IAEA team concludes visit to Israel

The Israeli government has made a "strong statement" about its commitment to nuclear security by extending an invitation to inspectors, the IAEA said. A team of investigators from the International Atomic Energy Agency spent the week at the Soreq Nuclear Research Center at the invitation of the Israeli government. Israel says the facility is used for peaceful nuclear research. The IAEA said it was in Israel conducting inspections as part of a mission to assess the safety of facility's research reactor. "By requesting this mission, Israel has made a strong statement about their commitment to nuclear safety and to continuous improvement," IAEA researcher James Lyons said in a statement Thursday. IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said at a security conference in Russia last month the agency was working to ensure nuclear materials are in safe and responsible hands. Israel is suspected of having a nuclear weapons arsenal. The IAEA said, however, it was there to review lessons learned from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011. An operator died at the Israeli facility in 1990 after being exposed to radioactive material. The operator was found to have misread warning signals and bypassed safety systems.