Monday, December 12, 2011

Nuclear Safety Not a Priority for IAEA


UN Atomic Agency Money Goes to Terror Fight, Not Nuclear SafetyBy Aaron Sheldrick and Jennifer M. Freedman, Bloomberg Business Week 12/12



[Excerpted] "The agency classifies safety as one of its top three priorities, yet is spending 8.9 percent of its 352 million-euro ($469 million) regular budget this year on making plants secure from accidents. As it focuses resources on the other two priorities -- technical cooperation and preventing nuclear- weapons proliferation -- the IAEA is missing an opportunity to improve shortcomings in reactor safety exposed by the Fukushima disaster, said Trevor Findlay, a former Australian diplomat.

“The IAEA did not seize the opportunity of this dreadful event to advance the agency's role in nuclear safety,” said Findlay, who is finishing a two-year study of the Vienna-based agency at Harvard University. Director General Yukiya Amano “has been tough on Iran and Syria, but not when it comes to nuclear safety.”

 

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