India stresses on nuclear safety at IAEA conference

MUMBAI, Jun 21 (PTI) India today emphasised that the international nuclear community should give highest priority to importance of scientific and technical issues of nuclear safety in the implementation of their energy programme in the wake of the Fukushima accident.

"While we focus on legal and procedural aspects of nuclear safety, it is important that the scientific and technical issues of nuclear safety are given a higher priority in the implementation of national nuclear programmes by member states," Atomic Energy Commission chairman Dr Srikumar Banerjee said at the International Atomic Energy Agency's Ministerial Conference on Safety in Vienna yesterday.

It must be recognised that the existing knowledge base with regard to nuclear safety science is rich and the Fukushima incident has in fact validated the scientific postulation of accident scenarios, said Banerjee, according to a Department of Atomic Energy release.

"Knowledge and technology related to nuclear safety should move unrestrictedly across national boundaries because the consequences of a major nuclear accident would be difficult to confine within national frontiers," he said.

Banerjee suggested that IAEA should work towards enabling national regulatory authorities and technical support organisations, involved in nuclear safety research, to freely exchange knowledge and have extensive collaborations.

IAEA should facilitate access to utilities, without extraneous considerations, to the best nuclear safety technology and expertise that is available globally, he said.