The UN nuclear chief called on Monday for national safety tests on all the world’s reactors within 18 months, followed by international inspections to help prevent any repeat of Japan’s atomic crisis three months ago. Yukiya Amano, opening a ministerial meeting in Vienna on strengthening safety standards after the Fukushima emergency, said UN experts should be allowed to carry out random safety reviews of nuclear power plants. His proposals — aimed at ensuring that nuclear plants can withstand extreme events such as the earthquake and tsunami that crippled Fukushima — may prove controversial for states which want to keep safety an issue strictly for national authorities.
“Public confidence in the safety of nuclear power has been badly shaken,” Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy (IAEA), said in a speech to ministers and regulators from the UN body’s 151 member states. “However, nuclear power will remain important for many countries, so it is imperative that the most stringent safety measures are implemented everywhere.” “IAEA review of every one of the world’s 440 operating nuclear reactors in just a few years is not a realistic proposition. I therefore propose a system based on random selection,” he said.