Japan nuclear crisis will be overcome: IAEA chief

UN atomic watchdog chief Yukiya Amano said today he had no doubt that the current nuclear crisis in Japan would be effectively overcome.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is working at full stretch, together with other countries and international organisations to help Japan bring the crisis to an end and ensure the effects are mitigated as much as possible," Amano told a special one-day meeting of the IAEA's 35-member board of governors here.

"And I have no doubt that this crisis will be effectively overcome."
The crisis at the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant "has still not been resolved and the situation ...remains very serious," said Amano, who paid a short visit to Japan last week to see how the Vienna-based watchdog could best help the authorities dealing with the world''s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

The IAEA has come under heavy fire for its response to the disaster, with critics accusing it of being too slow and not providing timely or accurate information about the unfolding catastrophe.

"It is difficult for us here in Vienna to imagine the conditions in which (the emergency response teams on the ground) are working," the Japanese diplomat said.

Fukushima has been seriously damaged by flood water, buildings have been damaged by explosions, there has been no electrical power and radiation levels are elevated.

"It is no exaggeration to describe the work of the emergency teams as heroic," Amano said. The main message of his visit to Tokyo last Friday was "You are not alone," he said.

Amano met Prime Minister Naoto Kan, Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto, Economy Minister Banri Kaieda, and the vice president of the plant''s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company in Tokyo.

Japan was facing a "very serious situation, but can count on the full support of the international community, both practical and moral, in overcoming it," he said.

Amano said that the criticism of the IAEA was "not always justified" because it was based on "widepread misconceptions in the media about the IAEA''s role in nuclear safety."

"We are not a ''nuclear safety watchdog''," he insisted, adding that responsibility for nuclear safety lies with member states.
Nevertheless, one lesson to be learned from the crisis was that "the current international emergency response framework needs to be reassessed," he said. (AFP)