THEN&NOW - International Atomic Energy Agency

QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY

THIS ANNIVERSARY EDITION

THEN&NOWThe IAEA Turns Forty

ARMS CONTROL & VERIFICATIONSafeguards in a Changing World.

FROM DREAMS TO NEW REALITIESSteps to Sustain Basic Human Needs

ENERGY&ENVIRONMENTThe Drive for Safer, Cleaner Development

IAEA 2000Challenges of New FrontiersViewpoints of Dr. Hans Blix and Dr. Mohamed EIBaradei

SUPPLEMENT: THE IAEA TURNS FORTYKey Dates & Historical Developments / Insert

IAEA BULLETIN 39/3/1997 (September 1907) ISSN OO2O-6O67 Vienna, Austria

IAF.A BUU.KTIN. 39/3/1997

he International AtomicEnergy Agency turnsforty at a time of hope

and anticipation — movingbeyond the confines of its ownwork as an intergovernmentalbody States created in July1957 as the world's "atoms forpeace" organization. A newmillennium is at hand. Peoplewonder how the next chaptersin the nuclear age will evolve,and how safe and productivethat age will be.

From the global perspective,tomorrow's nuclear age isemerging as far less threatening— and no less promising —than the one being left behindin the dust of the Cold War.Results of global nuclear coop-eration over the past yearsrenewed the hopeful 1950s'vision of "disarming atomicenergy". Though there is still along way to go, the day isdrawing closer when no gov-ernment finds "security" innuclear weapons, and all Statesenshrine their commitmentsagainst the bomb's risks anduncertainties in lasting law.States took some giant stepsover the past decade. Thetreaty to prevent the bomb'sfurther spread was indefinitelyextended. Countries in threemore regions of the worldbound themselves by formingnuclear-weapon-free zones.Nuclear testing was bannedunder a newly adopted globaltreaty. States agreed to new,and more intrusive, safeguardsinspection measures for theIAEA's verification of their

nuclear programmes. Talksopened for the internationalverification of nuclear disarma-ment. All these steps are chart-ing a different course into thenext century. Yet they bringnew and difficult issues to theworlds nuclear agenda.

In the IAEA's relatively shortlifetime, the past ten yearsespecially have been challeng-ing and turbulent times.Setting the stage were far-reaching changes to the world'spolitical landscape. Externalevents swept nuclear issues andthe Agency from the back tothe front pages of newspapersand onto television screens.Reports raised both fears andexpectations about the devel-opment of nuclear technologyand the Agency's role.

This memorable period —the years 1986 to 1997 —isthe focus of this edition of theIAEA Bulletin. The decadetested much of the world'scommon ground. It demon-strated the strengths, and weak-nesses, of global action, andhence challenged the capacity,determination, and experienceof an international organizationand its members. In a realsense, the years brought out thebest of the IAEA's character andtradition, and reconfirmed itsrole in governmental eyes as theworld's central point for nuclearcooperation. (See theSupplement inside for a chronol-ogy covering the IAEA's history.)

For many observers, thedecade was defined by threecrises that deepened worries

and desires for our own, andthe planet's, mutual safety: itopened in 1986 with the tragicaccident at the Chernobylnuclear plant in the Ukraine,when the international commu-nity's responsiveness and com-mitment were tested. Less thanfive years later, in early 1991,the discovery of a secretnuclear-weapon programme inIraq cast doubts on the world'sability to stop the spread of thebomb, and sharply questionedthe capabilities of nationaloperatives and IAEA safeguardsto detect diversions. Within ayear, the nature of the nuclearprogramme in the DemocraticPeople's Republic of Korea(DPRK) was raising prolifera-tion concerns, and the safe-guards system was challengedagain.

These events taught hardlessons that were not lost inbriefing and meeting rooms.Governments incrementallymoved to reinforce andstrengthen global regimes fornuclear safety and safeguards insubstantive and sometimesgroundbreaking ways. Theyused the IAEA as their maincollective instrument of action.A major result has been a muchstronger legal framework forachieving and maintaininghigh levels of nuclear and radi-ation safety, and for verifyingthe exclusively peaceful uses ofnuclear materials. At issuetoday is sustaining the momen-tum, finding ways and meansto more fully fund and activatethe new frameworks that havebeen put into place.

Beyond the crises stands along list of less widely publi-cized events and developmentsover the past decade — infields ranging from arms con-trol to pest control — to

which the IAEA hasresponded. Many of the chal-lenges concern basic humanneeds — for safe food, water,and energy, good health care,and a cleaner environment.

L.uling toward theiK\t millennium, theI \EA is starting

major new chapters in its his-tory. December 1997 will see achange of leadership at thetop. After sixteen years inoffice, Director General HansBlix passes the Secretariat'sstewardship to a newlyappointed leader, Dr.Mohamed ElBaradei of Egypt.He will become only thefourth Director General in theIAEA's history. (See box.)

Another new chapter isopening for nuclear safe-guards, where the IAEA'sinspectorate has been grantedgreater authority and rights ofaccess, in efforts to buildstronger capabilities to detectpossible secret nuclear activi-ties. States now are beingasked to accept the legal docu-ment defining new verificationmeasures. Still other chaptersare opening in fields of nuclearand radiation safety, radioac-tive waste management,nuclear power, and technicalcooperation. New strategiesand approaches target the best"niches" for proven nucleartechnologies, promote wideruse of safety standards, andbuild up capabilities to enablemore lasting and direct bene-fits in countries.

How these new chapters cameto be outlined over the past tenyears is the story of this specialanniversary edition. How theyultimately will be writtenremains the subject of anothertime.—Lothar Wedekind, Editor

hen the IAEA Secretariat's toplob changes hands thisDecember, Dr. Hans Blix of

Sweden will turn over the leadership to Dr.Mohamed ElBaradei of Egypt. During hissixteen years in office since 1981, Dr. Blixguided the IAEA through several crises —including the temporary withdrawal of theUSA from the IAEA at the end of 1982, theChernobyl disaster, and violations of their 'Isafeguards agreements by Iraq and the DPRK. As observers havenoted, under his direction the Agency accomplished much to enhanceits authority and role in international affairs, and to bolster the inter-national legal regime for nuclear energy. His analysis of the lessonsof Iraq provided the framework for a strengthened safeguards pro-gramme approved by the Board in May 1997 — the most importantdevelopment in international nuclear safeguards since the NPT safe-guards system was set up in 1971.

Dr. ElBaradei was appointed to succeedDr. Blix in June 1997 by a unanimousdecision of the Agency's 35-member

^ . _ *M Board of Governors. The IAEA General" ' V -JU Conference is expected to approve his

appointment to an initial four-year termstarting in December. Dr. ElBaradeiholds the rank of Ambassador in theEgyptian Foreign Service. He is a dis-tinguished international lawyer and

diplomat and author of numerous publications on the UnitedNations, the IAEA and international law. He has served the IAEAsince 1984 in several senior capacities, currendy as Assistant DirectorGeneral for External Relations.Dr. ElBaradei becomes only the fourthDirector General of the IAEA in fortyyears. The second was Dr. Sigvard Eklund,a distinguished Swedish scientist firstappointed in 1961. Dr. Eklund was reap-pointed four more times and held the postfor twenty consecutive years until heretired and was named Director GeneralEmeritus. It was during his tenure thatthe main scientific and technical pro-

grammes, including supporting researchand analytical laboratories, were establishedand developed.At the top during the IAEA's formativeyears was Mr. Sterling Cole of the UnitedStates, the first appointed IAEA DirectorGeneral who served from 1957-61. A USCongressman, he had been the Chairmanof the Joint Committee on Atomic Energyof the US Congress.

• "V"

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IAEA BULLETIN, 39/3/199/

ARMS CONTROL& VERIFICATIONSAFEGUARDS IN A CHANGING WORLD

IAEA BULLETIN, 39/3/1997

L ike a locomotive climb-ing mountainside rails,

„ . the world's regime to dis-arm the atom has steamedalong over the past quarter cen-tury, twisting, turning, rolling,rising, sometimes withoutmuch fuel and on uneventracks. Historic events of thepast decade have tested the met-tle of its frame and engineers.

States regard the IAEA as akey part of that global engine.The Agency's internationalsafeguards system - the world'sfirst for on-site verification ofarms-control commitments —serves to ensure that Statescomply with their legal under-takings not to develop or pro-duce nuclear weapons. Its ele-ments include technical mea-sures and on-site inspectionscarried out under safeguardsagreements to verify the peace-ful nature of nuclear activities.

Of all the events over thepast decade, the case of Iraqchallenged the engine's limits,and sought to exploit them.Unknown to the IAEA andundisclosed by any State thathad strong suspicions, Iraqsecretly pursued a nuclear-weapons programme in the1980s, breaching its commit-ment under the Treaty on theNon Proliferation of NuclearWeapons (NPT) and its safe-

guards agreement with theIAEA. The attempt was discov-ered in 1991, after Iraq's inva-sion of Kuwait triggered a UNresponse and the ensuing GulfWar. In the spring of 1991, theUN Security Council, under aceasefire resolution, moved todismantle and destroy Iraq'scapabilities for weapons ofmass destruction, setting up aSpecial Commission andauthorizing the ways andmeans to do the job. TheCouncil granted the IAEAunprecedented inspectionrights to root out and eliminatethe nuclear-weapons pro-gramme — rights that involvedunlimited access to any placeand any person at any time,unrestricted use of logisticalmeasures, and the applicationof new verification techniques.Member States also providedaccess to information, includ-ing satellite imagery. Theinspections had the collectiveweight, and sanctions power, ofthe Council behind them.

The special operation inIraq had international legalauthority far beyond thatfound in IAEA comprehensivesafeguards agreements. Evenso, the IAEA's Iraq ActionTeam faced a demanding task,not free of Iraqi resistance.The most publicized event:

the four-day detention ofAgency inspectors inSeptember 1991 in a Baghdadparking lot, after they haduncovered key documents.

Today — six years, morethan 1000 inspections at over200 different sites, and hun-dreds of interviews later — theclandestine Iraqi nuclear-weapons programme has beenuncovered and its componentsdestroyed, removed or ren-dered harmless. To ensure it isnot reconstituted, a system oflong-term monitoring and ver-ification carried out by theAgency's Nuclear MonitoringGroup is now in place, work-ing with support of the UNSpecial Commission. Yet therelevant nuclear know-howremains in the country. (See

ent box.)

aghdad's challengesparked critical evalua-tions of what went

wrong and what to do about it.The review process would takemore than five years, and ulti-mately lay the foundation for astrengthened safeguards sys-tem. (See box, page 7.)

Photo: Prof. Maurizio Zifferero,Leader of the IAEA Iraq ActionTeam until shortly before illnessclaimed his life in June 1997.

•-•,? . - i\t v

' "he problems that theIAEA and the NPTregime faced in Iraq were

not unique to nuclear non-pro-liferation. Any other arms con-trol or disarmament treaty, forinstance the Chemical WeaponsConvention, the BiologicalWeapons Convention, and theComprehensive Test Ban Treaty,could run into similar problems.

The Iraqi case showed that adetermined and authoritarianState with very large financialresources and a skilled and ded-icated nuclear establishmentcould defy its obligations underthe NPT and evade detectionfor many years. This evasionmay have been helped by thefact that, during the Iran-Iraqwar, Western governmentstended to tilt towards Iraq,which also received supportfrom the Soviet Union.Whether the clandestine pro-gramme would have remainedundetected, once the large elec-tromagnetic isotope separationplants went into full produc-tion, is an open question. So,too, is the question of theuniqueness of Iraq's circum-stances — its internal political

structure, its technical andfinancial resources and itsregional and international polit-ical environment. What is notopen to question is that, even ifthe physical aspects of the Iraqiprogramme have been com-pletely eliminated, it neverthe-less left Iraqi scientists and engi-neers with an invaluable storeof practical knowledge aboutthe production and processingof fissile material and the con-struction of a nuclear warhead.

The world is unlikely to everhave a completely effective non-proliferation regime or safe-guards that are completely fool-proof. That is, of course, no rea-son for taking safeguards out ofthe hands of the IAEA as somesuggested after the Gulf War;rather it underlines the contin-uing need to strengthen theregime and to enhance the effi-cacy of the IAEA's operation.

...There was, however, noescaping the fact that the firstbreach of an IAEA safeguardsagreement had been by the useof unsuspected and unwatchedclandestine plants, and not bydiverting declared materials andcheating the IAEA's material

accountancy. The IAEA wasseen by many as having failed its(presumably) first diversiondetection text; it had patentlybeen unable to detect a largeand longstanding undeclaredprogramme. Without the GulfWar, the IAEA might not havediscovered the programme untilthe Iraqi government openlydemonstrated that it hadacquired the bomb. While thisjudgement would have beenunduly harsh — the DirectorGeneral, his staff, the ActionTeam, and the Board ofGovernors acted swiftly anddecisively and dealt effectivelywith a new and unforeseenchallenge — there was nodoubt that a fundamentalreview and redirection of theexisting IAEA safeguards sys-tem was essential. It is to thecredit of the IAEA that thisreview was promptly under-taken and first applied in thecaseoftheDPRK.

— Excerpts from David Fischer'snew book on the IAEA's history.See the back cover of theSupplement to this edition formore information about it.

The Iraqi case had radicallychanged the political environ-ment and raised the stakes. Italtered how States perceivedtheir own national security vis-a-vis IAEA safeguards. As aresult, they were more willingto extend greater latitude tothe Agency in interpreting itsrights and obligations, thoughnot at first. Some States strictly

saw the IAEA's job as verifyingStates' declarations, not to con-duct "fishing expeditions" toseek out undeclared material.There was also considerablepolitical sensitivity about theIAEA's use of informationacquired other than from theState itself, in particular infor-mation acquired through"national technical means".

A sign of what could beachieved came in 1991 and1992, when IAEA DirectorGeneral Blix secured threemeasures he deemed essential ifthe IAEA were to be able toprevent another State from try-ing to follow Iraq's example. AsDavid Fischer, author of a newbook about the IAEA,recounts: First, the Agency's IAEA BULLETIN, 39/3/1997


Board of Governors reaffirmedthe IAEA's right to carry out aspecial inspection in a State thathad accepted comprehensivesafeguards, if needed to confirmthat all nuclear material thatshould be under safeguards hadbeen reported to the IAEA.

Second, the Board ofGovernors agreed to providethe IAEA with greater access toinformation. As Dr. Blix put it,the IAEA could not scour theterritories of numerous non-nuclear-weapon States party tothe NPT "in a blind search" forundeclared nuclear plants ormaterial. The right to carry outspecial inspections would notbe or much practical valueunless the IAEA knew where tolook. The Board concurred in aseries of proposals to ensurethat the Agency would havemore extensive informationabout the nuclear activities andplans of States concerned.

Third, the Board ofGovernors agreed that thebacking of the SecurityCouncil would be essential if anation blocked effective verifi-cation of its safeguards agree-ment with the IAEA. Thatcame on 31 January 1992,when the Council's Presidentissued a declaration on behalfof its members, represented atthe meeting by their Heads ofState or government. TheCouncil considered that theproliferation of all weapons ofmass destruction constituted athreat to international peaceand security and its memberswould take appropriate mea-sures in the case of any viola-tion reported by the IAEA.

o initially reinforced,the system was unex-pectedly tested again, in

the Democratic People's

Republic of Korea (DPRK) inearly 1992. Like Iraq, thecountry was party to the NPTand had concluded a compre-hensive safeguards agreementwith the Agency. Questionsarose almost from the start,when the Agency found dis-crepancies concerning declaredamounts of plutonium. Whenthe Director General formallydemanded a special inspection,the DPRK rejected it. TheIAEA Board found the DPRKin breach of its safeguardsagreement and reported it tothe Security Council, whichbacked the Agency. Events cas-caded from there, includingrounds of high-level politicaltalks between the DPRK andthe United States. In October1994, the two countries signedan Agreed Framework thatincluded provisions to freezekey elements of the DPRK'snuclear programme and tohave the IAEA verify it.

The situation largely pre-vails. The Agency's ongoingverification includes havinginspectors continuously sta-tioned in the DPRK, andensuring that nuclear installa-tions subject to the freeze areactually frozen. Other issuesoriginally identified by theIAEA remain unresolved. TheDPRK still has not compliedfully with its safeguardsagreement, and the Agencyhas not yet gained access toinformation needed for acomprehensive picture of thenuclear programme.Questions remain about thecompleteness of the initialdeclaration of nuclear activi-ties. As past events haveshown, how the issues areultimately resolved may welldepend upon factors outsidethe Agency's control.

he DPRK case seriouslychallenged the integrityof the system, and still

does. But as author DavidFischer points out, the first newverification approaches paid off:

The IAEA detected a mis-match between the plutoniumthat the DPRK presented to itas products or in waste usingsophisticated analytical tech-niques. This led the IAEA toconclude that the DPRK hadunderstated the amount ofplutonium it had separated.

The IAEA Board ofGovernors formally reaffirmedthe IAEA's right, in the con-text of comprehensive safe-guards agreements, to carryout special inspections atundeclared locations. TheDPRK's rejection of suchinspections deepened suspi-cions of its programme.

The IAEA was providedwith satellite images of suffi-ciently high quality to con-vince its Board of the probableexistence of undeclared nuclearwaste stores. This also estab-lished a useful precedent forIAEA access to national intelli-gence.

The Board demonstratedthat it was able to take promptand decisive action, confirm-ing within four days theDirector General's demand fora special inspection and thricefinding that the DPRK hadbreached its safeguards agree-ment, reporting violations tothe Security Council.

For the first time (exceptin the abnormal circum-stances of Iraq) the Boardmade use of the IAEA's directline to the Security Councilto draw the Council's atten-tion to a deliberate and signif-icant violation of a safeguardsagreement.

ew safeguards measuresadopted this year haveopened a ground-

breaking new track. They are theoutgrowth of governmental andIAEA efforts since 1991 to givethe safeguards system more teeth— a much greater chance to dis-cover possible secret nuclearactivities. The IAEA Board ofGovernors in May 1997adopted a model protocol tocomprehensive safeguards agree-ments that grants the inspec-torate broader rights of access tosites and information. Statesaccepting the protocol will pro-vide additional information onnuclear and related activities.Moreover, the IAEA will havegreater access to activities andlocations to detect clandestinenuclear programmes.

The protocol is the direct out-come of a two-part process forachieving a strengthened andmore cost-effective safeguardssystem. Part-1, approved by theIAEA Board in 1995 and beingimplemented now, includes:

Environmental sampling atlocations to which the IAEAhas access for design informa-tion verification or inspections.It is considered a powerful toolfor detecting the presence ofundeclared activities at or neardeclared nuclear sites.Ill "No-notice" inspections atthe strategic points of allnuclear facilities.# The Agency's right ofaccess to records of activitiescarried out before a safeguardsagreement enters into force, tohelp ensure that all material

has been declared. The Boardin 1995 confirmed the right.(:';.: Use of advanced technolo-gies that can operate unattend-ed to transmit information toIAEA headquarters.

Part-2 measures incorporatedin the protocol include:O An "expanded declaration"to provide information onactivities related to the nuclearfuel cycle. This will help givethe IAEA a better understand-ing of a State's nuclear pro-gramme, its future directions,and the kinds of nuclear activi-ties the programme's infra-structure could support.Hi Access to any place on anuclear facility site, to anydecommissioned facility, andto any other location wherenuclear material is present; tonuclear-related manufacturingand other locations identifiedby the State in its expandeddeclaration; and to other loca-tions identified by the IAEA.Ill The use of environmentalsampling and other measuresat these locations.

