Vienna, April 05: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief, Yukiya Amano, says more is needed to be done to strengthen safety at nuclear power plants.
“It is clear that more needs to be done to strengthen the safety of nuclear power plants so that the risk of a future accident is significantly reduced,” Amano told delegates at the fifth review conference on the Convention on Nuclear Safety in Vienna.
Amano noted that the crisis in the country’s battered Fukushima nuclear power plant posed a major challenge with enormous implications to nuclear power.
In March, Japan’s nuclear safety agency criticized Tokyo Electric Power Company in charge of inspecting Fukushima for failing to inspect critical equipment such as 33 pieces of machinery parts crucial to the cooling systems needed to keep the facility’s six reactors from overheating.
“The worries of millions of people throughout the world about whether energy is safe must be taken seriously,” Amano urged.
The IAEA chief noted that lessons must be learned from what happened at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
The plant was hit by a massive earthquake and an ensued devastating tsunami on March 11 and has been releasing radiation into the environment ever since.
——–Agencies