Japan on Saturday said it would go ahead with planned work to complete three new nuclear power reactors, despite saying a day earlier it would phase out atomic power generation by 2040. The construction of the reactors at three different plants was suspended after a massive earthquake and tsunami sparked the Fukushima nuclear crisis on March 11 last year. The minister of economy, trade and industry, Yukio Edano said permission has already been given by the ministry for the construction of the reactors at plants located in Aomori and in the western district of Shimane. Edano added, however, that the start-up of the reactors would be subject to approval by a newly created government commission to regulate nuclear power. On Friday , Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's government adopted a new energy policy, including the nuclear phase-out, in what was widely seen as bowing to public pressure after the Fukushima disaster. The new policy calls for reactors more than 40 years old to be shut down, plans to build more nuclear reactors to be shelved and existing reactors only to be restarted if they pass standards issued by the new regulatory agency.

 A five member expert committee of Atomic Energy Regulatory Board has begun the review of loading of fuel in Unit one of the Koodankulam Nuclear plant according to its Site Director Sh R S Sundar. Once the expert committee submits its final report the process of loading enriched Uranium will start. After a series of protests in which one person was killed in police firing, the situation is limping back to normalcy.More from our correspondent:
The situation is tense but under control in the villages surrounding Koodankulam Nuclear power plant. An uneasy calm prevails over Idinthakarai where protesters have started a 48 hour fast today. There is heavy police bandobust in and around the area and more forces have been rushed to the place after a security review by ADGP George. Chief Minister Miss Jayalaitha’s statement vouchsafingकृपापूर्वक प्रदान करना the safety of the nuclear plant has been a set back for the protesters. With the nuclear power plant in the final stages of operation, it seems the protests are too late.

 In Tamil Nadu, the situation continues to be tense in Idinthakarai, where people are fasting against the decision to load enriched uranium in the nuclear reactor of Koodankulam nuclear power plant. District collector Selvaraj has extended the section 144 prohibitory orders till October 9 in Idinthakarai area.

 The IAEA Chief Yukiaa Amano has urged Iran to grant the UN Nuclear Inspectors access to the Parchin military site. He also said that in case any clean up activity has taken place at Parchin facility, it would have an adverse impact on the IAEA’s investigation, if and when it was allowed to go there. Amano was addressing the 35-nation governing board meeting of IAEA in Vienna. The IAEA Chief expressed frustration at the lack of progress in the talks over Iran’s nuclear program.

The IAEA Chief’s statement comes ahead of the talks between the UN Nuclear watchdog, and Iran over Teheran’s controversial nuclear program in Vienna. The talks assume significance in the wake of the report released by the agency on August 30 that Iran has doubled its uranium centrifuges at its underground Fordo facility. 

The IAEA report also expressed concern that at the Parchin site Tehran may have conducted explosives tests for the development of nuclear weapons and the site might have been clean up or sanitized.

The IAEA has held several rounds of talks with Iran in recent months to press for access to sites and to talk to the scientists involved in its nuclear program. Iran denies conducting any such research and says that the IAEA’s allegations are baseless.

On the other hand, the western nations have been insisting that Iran should shut down its Fordow plant, stop uranium enrichment and ship already enriched uranium to other countries. They allege that Iran is trying to acquire nuclear weapons capability. Iran denies the charges and says its nuclear program is for peaceful civilian purposes.

A grandson of former US President Harry Truman, who ordered the atomic bombings of Japan during World War II, is visiting Hiroshima to attend a memorial service for the victims.

Clifton Truman Daniel visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park today and laid a wreath for the 1,40,000 people killed in the bombing on August 6, 1945. Another atomic blast in Nagasaki three days later killed70,000 more.

Daniel is in Japan to attend ceremonies in Hiroshima and Nagasaki marking the 67th anniversary of the bombings. His visit is the first by a member of the Truman family. It is sponsored by a peace group named after Sadako Sasaki, an Atomic bomb victim.

he US Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has said his country has a moral imperative to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. 

Mr Romney, speaking during a visit to Jerusalem, said Iran was the most destabilising country in the world. He said the US recognised Israel's right to defend itself and that it was right for the US to stand with Israel. 

In his speech in front of Jerusalem's Old City, Mr Romney said Iran's leading ayatollahs were testing our moral defences. They want to know who will object and who will look the other way.

A Japanese parliamentary panel has said in a report that the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant was a profoundly man-made disaster. It said the disaster could and should have been foreseen and prevented and its effects mitigated by a more effective human response. The Chairman of the panel also said it was a disaster 'made in Japan'. The report catalogued serious deficiencies in both the government and plant operator Tepco's response. The 600-page report is highly critical of the then Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his government. The report also blamed cultural conventions and a reluctance to question authority. The six-reactor Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was badly damaged after the 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems to reactors, leading to meltdowns and the release of radioactivity.

North Korea's scientist in charge of nuclear and missile development programmes has been arrested for spying and sent to a prison camp. South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper is reporting Kim So-in was arrested in May on charges of giving top-secret nuclear documents to a foreign agency. Kim is believed to have been in charge of Pyongyang's nuclear and missile development programmes. The arrests are believed to be part of a crackdown ordered by new leader Kim Jong-un.

France says sanctions against Iran must be tightened unless Iran negotiates seriously in discussions over its nuclear activities. The latest talks with Iran about its nuclear programme abandoned without progress. The Chief negotiator for the group of world powers, Catherine Ashton said the two sides had detailed, tough and frank exchanges. Iran's Chief Negotiator Saeed Jalili described the two days of negotiations as serious and he repeated Iran's position that the enrichment of uranium was the inalienable right of the Iranian people. The two sides have not been able to find common ground. Diplomats said in Moscow that there was no guarantee of another round of high level talks.

