AUSTRIA: The United Nations in Vienna mark the first anniversary of Japan's earthquake and nuclear accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant

Record ID: 215956

  • Title: AUSTRIA: The United Nations in Vienna mark the first anniversary of Japan's earthquake and nuclear accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant
  • Date: 13th March 2012
  • Summary: VIENNA, AUSTRIA (MARCH 12, 2012) (REUTERS) OFFICIALS STANDING IN SILENCE WITH BOWED HEADS SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, YUKIYA AMANO, STANDING IN SILENCE
  • Embargoed: 28th March 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Austria, Austria
  • Country: Austria
  • Topics: International Relations,Disasters
  • Reuters ID: LVAAI87Y7ODITZ548CQQGAW4JMH0
  • Story Text: The United Nations in Vienna on Monday (March 12) marked the first anniversary of Japan's devastating earthquake and nuclear disaster at the Fukushima power plant.
    Following a minute of silence and statements by Japan's ambassador to international organisations, Toshiro Ozawa and the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano, an exhibition of photographs documenting the destruction caused by the disaster was opened to public.
    "March 11th is a day that will remain etched in our collective memory. The earthquake and tsunamis caused about - in terms of material damage - 18 trillion yen, which is well over 200 billion U.S. dollars. Since the disaster struck, Japan has received warm encouragement and generous support from more than 160 countries and regions and 40 international organisations, including those represented here today. On behalf of the people of Japan I express once again our deepest gratitude for the solidarity shown by the international community. And supported by such solidarity, Japan and the Japanese people are determined to overcome this historic challenge, not only to reconstruct what existed before, but to rebuild a new and even better Japan", Ambassador Toshiro Ozawa told the gathering.
    IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said that "as a citizen of Japan and simply as a human being I was deeply shocked and saddened by the devastation and the great loss of life which the disaster inflicted on my homeland."
    "I was touched by the many expressions of sympathy directed to me personally here in Vienna. When I went to Japan several days after the disaster to meet the Prime Minister I told him: 'Everyone is worried but the world is with you", Amano said.
    The Fukushima nuclear disaster was triggered on March 11, 2011, when an undersea earthquake unleashed a deadly tsunami which smashed into the coastal atomic power plant, causing a series of catastrophic failures at the facility.
    The events left some 19,000 people dead or missing and resulted in the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.
    The Japanese government said it would spend at least 1 trillion yen ($13 billion) on decontamination efforts which experts say might take several decades while more than 70,000 people who lived within a 20 km radius of the plant still haven't returned to their homes
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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