BEIJING – Eighteen months before Japan’s radiation crisis, US diplomats had lambasted the safety hief of the world’s atomic watchdog for ‘incompetence’, especially when it came to the nuclear power industry in his homeland, Japan. Cables sent from the US embassy in Vienna to Washington, which were obtained by WikiLeaks and reviewed by Reuters, singled out Tomihiro Taniuchi, until last year head of safety and security at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
“For the past 10 years, the Department has suffered tremendously because of (deputy director general) Taniguchi’s weak management and leadership skills,” said one dispatch on Dec 1, 2009. “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 US for his unloved-step-child treatment of the Office of Nuclear Security,” said another, which was sent on July 7, 2009. The IAEA does not comment on the contents of leaked cables.
The evidence of concern about the Japanese national surfaced as his country scrambled to avert a lethal spread of radiation from quake-damaged nuclear reactors north of Tokyo. Japan’s crisis has brought scrutiny of its nuclear authorities and, in particular, the operator of the stricken reactors which has a history of falsifying data at its plants.
Separate cables quoted a Japanese lawmaker as telling visiting US officials in October 2008 that power companies in Japan were hiding nuclear safety problems and being given an easy ride on commitments to renewable energy by the govt. Taro Kono, a supporter of renewable energy who in 2009 bid unsuccessfully for leadership of his Liberal Democratic Party, also said Japan had no solution for nuclear waste storage.
Wiki-cables voiced concern about IAEA’s Japanese safety chief in 2009
