Diplomat led atomic energy agency
VIENNA — Yukiya Amano, the Japanese diplomat who led the International Atomic Energy Agency for a decade and was extensively involved in negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program and the cleanup of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, has died at 72, the agency announced Monday.
Mr. Amano, who had wide experience in disarmament, non-proliferation diplomacy and nuclear energy issues, had been chief of the key U.N. agency that regulates nuclear use worldwide since 2009.
The news of his death comes at a time of increasing concerns and escalating tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, after U.S. President Donald Trump left a 2015 deal with world powers that restricted Iran’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief. Mr. Amano was heavily involved in the yearslong negotiations that led to the landmark Iran nuclear deal.
As head of the IAEA, Mr. Amano also dealt with the aftermath of Japan’s devastating 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant accident, where three reactors went into meltdowns after a tsunami.
The IAEA said Mr. Amano died Thursday, but his family had asked the agency not to disclose his death until a family funeral had taken place Monday. It did not give a cause of death for Mr. Amano or say where he died.
The IAEA said Mary Alice Hayward, the agency’s deputy director general and head of the department of management, would lead the agency in the interim. The IAEA flag was lowered to half-staff in tribute.