Jun 8, 2011 12:12 AM | By Sapa-AFP
Thirty-three countries agreed yesterday that stricter inspections, better co-operation and a stronger role for the UN should spearhead nuclear safety improvements in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.
JAPAN, Nihonmatsu : Evacuees receive radiation scans in Nihonmatsu city in Fukushima prefecture on March 16, 2011. The official toll of the dead and missing following a devastating earthquake and tsunami that flattened Japan's northeast coast has topped 11,000, with 3,676 confirmed dead, police said. The total number of people unaccounted for in the wake of the twin disasters rose by more than 800 to 7,558, the national police agency said in its latest update. AFP PHOTO / GO TAKAYAMA
Photograph by: GO TAKAYAMA
Credit: AFP
Ministers of the G8 economies, Brazil and India, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Nuclear Energy Agency, said at a meeting in Paris that Fukushima taught a stern lesson in nuclear risk prevention and crisis management.
"We cannot continue to think the way we did before Fukushima," said French Ecology Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, who chaired the meeting.
"One accident at a nuclear power plant is enough to create grave and irreversible consequences for man and the environment."
Proposals made yesterday will be put to a wider meeting this month.
Nuclear facilities should carry out stress tests, based on early Fukushima data, and follow them with regular checks.
Participants included Germany and Switzerland, which are to phase out their nuclear plants, and France and Britain, which have stood by the atom.
No comments:
Post a Comment