Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant is pictured before
helicopters dump water on the stricken reactor to cool
overheated fuel rods inside the core Thursday morning, March 17,
2011. "Preventing the Next Fukushima" May 26, 2011 This week,
the leaders of the G8 industrial democracies will gather in
France. Among other things, they will discuss what steps must be
taken to strengthen global nuclear safety (designed to prevent
nuclear accidents) and global nuclear security (designed to
prevent terrorist sabotage or theft of nuclear materials) in the
aftermath of the tragedy at Fukushima. These discussions will
feed in to a ministerial meeting in late June at the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The world community
should take new actions in five key areas. First, the
international community should adopt higher safety standards.
Nuclear facilities must be better prepared for the possibility
of losing both normal and backup electricity, and for possible
damage to their cooling systems, two of the key dri