It will take some years beforethe strengthened system is fullyand generally operative. TheIAEA has initiated the processof acceptance by governments,and some already are taking stepsto adhere to the protocol.

In Vienna, the Agency's imme-diate challenge is to integrate andadequately fund its conventionaland new safeguards operations,with an eye to greater overall effi-ciency and effectiveness. IAEADeputy Director General forSafeguards, Bruno Pellaud, sees it

as a transition to a "two lane,or two speed" safeguards sys-tem — with one lane for Stateshaving only a safeguards agree-ment in force, and the otherlane covering States that haveadded the protocol to their safe-guards agreements and acceptedthe new, Part-2 verificationmeasures.

This new Strengthened Safe-guards System, he says, will makethe work of the IAEA difficultand complex. But he is convincedthat widi die combined efforts ofMember States, the Agency'sBoard, and its Secretariat, thechallenge will be met.

Valuable experience has beengained through trials of somemeasures — including remotemonitoring, environmentalsampling, and closer coopera-tion with State nuclear-controlauthorities — as well as throughan import/export reportingscheme approved by the IAEABoard in 1992. The schemetoday encompasses 52 States,including most nuclear suppliers.

—Based on papers and statementsby Dr. Hans Blix, Bruno Pellaud,and Richard Hooper, Director ofthe IAEA Safeguards Division ofConcepts & Planning and pro-

ject leader of the "93+2 " safe-guards development programme.

Photo: Inspections in Iraq. IAEA

inspector Demetrius Perricos (centre)

now carries responsibilities that

include safeguards in the DPRK. IAEA BULLETIN, 39/3/1997


s warmer winds calmedR the global security

environment in the1990s, a third major test arose.In March 1993, South Africaannounced to a startled worldthat it had dismantled itsnuclear-weapons programme— before it acceded to theNPT as a non-nuclear-weaponState in July 1991 and signedan IAEA comprehensive safe-guards agreement not muchlater. The news prompted theIAEA to augment its safeguardsteam in South Africa with,among other specialists,nuclear-weapon experts. Theteam's assignment was extendedto include assessing the status ofthe former weapons programmeand ascertaining that all itsrelated nuclear material hadbeen recovered and placedunder safeguards.

The job to verify the cor-rectness, and for the first timethe completeness of a State'sdeclared nuclear programme,was tough. South Africa'sextensive nuclear fuel cyclerequired considerableresources to inspect and itrequired help from SouthAfrican authorities for accessto facilities and operatingrecords. Over the months thatfollowed, the team thoroughlyexamined detailed records, vis-ited sites, and verified theinventories of nuclear materi-als in South Africa. As a result,it was able to document thetiming and scope of the for-mer nuclear-weapons pro-gramme. The work enabledthe IAEA to conclude thatthere were no indications tosuggest that South Africa's ini-tial declaration of nuclearmaterial to the Agency wasincomplete or that thenuclear-weapons programme

had not been completely ter-minated and dismantled.

The case broadened theIAEA's verification experience,and demonstrated key factors atplay. For its part, South Africaoffered every opportunity foraccess to any location the IAEAinspectorate deemed necessaryto fulfill its tasks. This enabledthe Agency to effectively applynew verification techniques andmake valuable use of externalinformation. As importantly,the case helped show what ispossible when a governmentcredibly pursues a policy ofnuclear transparency.

ehind the headline caseswere less highly publi-cized demands on the

regime, including the safeguardscomponent. The dissolution ofthe Soviet Union in the early1990s meant that Russia andthree newly independent Stateswould have nuclear weapons ontheir territories — Belarus,Kazakhstan, and Ukraine, eachof which since has opted to jointhe NPT and accept compre-hensive IAEA safeguards agree-ments. It also brought the issueof stopping illicit nuclear traf-ficking to the global and IAEAagendas. (See box, page 10.)

Elsewhere, the Agency's rolewas being recast as more Statesformed nuclear-weapon-freezones that call for IAEA verifica-tion. New regional zones since1985 include those in the SouthPacific (Rarotonga Treaty), inSouth East Asia (BangkokTreaty), and in Africa (PelindabaTreaty). They join zones set upearlier in Latin America and theCaribbean (Tlatelolco Treaty), aswell as those in regions havingno human populations(Antartica Treaty, Outer SpaceTreaty, and the Seabed Treaty).

The zones now cover most ofthe Southern Hemisphere.Customizing the zonalapproach, two major countries,Argentina and Brazil, codifiedrenunciations of nuclearweapons. They opened theirlarge nuclear programmes tojoint inspections, formed a bilat-eral inspectorate, and in 1994concluded a quadripartite agree-ment accepting comprehensiveIAEA safeguards. Then in May1995, the parties to the NPT,today numbering 185 countries,extended the Treaty indefinitely,and thereby the permanency ofassociated IAEA safeguards. Asthe 1990s draw to a close, ongo-ing progress in nuclear disarma-ment places other verificationtasks on the table as warheadsare dismantled. A net result isthat more nuclear materials andinstallations have come underIAEA safeguards and verificationover the past decade, as newagreements are activated withnon-nuclear-weapon States, andthe nuclear-weapon States seekto verify their arms cuts. (Seegraphs and box at right.)

ot lost in this chang-ing picture is the chal-lenge of costs.

Spending for safeguards, andother IAEA programmes, hasseen little growth in real termsover the past decade, and inseveral cases following thebreakup of the Soviet Union,deep cuts were imposed thatextrabudgetary contributionsfrom some States only partlyoffset.

Steps to minimize costs arebuilt into the IAEA'sStrengthened SafeguardsSystem. Measures taken orunder consideration target the"optimization of resources",often linked to better use of

SAFIGUAiDID INSTALLATIONS

1996

1994

1992

1990

1988

1986

800 850 900 950 1000 1050

Nuclear installations under IAEA safeguards

SAFIiUAiiS AGIiiltf UTS

1100

1996

1995

1990

1985

100 150 200

I Number of safeguards agreements in force

I Number of States with agreement;, in force

250

modern communications, newverification technologies, andautomated office systems.They include expanding theuse of the IAEA's two regionalsafeguards offices in Torontoand Tokyo; concluding a part-nership agreement for jointsafeguards operations with theEuropean Atomic EnergyCommunity inspectorate;reducing the frequency ofinspections at certain facilities;greater use of unattended mea-surement and surveillance

equipment with remote trans-mission of data; consideringmore regional safeguardsoffices to save travel costs andfacilitate inspections; expandedtraining of inspectors; andjoint use of equipment andanalytical laboratories by theIAEA and State nuclear-con-trol authorities.

The steps are expected tokeep the strengthened pro-gramme cost-neutral overtime, once higher start-upexpenses are met. Right now,

dismantling of nuclearJwarheads is releasinglarge quantities of pluto-

nium and high-enriched uranium,adding to global stockpiles fromcivilian reprocessing of nuclear fueland placing new demands onIAEA verification. By die end of1996, die Agency was safeguard-ing materials including:C 53.7 tonnes of separatedplutonium. Just over sixteentonnes, or about 2000 "signifi-cant quantities" (roughly theequivalent of some 2000 war-heads) were safeguarded innon-nuclear-weapon States.0 528.2 tonnes of plutoniumin irradiated fuel.© 4.5 tonnes of recycled plu-tonium in fuel elements inreactor cores.# 2 0 . 8 tonnes of high-enriched uranium, amountingto 616 significant quantities.Just over ten tonnes, or about300 significant quantities,were safeguarded in non-nuclear-weapon States.HI 48,620 tonnes of low-enriched uranium and105,431 tonnes of sourcematerial (natural or depleteduranium and thorium).

Of all these materials, only sep-arated plutonium and high-enriched uranium can be direcdyused in nuclear weapons. Still, allof die safeguarded material mustbe inspected and its uses verified.

In response to global concernabout growing separated pluto-nium stocks, the IAEA began in1993 to create a database on theamounts in civilian nuclear pro-grammes and closely followedthe work of its Member Stateswhich are in the process of iden-tifying additional confidence-building measures relating to thesafe handling, storage, and dis-posal of plutonium.


ANT1 NUCLEAR-TRAFFICKINGAtroubling concern of

the 1990s surroundsthe spectre of stolen

nuclear materials being tradedor sold on the black market.Many reported cases of illicittrafficking in nuclear materialsfocused global attention on theproblem in the early and mid-1990s, and led to concertedefforts to combat the smug-gling. In April 1996, theNuclear Safety and SecuritySummit in Moscow underlinedthe importance of preventingthe problem, and agreed on aprogramme of joint action.

In some areas, States haveturned to the IAEA for assis-tance. As early as 1992, theAgency began helping successorStates of the Soviet Union toapply effective preventive mea-sures. It also encouraged them,and other States, to ratify andapply the 1987 Convention onthe Physical Protection ofNuclear Materials, and to applythe IAEA's guidelines on physi-cal protection, to guard againstthe theft or diversion of nuclear

material in global transport andat nuclear facilities.

The IAEAs programme againstillicit trafficking covers a numberof components related to pre-vention, response, training, andthe exchange of information.While national authorities carrythe responsibility to combat illicittrafficking in their countries,effective action requires closecooperation among States andinternational organizations. Overrecent years, States have asked theAgency to assist relevant nationalauthorities and regional andglobal organizations in variousways. The programme includesthe development and operation ofa reliable database on incidentsof illicit trafficking. Since October1996, the Agency has providedauthoritative summary informa-tion of confirmed cases to itsMember States and certain inter-national organizations workingwith the IAEA on the problem.Most confirmed cases so far,about 150 over the 1993-97period, have involved low-enriched or natural uranium in

small quantities and radioactivesources. Some cases haveinvolved high-enriched uraniumor plutonium. Attempts havebeen made to illegally sell thematerials. Also, cases involvingweapons-grade material in smallquanities deserve attention in thecontext of non-proliferation,since larger quantities of nuclearmaterial having strategic valuecould be accumulated. In gen-eral, the unauthorized use ormovement of radioactive mater-ial can endanger the lives of peo-ple handling it and can threatenpublic safety.

The IAEA plans to continueassisting countries in the devel-opment of national systems forthe control of nuclear materialsand providing technical supportrelated to areas of physical pro-tection. Also planned is continuedinteraction with Member Statesand international organizations,such as customs and otherauthorities mainly responsible fordetection, prevention, and con-trol.— Based on reports by SveinThorstensen and Anita Nilsson.


future financial needs are hardto pin down, though it's clearmore resources are needed.One major uncertainty: howmany States, and when, willaccept the new verificationmeasures and allow the IAEAto start implementing them.

fter years of negotia-tions stalled in Geneva,

f a Comprehensive TestBan Treaty was approved andopened for signature by the UN

General Assembly in September1996. The organization to ver-ify the commitments of Statesparry to the Treaty is being setup in Vienna. Thoughprospects for the Treaty's earlyentry into force are cloudy, ithas near-universal backing todrive a deeper nail into the cof-fin of nuclear testing.

Up ahead may be an agree-ment to cut off the productionof fissile material for nuclearweapons. If one is concluded, as

David Fischer points out, morematerials could come underIAEA verification from the fivedeclared military nuclear pow-ers — China, France, Russia,United Kingdom, and UnitedStates — and the three remain-ing States that are operatingunsafeguarded nuclear plants,India, Israel, and Pakistan.Pending future treaty provi-sions, the States may berequired to place under IAEAsafeguards all their reprocessing

and enrichment plants, and allthe plutonium and high-enriched uranium produced bythose plants that continue tooperate, as well as any otherplants using such material.

uring the decade,0 States entrusted the

IAEA inspectoratewith new tasks for the interna-tional verification of armscontrol and nuclear disarma-ment. It already verifies abouttwelve tons of ex-military plu-tonium and highly enricheduranium in storage in theUSA. Under a TrilateralInitiative with the USA andRussia, the dimensions of fur-ther verification arrangementsare being closely examined forfissile materials released fromweapons programmes.

No one should under-esti-mate the new assignments,notes Bruno Pellaud, IAEADeputy Director forSafeguards. In remarks at anInternational Policy Forum inthe USA earlier this year, hereviewed major issues con-fronting the global community:

"The process of nuclear dis-armament will pose challengesto domestic, regional, andinternational security, to eco-nomic growth and to environ-mental protection. Even thebeginning steps being taken bythe United States and Russiaare not without problems: dis-mantling the tens of thousandsof warheads is creating a sur-plus of plutonium and highlyenriched uranium which is nolonger needed for defense pro-grammes, and that plutoniumand highly enriched uraniumdemands protection and pru-dent disposal. Concerns remainthat those materials might bestolen through force or guile, or

that relations between theUnited States and Russia mightsour and today's surplus materi-als might be used to jump starta resurgent nuclear arms race.

"If the storage and disposi-tion of those fissile materials iscarried out in a prudent man-ner, Russia and the UnitedStates may agree to furtherarms reductions, other nuclear-weapon States may begin toreduce their arsenals indepen-dently or in lock-step, and theinternational community willbe more effective in efforts toprevent any further prolifera-tion of nuclear weapons.

"The international commu-nity, in particular the IAEA, willneed to find ways to meet thechallenge of a verificationassignment that goes beyond theexperience accumulated so far indie area of non-proliferation."

Concerning the IAEA'semerging role, he said that pre-liminary work has started,within the framework of theTrilateral Initiative, to set up averification system that "mayultimately parallel the non-pro-liferation IAEA safeguards sys-tem". He emphasized that talksare still in early stages, with

many legal, technical, andfinancial details to be workedout on questions related to thenature, scope, and specificrequirements of verification.The overall objective is to pro-vide credible assurances thatfissile materials submitted forverification are not used againfor nuclear explosive purposes.—Lothar Wedekind, based oncontributions, papers, and arti-cles by Dr. Hans Blix, BrunoPellaud, Dr. MohamedElBaradei, Ms. Jan Priest, Ms.Laura Rockwood, RichardHooper, Dirk Schriefer, Ms.Merle Opelz, BerhanAndemicael, David Fischer,David Sinden, Thomas Shea,Ms. Anita Nilsson, GarryDillon, Demetrius Perricos,Adolph von Baeckmann, andSvein Thorstensen.

Photo: A storage facility being built

near Ozyarsk, Russia will house mate-

rial from dismantled nuclear weapons.

President Yeltsin has said the IAEA

will be asked to verify that this mater-

ial is not reused for weapons. Recently

Director General Blix (left) and senior

IAEA officers met with Russian offi-

cials and visited the construction site.

(Credit: IAEA) IAEA BULLETIN, 39/3/1997

FROM *ntomic energy inspiredhigh and lofty dreamsgenerations ago — of

electricity so cheap to generatethat people everywhere couldhave it...of cars, trains, and fly-ing machines that would runon longlife powerpacks...ofdesalting ocean waters andturning arid deserts green. AsDavid Fischer recounts in hisrich history of the IAEA,many people then so fiercelyawakened to the atom's darkside in the warn-torn 1940slater strongly embraced the1950s cause of harnessing itsbrighter future. WinstonChurchill saw the peacefulatom as a "perennial fountainof world prosperity". He wasnot alone among the day'spoliticians or scientists.

Alongside deep fears and starkrealities of the post-war years,those early dreams set theimperatives, popular images,and expectations for the peace-ful development of atomicenergy, and the roles of theIAEA. Not all the dreams with-stood the tests of time, andsome died early But many morewere studied, pursued, anddemonstrated in research labo-ratories, hospitals, and farmersfields. They yield lasting resultssocieties benefit from today.

The past decade's majorevents and political changestransformed the global picturesignificantly, and left their sig-nature on the IAEA's pro-grammes for peaceful nuclearcooperation. Chernobyl, theGulf War, the Iraq inspections,alarms over global warming,health problems of "hiddenhunger", agricultural threats inAfrica and Latin America, con-cerns over radiological safety at

old nuclear dumping and test-ing sites in the Arctic seas andthe South Pacific— all com-manded action. They tested thecapabilities of nuclear-basedtools and the readiness of theIAEA to mobilize its own andothers' analytical, laboratory,and technical resources forinvestigating, solving, and pre-venting serious problems.

Now, as the decade unwinds,nuclear technologies, likemany others, increasingly aretested on commercial anddevelopmental, not military,fronts. The world's changedglobal security climate and ris-ing concerns about social and

ansour Shahein andhis family are partof a modern day

"atomic" dream in Maradja,Egypt. On a farm in arid coun-tryside, they grow wheat, fruittrees, sugar cane and othercrops on lands that once weredesert. Their fields, and otherslike it in this oasis village, relytotally on water tapped fromseventy kilometres under-ground. Where the watercomes from — seepage fromthe Nile river or an aquiferdeep below the sands— andhow long the wells will last, noone yet knows. They are nowbeginning to find out.Egyptian hydrologists are gath-ering data about the ground-water's origins and capacityusing isotopic methods ofinvestigation. What they learnwill help them better managethe water supply or identifyother sources that can prolongthe years of harvests forManzour and farming families

environmental threats to theearth's "sustainable develop-ment" are key reasons why.States meeting at the UN'sEarth Summit in Rio in June1992 set targets for the nextcentury, adopting the docu-ment called Agenda 21. Theyrevisited the Agenda — exam-ining water, food, environmen-tal, and other problems — andgauged progress at a UN spe-cial session in June this year.On many key issues, theyfound the distance to go longand hard, the politics difficult,and the costs high.

At another key event —when Parties in May 1995 gave

in Maradja. The IAEA is sup-porting their efforts through aregional water project extend-ing beyond Egypt to Morocco,Senegal, and Ethiopia. Lessthan one percent of the world'stotal fresh water resources isfound in the Middle East andNorth Africa. As scientistsexplore their regions water life-lines, isotope techniques couldhold the answers to sustainscarce and fragile resources.—based on a report by DavidKinley, IAEA Division of PublicInformation.

permanent life to the Treaty onthe Non-Proliferation ofNuclear Weapons and associ-ated IAEA safeguards agree-ments — States strongly reaf-firmed governmental interestand support for global nuclearcooperation through IAEAchannels. They lauded Agencyapproaches and initiatives forthe transfer of peaceful nucleartechnologies, especially forstrengthened technical coopera-tion and nuclear safety pro-grammes. Renewed efforts wereneeded, they said, to adequatelyfund and support them.

.,' o newly challenged and; . directed, today's global

. picture is framed infamiliar fields of long-helddreams and new realities. Thedream of health for all...andthe reality of child malnutri-tion. The dream of food inevery hand...and the reality oferoding soils. The dream offresh water to drink...and thereality of drying wells. Thedream of a safe environmentto live in...and the reality ofpolluted air.

Nuclear energy — fresh fromlong years of being saddled andstrained by polarizing images of"mushroom clouds" and "peren-nial fountains"— can make newand important contributions forsustaining basic human needs.Proven tools and expertise are athand. Supported through tar-geted IAEA projects, people incountries around the world aredemonstrating how theirdreams to overcome some hardrealities can drive and sustaintheir own futures, and theirnation's social and economicdevelopment.—Lothar Wedekind IAEA BULLETIN, 39/3/1997

ftLD


y sheer numbers alone,the challenge is daunt-ing. About 840 million

people — one of every fivewomen, men, and children indeveloping countries — arehungry and malnourished.Less than thirty years fromnow, an estimated 680 millionmore hungry people, mostly inour poorest societies, will liveamong the world's projectedpopulation of 8.3 billion. Thebottom line: the food we pro-duce has to be better conservedand distributed, or otherwisefood production has to growby more than seventy-five per-cent between now and then.

