Nuclear watchdog questions Japan's handling of Fukushima

"Do not think it cannot happen here."

That was some recent

advice

for the UAE from Akira Omoto, a top official at the Japan Atomic Energy Commission, that country's nuclear regulator.

The warning could just as well have been put to use in Japan, according to a report expected to be presented today at the UN's nuclear agency.

Ministers at the week-long nuclear safety talks that begin today at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna are to see a

report

on the Fukushima Daiichi power plant accident that criticises the Japanese authorities' preparedness for natural disasters and their evacuation plan for potential victims of radiation contamination.

The report's findings underline

mistrust

of the nuclear industry that has grown since March and even come to affect the IAEA itself, which was created in 1957 to be the world's nuclear watchdog. The talks at the agency, where the UAE sits on the governing board, are for the most part behind closed doors.

The UAE's nuclear authorities are closely following the discussions as they proceed with a US$20 billion

plan

to build four reactors in the Western Region, with the first scheduled to come online in 2017.