The Nuclear Regulation Authority conducted an on-site inspection Saturday at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Oi nuclear plant to assess whether its two reactors can meet new safety requirements coming into force in July. A team of inspectors, including NRA Commissioner Toyoshi Fuketa, examined the Nos. 3 and 4 reactors, the nation's sole operating reactors, in Fukui Prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast.

The wife of Japan's pro-business Prime Minister Shinzo Abe does not like nuclear power and would rather her husband's government did not try to export it, she said in a speech. In comments that appear to run against the grain of government thinking, which is increasingly moving towards switching mothballed reactors back on, Akie Abe said Japan should press on instead with renewables.

Iran is working round the clock to enlarge its nuclear infrastructure with the eventual aim of developing an industry capable of building up to 30 bombs a year, an Israeli minister charged on Monday. Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem, Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz said Tehran was "very close" to crossing the red line laid out by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year. But he said it was biding its time and building uranium-enrichment facilities before making the final push for weapons-grade material.

The government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Monday they may be able to start removing the melted fuel inside the crippled nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi complex within the first half of fiscal 2020 by improving work efficiency, around 18 months earlier than initially planned. The schedule was included in a draft version of a revised road map toward decommissioning the Nos. 1 to 4 reactors at the plant, but prospects are unclear because technology must be developed to perform the work.