Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said at the IAEA's Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Safety on June 24 that its work will help strengthen "nuclear safety, emergency preparedness, and radiation protection of people and the environment worldwide."

Amano said the Ministerial Declaration forged at the conference "outlines a number of measures to improve nuclear safety" and underscores the commitment to make sure they are implemented.

The officials at the meeting in Vienna, Austria, discussed nuclear safety in the aftermath of the disaster in Japan three months ago.

They called for strengthening IAEA safety standards, reviewing the safety of all nuclear power plants, enhancing the "effectiveness of national nuclear regulatory bodies," strengthening the "global emergency preparedness and response system" and expanding the agency's role in "receiving and disseminating information."

Three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant suffered meltdowns after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northern Japan. The tsunami swamped the plant and knocked out cooling systems that kept the three operating reactors from overheating, leading to the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.