Solving food problems is noteasy, and all the tools andknowledge at our disposal areneeded. Over the past decades,important strides have put morefood in the hands of people.Food production has grown, insome countries dramatically.Overall, each of today's 5.8 bil-lion people has more food thanpeople had twenty years ago,when the world's population wasfour billion. Yet clearly muchmore needs to be done.

The IAEA's work over the pastdecade, jointly with the UNFood and AgricultureOrganization (FAO), has faceddifferent sets of challenges. Insome countries, specialists havezeroed in on technically helpingthem to protect and preserve thefood resources they have, andprevent losses of indigenouscrops and livestock to pests or

disease. Elsewhere, the target hasbeen on ways for enriching har-vests through plant, soil, water,and other food-related research.(See report page 16) Countrieshave attained significant resultsin the process.

Soil scientists inBangladesh and Zimbabwe areapplying nature's ways to over-come problems of crop nutri-tion. Over the past decades,they further demonstrated theeffectiveness of using natural"biofertilizers" to increase cropyields. Their work involves fer-tilizers produced by rhizobiabacteria. Detailed studies toanalyze crop nutrients andgrowth are done using isotopetechniques. When rhizobiatreatments are applied to seedsof suitable pulse crops, such aspeas or soybeans, they stimu-late the production of rootnodules that can biologicallyproduce nitrogen from the airand stimulate plant growth.Zimbabwe field trials haveshown that rhizobium biofer-tilizers more than doubled soy-bean yields, out-performingcrop fields treated with expen-sive ammonium nitrate fertil-izer In Bangladesh, studiesfound that the biofertilizerstypically can increase the har-vest of grain legumes by aboutone-fourth. Larger scale pro-duction, now planned througha demonstration plant, couldlead to potential savings ofabout US S30 million a vear

by reducing the country's needto import grain and chemicalfertilizers. The IAEA haslaunched separate model pro-jects in Zimbabwe andBangladesh to further supportnational efforts.

In Asia overall, grain legumeproduction has grown by anaverage of twenty-five percentusing biofertilizers. Pakistanrecently introduced one for riceestimated to bring benefits of$133 million annually in termsof higher yields and lower useof chemical fertilizers.

In Romania, farmers havebenefitted from other types ofisotope studies, ones directedat more efficient use of chemi-cal fertilizers. By tailoring fieldapplications of nitrogen andphosphorus to the studies'results, farmers achieved yieldincreases for maize worth $217million a year — and saved$60 million in fertilizer costs.

In Mexico, the USA,Libya, Tanzania's ZanzibarIsland, Chile, Belize,Guatemala, Honduras, and ElSalvador, project teams havesuccessfully battled insect peststhreatening crops and live-stock. A key common tool ofthe campaigns: the radiation-based technology known asthe sterile insect technique(SIT), a biological methoddeveloped at the Agency's lab-oratories and transferred to thefield by FAO/IAEA technicalstaff and scientists. The com-

bined value to agriculturaleconomies from the use of SITin these campaigns exceeds$3.5 billion per year.

Most benefits accrue fromcampaigns in the USA andMexico, where the New WorldScrewworm, a fly which attackslivestock, was eradicated in1991. The pest found its way toLibya in the early 1990s, andwas eradicated there in 1992 at acost of $60 million. The timelycampaign saved North Africa'sagricultural economies fiftytimes as much as it cost, in termsof losses avoided and benefitsgained. Another devastatinginsect, the Medfly, was eradi-cated in Chile, netting die coun-try benefits valued at $500 mil-lion per year, mainly throughaccess to Asian export markets.

In Zanzibar — where thebattle is against tsetse flies andthe disease trypanosomosis itcan inflict — the families ofJozani village measure benefitsof eradication in other ways.Before the campaign about tenyears ago, they simply saw nocattle around because of theconstant threat of disease.Today the community rearsmore than 300 head of cattlefor meat, milk, and hides. AnIAEA-supported project is nowproviding technical assistancefor SIT's use against the tsetsefly on mainland Africa, startingin Ethiopia.

IP Elsewhere throughoutAfrica, the challenge is to freelivestock from another serioushealth threat, rinderpest or"cattle plague". When theregional eradication campaignbegan in the late 1980s, thedisease was found in fourteenAfrican countries. Today it isrestricted to relatively isolatedpockets, where IAEA-supported

animal vaccination programmesand disease monitoring arebeing done. Such high levels ofimmunity have been achievedthat it's been possible to stopmass vaccination, saving severalhundred million dollars a year.Some of the twelve countries inan IAEA project have or willsoon make international decla-rations of freedom from rinder-pest. Once all do likewise,Africa could realize economicbenefits to agriculture of over$900 million a year.

:.'_] In China and Peru, a com-mon challenge is to boost cropproduction. Plant breeders areusing mutation techniques tohelp meet specific needs. InChina, among the latestachievements stand eleven newrice varieties. They were plant-ed in fields of a millionhectares over six provinces.Rice production there grew by380,000 metric tonnes, at anestimated value to farmers ofmore than $50 million. In theoxygen-thin Peruvian high-lands, new varieties of cerealsignal harvests even under aharsh and variable climate.Seeds of a mutant variety ofbarley Peru produced now arebeing distributed to 200,000people resettling Andeanfarms. Within three years, theyshould be growing on about40,000 hectares of highland.

^ achievements show"rHj the Agency's multi-

_J dimensional roles andthe practical benefits thatnuclear tools can help countriesattain. Results are closely linkedto team efforts typically engag-ing expertise and resourcesamong IAEA partner organiza-tions and scientific networks,spearheaded by the Agency's

Seibersdorf Laboratoriesthrough its joint FAO/IAEAlaboratory and other branches.The transfer channels extend tothree regional arrangements forcountries in Asia and thePacific, Latin America, andAfrica, where twenty-one coun-tries have joined since 1990. Akey is research, and over thepast decade, the IAEA directlyfinanced research and demon-stration activities valued at over$43 million. Nearly 2000research contracts and agree-ments were put in place insome ninety industrialized anddeveloping countries, in agri-culture, hydrology, and a rangeof other fields.

Over the past thirty years,global food production hasgrown about eighty percent,serving more of the world. Overthe next thirty, projections are itneeds to grow another seventy-five percent. Just to keep up. —Lothar Wedekind, based onreports by James Dargie, RoyalKastens, David Kinley, MiBoussaha, and Paulo Barretto.

Photo: Greenfields in Zimbabwe.(Credit: Kinley/IAEA) IAEA BULLETIN, 39/3/1997

AEA BULLETIN, 39/3/1997

R esearch in agriculturalfields keeps advancingin the 1990s, and

IAEA and FAO scientistsworking with counterpartsworldwide are contributing inimportant ways.

ANIMAL HEALTHAbout ten years ago, scientistsrealized that a nuclear-baseddiagnostic technique —enzyme-linked immunosorbentassay, or ELISA — could over-come many technical problemsand be effectively applied fornearly all major diseases affect-ing livestock in developingcountries. In the 1990s, theJoint FAO/IAEA Divisiondeveloped methodologies andapproaches for transferringELISA technologies efficiently.Standardized and validated kitstailored for the developingworld now are used by authori-ties in seventy countries,including many engaged in anintensified global campaignagainst rinderpest, or "cattleplague". The ELISA techniquetoday is a key managementtool to monitor progress insupport of other animal healthcampaigns worldwide: foot-and-mouth disease, which hasbeen eradicated from Europe,Indonesia, and Uruguay and isbeing wiped out in theAmericas; brucellosis, where ablueprint now exists for itseradication across Europe andArabia; trypanosomosis, near-ing eradication in Zanzibarand now targeted for elimina-tion in parts of Ethiopia.

SOIL&WATERAbout two-thirds of all riverwater is used for agriculture,and scientists are lookingclosely at how to achieve morewith less. Through IAEA-sup-

ported research, they are study-ing a practice called "deficit irri-gation" using neutron probes toinvestigate and evaluate soilmoisture and crop waterrequirements. So far, some posi-tive results have been seen. InArgentina, researchers foundthat cotton growers couldachieve high yields by using halfas much water during the vege-tative and flowering stages, andno irrigation whenever the soilmoisture content is ninety per-cent or higher. In Brazil, irrigat-ing with half as much water atcertain growth stages nettedhigher yields for bean and corncrops. In Morocco, the tech-nique was applied to developbetter water managementschemes for sugar-beet andwheat.

PEST CONTROLThrough work of the IAEA'sSeibersdorf Laboratories, theradiation-based sterile insecttechnique (SIT) has becomethe bane of pests ravagingcrops and threatening animal

and public health. Over thepast decade, working throughglobal research networks, scien-tists have zeroed in on biotech-nological approaches toimprove the applicability andeffectiveness of the techniqueagainst fruit flies, specificallythe Mediterranean fruit fly, orMedfly. They now have devel-oped a genetic technologydesigned to optimize the rear-ing of male flies and reduce theoverall costs of applying SIT inthe field. In other research, sci-entists recently recorded thefirst confirmed case of genetictransformation in the Medfly, abreakthrough that offers thechance to develop strains of thespecies that can be more effec-tively and economically usedfor insect control campaignsincorporating SIT.

FOOD SAFETYNational laws and global tradeagreements require food to befree from contaminants thatprovide unacceptable risks tohuman health, and in more

and more cases, consumers alsoare demanding that the foodthey buy causes no undesirableenvironmental effects. Takentogether, these developmentshave intensified research tomonitor food, water, and otherenvironmental materials forchemical contaminants(including biotoxins), and inthe case of food, pathogenicmicroorganisms as well. Easyto see is that the number ofanalyses is enormous.Conventional methods usuallyrequire expensive equipmentand reagents, and they are timeconsuming. Now being moreclosely looked at is the use ofimmunoassays as screeningmethods for organic contami-nants, such as pesticides, whichoffer advantages in terms ofcosts and time for analyzinglarge numbers of samples. Butthe method holds disadvantagesas well, and scientists involvedin IAEA-supported research areexamining technical factorsaffecting potential applications,as well as potential costs. In thecase of pesticides, the cost ofdeveloping an assay is about$100,000. Nevertheless, kits forover thirty pesticides are nowcommercially available that insome cases show a cost savingof three hundred percent com-pared to one alternativemethod. Another potentialscreening tool widely used inother fields, thin layer chro-matography, or TLC, is gaininga fresh look for monitoring pes-ticide residues from advances inbiotechnology. Methods havebeen developed that adequatelycheck if a foodstuff complieswith international food safetyrequirements, and scientists intwelve countries now are evalu-ating the methods under anewly started research project.

IMPROVING CROPSKnown as plant or crop breed-ers, scientists have tried sincecivilization began to developand cultivate the world's crops,numbering about 80,000 edi-ble plants today. It's a hard job:after centuries of painstakingwork, less than thirty species,but thousands of varieties, pro-vide nearly all the world's food.Over the past decade, DNAprobes and related molecularbiological methods, combinedwith mutation techniques anddiagnostic radioactive isotopes,particularly have quickened thepace through greater under-standing of plant variations.Laboratories in developingcountries are engaged in workthrough an FAO/IAEA pro-gramme that facilitates thetransfer of DNA probes andmethods. Advances in usingradiation-based techniques alsokeep being recorded. One tech-nique now is used to developvarieties of date palm resistantto Bayoud disease in Algeria,Morocco, and Tunisia wherefifteen million trees have beenkilled by the fungal pathogen.As a result of research combin-ing induced mutations, con-ventional breeding techniques,and biotechnology, new vari-eties of linseed, rapeseed, soy-bean, and sunflower arebecoming commerciallyimportant. Two new varietiesof linseed were registered inCanada in 1993 and 1995.Over recent decades world-wide, scientists at the Agency'sSeibersdorf Laboratories haveirradiated about 22,000 sam-ples of seeds, vegetative materi-als, and in vitro cultures thatwere sent to laboratories inover 100 countries, includingseeds used for molecular biol-ogy research. Worldwide, over

1800 mutant varieties of cropsand plants have been devel-oped, most of them using radi-ation-based techniques.

FOOD QUALITYResearch over the past ten yearshas more firmly demonstratedthat the technology of irradia-tion is safe and effective forensuring the hygienic quality offood, especially products suchas chicken, seafood, meat, andspices. Recent advances haveenabled its application as aquarantine treatment of freshfruits and vegetables againstinsect pests; research was jointlysponsored by the IAEA, FAO,and World HealthOrganization. National andinternational food regulatorybodies have moved in the 1990sto endorse irradiation, issuingstandards and policies govern-ing its wider application. Amajor breakthrough came inMay 1996. The United StatesDepartment of Agricultureaccepted irradiation as a quar-antine treatment against fruitflies in fruits and vegetables,enabling national trade fromHawaii to mainland states ofpapaya, lychees, and other com-modities. The action is height-ening interest in the technologyamong developing countriesseeking expanded global mar-kets for their products.— Based on reports contributedby Raymond Nance, PaisanLoaharanu, Felipe Zapata,Martyn Jeggo, and other staff ofthe Joint FAO/IAEA Division ofNuclear Techniques in Food andAgriculture.

Photo: Scientists at the SoilProductivity Research Laboratory inMarondera, Zimbabwe, work closelywith the IAEA in agricultural fields. IAEA BULLETIN, 39/3/1997

BMNGiMGBENEFITS HOMEjfiffl^ountries in the developingML,* world have received almost US

$800 million in IAEA technicalsupport over the past forty years. In1958, technical programmes aimed atbuilding national capacity in nuclearscience and technology were carriedout in forty-two countries. By the endof 1996, new and more targeted pro-grammes reached ninety-five countries.These activities — all financed fromvoluntary contributions of MemberStates — are now increasingly aimed toproduce greater social and economicbenefits for the farmer and environ-mentalist, physician and patient andother end users of nuclear science andtechnologies. The challenge of redefin-ing the Agency's strategy for technicalcooperation was set in motion in 1994by a Policy Review Seminar of MemberStates. The focus was on three themes:strengthening radiation protection andwaste management infrastructures; theneed for systematic country planning;and increasing the impact of IAEAtechnical cooperation by reaching thetechnology's end users. For guidance,

• IAEA Technical Co-operaiionFund

I In-kindIAEA Member Scan

Fxtrabudgi-tary do

ibutions from

a Standing Advisory Group onTechnical Assistance and Cooperationwas formed with representatives fromMember States, to help ensure thatnew targets are met.

Becoming a partner in nationaldevelopment is a new thrust of theIAEA's technical cooperation pro-gramme. But the Agency is not a"development" organization, and ithas no related field offices or large poolof funds. Its traditional role has beencatalytic — in areas of research, devel-opment, and demonstration ofnuclear-based "solutions". Expandingthese benefits beyond the demonstra-tion phase requires funds, projectmanagement, and operational supportthat exceed the Agency's traditionalresources. "Partners in Development"is the new term for the process of con-necting technology to the end users,and the active engagement of abroader community of interests. Anew generation of "Model Projects"launched over the past decade repre-sent the wave of the future. They mustmeet tough criteria: respond to prior-

2.01 was the amount 12-year-old Joseph Santore and hisfriends gave the IAEA back in

1958, to help kick off contributions forthe Agency's technical cooperationwork. Today's resources top $60 millionin support of over one thousandprojects. Yet the challenge remains toeffectively fund activities, and the1990s saw some hills and valleys thatnegatively affected programmes. TheAgency and its Member States arelooking closely at trends and ways tomaximize efficiency and stabilizeavailable resources.

ity national and regional needs; pro-duce sizable economic and socialimpacts; employ nuclear technologiesonly when they have distinct advan-tages over others; and attract stronggovernmental commitment. As such,they stimulate a "problem solving"approach, and a very intensive dia-logue between the Agency and gov-ernmental partners, so that the pro-jects reach well beyond the counterpartinstitutions to beneficiary communi-ties and their citizens.

The Agency has launched severalbroader policy initiatives to bettercoordinate the uses and applicationsof nuclear technologies for greater eco-nomic and social impacts. In years tocome, the Model Project approach willbe expanded through "CountryProgramme Frameworks" that identifypriority activities in each developingMember State, and "thematic plan-ning" that singles out the most signif-icant technical solutions for duplicationacross several countries. These newmechanisms will ensure that IAEAdevelopment partnerships are focusedon where they can produce the great-est benefits. The first thematic plannow becoming operational is in radi-ation protection — meeting theAgency's Safety Standards that are astatutory pre-condition for all activitiesinvolving ionizing radiation. Signi-ficantly, one of every three ModelProjects proposed for 1997-98 reflectradiation safety priorities.

In some countries, the combinationof increased investment, demonstratedtechnology, and a more vibrant com-mercial sector is moving the develop-ment process forward quickly; in manyothers, it will take more time. The pastdecade has seen the IAEA better posi-tion itself to meet the needs of itsMember States, regardless of their levelof development or technologicalsophistication.—Based on reports by Mr. Qian Jihui,IAEA Deputy Director General forTechnical Cooperation, and Royal F.Kastens of the Department.

..aces around the world. visibly frame the impera-

... . tive of sustaining ourfreshwater resources:• ) More than one in four peo-ple still lacks clean water supplies.(J On a global scale, the rateat which we are withdrawingfreshwater resources is morethan double the rate of popula-tion growth.O Nearly seventy percent of allfreshwater is used for the risingdemands of food production.

Behind the numbers are spe-cial problems in growing popu-lation and industrial areas.There, pressures on resourcesare mounting, and freshwateroften has to be transportedfrom dammed reservoirs faraway, or carried in vessels fromdistant wells. In many areas,local rivers and groundwater arenew homes of chemical andother sources of pollution.

For the IAEA's technical sup-port cadre, the realities are con-

fronted on local, national, andregional levels in more andmore countries. Work has cor-respondingly intensified overthe past decade to sharpencapabilities for assessing, moni-toring, and preserving waterresources with the tools of iso-tope hydrology. Central aimshave been to assist waterauthorities in using these tech-niques to improve the effi-ciency of water use, identifyand prevent sources of pollu-tion, and map the birth and lifeexpectancy of groundwaterresources. Some 150 technicalcooperation projects totalling$19 million were put intoaction over the past decade toassist altogether sixty-threecountries in water-related areas.In the process, more than 550young scientists have beentrained to apply isotopes ininvestigations to improve themanagement of water andother natural resources in thesecountries. At the same time,countries have renewed theirinterest in technologies for pro-ducing more water, specificallyin the use of nuclear energy fordesalting seawater, an oldatomic dream that is nearingtests of the marketplace again.(See box, next page.)

large part of the earth's"•'. , water resources is not

:. •..- ....safe, clean or renew-able, and finding new reservesis costly. Often, the technologyis not yet at hand to economi-cally exploit potential resourceslocked deep inside the earth'scrust. Experts say that greatersteps are needed to conserveand use water more efficiently,

Photos: Children at an old well inGuatemala. (Marshall/IAEA).


FRESHWATERFROM THE SEAWORLDWIDE WATER CONSUMPTION

4000

3000

2000

• Reservior losses D Municipal • Industry •Agriculture

r conomics are changing— water is an increasinglyexpensive commodity —

and the technology is advancingrapidly. As water needs mountin large regions of the world,experts over die past decade havestarted looking more closely atsystems to tap abundant oceansand seas. Among the candidatesare facilities coupled to nuclear

power plants that produce theelectricity for the energy-intensiveprocess of desalting seawater. Theidea is not new: nuclear desali-nation was explored decades ago,and demonstrated in Japan andKazakhstan. But for the widerwater marketplace, it was tooexpensive. The method still iscostly, but the gap is closing.Costs generally have become

competitive with those of alter-native desalination systems usingother sources of energy supply.

