Nuke safety chief let Japan off easy, U.S. wrote
The United States criticized the past chief of the watchdog charged with inspecting nuclear operations around the world for not properly scrutinizing Japan, the Reuters news agency reported Thursday from government dispatches obtained by the document-dumping website WikiLeaks.
Special Section: Disaster in Japan
Special Section: WikiLeaks
The comments come to light as the Tokyo Electric Power Co. struggles to prevent a meltdown at its Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant damaged by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that struck Japan last week. Yukiya Amano, the International Atomic Energy Agency chief who replaced Tomihiro Taniguchi last year, flew to Tokyo Thursday.
"For the past 10 years, the Department has suffered tremendously because of (deputy director general) Taniguchi's weak management and leadership skills," a dispatch dated Dec 1, 2009, read, according to Reuters.
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"Taniguchi has been a weak manager and advocate, particularly with respect to confronting Japan's own safety practices, and he is a particular disappointment to the United States for his unloved-step-child treatment of the Office of Nuclear Security," a cable dated July 7, 2009, read, Reuters reported.
The agency refused to comment to Reuters about the cables.
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Reuters found in the leaked dispatches one instance from October 2008 in which a Japanese legislator told visiting American officials that Japan's power companies hid safety problems with their nuclear energy. The legislator, Taro Kono of the Liberal Democratic Party, also told the Americans that the country had no solution for its nuclear waste storage.
