[11] In November 2010, British newspaper The Guardian reported on a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable originating a year earlier in Vienna, detailing a meeting between Amano and an American ambassador.

The author of the cable summarized a statement by Amano in which the latter offered that he "was solidly in the U.S. court on every key strategic decision, from high-level personnel appointments to the handling of Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program.

"[12] In March 2012, Amano was accused by several former senior IAEA officials of pro-western bias, over-reliance on unverified intelligence and of sidelining sceptics.

[13] In an interview mid-2009 with the Austrian newspaper Die Presse, Yukiya Amano said he was "resolute in opposing the spread of nuclear arms because I am from a country that experienced Hiroshima and Nagasaki".

[2] Yukiya Amano said, at the Center for Energy Sustainability and Economics' Nuclear Power Forum, "it is vital that concerns regarding safety and security are addressed.

This reflects factors including improved design, better operating procedures, a strengthened and more effective regulatory environment and the emergence of a strong safety culture.

At the Forum, Amano said the Philippines "plays an important role at the global level, for example by chairing the Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons."

Amano said, "who had just arrived from the agency's headquarters ... said he would dispatch a team 'within days' to monitor radiation near the damaged plant."

At the meeting, Amano said in his statement, "agreed on the necessity to disclose as much information as possible on the unfolding nuclear crisis in Fukushima.

IAEA has said in a statement when he died: "The Secretariat of the International Atomic Energy Agency regrets to inform with deepest sadness of the passing of Director-General Yukiya Amano.

Located at the outskirts of Vienna, the building houses three of the five laboratories run jointly by the IAEA and the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).