Editorials

Japan's woes, world crisis

(China Daily)
Updated: 2011-04-15 07:33

The whole world, not just Japan, is watching how the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) handle the tsunami-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

With the situation still unfolding after 35 days, a blueprint to end the crisis is still not available. The ongoing radiation leaks have forced Japan to raise the nuclear crisis alert level to the maximum, on a par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

The disaster has caused food and seawater contamination and the full extent of the environmental impact and contamination of the food supply remains to be seen.

Low levels of radiation have been detected well beyond Japan though the amounts are not yet harmful.

Japan only informed the United States - keeping neighboring countries in the dark - before pumping radioactive water into the sea.

The Japanese government has been slow in releasing information about the severity of crisis, even as the problems have multiplied. In a country where the nuclear industry has a long history of hiding its safety problems, this has left many people in Japan and the rest of the world justifiably anxious.

China, South Korea and Russia have all asked Japan to keep them posted of the latest developments.

This is certainly a reasonable request.

Japan's crisis has also put the spotlight on how the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is equipped to handle nuclear accidents, especially those with cross-border implications.

During his fact-finding trip to Tokyo, Yukiya Amano, head of the UN agency, appealed to the entire world to cooperate with Japan. But cooperation from the rest of the world depends on accurate and timely information from Japan.

In the first few days after the magnitude 9.0-earthquake and tsunami severely damaged the Fukushima plant, the IAEA faced criticism for failing to provide fast information to its members and the public about the situation.

The UN agency, which comprises more than 150 member states, twiddled its thumbs and failed to take the lead in responding to Japan's nuclear crisis. This is a weakness in nuclear safety the world does not want to see.

The IAEA announced that it would host a ministerial conference on June 20-24 on strengthening global nuclear safety. Declaring it would lay the groundwork for the IAEA meeting, France will gather G20 nuclear industry officials together in Paris in May to "define international nuclear safety standards".

Better crisis management is essential if we are to ensure there is no repeat of one of the world's worse nuclear accidents. And the IAEA's role should be reviewed and modified as necessary.

(China Daily 04/15/2011 page8)