness to work with the “Southern brothers and help them set up their state so that, God willing, this state will be stable and develop.”

“The cooperation between us will be excellent, particularly when it comes to marking and preserving the border so there is a movement of citizens and goods via this border,” he said.

South Sudan becomes the 193rd country recognized by the United Nations and the 54th UN member state in Africa.

Joyful residents of the new nation banged on jerry cans and chanted the name of the world's newest president, Salva Kiir, the Associated Press reported.

“We are brothers and sisters who suffered for a long time, and that is why we are now celebrating, what we will achieve,” said a resident.

“In independence we are going to have hospitals and schools and a lot of development around here. Our mothers and sisters died in the past. Hospitals were very far from us.”

South Sudan's independence comes after decades of conflict with the north in which over 1.5 million people died. The new oil-rich nation is one of the least developed countries in the world, where one in seven children dies before the age of five.

A historic peace agreement between North and South Sudan signed in 2005 paved the way for an independence referendum in January 2011, in which southerners voted almost unanimously to secede. North Sudan has officially recognized southern independence.

China rolls out red carpet for Bashir

Chinese President Hu Jintao (R) shakes hands with Sudan's leader Omar al-Bashir during the signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People on June 29, 2011 in Beijing, China

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/186876.html

Chinese President Hu Jintao has welcomed his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Bashir in the capital Beijing, saying the visit will bolster the traditional friendship among the two nations.

The two presidents held talks in the Great Hall of People in central Beijing on Wednesday and signed several economic cooperation pacts.

"Mr. Bashir, you are a guest who has travelled from afar, and we welcome you," Hu said in his opening remarks.

State media quoted Hu as saying that al-Bashir's visit would solidify and develop traditional China-Sudan ties and promote “practical cooperation” between the two states “in many fields."

The Sudanese president, who called Hu his "friend and brother", thanked his counterpart for the "warm welcome and treatment."

Chinese officials said that the two presidents also discussed "Sudan's ongoing north-south peace process and the Darfur issue" as South Sudan prepares to become an independent country on July 9.

Sudan is China's sixth largest source of overseas oil and, according to Sudanese media, Bashir's meeting with Hu followed a trip to the headquarters of China National Petroleum Corporation, where he concluded an agreement to boost Chinese oil investment in Sudan.

Bashir's visit comes ahead of the partition of Sudan into two states, scheduled for implementation on July 9, after two decades of civil war.

Chinese officials have confirmed that achieving a peaceful relationship between Bashir's government and the newly formed state of Southern Sudan will be the main focus of their discussions during his visit.

China needs stability in Sudan to maintain an outward flow of oil and ensure the safety of its substantial investments there. Since most of Sudan's oil resources will lie in the newly formed southern state, the upcoming secession will be of major significance for China.

Massive wildfire rages on in US

The Las Conchas fire burns near the Los Alamos Laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M., Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/186996.html

A huge wildfire in north of the US state of New Mexico has grown larger, as fire officials try to keep it from spreading onto the Los Alamos nuclear lab, reports say.

The so-called Las Conchas, New Mexico's second largest wildfire on record so far, has burned nearly 93,000 acres of thick pine woodlands on the slopes of the Jemez Mountains since erupting.

The fire started on Sunday near the Los Alamos National Laboratory and comes second in comparison to the state's biggest blaze, the Dry Lakes Fire of 2003, which scorched more than 94,000 acres of the Gila National Forest in the southwestern US state of New Mexico, Reuters reported on Thursday.

Las Conchas, believed to have been sparked by a downed power line, has burned mostly in the Santa Fe National Forest and got near the Los Alamos weapons laboratory and the adjacent town with some 10,000 residents.

The US government sent a plane equipped with radiation monitors over the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory on Wednesday as a 110-square-mile wildfire burned at the lab's doorstep, putting thousands of scientific experiments on hold for days.

"We're seeing fire behavior we've never seen down here, and it's really aggressive," Los Alamos County Fire Chief Douglas Tucker told reporters, adding that earlier hopes of lifting evacuations in the area by this weekend had been dashed.

The Los Alamos complex contains 3 metric tons of highly radioactive weapons-grade plutonium, stored in concrete and steel vaults in the basement floor of a building near the center of the complex, with an air-containment system surrounding it.

Lab officials say those storage structures are fire safe and pose no threat to public safety.

