China: An employee at Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) has lost a work phone containing sensitive information while on a personal trip to China, Japanese media report.
The phone reportedly held contact details of staff involved in confidential nuclear security operations. The NRA has not confirmed whether the data was compromised. The incident comes as Japan seeks to revive its atomic energy programme, which has been largely stalled since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Following the catastrophe, all nuclear reactors in Japan were ordered to shut down, and the NRA was established to oversee nuclear safety and manage reactor restarts. The employee is believed to have lost the phone on November 3 while undergoing a security check at Shanghai airport. The device was noticed missing three days later, and efforts to recover it at the airport were unsuccessful.
According to the media reports, the NRA provides smartphones to certain staff to ensure a rapid response to emergencies. Medias reported that the affected department handles the protection of nuclear materials from potential theft and terrorism.
The NRA has informed Japan’s Personal Information Protection Commission about the incident and cautioned employees against taking work phones overseas. This is not the first security lapse involving Japan’s nuclear authorities. In 2023, an employee at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant misplaced confidential documents in their car.
Last November, another employee at the same facility mishandled documents by making copies and storing them improperly. Earlier this week, Chubu Electric Power acknowledged possible selective use of data during safety screenings at its nuclear plant, prompting the NRA to suspend its review for reactor restarts due to fabrication of critical inspection data.
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