'Good progress' in global nuclear safety: IAEA

The UN atomic watchdog yesterday said "good progress" was being made in enhancing global nuclear safety, almost a year after implementing an action plan in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.
The programme implemented by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last September involves fresh assessments of the world's 440 nuclear plants and emergency measures, as well as more voluntary "peer review" visits by foreign experts.
"I believe that nuclear power plants have already become safer as a result of the measures taken as outlined in the action plan on nuclear safety," said Denis Flory, the IAEA's deputy director general for nuclear safety and security.
Japan was struck on March 11, 2011 by one of the strongest earthquakes in modern times which sent a tsunami crashing into the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee as radioactivity spewed into the air.
The nuclear crisis did not directly claim any lives, although more than 19,000 people were killed by the force of the tsunami in Japan's worst post-World War II disaster.