Through IAEA programmes,more than twenty countries areinvolved in assessments of thetechnology's potential. Onestudy focused on North Africa,analyzing needs and possibilitiesin Algeria, Egypt, Libya,Morocco, and Tunisia. Analystsfound that nuclear seawaterdesalination could be a techni-cally and economically feasibleoption. In die mid-1990s, effortsintensified to more closely lookat die economic competitivenessof systems. Many desalinationand reactor systems werescreened, leading to identifica-tion of three practical optionsfor demonstration plants.

Future cooperative projectsnow are planned in countriesincluding China, India, theRussian Federation, and theRepublic of Korea, whichrecendy hosted an internationalsymposium that reviewed thelatest technological and eco-nomic developments in thecontext of water needs. Large-scale use is some years away, butmore demonstration plants fordesalting seawater may soon lineshores.— Based on report byToshio Konishi.


and IAEA-supported researchis leading to some solutions inagricultural fields. (See reporton page 16.)

Other water-saving measuresinclude improving irrigationtechniques and preventingwater losses as high as fortypercent from transportation,distribution, and storage sys-tems. At the core of solutionsstands our knowledge of earth'swater cycle, and how freshwa-ter resources are renewed. A

longstanding network of moni-toring stations the IAEA runswith the World MeteorologicalOrganization collects key dataon the isotope content of rain-water. They are used forregional and global circulationmodels. Analysts can investi-gate how the earth's changingclimate affects the sustainabil-ity of our water resources. Thepioneering databank todayserves as a global reservoir ofpooled knowledge that can

lead to greater understandingof how earth's dynamic cyclesrecreate and renew our watersupplies.

Strides have been made tobring water to more people. By1997, the world's collectiveefforts in the 1990s had givennearly 800 million more peo-ple access to safe drinkingwater. — Lothar Wedekind,based on reports by YuecelYurtsever, David Fischer, andRoyal Kastens.

•" oble and all tooneeded, the goal of"health for all" into

the next century has driven themedical profession to newheights throughout the pastdecade. In its latest global statusreport, the World HealthOrganization reports significantprogress in campaigns against abody of major human diseases— including smallpox, polio,leprosy, and the disablingChagas disease.

But changing patterns ofhow and where we live havebrought other, in some waysmore troubling, challenges tonational and global healthagendas. Many problems areattributed to negative rippleeffects of urbanization —overcrowded cities, pollutedair and water, poor and unsafeliving conditions, and strainedhealth resources, especially forpreventive care. Cancerbecame a serious and morevisible problem in developingcountries. So, too, did "hid-den hunger", or malnutrition,particularly in children; ill-nesses linked to food contam-ination; deaths from re-emerging infectious diseasessuch as malaria; and sicknesscaused by health dangers inour environment.

At the start of the 1990s,more than 600 million men,women, and children lived inlarge cities in developing coun-tries that are threatened by lackof food, water, and adequate

health care. More than half ofthe developing world's citizenscould be concentrated in urbanareas when this decade closes.Undeniable interconnectionsbetween political, social, andeconomic conditions, and thestate of our health, emergedmagnified from the decade.

The fast-developing pictureaccelerated the need to findout more about the detection,prevention, and treatment ofdiseases. More countries turnedto the IAEA's expertise andspecialized health and analyti-cal services. IAEA health-related projects today number175, up seventy-five percentover the past fifteen years. Theinvestment is valued at nearly$48 million over that periodfor improving national health-care capabilities at hospitals,clinics, and laboratory facili-ties. By the mid-1990s, mostof the Agency's 125 MemberStates had set up medical pro-grammes involving uses ofnuclear tools, ranging fromradiopharmaceuticals, tonuclear analytical techniques,imaging systems, and radio-therapy.

Especially in the 1990s theAgency's programmes inhuman health have adjusted tobetter fit the changing needsand conditions. Outreachefforts were broadened andobjectives finetuned for specificproblems that can best be metby nuclear techniques. Amongthem stand the early diagnosis

and treatment of cancer, theassessment of nutritional defi-ciencies in women and chil-dren, the timely detection ofcommunicable diseases, andthe accurate measurement ofradiation doses to patients.

The upswing in demands andrelated programme adjustmentsare opening new windows ofopportunity for better healthcare through nuclear applica-tions in more countries. Theyalso identified new doors thatmust be unlocked to sustainprogress.H Diagnosis and treatment ofcancer has advanced consider-ably over the past decades. Inindustrialized countries, "cure"rates have doubled since theIAEA was formed in the1950s, achievements generallyattributed to earlier and betterdiagnostic screening and toadvances in surgery, radiation,and chemotherapy treatments.In developing countries, how-ever, more help is needed ascancer takes a stronger hold.With national research teams,the IAEA is coordinating clini-cal trials in radiotherapy toimprove treatment and controlof the disease. New treatmentcentres also are being support-ed. In Mongolia, nearly 2400patients were treated at a newteletherapy centre within itsfirst five months. In Ghana,the first of three plannedradiotherapy centres nowserves cancer patients who oth-erwise had to seek expensive IAEA BULLETIN, 39/3/1997


treatment overseas, or go with-out it. To evaluate radiationtreatments against global stan-dards, a joint IAEA/WHOprogramme has expanded itsnetwork of services.#? In Thailand, Uruguay, andother countries of Asia, LatinAmerica, and Africa, commu-nities need help for potentiallycrippling children's healthproblems. Some notable stridesare linked to greater use ofhighly sensitive nuclear tech-niques, sometimes teamedwith biomedical methods.Their reliable and affordableapplication now is supportingeffective national screeningprogrammes of all-too-com-mon thyroid deficiencies innewborn babies and children.

Because its effects are toooften masked and overlooked,"hidden hunger", or malnutri-tion, can take on serious pro-portions. By the mid-1990s,health experts reported thatnearly 800 million people indeveloping countries were

Photo: Children in Viet Nam.(Tuong Linh for UNESCO/ACCU)

chronically undernourished.Most at risk are women andchildren living in poverty.Though nuclear-based tech-niques are no substitute fornutritional deficiencies, they dosupport improved health moni-toring and research pro-grammes to uncover and pre-vent cases of hidden hunger.Joining with global partners,IAEA-sponsored research andfield projects now extend tomore than thirty countries. Thework has identified improve-ments to the dietary treatmentof severely malnourished chil-dren and alerted health practi-tioners to specific diet deficien-cies of protein, vitamins, zinc,iron, and iodine needed forproper nourishment andgrowth. As importantly, it hasled to stronger public healthprogrammes in more countries,including Chile, Sri Lanka, andVenezuela, for setting nationallyrecommended nutritionalrequirements. Now planned isdistribution of a "toolkit" ofproven isotope techniques thatcountries can readily use intheir nutrition programmes.

More needs to be knownabout the causes and healtheffects of environmental pollu-tants contaminating our air,water, and food. Over the pastdecade, more than forty coun-tries have intensified coopera-tive research and analysis ofnon-radioactive pollutants,including mercury and pesti-cide residues, through Agencyprogrammes. Air pollution,particularly fine particles, hasdrawn close attention, sinceparticulates can settle deep inlungs, potentially causing seri-ous illness or death. Findingsadd to valuable data sharedthrough an established globalnetwork of centres that collectsand analyzes airborne samples.The work helps health andenvironmental authoritiesmore effectively identify andmonitor pollutants as part ofhealth protection measures.

In different ways, othertypes of radiation technologiesare being used to remove pol-lutants from industrial emis-sions before they enter theatmosphere. One method,known as electron beam pro-cessing, gained ground overthe past decade throughdemonstrations in severalcountries with Agency sup-port. In Poland, an industrial-scale demonstration plant forremoving sulphur dioxide andnitrogen oxide — causes of"acid rain" and linked to respi-ratory diseases — from emis-sions at coal-burning powerplants. Demonstrated costs ofthe cleaning process are lowerthan conventional systems.Other countries now interestedinclude Brazil, Bulgaria,China, and Mexico.

Alarming reports of foodcontamination over the pastdecade became a driving force

for greater interest in the tech-nology of food irradiation.Foodborne illnesses traced tocontaminated poultry andmeats led the United States toapprove food irradiation's com-mercial use for the products,since the technology cleansthem of contaminatingmicroorganisms. At the inter-national level, Golden Rule #1of the World HealthOrganization's ten-point foodsafety advisory issued in the1990s encourages consumersto choose poultry treated withionizing radiation wheneverthey can.H Medical research laborato-ries worldwide continue to betested by new and resurginginfectious diseases. In LatinAmerica and Africa, IAEA-supported work initiated overthe past decade aims toimprove diagnostic capabili-ties. Researchers are beingtrained in the use of biomed-ical techniques, includingradioactive DNA probes, formore effectively diagnosingcommunicable diseases, as astep to help control them.

Chagas disease in parts ofLatin America, malaria inAfrica, and tuberculosis inother regions are among dis-eases under study.

Progress is important: the re-emerging threat of malaria, forinstance, still is known tostrike more than 300 millionpeople in 103 countries andclaimed the lives of one mil-lion children alone in 1995.Against Chagas disease, thefight is gaining ground: WHOreports that ongoing efforts inArgentina, Bolivia, Brazil,Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguaysoon will eliminate the disease.HI In Asia, eye surgeons havelong been served by Sri Lanka'seye bank. More than 10,000Sri Lankans have regained theirvision with the bank's help,and surgeons in sixty countrieshave received tens of thousandsof corneas needed by theirpatients. With the IAEA's assis-tance through a regional pro-ject of thirteen Asian countriesover the past decade, suchmedical services are expanding.They include a new medicalbank in Colombo that sterilizes

membranes, tendons, andother tissues needed to treatseverely injured patients suchas burn victims. The bank isintended to serve health needsthroughout the region.

Sri Lanka's facility reflectsheightened interest amongmore countries in radiationsterilization of medical prod-ucts for hygienic and safetyreasons. By the mid-1990s, thetechnology had become thepreferred method to sterilizeabout half of all the disposableneedles, scalpels, and othermedical supplies used in hospi-tals, clinics, and medical cen-tres around the world.

hrough these and otheravenues, vital progress isbeing made to more

strongly arm countries againstemerging and re-emergingdangers to human health. Inkey applications, nuclear andrelated techniques can givedoctors unparalleled insightsinto what is happening in thehuman body without the needfor incisions or surgery. Othertools enable researchers totrack and analyze causes andsources of potential health haz-ards, so that steps can be takento prevent them. In no smallmeasure, the work is helping toextend the reach of key med-ical technologies, to bring intocloser view the global vision ofhealth for all.— Lothar Wedekind, based onreports by Ms.JordankaMircheva, Robert Parr, Ms.Carla Fjeld, John Castelino,Vitomir Markovic, G.Ghopinathan Nair, DavidKinley, and Paisan Loaharanu.

Photo: Patients being helped at the

National Cancer Institute in

Bogota. (Perez-Vargas/IAEA) IAEA BULLETIN, 39/3/1997

HERNOBYKSHALLENGE


ealth affects attributedto radioactive falloutfrom the tragic

Chernobyl nuclear plant acci-dent in April 1986 com-manded keen attention overthe past decade, among thepublic and scientific commu-nities alike. Key studies weredone to help clarify a contro-versial picture greatly shapedby public fears and perceptionsabout the potential dangers ofradiation exposure. Radio-active fallout from the accidentwas mainly concentrated inBelarus, Russia, and Ukraine,but it also came down at lowconcentrations over much ofthe Northern Hemisphere.Within weeks of the explosion,scientists working through theIAEA's laboratories atSeibersdorf, Austria, and at itsMarine EnvironmentLaboratory in Monaco were

collecting and analyzing earth,food, water, and other samplesto monitor and assess thehealth and environmentalimpact of the fallout beyondthe former USSR's borders.Scibcrsdorf analytical teamsproved instrumental in coordi-nating and supporting cam-paigns in parts of Austria andneighbouring countries.Monaco's tracking teams foundthat sinking ocean particleshad taken Chernobyl radioac-tivity rapidly to depths of twohundred meters along theMediterranean coastline withina month of the accident.

n the 1990s, the IAEA co-sponsored two projectswith the World Health

Organization and other globalpartners that included scien-tific assessments of Chernobyl'sradiological health effects. The

health teams of theInternational ChernobylProject in mid-1990 includedone hundred physicians andscientists from twelve countriesthat closely looked at only spe-cific groups of people living inaffected areas of Belarus,Russia, and Ukraine. Key tech-nical and medical monitoringsupport came from experts ofthe Agency's radiation safetyand dosimetry services at IAEAheadquarters in Vienna and atits Seibersdorf Laboratories.The health teams found signif-icant health disorders, most ofthem not related to radiationexposure directly but to othersocial, economic, and environ-mental factors. Roughly nineof every ten people living incontaminated settlements —and about seven often livingin z/«contaminated villages —thought they had, or mighthave, an illness due to radia-tion exposure, even thoughmedical examinations foundthey did not. The findingfocused greater attention onpsychological health issuesraised by the accident. Teamsspent most of their time withchildren, and found cause forreal concern. Their detailedbut limited examinations didnot rule out the chance thatcases of thyroid cancer linkedto high radiation exposurewould rise in the future.

""* n 1996, about five yearslater and ten years afterthe accident, more than

800 experts from seventy-onecountries and twenty organiza-tions reassessed the picture,from health, environmental,and other perspectives. Thevenue was a major scientificconference in Vienna co-spon-sored by six organizations of

the UN family, including theIAEA, and two regional agen-cies. The landmark eventserved to consolidate an inter-national consensus on the acci-dent's consequences, reportproven scientific facts, andclarify technical informationand prognoses that could be,and have been, misunderstood.The major health findingsaddressed both short- andlong-term effects.

Regarding radiation-relatedthyroid cancers, the expertsreported a sharp increaseamong children from theaffected areas. By the end of1995, three children had diedof the cancer, and about 800cases had been diagnosed inchildren under 15 years of age,living mainly in northernUkraine and Belarus. Theseeffects have been the onlymajor public health impactfrom radiation exposure docu-mented to date. In the future,thyroid cancers might arise inseveral thousand adults whowere young children at thetime they were exposed to radi-ation from lhe~accidentrExperts recommended contin-ued monitoring of theseaffected groups to detect earlysigns. They noted that thyroidcancers generally can be suc-cessfully treated surgically andby medication.

Long-term health effectsfrom Chernobyl radiationexposure had not been detectedby 1996, although they couldnot be ruled out for the future.Experts urged close monitoringof cancer registries and furtherinvestigations to determineongoing public health impactsand to confirm predictions.Regarding psychological healthdisorders and symptoms, theconference confirmed signifi-

cant cases of anxiety, depres-sion, and other illnesses amongaffected populations. Thesehealth effects, not caused byradiation exposure, were moregenerally related to other fac-tors, notably the Soviet Union'sdissolution and sudden eco-nomic and political changes.

lie accident's immediate\ ictims were among the

. - emergency workers, whowere exposed to high doses ofradiation. Altogether 237workers were admitted to hos-pitals and 134 were diagnosedwith acute radiation syndrome.Of these, 28 died within thefirst three months, and at leastfourteen additional patientshave died since 1986, not nec-essarily due to radiation expo-sure. Two other people died inthe explosion, and one frompresumed heart failure.

n affected areas, severeenvironmental impactswere short term because of

rapid radioactive decay, and nosustained impacts on people or

observed. Environmental mon-itoring continues, and it'sexpected that low-levelradioactive contamination oflands will persist for decades.Over the past decade, muchwork has been directedthrough IAEA and other globalchannels toward protectingpeople living in these areas andrehabilitating affected lands.They include radiation protec-tion measures; medical moni-toring systems; and agricul-tural countermeasures to lowerthe radioactive content in milkand other food products toacceptable levels. Through itsjoint work with the FAO, theIAEA sponsored work by

nearly forty scientists in nine-teen countries who preparedcomprehensive guidelines in1994 of effective measures thathave been demonstrated andput into place. Additionally in1994, combined efforts of theIAEA, WHO, FAO and otherorganizations led to interna-tional guidelines that clarifythe problem of when authori-ties should intervene and takeprotective measures for publichealth and safety in a radiolog-ical emergency. The interven-tion criteria are important,since they help to maintaincredibility and confidence indecisions and prevent the kindof problems arising after theChernobyl accident. Then,neighbouring countries setvarying standards for foodsthat confused the public anddisrupted trade.

j roader issues related toI radiation health effects,p and how the public

hears and learns about them,commanded attention in 1994in France, where four hundredpolicymakers, journalists, andnuclear experts from over fiftycountries met at an IAEA-sponsored conference. Amongproblems addressed were thepublic's understanding of radi-ation's actual and perceivedhealth and environmentalrisks, a problem linked closelyto how well scientists and themedia communicate the factsabout radiation.— LotharWedekind, based on IAEA docu-ments and reports by JohnRichards, Abel Gonzalez, Franz-Nikolaus Flakus, MalcolmCrick, and David Kinley.

Photo: "Let there always be sun-shine", a painting by schoolchildrenin Kiev done after the accident. IAEA BULLETIN, 39/3/1997

ENERGY & ENVIROTHE DRIVE FOR SAFER, CLEANER D


The world's drive towardsafer and cleaner devel-opment overcame some

big hurdles during the past tenyears, only to see more chal-lenges arise. One major ques-tion echoed ever louder: howwill governments decide to fueland engineer the drive into thenext century?

The echo resounded fromsome events taking placetwenty-five years ago. Then,the international human envi-ronment conference inStockholm brought many"green" issues out of scientificlaboratories, and the first oilshocks jolted and jaded energydevelopment prospects. In the1990s, the complex set of chal-lenges seemed to merge on theglobal conference stage: risingelectricity demands in Helsinkiin 1991; stark environmentalthreats in Rio de Janeiro at the1992 Earth Summit; worldpopulation growth rates inCairo in 1994; problems ofover-crowded megacities inIstanbul and hunger in Romein 1996; and the EarthSummit revisited in New Yorkin 1997. Ahead in Kyoto inearly December 1997 is thecomplex topic of global warm-ing. Governments want aglobal treaty on climatechange and will meet todebate its provisions.

Hovering above it all havebeen the dramatic politicalchanges in Europe after thebreakup of the Soviet Union.

These changes opened thewindow to energy, environ-mental, and safety problemsin countries of the formerSoviet bloc.

The overriding message onall these fronts: some impor-tant progress has been made,but not enough to celebrateyet. In the political, environ-mental, and economic flux,ensuring sustainable develop-ment will not be easy, quick,or cheap.

At the IAEA, the far-reach-ing demands became the back-drop for laying a stronger legaland technical foundation tosupport safe, clean, and com-petitive nuclear energy devel-opment for countries using orthinking of using that option.Countries also sought todemonstrate more clearly howthe whole range of nucleartechnologies can help solvespecific energy and environ-mental problems. Major plat-forms built for the new foun-dation include:•• A strengthened and moreintegrated global safety regimefor key areas of nuclear power,radiation applications, andradioactive waste management.It covers new legal agreementsand strengthened safety ser-vices. (See box, page 31.)if More specialized technicalsupport to countries for achiev-ing better nuclear power plantperformance, upgrading or dis-mantling older plants, develop-ing advanced types of power

reactors, managing growingstockpiles of spent nuclear fuel,and comparing overall energyand electricity options underparticular conditions.4- Technical assistance andresearch projects targeted tohelp more countries establishand upgrade their regulatoryinfrastructure for the safe usesof nuclear and radiation tech-nologies, and to improve wastemanagement capabilities in allfields.

