By Shigeru Sato and Yuji Okada

December 1, 2009

Source: Bloomberg

Yukiya Amano, a disarmament negotiator for the only nation attacked with nuclear weapons, faces immediate tests from a defiant Iran and provocative North Korea as he takes over the International Atomic Energy Agency today from Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei.

Amano, 62, handled nuclear proliferation issues for Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for three decades. He joined the IAEA’s 35-member board of governors in September 2005 and was elected the agency’s director general in July.

Amano assumes his post two days after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Cabinet ordered Iran’s nuclear agency to begin building 10 uranium enrichment sites within two months, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. Iran says the fuel is for civilian use while the U.S. claims it is for weapons development.

“Iran seems to be saying its last ‘goodbye’ to ElBaradei and saying ‘hello’ to Amano,” said Takehiko Yamamoto, a professor of international relations at Waseda University in Tokyo. “There’s a tough road ahead of Amano, with his first and major task being to beef up the agency’s inspections of Iran’s nuclear sites and shoot down the country’s ambitious nuclear armament plans.”

Agency Divided

The IRNA report came a day after the UN agency censured Iran for concealing the existence of an enrichment plant built into the side of a mountain. The IAEA board demanded that Iran suspend construction of the almost-completed Fordo plant.

Iran already faces three sets of UN Security Council resolutions over its nuclear program. ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said Nov. 27 the agency had reached a “dead end” in its six-year investigation into whether Iran is concealing a nuclear weapons program.

Amano resigned from the Foreign Ministry on Nov. 13, said a ministry official who declined to be named. Amano turned down repeated requests for an interview, most recently on Nov. 6, made through the ministry. The IAEA said in a Nov. 27 statement that Amano will available for a photo opportunity in Vienna on his first day in office and won’t take questions.

Amano’s appointment comes as the IAEA tries to balance the growing demand for nuclear reactors against the spread of weapons technologies through the network of Pakistan’s Abdul Qadeer Khan. The former head of Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programs was placed under house arrest in 2004 after confessing to running a network that sold machinery for making bomb-grade uranium to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

North Korea

IAEA inspectors were kicked out of North Korea on April 16, a month before that nation tested a nuclear device. The Security Council in June imposed more sanctions against the Stalinist state, including restricting financial transactions.

Japan is involved in six-nation talks aimed at getting North Korea to dismantle its nuclear programs. The other parties are the U.S., China, Russia and South Korea.

“The world faces increasing risks of nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism,” Amano told the IAEA board Sept. 14. “It is unlikely that this trend will ever be reversed, but rather will continue to accelerate.”

Amano, who studied law at the University of Tokyo before joining the diplomatic corps in 1972, failed to win majority support in three meetings of the IAEA board. He was elected in July after an unidentified country changed its vote from no to abstain.

Hiroshima, Nagasaki

He defeated South Africa’s IAEA ambassador, Abdul Samad Minty, who helped dismantle his country’s nuclear arsenal. Minty was supported by developing nations concerned that nuclear powers led by the U.S. would limit their access to atomic technology.

Nuclear technologies can address climate change, food security, water availability, human health and the global economy, Amano said. The agency’s missions to guard bomb-making material and transfer civil nuclear technology should carry equal weight.

“Merely being a ‘Nuclear Watchdog’ does not suffice,” Amano told governors Sept. 14. “Promoting peaceful uses of nuclear energy alone is not enough. The IAEA needs to pursue its dual objective in a balanced manner.”

His appointment means diplomats from Japan, the world’s third-biggest atomic generator after the U.S. and France, will helm both the IAEA and the Paris-based International Energy Agency, an adviser to energy-consuming countries.

IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka has said the world needs to build more than 17 reactors a year to slow global warming while at the same time guarding against further nuclear proliferation.

Japan’s constitution, written by the U.S. after the country surrendered Aug. 15, 1945, following the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, renounces the use of force to resolve international disputes. About 50,000 American troops stationed in Japan provide for the country’s defense as part of the U.S. security umbrella.

“I will stand firm against the spread of nuclear weapons,” Amano told IAEA governors March 4. “As I come from a country that has the experience of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I am deeply convinced that a nuclear catastrophe should never be repeated.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Shigeru Sato in Tokyo at ssato10@bloomberg.net; Yuji Okada in Tokyo at yokada6@bloomberg.net; Jonathan Tirone in Vienna at jtirone@bloomberg.net.