Australia seeks urgent briefings from Japan on nuclear crisis

Sunday 13th March, 06:00 PM JST

SYDNEY —

Australia is very concerned over damaged nuclear reactors in disaster-hit Japan and has asked it for ‘‘urgent briefings’’ on the precise status of those reactors, Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said Sunday.

Rudd, speaking in an interview with ABC News 24, said he took up the matter in a lengthy conversation Saturday night with Japanese Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto, which was also focused on what more Australia can do to assist Japan in the aftermath of Friday’s quake and tsunami disaster.

He said he told Matsumoto that ‘‘we and the rest of the international community need urgent briefings on the precise status of these reactors’’ in Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture, including the technical and safety impacts of an explosion that occurred Saturday.

Rudd said the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Authority and experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency are ‘‘methodically’’ looking into the matter, particularly ‘‘circumstances pertaining to each unit within the two nuclear power plants that we are concerned about.’‘

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