Renouned scientist Sekhar Basu took charge as director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, BARC. He played a key role in the development of atomic reactor for India's indigenous nuclear submarine INS Arihant. The 59-year-old Basu was also the project director of the Plutonium Recycling Project at Kalpakkam, which built the country's first indigenous Pressurised Water Reactor, powered by enriched uranium.
Basu succeeds R K Sinha, who has been elevated as chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and secretary, Department of Atomic Energy last month. He took charge as BARC director at a function in Mumbai yesterday.

Bangladesh and Russia on Monday signed two MOU’s as part of their co-operation to build Bangladesh’s first nuclear power plant.

As per one of the MOU’s signed Russia will support Bangladesh in developing the entire range of human resources in nuclear power sector covering different tiers of managerial, technical and operational personnel, and eventually developing broad-based academic and training capabilities in Bangladesh.
The second Memorandum would pave way for establishing Information Centres in Bangladesh aimed at generating awareness among people, especially the younger generation, on various aspects of nuclear energy and nuclear power plants, including functioning, maintenance and safety measures in the nuclear plants.

Earlier last week, the Bangladesh parliament passed the country’sfirst Atomic Energy Control Bill-2012 which has provisions to set up the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority as part of its efforts to build the country’s first Nuclear power plant.

Bangladesh signed an agreement with Russia in November last year for the construction of the nation’s first Nuclear Power plant at Roopur with two Nuclear reactors of 1000 megawatt capacity each.

rucial talks between Iran and the five permanent members of UN Security Council over Teheran’s disputed nuclear program gets underway in Baghdad today.

Ahead of the talks, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili said his country hopes for a new beginning when the talks with the six major world powers begin on Wednesday.

Ahead of the talks , the IAEA Chief Yukia Amano said Iran has agreed in principle to allow IAEA access to nuclear sites, scientists, documents to the agency to restart its probe

Sri Lanka has said that bilateral discussions between India and Sri Lanka have been continuing over the nuclear safety issue and appropriate steps will be taken within the framework of the guidelines provided. Speaking to AIR on phone, the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India, Prasad Kariyawasam has said that the technical level bilateral discussion on the issue will commence soon and if Sri Lanka is assured of the safety aspect, the need to go to any other international forum will not arise. Mr. Kariyawasam also said that concerns for nuclear safety were discussed in the bilateral forum.
o said that concerns related to the nuclear safety have been taken up bilaterally and if the concerns are satisfied bilaterally , there is no need for Sri Lanka to go to any other forum.

Mr.Kariyawasam also said that because of the protests in Kudankulam people in Sri Lanka too had become aware of the issue and there are natural concerns for safety. He also said that it is a separate subject and is unfair to link it to any other issue. In another development ,the two disappeared leaders of the rebel left group in Sri Lanka today appeared mysteriously . Prem Kumar Gunaratnam , who holds a dual citizenship of Australia and Sri Lanka was deported to Australia today early morning for breach of Sri Lankan Immigration laws. The government here contended that they had nothing to do with their alleged disappearance.The rebel group and the family members of the disappeared had alleged that the Sri Lankan authorities had been involved with the reported abduction of its two members.

A report today said that North Korea appears to be preparing for a third nuclear weapons test. South Korea's semi-official Yonhap news agency report today quoted an unidentified intelligence source as saying that satellite images show workers at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the northeast digging a new tunnel. 

The source told Yonhap that it appears the mining work is in its final stage. The North conducted two previous nuclear tests at the site, first in October of 2006 and again in May of 2009. North Korea agreed in February to stop nuclear tests, uranium enrichment and long-range missile launches in return for food aid. But that agreement unraveled when Pyongyang announced in March that it plans to launch a satellite into space this month. Pyongyang insists the launch is a peaceful space project, but countries including the United States, Japan and South Korea view it as a disguised missile test, in breach of UN resolutions.

Indian Navy is all set to operate five nuclear submarines by the end of this decade, including two leased from Russia and three built indigenously. Defence Minister A K Antony said, India is considering a proposal to induct another nuclear submarine built in Russia and has plans of indigenously building two more Arihant Class underwater vessels to guard its maritime boundaries. The Navy on Wednesday formally commissioned the Akula-II Class INS Chakra in Vishakhapatnam and is set to launch the INS Arihant for sea trials soon. On India's plans to expand its nuclear submarine fleet Antony said the government was considering a proposal in this regard and the country can afford to buy another such vessel.  the Navy which currently operates more than 10 conventional diesel-electric submarines of the Kilo and HDW Class, has plans of inducting a dozen more in the next decade. Already six Scorpene submarines are being constructed at Mazagon Dockyards in Mumbai in collaboration with French DCNS and six more are planned to be built under the Project-75 India.

 Director, Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) said, the top priority is to get the first unit working in the shortest possible time. Plant is quiet healthy.
Refusing to give a time frame for the plant to attain criticality, Mr. Bhardwaj said one additional review will be conducted by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board to take stock of the maintenance done in the last six months. He said the first unit would be able to generate a maximum of 995 MW of power at its peak, of which 100 MW will be used by the plant.
Admitting that there were communication gaps between the NPCIL and the neighbourhood in Kundankulam, Mr Bhardwaj said, steps have been taken to reach out to the people in the area and allay their apprehensions. He said the nuclear power corporation has been incurring a loss of 5 crore rupees per day on account of the delay in commissioning the kundankulam plant.

Mr Bhardwaj said, it was a landmark day for the NPCIL as it had met its annual target of generating 32,000 million units of power for this financial year early today