# 5558
The UN’s Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will dispatch an expert fact-finding mission to Japan on May 24th to make a preliminary assessment of nuclear safety issues at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant following the March 11th earthquake and Tsunami.
The press announcement reads:
Press Release 2011/06
IAEA Sends International Fact-finding Expert Mission to Japan
17 May 2011 | The International Atomic Energy Agency will dispatch an international expert fact-finding mission to Japan.
Based upon the agreement between the IAEA and the Government of Japan, the mission, comprising nearly 20 international and IAEA experts from a dozen countries, will visit Japan between 24 May and 2 June 2011. Under the leadership of Mr. Mike Weightman, HM Chief Inspector of Nuclear Installations of the United Kingdom, the mission will conduct fact-finding activities at Tokyo Electric Power Company's Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station (NPS) site and in other locations.
The expert mission will make a preliminary assessment of the safety issues linked with TEPCO's Fukushima Dai-ichi NPS accident following the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. During the mission, areas that need further exploration or assessment based on the IAEA safety standards will also be identified.
In the course of the IAEA mission, the international experts will become acquainted with the Japanese lessons learned from the accident and will share their experience and expertise in their fields of competence with the Japanese authorities.
Mr. Weightman will present the mission's report at the Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Safety organised by the IAEA in Vienna from 20 to 24 June 2011, as an important input in the process of reviewing and strengthening the global nuclear safety framework that will be launched by the Conference.
Updates on the situation at the damaged Fukushima facility are coming less frequently from the IAEA, with the last one issued on Friday May 13th.
IAEA Briefing on Fukushima Nuclear Accident (4 - 11 May 2011, 17:00 UTC)
by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Friday, May 13, 2011 at 12:27pm
On Friday, 13 May 2011, the IAEA provided the following information on the status of nuclear safety in Japan:
1. Emergency at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant
Overall, the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant remains very serious.
Each day, however, seems to bring new revelations on the extent of the damage to the fuel rods at the damaged reactors and revised plans to rectify the crisis.
The following report comes from the Voice Of America.
Japan Revises Plan to Bring Fukushima Reactors Under Control
Martyn Williams | Tokyo May 17, 2011
Photo: Reuters
Workers are seen near cable trench pit for the water intake of No.2 reactor at Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) Co.'s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in Fukushima prefecture in this handout photo released by TEPCO on May 17, 2011
Tokyo Electric will step up measures to prevent groundwater contamination at the stricken Fukushima nuclear-power plant amid worries that highly radioactive water is leaking from the core of at least one reactor.
Company officials say work will begin immediately to build a drainage system that will pump the water to a reprocessing facility where much of the radioactivity can be removed. It will then be re-circulated through the cooling system.
Recent data analysis concluded a meltdown of nuclear fuel likely occurred within a day of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated the region. The melted fuel is thought to have created holes allowing water to leak from the center of the reactor.
The work is one of the new measures in Tokyo Electric's plan for taking the Fukushima Daiichi plant from crisis to stability. Other measures will be visually apparent at the plant in the coming months.
That more than two months later the story continues to evolve regarding the hours and days immediately following the disaster should come as no great surprise.
As I wrote in The Fog Of Disaster Reporting, two days after the earthquake struck:
Early reports from the ground during any major disaster are usually fragmentary, often misleading, and occasionally just downright wrong.
Over the past 60 days, we’ve seen our share of `erroneous’ reports.
Obviously, it is important to learn exactly what happened at Fukushima, what responses were mounted, and what worked . . . and what didn’t.
While one always hopes another disaster of this sort never happens, there are lessons to be learned here. Particularly from the things that did not work as planned.
Lessons that could save lives the next time the `unthinkable’ happens.