By midday Friday, Las Conchas is expected to capture the dubious title of the largest single forest fire on record in New Mexico.

US nuclear plant hit by floodwater

The Fort Calhoun nuclear power station surrounded by water

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/186475.html

Floodwater from Missouri River has breached a berm at the Nebraska nuclear power, Fort Calhoun, allowing water to reach containment buildings and transformers.

The plant's officials were forced to shut down electrical power when water surrounded the main electrical transformers, but the flooding had no impact on reactor shutdown cooling or the spent fuel pool cooling, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said on Sunday.

The NRC added that the Fort Calhoun Station shut down in early April for refueling, and there is no water inside the plant, Huffington Post reported.

Head of NRC Gregory Jaczko visited the Fort Calhoun plant on Monday.

In a similar incident in Japan, Fukushima power plant was damaged when a massive earthquake and tsunami hit the country's northeastern coasts on March 11.

As a result of the flooding, partial meltdowns occurred at the nuclear power plant when the cooling systems for three reactors failed.

Thousands of Japanese people living within a 20-kilometer radius of the plant were evacuated and the government has declared a state of nuclear emergency for the five reactors.

The Japanese government initially attempted to play down the incident by not releasing accurate radiation data.

Japan PM to step down in August

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/185756.html

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan is set to step down by the end of August as Japan continues to grapple with its ongoing nuclear crisis following the March earthquake and tsunami.

Kan is expected to resign in late August after securing parliamentary passage of the second extra budget and a bill needed for the government to issue deficit-covering bonds for fiscal 2011, Japan's Kyodo News announced on Tuesday.

The Democratic Party of Japan, which is headed by the premier, and major opposition parties including the Liberal Democratic Party agreed on the resignation date after several weeks of discussions.

In June, Kan survived a no-confidence vote for his mishandling of the post-quake nuclear crisis.

Ahead of the June vote in the parliament, Kan told his Democratic Party of Japan members that he felt responsible for resolving the country's nuclear crisis, adding that he would then leave office to give his place to the younger generation to rebuild the disaster-stricken country.

On March 11, a destructive 9-magnitude earthquake and an ensuing tsunami struck Japan's northern coasts, setting off a nuclear crisis by knocking out power to cooling systems of reactors at the Fukushima plant and causing a radiation leak.

The powerful quake and the massive tsunami that followed killed about 24,000 people and ravaged the Fukushima plant. The crisis has displaced about 80,000 residents from around the plant.

Clean-up suspended at Fukushima plant

A picture of Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant taken from the air after the March quake and tsunami (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/185202.html

The operator of Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant has stopped the clean-up operation as radiation levels rose faster than expected.

"The level of radiation at a machine to absorb cesium has risen faster than our initial projections," Reuters quoted a spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) as saying on Saturday.

TEPCO started cleaning up radioactive water at the plant on Friday after engineers succeeded in fixing a series of glitches in the new clean-up system.

TEPCO officials warned on Friday that there will not be enough space at the plant to store more radioactive water by June 20 if they cannot remove the faults in the system.

Following Japan's twin disasters of earthquake and tsunami in March, TEPCO pumped large amounts of water into three reactors where the cooling systems had stopped working.

The halt in the cooling systems operation sparked meltdowns, explosions and radiation leaks.

The new system, which employs French and US technology, is to be used to decontaminate the nearly 110,000 tons of highly radioactive water that is stored at the plant. The decontaminated water can be re-used to cool the reactors.

In early April, the utility dumped around 10,000 tons of water with low-level contamination into the ocean, drawing criticism from China and South Korea.

96,000 displaced in North South Sudan conflict: UN

Smoke rises from burnt homes in the town of Abyei in this handout photo released by the United Nations mission in Sudan on May 23, 2011.

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/183720.html

The United Nations says the tense situation in the border region of Abyei between North and South Sudan has displaced 96,000 people.

“As of 5 June, the estimated number of people to be displaced by the Abyei violence was 96,000 people,” the UN's humanitarian office said.

“The situation in Abyei over the weekend was reported to be tense and unpredictable with reports of sporadic gunfire, and tukuls (traditional thatched huts) being burnt,” AFP quoted the UN office as saying on Tuesday.

According to reports, northern troops seized the oil-producing region on May 21, two days after the southern forces attacked a convoy of northern troops, killing 22 people.

