The IAEA Director General has been in Japan this week, supporting local efforts to enhance nuclear safety and environmental remediation, as the country prepares to restart its nuclear power plants closed since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident.
As well as visiting nuclear and remediation facilities, Rafael Mariano Grossi also met with key political and business leaders to further enhance cooperation between the country and the IAEA.
Important to start my visit to Japan at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa NPP, one of the world's largest nuclear sites.
With @IAEAorg's involvement, major safety and security improvements have been made. Once restarted, it will be a significant part of 🇯🇵's electricity supply. pic.twitter.com/PA0sMcmywU
— Rafael MarianoGrossi (@rafaelmgrossi) February 18, 2025
During the Director General's visit to Kashiwazaki Kariwa, Japan's largest nuclear power plant, he viewed improvements in safety response and secure access facilities, as well as enhanced seismic and tsunami proofing.
There he met with TEPCO President Tomoaki Kobayakawa and Site Vice President Takeyuki Inagaki, a former IAEA safety officer who was working at the Fukushima Daiichi plant when it was struck by the tsunami in 2011.
"Needless to say, it was the most bitter experience in my life with many lessons learned that needed to be reflected," said Mr Inagaki. "Now as Site Vice President of the Kashiwazaki Kariwa station, I am determined to never let such an accident happen again."
After viewing the improvements at the station, the Director General spoke to local media, and said he was "very satisfied with the progress" he had seen.
"Nuclear safety and security are an everyday effort. One by one all the recommendations made by IAEA experts have been duly and correctly addressed here."
During his trip, the Director General also joined an ongoing IAEA effort to monitor marine radioactivity near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. On a boat off the coast in front of the station, Mr Grossi worked with scientists from the People's Republic of China, the Republic of Korea, and Switzerland, to collect seawater samples together.
The samples will be now be analysed by the IAEA laboratories in Monaco, and national laboratories in Japan and the participating countries, each members of the IAEA's Analytical Laboratories for the Measurement of Environmental Radioactivity (ALMERA) network, chosen to ensure a high level of proficiency.