Scientific support of assess-ments associated with "histori-cal" radioactive wastes frompast nuclear practices, and ofcustomized applications ofnuclear-based techniques ininvestigations of climatechange, environmental pollu-tion, and marine ecologicalthreats. (See box, page 37.)

s the decade opened in1986, twenty-sixcountries were getting

ready to mark a milestone ofnuclear power experience: their397 electricity-generatingplants collectively neared fourthousand years of commercialoperation. The Chernobyl acci-dent in April changed every-thing, and ushered in tryingtimes at the IAEA. Within five

Photo: A climb to the top at Bugey

plant in France, where most house-

holds, businesses, and industries rely on

electricity produced by nuclear energy

plants. (Credit: Setboun/Rapho

Agence de Press Photographique)

NMENTEVELOPMENT

months of the accident, Statesworking under the interna-tional spotlight at the Agencyissued their first responses: theynegotiated and adopted twonew global legal agreements onnuclear safety, delivered thefirst authoritative account ofthe accident, and set in motionplans for expanded safety ser-vices and assistance.Throughout the decade, thelegal and technical safetyregime was reinforced, andtoday more new elements stillare being considered. Just asimportant, social, health, food,environmental, and nuclearscientists joined together toclarify the actual and potentialconsequences of the Chernobylaccident. {Seepage 24.)

For nuclear power develop-ment, the technical impact ofthe accident — affecting essen-tially a small group of Soviet-designed plants operating inonly a few countries —extended, like its fallout, wellbeyond national borders.Lessons learned magnified theimperative of securing anindustry-wide "safety culture".Steps to reinforce the safety netquickly gained momentum forbusiness and environmentalreasons, and to help win backpublic support lost in manycountries. A few industries andgovernments sought to phaseout their nuclear power pro-grammes, while others sus-pended or postponed construc-tion and planned projects. On

ssi/ssmg the seriousness- " of global warming

~, *• -threats — and evaluat-ing existing and potentialresponses — has challenged sci-entists for years. By the mid-1990s, an international scientificconsensus had emerged: the2500 experts taking part in stud-ies of the International Panel onClimate Change (IPCC) issued areport with a guarded but directmessage: if energy technologiesremain unchanged and demandincreases substantially, averagetemperatures might rise betweenone and 3.5 degrees Centigradeover the next century. This couldcause sea levels to rise fifty cen-timeters, with ensuing floodingof coastal lowlands and tropicalislands, an increase in weatherextremes, and damage to forestsand croplands. The IPCC out-look has been challenged, but hasnot been changed.

The issue is complex, andprojections harbour consider-able uncertainties. To under-stand more fully and quantifythe changing climate picture,scientists need extensive dataand powerful analytical toolsand models. Among them areisotopic techniques. Usingthem, scientists examine histor-ical records by taking measure-ments of ice cores, ancientgroundwater, lake deposits andsediments, and estimate theimpact of human activities fromthe results. This informationsupports forecasting potentialeffects on forest ecosystems,desertification, and waterresources, as well as the possi-ble occurrence of floods anddroughts. Isotope methods alsoprove essential for determiningprecisely the atmospheric bud-get of greenhouse gases, espe-cially their sources and sinks, to

enable prediction and identifi-cation of the impacts of climatechange.

Long-term studies also aretracking how carbon moves andsinks in oceans, seas, and lakes.From their laboratories inMonaco, IAEA scientists overthe past decade intensified workto investigate the transfer of car-bon from its source to oceandepths, work which combinescollection and analysis of sink-ing marine particles with iso-tope studies.

In support of research, theWorld Meteorological Organi-zation (WMO) in Geneva andthe IAEA operate a global net-work for tracking and analysis ofkey isotopes in precipitation. Bythe mid-1990s, the networkcontained data from more than450 locations worldwide.

ther IAEA-supportedprogrammes enlist ex-perts in joint evalua-

tions of responses to the threatof global warming, often pro-

1AEA BULLETIN, 39/3/1997

record, most governments/t0aka longer; qualified view, stayingin favour of nuclear's safeexpansion or of steps to keepthe option open.

- __; • y the mid-1990s, the?!;>?• -'^future of nuclear powerfifiasi <•' looked dimmer. But

lights were still on — a goodshare of them literally poweredby nuclear energy. About fivenew nuclear plants per year —forty-seven altogether — havecome on line since 1986, basedon reports to the Agency'sdatabase. Nuclear's share oftotal electricity worldwide hasheld steady, rising only slightlyin the 1990s to reach seventeenpercent by 1997. Today, more

countries than ever are generat-ing one-quarter or more oftheir total electricity usingnuclear power — seventeenStates in 1996, seven morethan ten years ago (amongthem Newly IndependentStates). By 1997, more than440 nuclear plants were on linein thirty-one countries. Theycollectively produced aboutfifty percent more electricitythan the Soviet Union pro-duced from all sources tenyears ago.

/e- X- 7 een by forecasters, the^Ivi^ overall energy picture'--. -y looked daunting as theyears passed. By 1997, projec-tions indicated that world

energy demand would growrapidly into the next century.Analysts said growth would befastest in developing countriesin order to keep up with risingpopulations and economicgrowth. Over the longer run,energy demand could climbanywhere between fifty andseventy-five percent in the nexttwenty-five years, according tothe World Energy Council.Any rate of growth will stayclosely tied to fossil fuel com-bustion. In 1997, these fuelscontinue to provide nearlyeighty-five percent of all com-mercial energy used. Whenburned to generate electricity,fossil fuels also release carbondioxide and other greenhouse

AVOIDANCE OF CO-g EMISSIONSBY NUCLEAR AND HYDROPOWER

20

15

% of global CO2 avoided

Hydropower

1965i I I i

1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995

viding them with customizedcomputer-based tools for analy-sis. A multi-agency projectcalled Decades was started inthe 1990s to support compara-tive assessments of energyoptions, specifically for gener-ating electricity. Results of com-parative studies reported overthe past decade show far loweremissions of carbon dioxide in

countries using nuclear andhydropower extensively than incountries burning largeamounts of coal for electricitygeneration. Globally, nuclearpower generates about seven-teen percent of the world's elec-tricity. That production hashelped countries avoid a goodshare of carbon dioxide emis-sions, about eight percent of the

world's total in 1995, orroughly as much as hydropowerhelped avoid.

In addition to nuclear, IAEAprojects help develop other"clean" energy sources such asgeothermal energy. In countrieslike El Salvador and thePhilippines, Agency-sponsoredprojects have helped to evalu-ate and further develop geo-thermal resources. Nuclear ana-lytical techniques helped to reli-ably assess temperature andfluid flows deep inside ElSalvador's old volcanoes, and toidentify potential new fields fordevelopment. Data can helpsave millions of dollars indrilling costs and lead to othersavings. Geothermal productionin El Salvador is alreadyexpected to cut oil import costsby about $9 million.

— Based on reports by KlausFroehlich, Ms. Lucille Langlois,Ms. Jane Gerardo-Abaya, FlorinVladu, David Kinley, andMurdoch Baxter.

gases into the atmosphere. Lessthan fifteen percent of totalenergy comes from carbon-freehydropower and nuclearpower, the two main alterna-tive options. At present, onlyabout one percent of all energyused comes from solar andother renewable sources. Asenvironmental issues andnotably global warming com-mand closer watch, more peo-ple wonder what is in store,and what can be done today.(See box above.)

In the energy marketplace ofthe past ten years, political andeconomic changes have beeninfluencing directions andthinking, too. Studies still findthat electricity consumption

and economic growth go hand-in-hand, even as conservationand other efficiency measureshave worked to hold downoverall energy growth rates.

As the decade moved on,other changes materialized toaffect energy trends, includingthose of nuclear power. Insome industrialized countries,"least-cost" generation optionsbecame more important inincreasingly deregulated elec-tricity markets. One result wasgreater political and economicpressures on nuclear plant per-formance. In other countries,confronted with leaner times, acentral challenge for thenuclear industry became pre-serving a cadre of personnel

with the necessary expertiseand operational experience. Incountries with emerging mar-ket-oriented economies, thepocketbook became a problem:financing the monthly earningsof highly trained nuclear plantstaff raised energy and safetyconcerns transcending nationalboundaries.

Worldwide, nuclear industrieswere nearing another milestoneby the mid-1990s: collectively,their plants approached eightthousand combined years ofnuclear operating experience.

In developing countries,trends in nuclear developmentstayed mixed. Some States, asthose in Asia, invested heavilyin nuclear-fueled plants to free IAEA BULLETIN. 39/3/1997

Canada ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ |Ru-si

ArgentinSouth Afric

McxicNetherlanc

IndiRomani

Chin

' • • • • • •

! • • : '' ^ ^ B 5.1S M H 4-8

' • 1.3Brazil] 0-7

Pakistani 0.6Kazakhsta 10 2

^•1 16• 13.1

11.4

| 52.4

1980-1996. percentage oi fosal elcctrititv generation

14

12

10

8

6

4

2

0

I I I I I I I II I I I I I I I I I I I

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

I I I I I I I I I I I I I II I I I I I I I I I I I I I

I I I I I I I I II1980 1984 1988 1992 1996


themselves from dependenceand costs of foreign supplies,chiefly oil, or from heavyreliance on coal. China's aver-age electricity use grew ten per-cent a year during the pastdecade, and plans call for six-teen large coal and nuclearplants to help meet demandsinto the next century.

At the start of the decade, in1986, the World Bank esti-

mated at an IAEA meeting thatan investment in electric powerthen valued at $522 billion(not including interest) wouldbe needed through 1995 tomeet projected rising electricitydemands in developing coun-tries. That amount representedroughly sixty percent of all themoney spent on weapon sys-tems in just one year of thepast decade. Even now, the

shortage of generating capacityin developing countries per-sists, and financing any energyproject, particularly capital-intensive nuclear projects,remains a stiff challenge. Aboutseven of every ten householdsin the developing world haveno electricity.

Throughout the 1990s, theWorld Bank, IAEA, and otherorganizations grappled withthe financing picture. Specialprojects and programmesassisted specific countries inidentifying and evaluating dif-ferent types of financingarrangements. Viableapproaches emerged that wereapplied in several countries.

Other experts took aim atanother drawback for manydeveloping countries: the largesize of typical commercialnuclear plants compared to thecapacity of national grids. Theyagain reviewed the need andmarket for smaller generatingunits, and Russia, Argentinaand other developing countriesemerged as potential suppliersof smaller nuclear power reac-tors. Possible greater use of suchsmaller units was studied,though mainly for non-powerapplications such as the supplyof heat for residential andindustrial needs, or for desalina-tion facilities. (See box, page 20)

Generally on the economicside, studies showed nuclearpower holding its own againstcompeting fuels. Analyses donein association with other orga-nizations showed that nuclearpower costs were roughly equalto those of coal, and in somecases to natural gas in terms ofgenerating costs. One aspect ofnuclear power — the relativelylow cost of fuel — showed anupturn in the 1990s. The ura-nium market rebounded signif-

ilestones were achievedover the decade, andothers are near, that

fortify the global legal frameworkfor nuclear and radiation safety.States put into place new interna-tional agreements under Agencyauspices that legally bind them toachieve and maintain high levels ofsafety. Over the past decade,national authorities also increas-ingly drew guidance from, orentirely incorporated into theirregulations, advisory safety stan-dards issued through the Agency'slongstanding work. Some of thesewere newly revised or structured inthe 1990s.

The coming challenges forStates supported by the IAEAwill be to effectively implementthe legal agreements, and tosecure greater compliance withestablished safety standards.They are designed to help coun-tries avoid losses from seriousaccidents. At industrial radiationprocessing facilities, several seri-ous accidents involving workers

occurred over the past decadethat could have been prevented.In two new reports, IAEA spe-cialists analyzed the most recentserious accidents and drew atten-tion to specific lessons thatshould be learned from them.

The strengthened legal frame-work includes the:

Convention on NuclearSafety. States adopted this mile-stone agreement in 1996 thatcommits them to achieve andmaintain high safety levels. Theyare obligated to meet interna-tional benchmarks in major areasof regulation, management, andoperation of land-based nuclearpower plants. A central feature isa peer review process of nationalreports on steps States have takento fulfill their obligations. Thefirst review meeting has been setfor April 1999. Through August1997, forty countries were partiesto the Convention, includingnearly all States having nuclearpower programmes. Sixty-fivecountries have signed it.

Joint Convention on theSafety of Spent Fuel Manage-ment and on the Safety ofRadioactive Waste Manage-ment. This agreement — nego-tiated by States meeting at theIAEA over the past two years —was adopted in September 1997at a Diplomatic Conference inVienna. It covers applications inthe civilian sector and obligesparties to take appropriate stepsfor ensuring the safe and envi-ronmentally sound managementof radioactive waste and spentfuel, and for preventing accidentswith radiological consequences.It includes peer reviews ofnational reports at periodicmeetings.

Protocol to Amend die 1963Vienna Convention on CivilLiability for Nuclear Damageand Convention on Supple-mentary Funding. States havenegotiated these two instrumentsat the IAEA in the 1990s thattogether revise the internationalregime for nuclear liability. Theywere adopted by States meetingat a separate Diplomatic Con-ference in Vienna in September1997.

Convention on Early Noti-fication of a Nuclear Accident anddie Convention on Assistance inthe Case of a Nuclear Accidentor Radiological Emergency. Thesetwo Conventions were adopted in1986 within months of theChernobyl accident. The first oneestablishes an early alert andnotification system for poten-tially severe nuclear accidentsthat could involve radioactivefallout crossing national borders.Notification is made to theaffected States directly, orthrough the IAEA, which set upan Emergency Response Systemas its focal point. As its nameimplies, the assistance Conven-tion obliges States to facilitate IAEA BULLETIN, 39/3/199


emergency support and to notifythe Agency of their availableexperts, equipment, and othermaterials for providing assis-tance. As of August 1997, sev-enty-eight States were parties tothe notification Convention,and seventy-four States to theassistance Convention.# Convention on the PhysicalProtection of Nuclear Material.This agreement, which enteredinto force in 1987, addressessecurity of materials duringinternational nuclear transportby obliging parties to ensure theprotection of nuclear materialwithin their territory or on boardtheir ships or aircraft. In 1992,the first Review Conference washeld in Vienna at which partiesreconfirmed their commitments.They also expressed their con-viction that it provides an appro-priate framework for globalcooperation in protection, recov-ery, and return of stolen nuclearmaterial and in the application ofcriminal sanctions against thosewho commit criminal actsinvolving nuclear material. As ofAugust 1997, fifty-seven Stateswere parties.

A | ^ - he IAEA's advisory nuclearip* and radiation safety stan-f^i dards include the:

# International Basic SafetyStandards for Protection AgainstIonizing Radiation and theSafety of Radiation Sources(BSS). A milestone was achievedin the mid-1990s when anunprecedented internationaleffort involving the IAEA,WHO, and three other organi-zations led to revised global radi-ation standards. The BSS covergeneral and detailed requirementsfor a broad range of activities, andare an outgrowth of a vastamount of new scientific infor-mation accumulated over the past

decade. They follow 1990 rec-ommendations of the Inter-national Commission on Radio-logical Protection (ICRP), whichintroduced lower radiation doselimits for workers and the generalpublic. The BSS also incorpo-rate the Commission's recom-mendation that exposures frommore than one source of radia-tion should be taken intoaccount, including potential haz-ards from accidents. Supple-menting the BSS are a range ofsupporting documents that pro-vide specific guidance in apply-ing the standards.HI Nuclear Safety Standards(NUSS). A backbone in thefield, the extensive NUSS advi-sory codes and guides covernuclear power plants. Topics arerelated to governmental organi-zation, siting, design, operation,and quality assurance. NUSScodes and some guides wererevised over the past decade,steps that included issuance in1996 of fifteen documents onquality assurance. SeparateAgency safety standards coverdesign and operational aspectsof research reactors.lH Radioactive Waste SafetyStandards (RADWASS). Devel-oped through a programmestarted in the early 1990s, thesestandards draw upon extensivesafety documentation on wastemanagement issued by theAgency since its formation. Theycover an extensive range of top-ics related to the safe manage-ment, including storage and dis-posal, of wastes from nuclearfacilities, hospitals, industry, andresearch. Also addressed arewaste discharges, decommis-sioning of facilities, and envi-ronmental restoration. The lead-ing document was issued in1995 and establishes the basicprinciples and concepts for safe

radioactive waste management.These are now being elaboratedin supporting documents.# Regulations for the SafeTransport of RadioactiveMaterials. First issued in 1961,these advisory regulations definethe basic rules now largelyadopted throughout the worldfor transporting virtually allradioactive material. Their objec-tive is to protect the public,transport workers, property, andthe environment from the effectsof radiation exposure duringtransport. A revised edition wasissued in 1996. It takes intoaccount the ICRP's 1990 rec-ommendations and the Agency'sBasic Safety Standards. It alsointroduces a new type of packagefor air transport that must meetmore stringent criteria thanexisting types. A number ofsafety guides support the regu-lations.

. \ , >, or all Agency standards,-.' 1" their collective profile was

uniformly raised in recentyears. A renewed and more uni-form preparation and reviewprocess was initiated in the mid-1990s under the responsibilityof a newly created Departmentof Nuclear Safety. Also estab-lished was a set of five separateadvisory bodies. Each has amembership of about fifteensenior governmental officialsthat work from harmonizedterms of reference to review andguide the safety standards pro-grammes.—Based on reports byAbel Gonzalez, Director of theIAEA Division of Radiation andWaste Safety, and staff of theAgency's Legal Division.

Photo: One of Germany's nuclearpower plants that together provideabout thirty percent of the country'selectricity.

icantly. Global assessmentsabout its resource base and pro-duction also became more thor-ough. Key data from Russia andother former Soviet-bloc coun-tries were made available for thefirst time at an IAEA technicalmeeting.

For the IAEA's involve-ment in nuclear power,the decade's unfolding

economic and environmentalrealities translated into newchallenges and opportunities.Overall, technical programmesbecame more closely bound toplant safety, performance, andwaste-related issues.

An overriding aim was toassist more countries in buildingbetter capabilities for safe andreliable nuclear operationswithin the framework of theAgency's international standards.

Over the past fifteen years,Agency-supported technicalassistance projects invested$100 million in training andhardware support related tonuclear safety. This supportwent primarily to the seventeendeveloping countries using orconsidering use of nuclearpower. Agency technical assis-tance included helping to buildan on-site training simulatorfor nuclear plant operatingstaff, the first of its kind, inHungary, for which surplusparts from idled plants inGermany and Poland wereused. In the early 1990s, theAgency was one of the firstorganizations to point out defi-ciencies at Bulgaria's Kozloduyplant. These findings spurredassistance through the IAEA'sexpanding safety programmes.The Agency also flagged theneed for greater combinedefforts to confront problems atthat plant and others like it in

Central and Eastern Europe. InBulgaria, technical assistancehas since expanded to coverseismic evaluations, as it doesin several other countries. Theaim is to help make surenuclear units withstand earth-quakes, even those rated higherthan the one Japan's reactorswithstood successfully duringthe decade.

