On 19 April 2011, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano began his two-day visit to Ukraine, where he addressed the Kiev Summit for Safe and Innovative Use of Nuclear Energy providing an update on the situation following the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan.
He noted that since the 11 March nuclear accident, the IAEA had sent radiation monitoring teams, experts on food safety and the marine environment, as well as specialists in Boiling Water Reactors to Japan. The Agency was providing regular technical briefings to Member States and the media on the situation.
The Director General also briefed participants on an IAEA Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Safety which will be held in Vienna from 20 to 24 June. The Conference is likely to make a preliminary assessment of the Fukushima Daiichi accident, to review nuclear safety generally and to examine the international emergency response system. The Director General stressed that the IAEA will play a central role in these deliberations, as well as in future efforts to further strengthen nuclear safety.
During his initial day in Kiev, the Director General also met the French Prime Minister Francois Fillon.
On Wednesday, 20 April, the Director General will visit the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and will then return to Kiev to meet the Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. The Director General will then join Ukrainian President, the UN Secretary General, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, and the President of the Europe Commission, José Barroso, at an international scientific conference that focuses on the Chernobyl nuclear accident.