UN nuke chief: Japan crisis poses ‘major challenge’

VIENNA — The Japanese reactor crisis poses a major challenge with enormous implications for nuclear power, the head of the U.N.’s atomic watchdog said Monday as he appeared to criticize the operator of the crippled complex at the heart of the catastrophe.
Yukiya Amano, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, also stressed that the global community cannot take a “business as usual approach.” Lessons must to be learned from what happened at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant after it was hit by a massive tsunami and earthquake on March 11 and has been releasing radiation into the environment ever since, he said.
Amano spoke at the opening session of a meeting that has drawn representatives from dozens of countries to scrutinize safety at each other’s power plants.
“I know you will agree with me that the crisis at Fukushima Dai-ichi has enormous implications for nuclear power and confronts all of us with a major challenge,” Amano told delegates. “We cannot take a business as usual approach.”