Romanian official appointed UN nuclear agency’s interim boss

VIENNA – The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog has appointed senior official Cornel Feruta as its acting director-general pending the naming of a permanent successor to the late Yukiya Amano.

Feruta, a Romanian diplomat, is currently the chief co-ordinator of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency. The IAEA said its board of governors designated him as the agency’s interim leader on Thursday to ensure its “orderly and smooth functioning” until a long-term replacement is in place.

The board earlier Thursday held a minute of silence for Amano, the Japanese diplomat who led the IAEA for a decade until his death last week at age 72. Amano was extensively involved in negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program and the cleanup of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.