Importantly, Agency effortshelped put in place better pre-ventive maintenance and oper-ational controls at nuclearplants over the past ten years.Through programmes to mod-ernize training approaches andinstrumentation systems, thework extended beyond theChernobyl-type units toencompass other reactor types.A far greater share of incidentsat plants also were peer-reviewed and technically ana-lyzed for "lessons learned".IAEA-supported or initiatedglobal information networksand safety services linked withnational regulatory systemsprovided a central mechanism.

I orldwide, nuclearplant performanceimproved through-

out the 1990s. Agency evalua-tions tracked a common indi-cator — the"energy availabilityfactor", measuring how close tocapacity the units perform.The factor rose nearly sevenpercent in the 1990s, and by1996 was approaching aneighty percent average.Another indicator — energylosses from plant outages —dropped to below five percent,approximately equal to that offossil-fuelled plants. Also gain-ing ground was the operationalperformance of nuclear fuel atlight-water reactors, the pre-dominant type in operation. In

the 1990s, IAEA-supportedfuel research expanded totwenty-six countries and threeinternational organizations.Technical assistance in fuelbehaviour studies was extendedto newly independent coun-tries in Eastern Europe and tothe types of fuel used at reac-tors in operation there.

^

ext generation plants,as they are popularlyknown, were intro-

duced in some countries dur-ing the decade. Common goalsfor new designs include greaterreliability, better economics,and enhanced safety. Annualinvestment in research anddevelopment of different typesof advanced nuclear plantsgrew to an estimated $2 billionin 1996. Most attentionfocused on "evolutionary" con-cepts that build upon today'sbest features and add others.By 1996, some types ofadvanced reactors came on lineor were nearing operation inthe Far East, Europe, andNorth America, while otherswill take longer to develop anddemonstrate. IAEA interna-tional working groups onadvanced reactor design devel-opment are at the forefront ofcooperative work. The expertsmeet periodically to exchangeexperience and advise theAgency on research needs, par-ticularly involving technicaland information links betweenresearchers in developing andindustrialized countries.Another type of future nuclearenergy system drew more inter-est over the decade in Japan,France, Russia, and at theEuropean Nuclear ResearchCentre (CERN). It relies onmachines called acceleratorsthat produce high energy pro-

IAEA BULLETIN, 39/3/199/

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ton currents. An attraction isthat these systems, whenmerged with fission reactortechnologies, hold the promiseof producing electricity usingnuclear fuels, while at the sametime destroying plutonium andlong-lived radioactive materials.

ew realities at the"back end" ofnuclear's fuel cycle

meant adjustments had to bemade. Managing greateramounts of spent fuel became apressing issue in many coun-tries, and took on high priorityat the Agency. In 1985, theworld's cumulative inventory ofspent fuel was about 30,000tonnes of heavy metal. Volumesby the turn of the century arenow estimated six times thathigh, and Agency analysts fore-see steady though slower growthbeyond that time. Althoughconsiderable, these volumes arefar smaller and more easily iso-lated from the environmentthan waste from fossil fuelplants, which is mostly releasedinto the atmosphere. Used

nuclear fuel is either reprocessedor prepared for containment inengineered storage facilities. Soemplaced for extended timeperiods, its radioactivity leveldecays significantly. In supportof national efforts to keep fuelsafely stored and managed, theIAEA expanded its technical,research, and advisory services.Mainly involved are countriesstarting up storage facilities orthose studying how spent fuelbehaves under storage condi-tions extending beyond fiftyyears.

For receiving most types ofradioactive wastes, more engi-neered disposal sites had openedor were in planning by 1997.But political decisions slowedprogress toward plans for con-struction of deep geologicalrepositories engineered to holdhigh-level radioactive wastesand spent fuel. (See box, page39.)

From other directions, thespectre arose of what somecalled a "plutonium economy".The end of the Cold War sawthe dismantling of nuclear

weapons and the controlledentry of plutonium into thecivil marketplace. The USA hasdeclared fifty tonnes as surplus,and it is assumed Russia willalso release as much. Overall,concerns were principally com-pounded by several factors: anexpanded reprocessing industryfor the recycling of plutonium,and delays in commercializingmore fast-breeder reactors,which are able to burn pluto-nium. These factors togethercontributed to rising global plu-tonium inventories. (See graph.)

Action launched through theAgency included setting up adatabase and methodology totrack inventories and reliablyproject them; developing guide-lines for safe handling and stor-age of large amounts of sepa-rated plutonium; and develop-ing a methodology to addressconcerns related to nuclear pro-liferation from the standpointof different fuel-cycle concepts.The IAEA has helped to negoti-ate controls required to preventthe potential reuse of ex-mili-tary plutonium for weaponsand to protect the public fromits radiation.

Other issues arose just fromthe industry's advancing age.Countries marked the fortiethanniversary of nuclear power asa commercial energy source inthe mid-1990s, and manyplants are decades old. Renewedinterest surfaced in what theFinancial Times called "the sci-ence of nuclear gerontology".More than one hundred plantsworldwide were nearing retire-ment at a typical age of forty.Many of them are destined tobe decommissioned, a processinvolving site cleanup andrestoration. Others are beingrefurbished and upgraded toextend their lifetimes by about

twenty years. More countriesbegan to seek guidance throughIAEA channels to learn the bestpractices being followed in theindustry for "life extension" andfor experience acquired indecommissioning and siterestoration. Importantly, theAgency recently issued interimguidelines for such activities tomore fully elaborate its safetystandards.

Age-related issues, amongothers, also affected the world'sseveral hundred research reac-tors, whose uses range fromscientific investigations to theproduction of radioisotopesused in medicine and otherfields. Most of these reactorswere built in the 1960s.

A particular technical, as wellas political, issue was the dis-posal and safe storage of usedfuel from research reactor facili-ties. About sixty countries arenow operating research reactors.When most of these were builtabout twenty-five years ago, itwas assumed that the spent fuelwould eventually be shippedback to its foreign suppliers,chiefly the United States andformer Soviet Union.

Agency efforts intensified inthe mid-1990s to assess the sit-uation and help operators ofresearch reactors identify andtake remedial measures. Thework encompassed fact-findingmissions, training courses, andadvisory technical services onthe best ways to store the spentfuel. It also involved workingwith governmental authoritiesin the USA, Russia, and othercountries on further steps thatcould be taken. The USA hasestablished a programme totake back any spent fuel it hadoriginally supplied to fuelresearch reactors, and as thedecade closed, authorities in the

Russian Federation were beingencouraged to do likewise.

hat is the outlook atthis stage? Longbefore the decade

closed, it became apparent thatnuclear power prospects, andthe future of related IAEA pro-grammes, would depend onseveral key factors. As DavidFischer writes in his history ofthe Agency, they include:

Future demand for electric-ity, especially in Asia, wheregrowth trends appear strongest.

• The relative cost of gener-ating electricity by burningfossil and nuclear fuels.*•» Stagnating demand for elec-tricity in most countries ofNorth America and WesternEurope. In most of these coun-tries, the only rapidly expand-ing source of energy for electric-ity generation is natural gas.

Maintaining a superiorsafety record for nuclearenergy, including its wasteproducts, to counterbalancethe memories of Chernobyl.

Persuading the public thatradioactive waste can be dis-posed of without endangeringthe health of future genera-tions. The technology is avail-able, but public confidence islacking.

And finally, how seriouslythe world takes the threat ofglobal warming, which stemslargely from "greenhouse gases"emitted by fossil fuels. Thisapplies particularly to NorthAmerica and Western Europe.There, except in France,nuclear energy programmes donot seem likely to flourishunless drastic steps are taken tocurb the use of fossil fuel forelectricity generation. It alsoapplies to two Asian countries,China and India, where energy

consumption and burning ofcoal seem bound to grow mas-sively in the next century.

At the global level, Mr.Fischer's review finds thatworld energy developmentmay be going off course if thenuclear option is rejected. TheIntergovernmental Panel onClimate Change (IPCC) is themain international body assess-ing the impact of greenhousegases on the world's climate.The IAEA provided the Panelwith a considerable amount ofmaterial, he notes, but in 1994the IAEA went on record asstating that the draft assess-ments the Panel made in thatyear did not "adequately reflectthe potential contribution thatnuclear energy could make tomeeting energy demands whilereducing carbon dioxide emis-sions." Subsequently, the headof the International EnergyAgency of the Organization forEconomic Cooperation andDevelopment (OECD) notedin a statement to a UN meet-ing that "nuclear energy [had]accounted for the greater partof the lowering of carbon in-tensity of the energy econo-mies of the OECD countriesover the last 25 years."

Nonetheless, Mr. Fischer con-cludes, "...the past years haveshown how difficult a task it willbe to persuade energy authoritiesand governments, in almost allcountries concerned and partic-ularly in developing countrieslike India and China, to pay thecost of reducing carbon dioxideemissions and to persuade thepublic that nuclear energy is oneof the viable solutions to theproblem of global warming. Thereluctance of the IPCC to recog-nize the potentially benign roleof nuclear energy was anotherpointer in this direction." IAEA BULLETIN, 39/3/1997

I earns of the world's best and brightest sci-entists took on major technical challengesduring the past decade to move the world

closer to demonstrating the power of nuclearfusion, the energy source which powers the sunand stars. Under Agency auspices, global co-operation was expanded in the late 1980sthrough a four-party initiative that includesJapan, Russia, the European Union, and theUnited States, and is known as the InternationalThermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER(see illustration: note the size of the model com-pared to the people in front of it). The projectwas set up to confirm the scientific, and addressthe technical, feasibility of fusion as a potentiallysafe and environmentally acceptable source ofenergy. Fusion's main fuels — deuterium andtritium, one extracted from seawater and theother bred from abundant lithium — and itsend product, the inert gas helium, are neithertoxic, radioactive, nor do they contribute to the"greenhouse effect". In late 1990, scientists suc-cessfully completed the conceptual design of theITER tokamak fusion reactor, and two yearslater they started an engineering design phasewhose intensive work will run through most ofthis decade. So far, the four parties have not for-mally committed themselves to build the fusiondevice, and some technical and financial ques-tions have arisen. Besides the ITER project, otherfusion concepts are being investigated interna-tionally, work recorded and shared throughIAEA-supported global conferences, researchprogrammes, and the IAEA's scientific journal

"MINI-SUNS"FOR ENERGY

Nuclear Fusion. If technical and economic barri-ers can be overcome, the decade's extensive effortscould bring die promise of fusion-generated elec-tricity closer to being successfully tested in the21st century's marketplace.— Based on reports by Thomas Dolan, Franz-Nikolaus Flakus, and David Fischer.


; ust where the world's| drive for safer, cleanerenergy development will

lead remains to be seen.Maybe superconduction orcommercial thermonuclearfusion (see box above) willcome true far earlier thannow believed possible.Scientists — like those work-ing at the InternationalCentre for TheoreticalPhysics in Italy run byUNESCO with IAEA sup-port — may achieve break-throughs in solar energy or

other promising energysources, as they did decadesago with the commercial useof nuclear energy.

For the IAEA, its evolvingroles in years ahead almostcertainly will be influencedby answers to the big ques-tion posed at the outset —how governments decide tofuel and engineer the energydrive ahead. The Kyoto con-ference on climate change inDecember, among otherevents, may help dictate thepace of progress on an impor-

tant front. — LotharWedekind, based on reports byDr. Hans Blix, VictorMourogov, ZygmundDomaratzki, Morris Rosen,Juergen Kupitz, Poong-EilJuhn, John Cleveland, BorisGuerguiev, K. V. MahadevaRao, Iain Ritchie, Ms.Candace Chan-Sands, BelaJ.Csik, Viktor Arkhipov, NoboruOi, James Finucane, ArnoldBonne, Royal Kastens, Ms.Lucille Langlois, LeonardBennett, Ms. Evelyne Bertel,and David Fischer.

AND, ATOPOUNTAINS

he past ten years have seenmany countries call uponthe Agency's scientific and

technical expertise for assess-ments of radiological conditionsand environmental pollutionthreats. Most widely publicizedwas the response to the 1986Chernobyl accident. (See page24.) In the early to mid-1990s,countries requested the Agency'sassistance in response to someserious concerns:

•/ IAEA scientists at the MarineEnvironment Laboratory werecalled to Kuwait's shores after theGulf War in 1991 to survey andanalyze pollution damage causedby blazing field fires whichburned 500 million barrels ofgushing oil. Preliminary resultswere part of the world's first pub-lished environmental assessmentin the prestigious science jour-nal Nature. Surprisingly, theyshowed that the greatest hydro-carbon pollution was within aradius of approximately 400kilometers of the sources. By1992, the oil pollutants haddegraded, with only resistantcompounds left, and contami-nation levels dropped to half of1991 values. The rate of reduc-tion fell by 1993, thought tostem from resumption of com-mercial tanker traffic and asso-ciated "routine" oil spills.Concentrations of oil pollutantsin the seas peaked in August1991, when tests showed signif-

icant toxicity to marine larvae,an effect that decreased signifi-cantly by 1993. This experiencedemonstrated how nuclear tech-niques can be effectively com-bined with other methods totrace the origins and movementof oil pollution, and help assessdamage.

Along the shores of theCaspian Sea and the Black Sea,in Thailand and other countries,Agency teams confronted otherproblems over the decade. Inthe Caspian region, for exam-ple, support went to five coun-tries for environmental moni-toring campaigns to find outwhy the sea level is rising, andhow to prevent its flooding ofcities and farmlands. Anotherglobal project with the SwedishInternational DevelopmentAuthority includes isotope stud-ies of agricultural pesticiderunoff which threatens coastalregions and the livelihood offisheries.

About eighty percent of allmarine pollution is caused byhuman activities on land: sewagedisposal, industrial wastes, andchemical pollutants. In 1995,States adopted a global actionplan hailed as the first programmeto lead to more "sustainable inter-action" between people and theoceans. The challenge may engagethe Agency's expertise. More thana dozen ways in which this exper-tise might contribute to the

action plan's goals and principleshave been prepared.

In countries of Eastern andCentral Europe, awareness ofradioactive contamination fromuranium mining and millingincreased and it became a serioushealth and environmental con-cern. In 1993 and 1995, theAgency initiated efforts to helpcountries assess the situation andbegin to restore contaminatedlands through effective remedialmeasures. By 1997, fifteen coun-tries were participating in tworemediation projects, with someresults already published by theAgency. New projects have beeninitiated in countries includingBulgaria, the Czech Republic, andSlovenia. IAEA BULLETIN, 39/3/1997


# In the Arctic Seas, an exten-sive project from 1993-96assessed potential health andenvironmental impacts ofradioactive waste dumped inshallow waters near the NovayaZemlya nuclear test site. Thewaste included spent fuel in sixsubmarine reactors and in thefuel assembly of an icebreakership reactor. Under the auspicesof the International MaritimeOrganization and in accordancewith its responsibility under theLondon Convention to preventpollution by dumping, theIAEA launched a study involv-ing more than fifty experts fromfourteen countries. The studyfound that the present andfuture radiological risks to typ-ical local population groupsfrom the dumped wastes aresmall. It also concluded that, onradiological grounds alone, aremedial action programme wasnot warranted. Experts notedthat limited environmentalmonitoring should be consid-ered in order to detect anychanges in the condition ofdumped highly radioactivewastes. In the mid-1990s, IAEAmarine scientists were also askedto support studies of pastradioactive waste dumping sitesin areas of the northwest PacificOcean. They joined two scien-tific expeditions jointly carriedout by Japan, the Republic ofKorea, and Russia. A report isexpected this year.

@ In Kazakhstan in 1994, anexpert group assessed the formernuclear test site known asSemipalatinsk. Of concern wereradiological conditions for about40,000 people living outside butclose to the test site boundary,above which radioactive plumesfrom nuclear tests had passed.The expert group found that

people living in these settlementswere not at radiological risk. Italso found, however, that landvery near the test site had notbeen restricted and was beingreoccupied. The team foundradiation levels in these areashigh enough to justify urgingauthorities to bar people fromsettling there for safety reasons.

iH Heightened concerns overnatural radon levels in housesand buildings were loudly voicedthroughout the decade, mainly incountries of Europe and NorthAmerica. Global awareness wasfurther raised at an internationalconference on high levels of nat-ural radiation in 1990 in Iran.Specialists from thirty countriesattended die meeting, which wasco-sponsored by the IAEA,WHO, and other bodies.Throughout the early 1990s, dieIAEA and European countriessponsored a five-year radonresearch programme that ana-lytically supported nationalmonitoring campaigns. Morethan fifty countries took part infifty-one separate projects whichinvolved the laboratory analysisof radon measurements takenoutdoors, at work sites, and inhomes.

H An advisory group of expertsfrom seven countries, the IAEA,WHO, and United NationsScientific Committee on theEffects of Atomic Radiation(UNSCEAR) was organized inlate 1995 to assess questionsraised by those MarshallIslanders who had been evacu-ated from the former nuclear testsite at the Bikini Atoll. TheBikini people were relocated tothe Marshall Islands before thestart of nuclear testing in themid-1940s. Scientific radiologi-cal studies over die past decades,

as well as recent patterns of theirrelocation, had not convincedthem that they could safelyreturn to the atoll to live. Theadvisory group concluded thattechnically and financially feasi-ble remedial measures could betaken to allow the Bikini peo-ple's rehabitation in line withinternational radiological pro-tection principles. If the mea-sures were taken, the group rec-ommended monitoring of food-stuffs to ensure the strategy'seffectiveness. Further Agency-sponsored activities in supportof the Bikini people's concernsare under consideration.

An assessment of the presentand future radiological situationat the former nuclear test sites atdie Mururoa and Fagataufa atollsin the South Pacific waslaunched in 1996. The study,which was requested and is beingprincipally financed by France, isunder the guidance of anInternational Advisory Com-mittee of global experts. Elevenlaboratories in nine countries areparticipating in the analysis ofterrestrial samples, and six labo-ratories in six countries in theanalysis of marine samples. Asampling and surveillance cam-paign was conducted in July1996. Closely involved in mon-itoring and analytical work arescientists of the IAEA'sSeibersdorf Laboratories and itsMarine Environment Labora-tory. As the advisory committeereported at meetings this year,the study is progressing onschedule for completion in theearly part of 1998.— Based on IAEA documents andreports by Ms. Kirsti Sjoeblom,Gordon Linsiey, Murdoch Baxter,Ms. Candace Chan-Sands, PierRoberto Danesi, and JasimuddinAhmed.

SHOWING THE WAYI he challenge of demon-

strating the safety ofradioactive waste storage

and disposal assumed greaterproportions over the past decade.Most concerns emanated frompolitical decisions to delay plansto build or open repositoriesengineered to handle highly toxicand radioactive spent fuel andnuclear waste. Some countriesinitiated expensive cleanup cam-paigns to counteract past wastestorage and disposal practices inmilitary and civilian areas. Inmost countries, however, moretechnical progress was quietlybeing made to demonstrate solu-tions to both real and perceivedproblems.

An IAEA survey in the mid-1990s showed that experience isbeing broadly applied. There aremore than one hundred disposalfacilities worldwide, rangingfrom engineered undergroundvaults to geological repositoriesfor wastes classified as low orintermediate level (LILW).Another forty-two repositorieswere under development. Theyall rely on multiple protectivemeasures and operational andinstitutional controls. Agencyefforts focused on assistingcountries by promoting thetransfer of proven technologiesand approaches through techni-cal missions, research pro-grammes, safety services, andother channels. Work also wasrenewed with some countriesinterested in setting up regional,or multinational, repositorieswhereby one country hosts a siteaccepting wastes from others.The IAEA identified and

reported on both the "pros andcons" of such an approach.

