In a time of "global uncertainty, anxiety and fear" the world "must come together and recommit" to "nuclear non-proliferation, disarmament and to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy", International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi has said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is already working with Australia on the "complex" issue of ensuring nuclear safeguards in relation to its proposed acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines under the trilateral AUKUS partnership, the organisation's Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said today.

An International Atomic Energy Agency team of experts has completed a follow-up nuclear security advisory mission to Finland. The International Physical Protection Advisory Service mission included a review of the legislative and regulatory framework for the physical protection of nuclear material and associated facilities and activities.

The International Atomic Energy Agency says it conducted more than 3000 in-field verification activities at more than 1300 nuclear facilities and locations, with more than 14,600 days in the field in 2021 - as well as 2135 additional days in the field spent in quarantine.

Iran has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that it will remove 27 cameras used by the agency to verify and monitor the country's implementation of its nuclear commitments under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

More than 30 kilograms of highly-enriched uranium has been removed from three Japanese research sites and sent to the USA for downblending or disposal, the US National Nuclear Security Administration announced.

The IVG.1M research reactor in Kurchatov, Kazakhstan, has been restarted following the completion of a project to convert it from using highly enriched uranium fuel to low-enriched uranium fuel, the country's National Nuclear Centre announced.

A shipment of plutonium accumulated from inspection samples collected in support of the International Atomic Energy Agency's safeguards mission has been removed from the agency's laboratory in Austria to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the USA.

The International Atomic Energy Agency and the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran have agreed a series of steps, to be conducted over the coming months, to accelerate and strengthen their cooperation and dialogue aimed at the resolution of outstanding safeguards issues related to three particular locations in Iran.

International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi has called for more countries to conclude and bring into force an Additional Protocol to their Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA. The protocol gives IAEA inspectors wider access to locations and information as part of a push to further bolster the global nuclear non-proliferation regime.

Worldwide supplies of molybdenum-99 made without using highly enriched uranium are now sufficient for the USA to ban exports of HEU material for foreign medical isotope production.
 

Negotiations to address outstanding nuclear verification issues in Iran have so far been inconclusive, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said yesterday. Negotiations among parties to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action - Iran and five world powers - are expected to resume in Vienna next week.