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IAEA chief heading to Japan to face nuclear crisis

by (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Click For Restrictions. http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Wednesday, 16 March 2011 23:11 GMT

* Not time to say Japan crisis "out of control" - IAEA

* U.N. nuclear chief plans trip to Japan this week

(adds details on spent fuel risk)

By Sylvia Westall and Fredrik Dahl

VIENNA, March 16 (Reuters) - The U.N. atomic energy chief said he planned to fly to Japan on Thursday to seek first-hand information of what he called a very serious situation at a stricken nuclear power plant in his home country.

Yukiya Amano said he intended to request an extraordinary meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation governing board as soon as possible after he returned to Vienna.

Amano's announcements of his trip and the IAEA board session made clear his growing concern over the crisis in Japan.

It also suggested frustration at the Vienna-based agency, which is tasked with fostering the safe use of nuclear energy, about the lack of speedy and detailed information from Japan.

"It is different to receive facts by email from Tokyo to sitting down with them and exchanging views," Amano told a news conference. "We always need to improve the flow of information."

He said he hoped to meet high-level Japanese officials but left open whether he would go to the site of the severely damaged Fukushima plant during his one-day trip.

Amano said it was not the time to say whether developments at the site had spun out of control, as suggested by a European Union energy official in remarks that hit global shares.

The IAEA said it was seeking more information about the water levels at the reactor's spent fuel pools, which are essential for cooling down the high-level radioactive material.

IAEA data on units 5 and 6 at the site showed the temperature in their pools had climbed to some three times normal levels. It had no recent data for the pool at unit 4. The United States has said it may have run dry. [ID:nN16168557]

"If fuel is no longer covered by water or temperatures reach a boiling point, fuel can become exposed and create a risk of radioactive release," the IAEA said.

REACTOR VESSELS "LARGELY INTACT"

Amano said the IAEA had continuously been trying to help improve the safety of nuclear power plants against earthquakes.

But he declined to comment on a report, in Britain's Daily Telegraph, that U.S. cables obtained by WikiLeaks said Japan had been warned more than two years ago by an IAEA official over the possible impact of earthquakes on nuclear power plants.

The unnamed official was quoted in the document as saying that "recent earthquakes in some cases have exceeded the design basis for some nuclear plants, and that this is a serious problem that is now driving seismic safety work".

In Japan early on Wednesday another fire broke out at the earthquake-damaged facility, which has sent low levels of radiation wafting into Tokyo in the past 24 hours, triggering fear in the capital and international alarm.

"It is a very serious situation," Amano said.

Damage to the cores of units 1, 2 and 3 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor has been confirmed, although there has been no serious change there since Tuesday, he said.

He said water was at a level that left up to two metres of the cores holding the fuel rods exposed, even though the pressure inside indicated the vessels remained "largely intact".

Japanese media have criticised the government's handling of the disaster and operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. <9501.T> for its failure to provide enough information on the incident.

The IAEA, which has as a mandate to share information with member states when there is a nuclear emergency, has also been criticised in the media and in comments posted on its Facebook page for providing scant and out-of-date information.

The IAEA says it can provide only the information it receives and verifies.

(Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.


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