Asia-Pacific

Japan starts two-day Asian nuclear security meeting

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-01-21 12:31

TOKYO: Japan and the United Nations nuclear watchdog, began a two-day meeting in Tokyo on Thursday, with government officials from 17 Asian countries and nuclear security experts from the United States and Australia in attendance.

The meeting, which comes ahead of the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington in April, will discuss ways in which nuclear and other radioactive materials can be protected from theft and diversion, as well as ongoing measures for non-proliferation of nuclear arms.

Participants in the meeting include the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, China, South Korea and the Central Asian countries.

The meeting comes against a backdrop of a rise in countries introducing nuclear energy and building new plants to facilitate the need.

Japan and the United Kingdom have come under fire recently from anti-nuclear campaigners, as a ship embarked from UK shores heading for Japan on Wednesday, carrying nuclear waste from the Sellafield Nuclear facility, a by-product of nuclear fuel spent by Japanese reactors that was sent to the UK for reprocessing during the 1980s and 1990s.

Some campaigners have criticized the shipments, saying they are dangerous, whilst a spokesperson for Sellafield said the site was simply fulfilling its contractual obligations, and government policy, in transporting the waste safely.