By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Russia has conducted “stress tests” on the country’s nuclear power plants that showed they would be able to withstand natural disasters of the type recently seen in Japan, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said.
“We are convinced that Russian nuclear reactor technology conforms to all safety requirements,” Sechin – in charge of the fuel and energy sector – said during a nuclear safety summit meeting Tuesday in the Ukrainian capital city of Kiev.
The deputy prime minister said all Russian nuclear power plants were tested for their ability to withstand a 14-metre tsunami and a magnitude-9 earthquake.
He urged other countries with nuclear power to conduct their own stress tests and report them at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s nuclear safety conference to be held in June.
The Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan was badly damaged by a powerful earthquake and tsunami that rocked Japan March 11. The plant’s operator has been struggling to prevent radioactive leaks from the plant’s crippled reactors.