UN Director General thanks Ukraine for organizing nuclear energy safety Summit

Talking to journalists at the Chornobyl NPP, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon thanked President Viktor Yanukovych and Ukraine for the farseeing decision to organize a Summit on nuclear energy safety problems in Ukraine. 

"Among my priorities in office is creating a world free of nuclear weapons," Ban Ki-moon said. 

"The examples of Fukushima and Chornobyl showed us that we should pay more attention to nuclear safety and impose more stringent standards of security at both national and international level," the UN Secretary-General said, noting that at yesterday’s Summit, he had made some proposals on these activities. 

"Among the measures I propose is reconsidering the nuclear safety standards, which should be facilitated by the IAEA. Also, we should examine the impact of natural disasters on nuclear safety, consider the advantages and disadvantages of nuclear energy, and strengthen the protection of nuclear facilities from terrorists ... It is crucial to prevent these technologies from falling into terrorists hands," Ban Ki-moon said. 

The UN Secretary-General said that raising awareness about nuclear safety issues will be discussed at a high-level meeting in June, and in September, a meeting of world leaders dedicated to this issue will be held. 

For his part, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said that international community’s main objective should be improving safety at nuclear power plants. "The Chornobyl accident was the worst accident in history. The example of today is the Fukushima I NPP. And the story does not end here. Many people are concerned about the safety of nuclear power plants ... We must put an end to the Fukushima I NPP accident first, and then investigate the accident, the experience and draw conclusions," Yukiya Amano said. 

The IAEA Director General said that, unfortunately, despite the bitter example of accidents the Chornobyl NPP and Fukushima I NPP, the world will not abandon nuclear power. So now, the most important task of the international community is to provide safety of such plants. 

"The overall situation has not changed. We need clean energy that reduces the impact of hazardous energy sources. Therefore, many countries choose nuclear energy as a source. Our task in this situation is to increase its safety. This is the main goal," the IAEA Director General said.