The 'humanitarian crisis' in Abyei comes “in the middle of the hunger period” in the South which is between March and August. Tens of thousands of people lessen their consumption until the South's first harvest.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees says more than 300,000 southerners who used to live in the North have returned to the South, adding to the woes of the fledging government.

Meanwhile, clashes between the Southern and Northern armies in Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan state, has claimed the lives of six people, the UN sources said on Tuesday.

“At one of the hospitals we visited, we saw six dead bodies, four of whom were government of Sudan police, and the other two civilians... Earlier we saw about 3,000 people taking refuge at the Kadugli police hospital,” Hua Jiang, spokeswoman for the United Nations Mission in Sudan said.

South Kordofan is situated in the North Sudan and is the only oil-rich state in the country.

Japan doubles radioactive leak estimate

An aerial view of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/183575.html

Japan has revised its initial estimate of the amount of radiation leak from the Fukushima nuclear plant nearly three months after it was hit by a devastating earthquake and tsunami.

Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said on Tuesday the radiation released into the atmosphere has been more than double the amount originally thought, AFP reported.

The findings were released on the eve of the first meeting Tuesday of an independent 10-member academic and expert panel that will look into the causes of the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl a quarter-century ago.

The group's leader, a Tokyo University researcher on human error, Yotaro Hatamura, said at the meeting that "nuclear power has higher energy density and is dangerous. It was a mistake to consider it safe.”

Prime Minister Naoto Kan's special advisor on the nuclear crisis, Goshi Hosono, said Monday that the latest findings were unlikely to affect plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company's roadmap to bring all reactors to a stable "cold shutdown" by January 2012.

Plutonium has also been found for the first time in soil just a few kilometers from the Fukushima facility. But researchers say the levels are not a cause for alarm.

On March 11, a 9-magnitude earthquake, off the northeast coast of Japan's main island, unleashed a 30-foot (10-meter) tsunami wave, which knocked out power to the cooling system of the reactors at the Fukushima plant, causing a radiation leak.

The powerful quake and the massive tsunami that followed killed nearly 24,000 people. The crisis has displaced about 80,000 residents from around the plant.

Sudan rejects UNSC pullout demand

Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Ahmad Karti

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/183374.html

Sudan has dismissed a request by the UN Security Council (UNSC) to pull its forces out of the oil-producing region of Abyei on the border between the South and the North.

“Sudan does not need to be asked to pull its army out of Abyei because this is a Sudanese territory,” AFP quoted Sudan's Foreign Minister Ali Ahmad Karti as saying on Sunday.

“The army's entering the area to handle the security situation there was necessitated by the continued security breaches committed by the other party,” Karti added, referring to South Sudan troops.

The Sudanese top diplomat went on to say that their forces will remain in the region until an agreement is reached.

Karti's remarks come a day after the UNSC called on Khartoum to withdraw its forces from Abyei. The council claimed Sudan's military operations in Abyei are “serious violations” of the so-called 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

The 2005 deal ended more than two decades of civil war between the rival sides. In January, majority of southerners voted for secession from the North in accordance with the agreement.

The agreement had left the fate of Abyei to a later referendum by the residents of the region to choose whether to join the South or the North.

Sudanese Armed Forces seized control of the oil-producing region on May 21. The measure came after troops from the South fired shots at a convoy of northern forces and UN peacekeepers on May 19.

Japan PM survives no-confidence vote

Despite securing himself a few more months, the embattled Japanese premier has lost his popularity in Japan

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/182839.html

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has survived a no-confidence motion in the East Asian country's parliament over his 'mishandling' of the post-quake nuclear crisis.

The lower house of parliament rejected the motion against the embattled premier, allowing him to continue his plans to handle issues related to March 11 earthquake, the ensuing tsunami, and the subsequent nuclear crisis in Japan, AFP reported.

The motion was defeated by a margin of 152 votes against 293, despite growing calls for Kan's resignation.

The embattled premier was expected to survive the motion as his Democratic Party of Japan controls the powerful lower house of parliament.

On Wednesday, Japan's largest opposition party, the Liberal Democratic Party, along with two smaller opposition groups submitted the no-confidence motion to the parliament.

Ahead of Thursday's vote in the parliament, Kan told his Democratic Party of Japan members that he felt responsible for resolving the country's nuclear crisis, adding that he would then leave office to give his place to the younger generation in order to rebuild the disaster-stricken country.

