Peer review needed for all nuke reactors: ElBaradei

March 19th, 2011 - 12:45 am ICT by IANS  

New Delhi, March 18 (IANS) Pointing that no technology is hundred percent safe, former chief of UN’s atomic energy agency Mohamed ElBaradei Friday called for a peer review of all nuclear reactors, including those for military use, to evaluate safety standards in the wake of the crisis at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant.

“Overhaul of safety should not be just limited to civil reactors, but also military reactors. These military reactors are completely out of reach in the nuclear weapon states,” Elbaradei, who was director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from 1997 to 2009, said at the India Today Conclave.

According to ElBaradei, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005, “we should find a way to have a peer review of all reactors.”

He suggested that maybe some of the old reactors, which do not meet modern safety standards, should be shut down.

The damaged Fukushima boiling water reactor in Japan is over 40 years old.

Japan has been facing a serious crisis over the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which had been hit by an earthquake and tsunami within an hour on March 11.

It has since seen an escalation in radation exposure, hydrogen explosion and exposure of spent fuel rods.

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