For disposal of high-levelradioactive wastes and spentfuel, demonstration plansmoved ahead, albeit slowly,often because of lengthy tech-nical and political reviewprocesses. Most countries fac-ing the issue do not envisagestarting up deep geological dis-posal repositories until well intothe next century. That does notmean there is a backlog ofwaste piling up. In nearly allthese countries, nuclear wasteis contained in engineeredintetim storage facilities thatallow it to cool safely overdecades. The Agency's techni-cal assistance during the decadeincluded supporting extensivejoint research programmes onthe performance of high-levelwaste forms and containersunder repository conditions,

and safety assessments ofunderground disposal facilitiesfor othet types of wastes.

The Agency broke some newground when it supported a six-month international assessmentof scientific studies analyzing theperformance of the WasteIsolation Pilot Plant in the USA,now in the final stages of gov-ernmental review. Organizedjointly with the OECD NuclearEnergy Agency, the assessmentwas conducted in 1996-97 byexperts in the fields of geology,environmental protection, andnuclear and radiation safety.Their report supported the sci-entific studies and found themtechnically sound. The pilotplant is designed to permanentlydispose of plutonium and otherlong-lived wastes generated bydefense-related activities, includ-ing contaminated tools andclothing. It is engineered morethan one kilometer under-ground at a site in New Mexico.The schedule calls for it to beginreceiving wastes in May 1998,pending approval of the USEnvironmental ProtectionAgency and the EnvironmentDepartment of New Mexico.— Based on reports by KyongWon Han, Jorma Heinonen, Ms.Candace Chan-Sands, andArnold Bonne.

Photo: One of the protective means of

safely containing radioactive wastes is

known as vitrification (from the Latin

"vitrus"- glass). Glass is used to solidi-

fy high-level wastes as one protective

step before disposal. Here molten glass

is shown being poured from a plat-

inum crucible into a steel bar mold. IAEA BULLETIN, 39/3/199:

JLSflSiiWorld population stands at 3.8 billion people, over 70%

of whom live in developing countries.

About 38% of humanity live in towns and cities, only

three of which have more than ten million inhabitants.

More than 200 million cars, most of them in industrial-

ized countries, aggravate localized pollution problems.

Total population hits 5.85 billion, an increase of two billion over 1972, and grows by

81 million people a year. About 80% of the world population now live in developing

countries.

About 47% of humanity live in or near cities, eighteen of which have more than ten

million inhabitants. Thirteen of these "megacities" are in developing countries.

MR P@IMJII@MNearly 500 million cars are on the roads in industrialized and developing countries,

where many cities now have hazardous pollution levels. Transboundary pollution has

become a regional and global issue.

About sixteen billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, a gas

linked to global warming, are released into the air annu-

ally, atmospheric concentration stands at 327 ppm.

CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels and other sources are approximately twenty-

three billion tonnes per year. Atmospheric concentrations surpass 360 ppm — about

20% higher than levels one hundred years ago.

ffJJSI! ?#iAbout 2600 cubic kilometres of fresh water are used

annually, mostly for irrigation.

Fossil fuels make up 94% of the world's energy mix

Electricity accounts for about 21% of total energy produc-

tion. On a yearly per capita basis, consumption is about

1400 kilowatt-hours (kWh). By region, consumption

stands at approximately 8200 kWh in North America,

3100 in Western Europe, 2800 in Eastern Europe, 565 in

Latin America, 396 in South East Asia, 240 in Africa, and

143 in the Middle East and South Asia. Total world elec-

tricity generation is about 5000 terawatt-hours, of which

nuclear power supplied less than 2% (80 TWh).

Countries spend US $836 billion (at 1995 prices) on

arms and armed forces. The five declared nuclear-

weapons States conduct 57 nuclear tests. By the end of

the year, 70 non-nuclear-weapon States had become

Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of

Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which had come into force in

March 1970.

Fresh water use has risen by nearly two-thirds to 4200 cubic kilometres a year. Water

problems are severe: 1.4 billion people — one-fifth of the world population — lack

access to safe drinking water, and one-tenth lack water for proper sanitation.

Fossil fuels account for 90% of the world's energy mix, up 3% from 1991 and indi-

cating a rising trend after the low of the 1980s.

ll,ICf§i€lT¥Electricity accounts for about one-third of total energy production. The world's per

capita consumption reaches 2200 kWh in the mid-1990s. By region, disparities still

reign: consumption stands at 13,000 kWh in North America, 5400 in Western Europe,

4200 in Eastern Europe, 1500 in Latin America, 1200 in South East Asia, 500 in

Africa, and 500 in the Middle East and South Asia. Total electricity generation stands at

about 13,000 TWh, with the share of nuclear approximately 2200 TWh, or 17%.

Global military spending is about US $800 billion. Before adoption of global nuclear

test ban in 1996, seven more tests are carried out, raising the total reported since

1945 to more than 2040. Reductions in arms spending continue, but about 6000

strategic nuclear bombs remain in Russia and the USA. By July 1997, the number of

States joining the NPT reaches 185, including 180 non-nuclear-weapon States and all

five declared nuclear powers. Cutbacks in military spending yield a "peace dividend"

in excess of US $900 billion, the UN reports, but whether surplus funds are being

used for social and economic development is difficult to track.

Information based on reports in the Financial Times, 4 June 1997, and the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, May/June 1996, IAEA publications, databases.

IAEA 2OOOCHALLENGES OFNEW FRONTIERS

uring the last ten years,I members of the IAEAhave been persistent in

taking action on two vital fronts:verification to help halt thespread of nuclear weapons andmeasures to ensure the safe use ofnuclear energy in a sustainableglobal energy mix. At the sametime, the approaches to the trans-fer of beneficial nuclear tech-niques for development werereinvigorated. The outlook nowis for further reliance on theAgency as the single institutionthrough which governments canconsult, negotiate and conductglobal action in the nuclear field.

The recent strengthening of theAgency's safeguards system to ver-ify non-proliferation undertak-ings — involving greater access toinformation and locations andthe use of new and advancedtechniques — responds to theneed of the international com-munity for improved global andregional security. It will also pro-vide an improved basis for futurecollaboration in the peaceful usesof nuclear energy. It underpinsthe nuclear-weapon-free status ofLatin America, Africa, South EastAsia and the South Pacific, all ofwhich have called on the Agencyto provide verification services.While the chief mandate remainsverification to help limit the fur-ther spread of nuclear weapons,the Agency has already beenrequested to verify the disman-tling of South Africa's formernuclear-weapon programme andto enforce Security Council mea-sures for the destruction of Iraq's

clandestine efforts to acquirenuclear weapons.

Looking ahead, the safeguardssystem of verification stands readyto perform other vital functionsfor international security — forexample, that of facilitating thereduction of nuclear weaponsworldwide. Even the vision of anuclear-weapon-free world isdeserving of practical considera-tion and preparation. As nuclearweapon stocks are reduced therewill be a need for assurance thatnuclear material from dismantledweapons does not go into newweapons. At the same time, theassurance that new countries arenot acquiring such weapons willbe even more important than it istoday. In the nuclear disarmamentprocess, international verificationis likely to have a role. Under a tri-lateral arrangement between theRussian Federation, the USA andthe IAEA, a study is being madeof one new verification task thatmay be undertaken by the Agency.

Although individual countriesbear the full responsibility forsafety of nuclear activities undertheir jurisdiction and control,confidence in matters of nuclearsafety depends greatly on a recordof safe operation worldwide. TheIAEA has played an increasinglyimportant role in developingglobal international norms fornuclear safety which, together,now form an international legalinfrastructure for nuclear activi-ties. The Agency can take pride inthis brisk development — a size-able and solid body of standardsand guidelines and, indeed, a

number of binding conventions:the "Chernobyl" conventions onearly notification of nuclear acci-dents and emergency assistance,the convention on the safety ofnuclear power plant operation, theconvention on the safe manage-ment of radioactive waste andspent fuel, which we hope willsoon be in force, and the agree-ment to improve the regime forliability in the event of accidents.Concurrently with this normativedevelopment, States are increas-ingly cooperating —often throughthe Agency — to provide practicalassistance and advice on the main-tenance of high safety standards.The Agency will be called upon tofacilitate the implementation ofthe new international arrange-ments and, no doubt, will be thecentre for further evolution ofinternational law in the safetyarea. The growing evidence of arecord of high safety and efficientoperation of nuclear facilitiesdemonstrates the progress that hasbeen made, while shortcomingswhich have been identified pointto the further agenda of work.

The dramatic global politicaldevelopments of the last ten yearshave allowed the internationalcommunity to give renewedattention to the fundamentalissues of human welfare — devel-

opment and the environment.This new situation enhances therole of the Agency in the fields ofenergy and technology transfer. Itis evident that with populationsstill increasing and withunequalled rates of economicgrowth in many parts of theworld, the global demand forenergy will continue to rise. At thesame time there is a greater aware-ness of the need to preservehealthy local environments and toavoid further global environmen-tal damage — through climatechange, desertification and theloss of bio-diversity. There areonly a limited range of economi-cally viable options currently avail-able for the large-scale generationof electricity and other forms ofenergy which are needed. Nuclearpower is one of these. It is apotential major contributor to anenvironmentally sound, carbon-free global energy supply. A sus-tained nuclear safety record — inoperation as well as waste disposal— and sustained objective infor-mation is needed for the potentialto be fully used. The IAEA has animportant role in both regards.

In the area of nuclear tech-niques, the Agency is now focus-ing on the transfer of technologyin ways that bring maximum ben-efit to the countries concerned, inparticular the end-users. Thisinvolves the Agency working, forexample, with medical and agri-cultural institutes, and with doc-tors and farmers — those best ableto make direct use of the tech-niques. There are many tangiblebenefits — some rather spectacu-lar, like the eradication of insectpests from large areas; some lessvisible but equally impressive,such as the identification of newwater resources using isotope tech-niques and the reduction ofatmospheric pollution through theuse of accelerator technology.

Although much nuclear technol-ogy transfer can be left to the allpowerful market, much remains,especially at the introductorystage, where Agency assistance willmake a big difference.

In an era of rapidly growinginteraction among States, it is notsurprising that governments arerelying increasingly on multilateralmechanisms to meet new needs.This leads to three considerations.First, how do we best use the vari-ous multilateral mechanisms tomeet these new needs.Collaboration and coordinationare clearly a key. The Agency hasmuch good experience here — forexample, in hosting a joint pro-gramme with the FAO in usingnuclear techniques to increasefood production, in conductingmarine environmental research injoint projects with UNEP, and inradiation safety in our close col-laboration with UNSCEAR. Newareas of cooperation have alsoopened up in recent years: in armscontrol, with the Secretariatscharged with implementing thebans on chemical weapons andnuclear testing; in the evaluationand remediation of radiation cont-amination, where the Agency hasworked with the WHO and oth-ers; and in the efforts to preventthe illegal trafficking of nuclearand radioactive materials, wherewe have worked with the WorldCustoms Council. These interac-tions are essential and require con-stant attention to ensure effective-ness and efficiency.

Secondly, some important ques-tions arise about the overall struc-ture of the multilateral system.Decisions will need to be madeabout the assignment of newresponsibilities among its variouselements. For example, it has beenwidely observed that the systemhas no one centre for the consider-ation of energy issues. The consid-

erable expertise that exists in theIAEA in the general field ofenergy must be fully used in anysystem-wide forum.

Third is the question ofresources. The international sys-tem has been increasingly underpressure to improve efficiency andeffectiveness, and the Agency hasplayed its full part. The strength-ening of the safeguards system isaccompanied by an emphasis onincreased efficiency. Newapproaches to technology transferhave the same twin objectives.Administrative systems are con-stantly under review and newtechnologies offer promise of fur-ther efficiencies. Voluntary contri-butions will continue to financesome of the new activitiesMember States want the IAEA topursue but they cannot be a sub-stitute for regular funding of coreactivities. To do more with lesswill remain a challenge!

It is my conviction that the legaland technical foundations thathave been laid and the servicesthat have been developed over thepast decade through the Agencywill help lead the world to saferand more secure use of nuclearenergy and nuclear techniques.Major challenges have beenencountered and the Agency hasemerged stronger from successfullymeeting them. Major new roleshave been assigned and are beingperformed. With the continuedactive engagement of MemberStates, the Agency and its staff canconfidendy look tothe challenges overthe horizon.— Dr. Hans Blix,IAEA DirectorGeneral.

'' he IAEA is facing new reali-ties and challenges as theworld approaches the next

century. Three fundamental chal-lenges have emerged:

The first concerns the role ofnuclear energy for sustainabledevelopment — an issue thatembraces nuclear and radiationsafety, waste disposal, the physicalprotection of nuclear materials,and measures against illegalnuclear trafficking. The secondconcerns the IAEA's ability tocredibly verify States' non-prolifer-ation pledges, and its role in veri-fying future arms-control mea-sures. The third concerns the roleof multilateralism, a challengeaccentuated by the end of theCold War, and one witnessed inthe declining financial resources ofthe UN system and other inter-governmental organizations.Thesechallenges point to dual needs —for continuity and for adjustment.

Nuclear power is regarded bymany States as having an impor-tant role to play in the energy mixover the next few decades. Withthe growing demand for energyand electricity, and under theshadow of the greenhouse effectand acid rain, the nuclear poweroption will continue to beexplored or followed in manyparts of the world. The choice tomake use of it is a national deci-sion, and the Agency's cooperativerole will be adjusted to focus onkey areas of energy assessmentsand nuclear power developmentwith those countries who want tomake use of it.

Outside the electric power areaas well, other applications ofnuclear energy are essential inmany fields, including health,agriculture, and hydrology. TheIAEA will need to focus on thoseapplications where the nucleartechniques offer a comparativeadvantage over other available

techniques — in other words,where they have found a demon-strated "niche". The transfer oftechnology for social and eco-nomic development is a majorfunction of the IAEA in its ownright. New directions of theAgency's technical cooperationprogrammes now put them on thepath of becoming an even moreimportant vehicle for sustainablesocial and economic development.

The key to the use of nuclearenergy in all its forms is safety.New safety-related conventionsare in place, raising the need ofimplementing them. Importantin this respect is the need toaccelerate practical assistance toStates in areas of nuclear legisla-tion; setting up infrastructuresfor radiation protection and forwaste management and disposal;and advisory safety services fornuclear operations and radiationand waste practices.

The verification of nuclearenergy's peaceful uses contributesto international security in manyparts of the world. It has becomean important component of thenational security profile in morethan 180 States, and essential fornuclear trade. States have thereforesupported efforts for strengthen-ing the IAEA's safeguards to pro-vide more comprehensive assur-ances and a more cost-effectivesystem. It is to be hoped that theywould become party to the newprotocol to strengthen safeguardsat the earliest possible date. Otherdevelopments in the verificationfield, including the emergence ofregional nuclear-weapon-free-zones and the Agency's possibleverification of nuclear disarma-ment, signal ways in which theIAEA is challenged to contributefurther to the world's securitygoals.

In the coming years, no dra-matic increase in financial

resources to the Agency isexpected. This reality calls formore focused IAEA programmesand more clearly defined priori-ties where the Agency's core com-petencies and comparative advan-tages are clearly established. TheIAEA will have to shed itself ofactivities that are obsolete orcould be more efficiently imple-mented by others in and outsidethe UN system. Better and newfinancing arrangements, particu-larly for technical cooperationand for new verification tasks,will be required. Further stepswill be needed to streamline theAgency's structure, and to con-tinue the process of otherreforms. The aim will be to saveresources that can go into pro-gramme activities, and to providegovernments with even betterreturn on their investment.

As we move ahead, an overrid-ing challenge will be to make theIAEA more effective, efficient,and responsive to the needs of itsMember States. This could beachieved by avoiding a North-South divide, or other divides,and by equal commitment by allto the Agency's twin objectives:international cooperation forprogress and consolidation ofinternational security. These areaims that are worth pursuing inearnest. There are many opportu-nities, and much work, ahead inour common efforts to achievethem. —Dr. MohamedElBaradei, theAgency's AssistantDirector Generalfor ExternalRelations, &IAEA DirectorGeneral-Designate.


SUSTAINING THE MOMENTUM •.-.-veromeiSE we bam;


orld Wide Webhome pages, "e-inail", and databanks

on the Internet all became partof the Agency's "cyberspace"world of information servicesover the decade. New skills andsystems have been cultivatedand developed to serve thegrowing demands for informa-tion and cost-efficiency of dieAgency's governmental, public,and technical audiences. At thesame time, more specializedtraining was needed to helpstaff to use computer applica-tions productively in their workand to introduce them to thewonders of the "mouse" andfrustrations of "search tools"needed to navigate the "Web".Today, almost all Agency staffhave access to electronic infor-mation services from theiroffices. Networks are designedand planned to reach databasesand systems needed for specificjobs. Administrators access elec-tronic travel planning, procure-

ment bids, timekeeping, andfinancial systems. Technical staffcoordinate meetings and useelectronic mail to jointly draftdocuments. Managers of coop-eration projects and researchcontracts exchange statusreports on-line with theirnational partners worldwide.

Although rooted in the1970s, the Internet first becamepopularly used in this decade.Before then, the Agency hadused a number of private net-works for exchange of electronicmail and access to a small num-ber of on-line databases. By1993 the Internet was alreadyeclipsing other networks forelectronic mail.

To take advantage of thepower and reach of anotherfast-emerging Internet commu-nications product, the WorldWide Web, the Agency startedits WorldAtom service in theearly 1990s. Today its pages areaccessed tens of thousands oftimes monthly by scientists,students, government officials,and journalists to obtain infor-mation from electronic publi-cations and periodicals, officialstatements, legal agreements,and conference and meetingdocuments. All IAEA pro-grammes now regularly publishinformation about their 1300projects via the Internet, andon-line databases provideaccess to nuclear power statusinformation, nuclear applica-tions, nuclear physics, andnuclear safety information.

Internet tools also wereapplied to improve or developinformation services restrictedto staff use. One importantoutcome — the On-line

Administrative StaffInformation System (OASIS)— covers managerial guide-lines, procedures, manuals,staff notices, and officialrecords. It also links to otheron-line services. They include"country files" systems thatintegrate nuclear-related infor-mation that the Agency'sMember States report to itsmany databases, or are accessi-ble from global networks inte-gral to programmes. Onerecent link is the new"GovAtom" service. It providesworking papers of the Board ofGovernors and other restrictedinformation to authorizedusers in Member States. Inaddition to these outlets,Member States now routinelysend information to theAgency via the Internet, orother electronic means.

More library services of theVienna International Centrehave also been put on-line.Increasingly, informationabout the Library's collectionsof print and audio-visual mate-rials is available on CD-ROMor in other electronic forms toAgency staff and other users.Also strengthened is theLibrary's own access to elec-tronic sources of documents.An example is the UnitedNations Optical Disk System,which not only speeds deliveryof UN documents, but alsoreduces the local storagerequirements.

The Agency's pioneeringInternational NuclearInformation System (INIS)expanded its coverage in cyber-space over die decade. In 1991,die INIS scope was expanded to

cover environmental and eco-nomic aspects of non-nuclearpower production. By 1997,ninety-nine IAEA MemberStates, as well as thirty-four othercountries and organizations, par-ticipated in the IMS network.

