The European Union has expressed its "resolute commitment to and continued support for" the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in a statement to the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors. It expressed concern about Iran's continued accumulation of low enriched uranium in excess of JCPoA thresholds.

Addressing the United Nations General Assembly for the first time since his appointment as director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi spoke of the global impact of COVID-19 and climate change, as well as of the role of nuclear technologies in tackling these and other development challenges.

Experts from around the world met virtually last week to provide feedback for an International Atomic Energy Agency initiative to catalogue and analyse the status of, and major challenges faced by, decommissioning programmes worldwide. The Global Status of Decommissioning project aims to complete a report by the end of next year.

Three independent Japanese experts are to monitor the collection of marine samples near the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on behalf of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The aim is to support the quality assurance of data collection and analysis by Japanese laboratories for radioactivity measurements.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has developed arrangements to help countries respond quickly to protect the public and the environment in the event of an accident involving radioactive materials launched into orbit or travelling in spacecraft.

Achieving the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires international organisations overcoming bureaucratic barriers and forging partnerships, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said yesterday. "Partnerships are both a moral imperative, but also a practical necessity," he said during a virtual panel discussion on Partnership for the Goals at the World Health Summit in Berlin.

Germany is showing continued strong support for the International Atomic Energy Agency's mission to foster global peace and development, even as the country phases out its own use of nuclear power, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said yesterday during a two-day visit to Germany. Decommissioning and waste management will be important areas for future cooperation between Germany and the IAEA, he said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has announced that Rosatom Technical Academy has become the first IAEA Collaborating Centre to extend its work with the Vienna-based agency into three different programmatic areas: nuclear sciences and applications, nuclear security and nuclear energy.

Budapest University of Technology and Economics has become the seventh university in the world to offer a programme as part of the International Nuclear Management Academy, which is endorsed by the International Atomic Energy Agency. During a webinar hosted by the IAEA last week, Professor Attila Aszódi, BME programme executive, described the importance of this achievement.

A "solid group" of 10-12 countries building nuclear power plants for the first time will emerge in the next decade, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi told OECD Nuclear Energy Agency Director General William Magwood in a WebChat last week.

The scale of the climate challenge means the world cannot afford to exclude nuclear power - the world's second-biggest source of low-carbon electricity, Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, and Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, wrote in an op-ed published by CNN on 9 October.

World Nuclear Association Director General Agneta Rising said today that the changes needed to transition to a more sustainable future will not happen without the participation of a diverse workforce, and the greater inclusion of women. Speaking to participants in a side event to the International Atomic Energy Agency's 64th General Conference, Rising said the energy sector remains one of the most gender-imbalanced, and that the nuclear sector was no exception.