A delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency on Tuesday endorsed stress
tests to see if Japanese nuclear plants could withstand a repeat of last year's earthquake
and tsunami, which killed nearly 16 thousand people and led to a meltdown at the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The UN agency’s delegation reviewed
stress tests conducted by Japan’s national Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA).
The stress tests used computer simulations to evaluate a reactor's resilience.
The
IAEA team leader James Lyons said NISA’s testing was sound.
"We concluded that
NISA's instructions to power plants and its review process for the comprehensive safety
assessments are generally consistent with IAEA safety standards," he told reporters.
Lyons
also suggested 11 points for improvement, such as the need to give better information
to local municipalities which host the reactors.
Also on Tuesday, the Japanese
cabinet approved bills that would set up a new nuclear safety agency, which is designed
to be more independent of external influences.
The Japanese government is struggling
to regain public support for nuclear power, which provided a third of the energy used
in the country before the disaster. But most of the Japan’s nuclear power plants
were shut down after the tsunami, leaving only three of 54 reactors in operation.