ID :
169274
Fri, 03/18/2011 - 18:25
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/169274
The shortlink copeid
Kan vows to disclose more info on nuke crisis to world
TOKYO, March 18 Kyodo - Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Friday vowed to provide more information to the world regarding Japan's quake-triggered nuclear crisis, as Yukiya Amano, the chief of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, stated his readiness to offer support to address the situation.
''The international community's view is that it wants a greater volume of accurate information more quickly,'' Amano told reporters after meeting Kan and other Cabinet ministers to discuss the disaster involving the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Amano, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency, also said an IAEA team will engage in radiation monitoring activities in Japan and that a liaison officer will be stationed in Tokyo to enhance communication with the Japanese government.
At the start of the meeting between Kan and Amano at the prime minister's office in Tokyo, the Japanese prime minister said, ''I want to promise that we will disclose as much information as possible to the IAEA, as well as to the people of the world.''
Kan also said that Japan will enhance its monitoring of radiation and other developments concerning the plant.
Amano told reporters that the IAEA team will be dispatched ''in a couple of days'' near the troubled nuclear plant in Fukushima Prefecture to monitor radiation there.
The four-member team of nuclear experts and others will first monitor radiation in Tokyo as early as Friday and then move to the vicinity of the quake-hit plant, he said.
Amano also said he hopes his team can provide data that will be useful to the international community, noting that the accident at the plant is a ''grave'' matter which the world is closely watching.
Amano will leave Japan on Saturday for Vienna and he is likely to report the latest information on Japan's situation during an emergency IAEA board meeting to be held Monday.
The chief of the Vienna-based organization had earlier criticized Tokyo for not supplying sufficient information on the situation involving the crippled nuclear reactors at the plant, which have lost key cooling functions and have suffered a series of explosions after last week's earthquake and tsunami hammered northeastern Japan.
As for the Japanese government's decision to set an exclusion zone covering areas within a 20-kilometer radius of the nuclear plant and to urge people within 20 to 30 km to stay indoors, Amano said he saw ''no problem'' with the arrangements.
''This is in line with IAEA standards, but the standards cover a range and so it does not necessarily mean that it must be 20 or 30 km,'' Amano said. ''There is no problem if each country sets standards based on its own decision.''
The United States has asked its citizens living within an 80-km radius of the nuclear plant to evacuate as a precautionary measure based on what it calls a careful scientific evaluation.
Amano, meanwhile, emphasized that Japan's current unprecedented mission to spray tons of water on one of the troubled reactor buildings is ''important'' to keep the spent fuel pool filled with water so that it will not be exposed and create the risk of a release of radioactive material.
''To inject water (to the reactor) to cool and cool, cool and cool is the immediate priority,'' Amano said, while adding that recovering or restoring the plant's power supply from outside is also key.
He said the 400 milisievert per hour radiation level, which was recorded Tuesday at the plant, was ''a dangerous level'' for human health, but the actual danger it poses depends on where a person remains and for how long.
The IAEA team came to Japan after Tokyo asked the U.N. agency for assistance in monitoring the environment and the effects on human health of radiation leaked from the plant.
Amano acknowledged that the huge earthquake and tsunami that hit northeastern Japan was ''beyond estimation'' but said it is too early to make a judgment regarding whether there was a defect in the plant or whether there was something wrong in the handling of developments.
''The international community's view is that it wants a greater volume of accurate information more quickly,'' Amano told reporters after meeting Kan and other Cabinet ministers to discuss the disaster involving the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Amano, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency, also said an IAEA team will engage in radiation monitoring activities in Japan and that a liaison officer will be stationed in Tokyo to enhance communication with the Japanese government.
At the start of the meeting between Kan and Amano at the prime minister's office in Tokyo, the Japanese prime minister said, ''I want to promise that we will disclose as much information as possible to the IAEA, as well as to the people of the world.''
Kan also said that Japan will enhance its monitoring of radiation and other developments concerning the plant.
Amano told reporters that the IAEA team will be dispatched ''in a couple of days'' near the troubled nuclear plant in Fukushima Prefecture to monitor radiation there.
The four-member team of nuclear experts and others will first monitor radiation in Tokyo as early as Friday and then move to the vicinity of the quake-hit plant, he said.
Amano also said he hopes his team can provide data that will be useful to the international community, noting that the accident at the plant is a ''grave'' matter which the world is closely watching.
Amano will leave Japan on Saturday for Vienna and he is likely to report the latest information on Japan's situation during an emergency IAEA board meeting to be held Monday.
The chief of the Vienna-based organization had earlier criticized Tokyo for not supplying sufficient information on the situation involving the crippled nuclear reactors at the plant, which have lost key cooling functions and have suffered a series of explosions after last week's earthquake and tsunami hammered northeastern Japan.
As for the Japanese government's decision to set an exclusion zone covering areas within a 20-kilometer radius of the nuclear plant and to urge people within 20 to 30 km to stay indoors, Amano said he saw ''no problem'' with the arrangements.
''This is in line with IAEA standards, but the standards cover a range and so it does not necessarily mean that it must be 20 or 30 km,'' Amano said. ''There is no problem if each country sets standards based on its own decision.''
The United States has asked its citizens living within an 80-km radius of the nuclear plant to evacuate as a precautionary measure based on what it calls a careful scientific evaluation.
Amano, meanwhile, emphasized that Japan's current unprecedented mission to spray tons of water on one of the troubled reactor buildings is ''important'' to keep the spent fuel pool filled with water so that it will not be exposed and create the risk of a release of radioactive material.
''To inject water (to the reactor) to cool and cool, cool and cool is the immediate priority,'' Amano said, while adding that recovering or restoring the plant's power supply from outside is also key.
He said the 400 milisievert per hour radiation level, which was recorded Tuesday at the plant, was ''a dangerous level'' for human health, but the actual danger it poses depends on where a person remains and for how long.
The IAEA team came to Japan after Tokyo asked the U.N. agency for assistance in monitoring the environment and the effects on human health of radiation leaked from the plant.
Amano acknowledged that the huge earthquake and tsunami that hit northeastern Japan was ''beyond estimation'' but said it is too early to make a judgment regarding whether there was a defect in the plant or whether there was something wrong in the handling of developments.
