Vienna: The UN nuclear energy agency has said Japan underestimated the risk of a tsunami hitting a nuclear power plant. However, the response to the nuclear crisis that followed the March 11 quake and tsunami was “exemplary”, it said.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) draft report also said a “hardened” emergency response centre was needed to deal with accidents.
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which was badly damaged by the tsunami, is still leaking radiation.
The IAEA inspectors spent a week in Japan compiling their report on the Fukushima nuclear crisis, a summary of which has been handed to the Japanese government.
A full report will be submitted at an inter-governmental meeting in Vienna later this month, intended to improve nuclear safety around the world.
The UN team was led by Britain’s top nuclear safety official Mike Weightman and includes experts from France, Russia, China and the United States.
The inspectors pointed out a key failure, already admitted by Japan, to plan for the risk of waves crashing over the sea wall and knocking out the plant’s back-up generators.
Even though a major faultline lies just offshore, the sea wall at Fukushima was less than 6m (20ft) high. The height of the tsunami wave was about 14m.
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