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9/15/11 (AEIN) United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has released a twenty-three page report on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster. The paper blamed the meltdown on the power plant's design and called for various steps to improve the safety of nuclear facilities throughout the world, Radio Japan reported Thursday.
The U.N. report stated that designers of the Fukushima Daiichi plant had poorly assessed the threat from natural disasters. It urged countries around the world to take steps aimed at improving the safety of nuclear power plants. It also called for the establishment of a worldwide radiation monitoring system. This system would be operated by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Despite its criticism of the safety measures currently in place, the U.N. report did not call for countries to phase out nuclear power. It pointed to some benefits of atomic energy, including the potential for developing countries to expand access to electricity. However, some opponents of nuclear power would dispute this, pointing to the high cost of constructing plants and storing radioactive waste.
Meanwhile, the Tokyo Electric Power Company continued working to bring the Fukushima Daiichi plant under control. It recently began using new techniques to spray water on the No. 2 reactor in a more thorough manner. The temperature of this reactor was about 114 C (237 F) late Wednesday morning, according to Radio Japan.