"I'm confident that the further important step towards enhancing international capabilities for responding to nuclear accidents and incidents would be establishing in Ukraine with the assistance and active participation of the IAEA of an international applied science center for research and technological risks of nuclear energy," Yanukovych said at a high-level nuclear safety meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York (the United States) on Thursday.
He also said that the coordinating role of the IAEA should be reviewed and strengthened.
"The decisive conclusion of the events at Fukushima is a need to improve the mechanism of response to the consequences of accidents and disasters at the nuclear and radiation hazardous objects. We believe that the coordinating role of the IAEA in this regard should be reviewed and strengthened," Yanukovych said.
The president pointed out the second urgent task to accomplish, which is the thorough safety assessment of existing nuclear power plants for the extreme. "In particular, Ukraine has joint the EU initiative implying stress tests for nuclear power plants, and we believe that the implementation of this program will foster more efficient and consistent response to possible hazardous incidents," Yanukovych said.
The head of state also paid attention to the development of innovative technologies based on the principles of natural security, which, according to him, is to become a new technological platform that meets the needs of sustainable development and the requirements for non-proliferation, and, what is extremely important, will as well guarantee nuclear safety.
