IAEA's ElBaradei reviews nuclear developments

Monday, 10 March 2008

The Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) concluded a three-day meeting last week. The meeting began on 3 March with an address by Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the IAEA, in which he disclosed that a 17% increase in uranium resources had been determined.

ElBaradei addressing the IAEA Board of Governors (Image: IAEA)

Citing rising interest in nuclear power for electricity generation, ElBaradei said that more countries are seeking IAEA assistance for energy analysis and planning, among other expert services. He noted that there is increased demand for IAEA missions to countries interested specifically in starting nuclear power programmes. He said that missions to seven countries were conducted during 2007. The IAEA is extremely secretive about the actual identities of any countries it is talking with.

ElBaradei said that the safety performance of the nuclear industry in 2007 "on the whole, remained high." He added, "However, it is essential to maintain vigilance, continuously improve safety culture and enhance the international sharing of experience." He noted, "Changes in world markets and technology are having an impact on both the nuclear industry and regulators as never before."

With regards emergency preparedness, ElBaradei said that much progress has been made in recent years. "Even so," he remarked, "many member states still do not have an adequate level of nuclear and radiological emergency preparedness and response capability."

Uranium resources up 17%

ElBaradei noted that in 2007 the IAEA's projections for the future of nuclear power were revised upwards to between 450 and 690 GWe of installed nuclear capacity by 2030. ElBaradei also said that higher uranium prices helped to prompt new exploration and reassessments and the identified uranium resources reported in the forthcoming edition of Uranium: Resources, Production and Demand (commonly referred to as the 'Red Book') will be 17% higher than in the last edition. The 'Red Book' is published by the IAEA and the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) every two years. Total identified resources given in the 2005 edition were 4.743 million tonnes at a recovery cost of less than $130/kgU; 3.804 million tonnes at less than $80/kgU; and, more than 2.746 million tonnes at less than $40/kgU.

ElBaradei said, "I have been advocating for some time the establishment of a multinational mechanism to assure access for all countries to nuclear fuel and reactor technology, and simultaneously to strengthen the non-proliferation regime. The ultimate goal, in my view, should be to bring sensitive aspects of the fuel cycle under multinational control, so that no one country has the exclusive capability to produce the material for nuclear weapons." He noted that a number of member states are working on such proposals.