Improving global nuclear safety an urgent concern, says U.N. nuclear chief

VIENNA —Improving global nuclear safety after last year’s Fukushima disaster must remain an urgent concern, despite improvements already made. Much work remains to be done and we must not relax our guard.

Li Ganjie of China’s National Nuclear Safety Administration, president of the week-long meeting, said nuclear safety must know no boundaries, even though this may raise costs. Without nuclear safety there can be no nuclear power development.

Meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear plant after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami sent radiation spewing over large areas, forcing more than 160,0000 people to flee. In the following months, all Japan’s remaining reactors were shut for safety checks. Two reactors resumed operation last month.

The IAEA has said it believes, however, that global use of nuclear energy could increase by as much as 100% by 2030 on the back of growth in Asia, including in China and India.

A senior Japanese official, Shinichi Kuroki, later briefed the conference about conditions at Fukushima, saying reactors had cooled in a stable manner but that the decommissioning posed problems.