Vienna, Austria (BBN)– The head of the United Nations agency that coordinates global nuclear safety on Monday called for a high-level conference within three months to strengthen safety measures and emergency responses in light of the Japanese power plant crisis.
“The Fukushima crisis has confronted the agency and international community with a major challenge,” UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano told a news briefing at the agency’s headquarters in Vienna, referring to the earthquake- and tsunami-stricken nuclear power plant that has been spewing radioactive contamination into the environment since 11 March.
Outlining the meeting’s agenda he cited an initial assessment of the accident, its impact and consequences; lessons that need to be learned; launching the process of strengthening nuclear safety; and strengthening the response to nuclear accidents in an emergency.
Mr. Amano noted that many countries had joined the call for robust follow-up action that he made at a meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors a week ago following his visit to Japan, in which he stressed the need to reassess the international emergency response framework for dealing with nuclear power plant accidents and to improve communications.
He said the situation remains very serious and IAEA is doing “everything in its power to help Japan,” with two radiation monitoring teams on the ground and a joint IAEA-UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) food safety team meeting with officials in affected prefectures.
It was the destruction of power lines by the quake and tsunami and the subsequent failure of back-up diesel generators to pump in cooling water that caused the nuclear reactors to overheat and release radiation into the environment.
Before and during his visit to Japan Mr. Amano called for faster and fuller information on the crisis from the Japanese authorities and this has now improved.
BBN/SI/AD-29Mar11-3:23 pm (BST)
