AUSTRIA: The United Nations nuclear chief says countries with atomic reactors are now much more serious about safety after Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster, but confidence has already been lost.

Record ID: 215950

  • Title: AUSTRIA: The United Nations nuclear chief says countries with atomic reactors are now much more serious about safety after Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster, but confidence has already been lost.
  • Date: 10th March 2012
  • Summary: VIENNA, AUSTRIA ( MARCH 9, 2012) (REUTERS -ACCESS ALL) EXTERIOR OF INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY (IAEA) BUILDING IAEA DIRECTOR GENERAL YUKIYA AMANO WALKING INTO ROOM (SOUNDBITE) (English) INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY (IAEA) DIRECTOR GENERAL, YUKIYA AMANO, SAYING: "Because of the accident already at 12 meters which have retreated, so the measures have been t
  • Embargoed: 25th March 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Austria, Austria
  • Country: Austria
  • Topics: Disasters,Technology,Energy
  • Reuters ID: LVA75ZSVTZNKR3497TZU28VOSNMA
  • Story Text: Nuclear power is safer than it was a year ago when an earthquake and tsunami hit the area around Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant, but social confidence in nuclear power has been damaged, the U.N. atomic energy chief said on Friday (March 9).
    Fukushima was a "wake-up call" and robust measures have been implemented to improve standards, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano told Reuters in an interview in Vienna.
    "Because of the accident already at 12 meters which have retreated, so the measures have been taken in some reactors. I know that in Japan a tsunami wall of 18 meters high is being constructed. There is nothing like 100 percent. I cannot say that there would not be an accident, but the nuclear reactors would be better prepared for natural hazards and other severe incidents", said the veteran Japanese diplomat.
    "The biggest impact of Fukushima Daiichi to nuclear power is the damage to the confidence, confidence, social confidence. Everyone is worried. Fukushima Daiichi is a Japanese accident. It is also an accident for every country, and people have lost confidence in nuclear power. It is just normal that countries stop and reassess, and I think the slowdown of the new start of nuclear power construction, power plant construction is because of this decreased level of confidence in nuclear power," he said.
    The Fukushima tragedy was triggered on March 11, 2011, when a powerful undersea earthquake unleashed a tsunami that left 19,000 people dead or missing. It also smashed into the coastal power plant causing a series of catastrophic failures at the facility.
    Images of the stricken plant and the enormous devastation the tsunami wrought across Japan shook public confidence in nuclear power and forced the nuclear industry to launch a campaign to defend its safety record said Amano After Fukushima, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium decided to move away from nuclear power altogether and build up alternative renewable energy sources instead.
    Nearly 50 other countries that had been operating, building or planning to construct new nuclear plants continue to rely on nuclear energy, however, even though they face higher costs.
    Amano told Reuters he expected nuclear power to continue expanding but at a slower pace than forecast before Fukushima, saying there would be at least 90 new reactors by 2030 to add to the existing 435 units now operating.
    "I think this is the time of... it is not the nuclear renaissance but the nuclear safety renaissance. Because Fukushima Daiichi was a wake up call, people re-evaluated and gave further thought of the nuclear safety, and they understand now nuclear safety must come first. At the same time because of the need to mitigate climate change, address the energy need and volatile fossil fuel prices, they also think that nuclear power remains an option. Therefore with stronger attention and higher priority on nuclear safety, nuclear power will expand steadily but with a pace slower than anticipated before Fukushima Daiichi accident," he said. .
    Amano said it would take time for Japan to decide its future course of action in relation to nuclear power.
    "The immediate focus for them is the return of those people who were evacuated from the area near Fukushima Daiichi, but as an industrialized country they need the energy, particularly electricity, and they have to think of their economy, so this issue will be considered in Japan from wide angle and long term perspective, or the medium time perspective," said the IAEA chief.
    Environmental group Greenpeace, which opposes nuclear energy on safety grounds, said that "no real lessons" appeared to have yet been learnt from Fukushima.
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