New leak seen at Japan quake-hit plant

An aerial picture of Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/181961.html

A new leak of radioactive water has been found at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant, adding to the woes of the Asian country's nuclear crisis.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of the plant, said on Thursday that up to 57 tons of contaminated water has leaked from a storage facility, Reuters reported.

The environmental group, Greenpeace, has criticized the Japanese government's assessment of the contamination level, saying, “Radioactive hazards are not decreasing through dilution or dispersion of materials, but the radioactivity is instead accumulating in marine life.”

“Our data show that significant amounts of contamination continue to spread over great distances from the Fukushima nuclear plant,” the group added.

Greenpeace has also accused TEPCO of covering up the actual severity of the disaster in the Asian country.

More questions were raised on Thursday when TEPCO changed an initial report about how it tried to tackle the Japanese crisis.

The company said it continued to inject seawater into reactor number one immediately after the tsunami. Earlier, the firm had said they had stopped the injection under pressure from Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has launched a ten-day investigation into the nuclear crisis since Monday.

Kan told G8 leaders on Thursday that Japan will lessen its reliance on nuclear power and will instead increase its share of green energy to 20 percent of total power supply by 2020.

A 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck northeastern Japan on March 11, setting off a nuclear crisis by knocking out power to cooling systems of reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and causing radioactive leaks.

UN starts study on Japan nuclear crisis

Workers wearing protective suits enter Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant No.2 reactor building in Fukushima Prefecture on May 18

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/180934.html

The United Nations has launched a study on the implications of the accident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday that the body will undertake a systematic study on the health, safety and security impact of the accident at Fukushima plant, which was hit by an earthquake and tsunami in March, Reuters reported.

Ban said that the UN would present the findings at a high-level meeting on the implications of the crisis scheduled to be held during the annual UN General Assembly meeting in September.

The report "will address a variety of areas, including environment, health, food security, sustainable development and the nexus between nuclear safety and nuclear security," the UN chief said in a statement.

"It will also present system-wide views on how to improve disaster risk preparedness," he added, noting, "In producing this study, it is my intention to highlight the need to strengthen the capacity of the relevant international organizations, particularly the IAEA, recognizing its central role."

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the World Health Organization and the World Food Program are among the UN agencies which will be carrying out the study.

On March 11, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake, off the northeast coast of Japan's main island, unleashed a 23-foot (7-meter) tsunami and was followed by more than 50 aftershocks for hours.

The massive earthquake and ensuing tsunami set off a nuclear disaster by knocking out power to the cooling systems of reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, and caused radiation leaks.

German nuclear plants fail safety test

A German nuclear power plant (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/180678.html

A “worst-case scenario” test of Germany's nuclear reactors has revealed that none of the European country's seventeen nuclear reactors would withstand a disastrous event.

The study by the country's Reactor Safety Commission concluded that all the power plants are vulnerable when it comes to an “event of extreme disaster,” the German magazine, Spiegel, reported.

The plants fell short in meeting the highest safety standard, level three, in different facets of the tests. They even failed to achieve an overall average of the medium standard, level two.

Among the events envisaged in the tests were earthquakes, flooding, power failure and plane crashes.

The report, however, did not recommend the closure of any of the reactors.

Germany's Environment Minister Norbert Rottgen, also responsible for the country's energy affairs, also said there was no urgent need to shut any reactor.

"There is no reason for us to make a mad rush to stop using nuclear power overnight," he said, adding, "It remains the case that a way must be found for us to leave nuclear power behind as soon as possible."

However, he pointed out that the plants lacked the "required safety features," and would probably have to be closed before their scheduled shutdown date.

Rottgen also acknowledged that four reactors would not even withstand the impact of a small airplane crash.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has attempted to respond to public concerns over the safety of nuclear energy in the country by holding two commissions that sought advice on the future of the atomic energy in the European country.

She also ordered the review of the reactors' safety after a nuclear disaster was triggered by an earthquake in Japan, and imposed a moratorium on her last year's decision to extend the lifetimes of Germany's nuclear plants.

The plants were due to be taken offline by 2021 under legislation passed by the government of former Chancellor Gerhard Schroder.

The current legislation requires all of Germany's nuclear plants to be shut down by 2036.