The wider use of smaller,more powerful personal com-puters during the past ten yearshas opened new avenues. In1991, INIS started CD-ROMservices, and today more usersare accessing INIS data fromthe compact disks than in anyother way. A new, more power-ful and flexible computer oper-ating platform is being devel-oped to improve connectionswith users.

Other improvements takeadvantage of the skyrocketingamount of information becom-ing available electronically. Asoftware package called FIBRE

(Friendly Input ofBibliographic Records) hasbeen developed for data to besent more easily into the INISdatabase via the Internet. Nowbeing upgraded is the INIScollection of full-text informa-tion from microfiche to elec-tronic media for distributionon CD-ROM. Additionally,INIS and its global partnerslaunched a Web home page in1996 to broaden awareness ofits services and of links to othernuclear information sources.

A frequently asked questionis how well developing coun-tries are served by the new elec-tronic tools and services. Overthe past decade, training andcomputer support services havetargeted important needs. Staffworking at INIS national cen-tres are being trained in allaspects of information technol-

ogy, especially as they relate toINIS operations. Nationalinfrastructures for computer-ized transmission and receiptof INIS information also weretargeted in efforts to upgradeelectronic capabilities.

Additionally, research andoutreach efforts have beenstrengthened over the decadethrough the Agency's extensiveglobal network for nuclear dataservices supporting a wide vari-ety of nuclear physics andrelated studies. By 1997, forty-one developing and industrial-ized countries were using theNuclear Data InformationSystem on line for respondingto more than four thousandrequests, almost four times asmany as in 1992.—based onreports by Jerry Barton, ClaudioTodeschini, Ms. Wendy Bartlett,and Hans Lemmel.

iII!

w

O(A

hen the decade began, the Agencyhad fewer Member States and staff toserve. In 1986, there were 112

Member States and just over 1900 professionaland support staff at headquarters, liaison officesin Geneva and New York, safeguards offices inToronto and Tokyo, and research laboratoriesand centres in Monaco, Trieste (Italy), andSeibersdorf (Austria). By 1997, fifteen furthercountries had joined, and about three hundredmore staff had been hired, as the decade's devel-opments placed greater demands on programmesand services. Many of these professional menand women were recruited from developingcountries: by 1997, nearly one-third of profes-sional and higher category staff were from devel-oping countries, a ten percent increase over 1985.The representation of women in these categorieshas grown as well by approximately six percent,reaching eighteen percent in 1996. For all orga-nizations with the UN Common System, thedecade brought increasing calls from Member

States for "efficiency gains", "value-added" ser-vices, and organizational reforms to programmesand their management. The Agency has initi-ated steps leading to lower overhead costs forrunning the organization. And, as notedthroughout this special anniversary edition, pro-gramme adjustments were made in response totechnological developments of the InformationAge and to difficult challenges emanating fromthe changing Nuclear Age. Holding steady, how-ever, throughout the decade was the Agency'sbudget under its Member States' policy of zerogrowth for spending. In the early 1990s, thebudget was cut when cash-flow problemsmounted following the breakup of Soviet Union.Extra resources to fund expanded safety-relatedand other programmes have come largely fromthe voluntary contributions of Member Statesand through national support programmes thatprovide experts, equipment, and services to theAgency. — Based on reports from staff in theAgency's Department of Administration.


Symposium on InternationalSafeguardsVienna, Austria (13-17 October)

Regional Seminar on NuclearTechniques for Optimizing the Useof Nutrients and Water forMaximizing Plant Productivity andEnvironmental PreservationPiracicaba, Brazil (27-31 October)

International Conference onPhysical Protection of NuclearMaterials: Experience inRegulation, Implementation andOperationVienna, Austria (10-14 November)

Symposium on Upgrading the FireSafety of Operating Nuclear PowerPlantsVienna, Austria (17-21 November)

International Conference on LowDoses of Ionizing Radiation: BiologicalEffects and Regulatory ControlSeville, Spain (17-21 November)

International Symposium onModern Trends in Radiopharma-ceuticals for Diagnosis and TherapyLisbon, Portugal (30 March-3 April)

FAO/IAEA InternationalConference on IntegratedManagement of Insect

Pests through Nuclear and RelatedTechniquesPenang, Malaysia (29 May-2 June)

Jttiiil IffSInternational Conference on TopicalIssues in Nuclear, Radiation andRadioactive Waste SafetyVienna, Austria (15-19 June)

OL J Li ^

Seminar on Approaches andPractices in Strengthening NuclearSafety, Radiation Protection andWaste ManagementInfrastructures in Countries ofEastern Europe and the FormerUSSRPrague, Czech Republic(28 September-2 October)

l : v : - x . r,L- (97/SGO-4),P-4 position.Closing Date: 31 December 1997.f©efc«isinl ©ffieer (97/059),Joint FAO/IAEA Division ofNuclear Techniques in Food andAgriculture, P-4 position.Closing date: 24 November 1997Director (97/058), Division ofPhysical and Chemical Sciences, D-lposition.Closing date: 24 November 1997Unit t f es i (97/057), Division ofBudget and Finance, P-3 position.Closing date: 24 November 1997Secfien ttoad (97/052),Russian Translation Section, P-5position.Closing date: 10 November 1997M l - e e l e * (97/051), Divisionof External Relations, D-l/D-2position.Closing date: 7 November 1997

©sal©!? f p s e i i i i R ? (97/047),English Translation Section, P-4 posi-tion. Closing date: 3 November 1997Wtmmmw, Pifglsiif (97/050),Division of Scientific and TechnicalInformation. P-3 position.Closing date: 3 November 1997C i e n t l s i (97/049), Division ofScientific and TechnicalInformation, P-3 position.Closing date: 3 November 1997

(97/048), Division of Scientific andTechnical Information, P-2 position.Closing date: 3 November 1997

(97/054), Division of HumanHealth. P-4 position.Closing date: 10 November 1997ieeilen mmim (97/053),Division of Human Health. P-5position.Closing date: 10 November 1997

' > >rr f ,„ w / (97/701),Division of Physical and ChemicalSciences,. P-3 position.Closing date: 3 October 1997

IHgiB#®f (97/055), Division ofTechnical Services, Department ofSafeguards, P-3 position.Closing date: 10 November 1997.

•teilJtiSfS^ HI©!©? These areabridged versions of full listings sentto governments, UN offices, andother outlets. Complete listings ofIAEA job vacancies — and informa-tion about working for the Agency— also are accessible over the IAEA'sWorldAtom Internet services athttp://www.iaea.org, or by writingthe IAEA Division of Personnel,P.O. Box 100, A-1400 Vienna,Austria. See the inside back page forthe official electronic mail address,telephone number, and facsimile.

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ABUSOWA, M., 34/4ADAMOV. E.O.. 36/1

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EMMERSON. II.. 28.3; Ml/3FABRY, \'., 35/2FACERHOLM, R., 38/4FARl'QUI. A. M., 29/1FATTAH. A., 32/1:36/2FFINFNDEGFN. I... 28/2Fll IPPOV, A., 28/1FINUCANF, |.. 35/3FISCHFR. I).. 29/3: 36/3FISCHER. J.. 29/4:31/2

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KHAN. M.A.. 29/.1

KHLEBNIKOV. N., 32/1

KINl.EY 111. D.. 39/1

KLEIN. P. 29/4

KLEIN, R., 29/4KNAPI'. K, 28/2

KOCHFI KOV, F.A.. 32/3

KONISH1.F., 39/2KONSTANT1NOV. I.O.. 36/1

KONSTANTINO\r, I.., 28/1; 29/1

KOUVSH1NNIKOV. B.A.. 3"/4

KREMFNCIU'/KY. S.. 33/1

KRF.T1. V.. u.'l

KRUGER. P.. 36/1KUPFFZ. I.. 31/3:33/1:34/2;

35/4; . r / 2 : 38/1:39/2KURIHARA. H.. 30/1LA CHANCE. L, 29/3; 32/3LAMM. C , 29/4LANDSBERGER, S.. 35/1LANGER, C 32/3LANGLOIS, L, 39/1L'ANNUNZIATA, M.. 29/1;

30/3: 33/4LARAIA. M.. 38/2LARRIMORE.J.. 30/1:36/3LARSSON, R., 28/1:31/4LAUERBACH, R.. 36/4LEDERMAN. I... 29/4; 30/3; 31/1:

34/2:38/1:38/3LEDUC, J., 31/3LEFREVE. J., 28/1LEGASOV. V.A., 29/4I.EMMEL. H.. 38/2LENNEMANN, W.. 29/1LINDHE.J.C, 28/3

UNDOl'IST. D 29/2:34/4

LISSl I Y. I. . 2S'l: .10/3; 31/4: 36/2;y ' 1

1.IPSE1T, J.J.. 31/3

LOAHARANU, P. 32/2: 36/1

LOPEZ LIZANA. F. 36/3:37/3

LORENZ. A.. 28/4

I.OSEV. V.L... 31/3

IOIAAI 1).. 1.1/4

MACH1. s . id 1

MAIIIOLZ, M.M.,33/4

MAKSOUDLM,. 33/4:37/1

MAKIUCHI, K.. 33/1

MARCIIFSL I . 28/4

MARKOVIC. V. 29/2:30/3:

31/1:33/1: 36/1MARSHALL OF GORING, LORD,

28/3

MARZO. M.. 36/3

MALrlTs'ER-MARKI K )l:. F., 3()/2:

.r/2

MCGOI.DRICK. F. .17/1MFARS. I.D.. 31/3Mil . 1 ., 3"'2: 11/2: 35/2Mi l l I A. M.K . 111/2M i l I 1.1 R, I.. 38/3MFYFR, PI., 31/3Mil LS. M.. 33/3MIRCIH'VA, I . 33/2: 36/4MOISFFV. A.A . 30/3MO1 INA, PI-.. 32/3; 35/4MORRIS. I.. 3.1/1MOLROCON, V.39/2MR\BI I. K . i"'lML I I I I R. I.. MIM Ml}

M i l 1 I I R-KAHLE. E., 32/3; 35/3Ml'KAIBO, T . 28/4Ml.'KHFRIFF. R.. 28/2; 3.1/2MULLER. R.. 32/1MUNOZ. E. 32/2NAGATAKI. ,S., 38/3NAIR. C... 36/4NAITO. K..34/1N.AK.A( i.AWA, I !.. 31/3NAM, I.W.. 2K<2; 10/4; .18/2NARDI. I.. 2S, INFBOYAN, V., 29/4NECHAF.V, A.. 28 /1 : 29/4; 30/2N F N O T . J.C.. 30/3NF.TTE. P.. 36/4NIFHAUS, K. 31/2; 34/2Nil s s i I N . \ , l«/4

NOI Al . M.. : S : 2 ; 29/3; 31 /1 ;

33/1; 33/4NOSHK1N. V.. 31/2

NOVAK. S., 29/4; 34/4

NOVEGNO. A.. 29/2

NOVIKOV. V.M., 34/2

NWOGUGU . F., 37/3; 38/1

NYAGU, A.I.. 38/3

Ol. N.. 35/3

OI.AS1NDE, T.A.. 33/4

OKEANOV. A.E.. 38/3

ONL'ERIEV. V.. 28/1

OPFLZ. M.. 3"..l

ORLOV. V.\'.. 36/1

O'SULLIVAN. R.A.. 30/3

OSVATH. L. 35/2; .1-/2; 39/1

OUVRARD, R., 31/1; 36/3: .17/3

PALMER, P.. 28/2

PAPAD1MITROPOU1.OS, P., 29/3;

30/1

PARR. R.. 36/4: 38/2

PARSICK. R- 34/1

PASCHOA. A.S.. 35/1

PATE, 7... 28/3

PAVFOVSKIJ, O.A.. 29/4

PFDERSEN.T. 31/3

PEL1.AUD. B.. 36/3; 3"/l: 38/4

PEREZ DE CUEL1AR. L, 29/3

PERRICOS, D., 37/1 IAEA BULLETIN, 39/3/1997

PETROSYANTS, A., 28/3PETTERSSON, B.G., 34/3; 36/1PHILLIPS, G., 36/1PHUONG, H.V., 28/3P1ERONI, R , 33/4; 38/4PINCHERA, A., 38/3PING, Z., 29/2PIYASENA, R.D., 31/1; 33/1PLATA-BEDMAR, A., 30/1; 32/4PLUMB, G.R., 31/4PODEST, M., 29/4POVINEC, P., 37/2; 38/1PRIEST, J , 37/1; 37/3PR1SYAZHNIUK. A., 38/3PUSHKARJOV, V., 28/1QIAN, J., 31/3; 37/1QUEVENCO, R., 33/1RAFFO, A., 36/3RAMES,J.,37/3RAO, K.V., 36/1; 37/2; 39/2RAWL, R.. 39/1RAY, D.L., 32/2READMEN.J.W., 35/2RESHETNIKOV, EG., 35/3REYNAUD, A., 36/4RICHARDS, J.I., 34/4RIDWAN, M., 29/1; 29/3; 33/2RITCHIE, I.G., 35/3RODRIGUEZ, P., 38/4ROGOV, A., 37/1ROJAS DE DIEGO, J- 32/3ROLYA. A., 35/3ROMAN MOREY, E., 37/1ROMANOV, V.S.. 32/2ROMETSCH, R., 36/3ROSEN, M., 28/3; 29/4; 34/2; 37/2

ROSENBERG, R.. 29/2ROSENTHALJJ, 35/1ROZANSKI, K., 32/4; 35/2; 38/2RUEGGER, B., 28/1RUMYANTSEVA, G.M., 38/3RUNDQUIST, D., 28/4; 34/1RUSCHE,B.,.'28/1SAIRE, D., 28/1; 31/4; 36/2; 36/4SALO, A., 28/3SCHEINMAN, L, 34/1; 35/3SCHELENZ, R., 28/3SCHENK, K., 29/2; 30/2SCHERBAKOV. Y, 33/4SCHMIDT,).. 28/4; 30/2SCHR1EFER.D, 32/1; 38/4SCHULTEN. R., 31/3SCHULTZE-KRAFT, P., 29/1SCHURICHT, V.,30/1SCOTT, E.M., 35/2SEITZ, R-. 38/2SEMENOV, B.. 31/3; 31/4; 33/3;

34/3; 35/1; 35/3SHARMA, S.K., 37/3SHEA, T.E., 35/3SIGAL, M.V.,31/3SIGURBJOERNSSON, B., 29/3; 36/3SINGH, S.K., 34/1SJOEBLOM, K.L., 28/3; 34/3;

36/2; 37/2SKOELDEBRAND, R., 28/3SKORNICK, K., 36/2SMITH, AY., 31/1SMITH, H., 30/3SNIHS, J.OV., 37/4SNITWONGSE. P, 29/4SOLDATOV. G.E.,31/3

SOROKIN, A., 37/3SPASOV, L, 28/3SQUIRES, D.j., 31/4STAHLKOPF, K.E., 31/3STEGNAR, P, 38/2STICHLER, W., 33/4STONE, S., 38/2STROHAL, P., 31/1; 33/2SUBBOTIN, S.A., 34/2SUNDER RAJAN, N.S., 28/1SVENSSON, H., 36/4SWATON, E., 29/4SWINWOOD.J.E, 36/1TAKATS, E, 35/3; 36/3TANGUY, R, 30/2TATSUTA, Y., 33/3TAUCHID, M., 30/2; 31/1; 35/3TAYLOR, C , 28/2; 35/1TAYLOR, J.J., 31/3TAYLOR, M., 39/2TEMPUS, P., 36/3THOMAS, K.T., 28/1; 31/4; 32/4; 34/3THORNE, L, 34/1THORSTENSEN, S., 37/1; 38/4TKHAREV, E., 28/1TOEPFER, K., 34/2TOIVOLA, A., 28/3TOLSTYKH, V, 28/4TOMIC, B., 31/1TOUYA, E, 29/1TRANJAN FILHO, A., 35/1TRONKO, N.D., 38/3TSEHREHN, CH., 30/1TSYPLENKOV, V., 35/4; 36/4UNDERHILL, D., 35/3VALKOVIC, V., 36/1

VAN DE VATE, J.R, 35/4; 37/4VAN DER VLOEDT, A.M.V., 32/4VAN HERK, G., 28/2VENDRYES, G., 28/3VERA-RUIZ, H., 35/1VILLARREAL, E., 32/2VOSE, P., 32/4; 36/3VOVK, I..31/4WADA, I., 32/2WAITE, T.D., 36/1WALSKE, C . 28/3WALTON, A.. 29/3; 31/2WARNECKE, E., 36/2WEART, S., 33/3WEBB, G.A.M.. 30/3; 39/1WEDEK3ND. L, 28/2; 36/3; 37/3; 39/3WENZEL, U., 28/4WHITE, D., 28/3WIKDAHL, C.E., 33/1WILLIAMS. E D , 38/3WINGEFORS. S., 28/1WOITE, G., 32/3; 35/4WON HARK., 39/1WRIGHT, PR, 34/4XIE, Y.,31/4YAREMY, E., 34/2ZAMORA, P, 28/4ZAPATA, F.,31/4ZATOLOKIN,E.F.,36/1ZEISLER, R, 34/1; 38/2ZHOU, D., 32/3ZHUJ.,28/l;30/2;31/4ZIRNHELT. J.H., 30/2ZUCCARO-LABELLARTE, G., 38/4ZYSZKOWSKJ, W, 33/2;

35/4; 36/1

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Published quarterly by the Division of PublicInformation of the International AtomicEnergy Agency, P.O. Box 100,A-1400 Vienna, Austria.Tel: (43-1) 2060-21270Fax: (43-1)20607E-mail: [email protected]

: Dr. Hans Blix

Mr. David Waller. Mr. Bruno Pellaud,Mr. Victor Mourogov, Mr. Sueo Machi,Mr. Jihui Qian, Mr. Zygmund Domaratzki

INF®BM£ : Mr David Kyd

Mr. S. Dana

transl,• : Equipo de Servicio:

de Traductores e Interpretes (ESTI), Havana,Cuba, translation: Mr. L. Herrero, editing

: China Nuclear EnergyIndustry Corporation Translation Service,Beijing, translation, printing, distriburion.

: JSC Interdialektt,Moscow.

The IAEA Bulletin is distributed without chargeto a limited number of readers with an interestin the IAEA and the peaceful uses of nuclearenergy. Written requests should be addressed tothe Editor. Extracts from IAEA material con-tained in the IAEA Bulletin may be freely usedelsewhere provided acknowledgement of theirsource is made. If the attribution indicates thatthe author of an article is not a member of theIAEA staff, permission to republtsh other thanfor the purpose of review must be sought fromthe author or originating organization.

Views expressed in any signed article or inadvertisements appearing in the IAEA Bulletindo not necessarily represent those of theInternational Atomic Energy Agency and theIAEA accepts no responsibility for them.

Advertising correspondence should be sent tothe IAEA Division of Publications, Sales andPromotion Unit, P. O. Box 100,A-1400 Vienna, Austria. Telephone, facsimile,and electronic mail contacts are shown above.

Ctttlf EDITOtt: Mr. Lothar H. WedekindEDITORIAL ASSISTANTS:Mr. Rodolfo Quevenco, Ms. Ritu Kenn,Ms. Juanita PeVez, Ms. Brenda Blann

: Ms. Hannelore WilczekIvn • • :-:

Ms. S. Dallalah. Ms. B. Amaizo,Ms R. Spiegelberg

Mr. P. Witzig, Mr. R. Kelleher, Mr. D. Schroder,Ms. P. Murray, Ms. M. Liakhova, Ms. M.Swoboda, Mr. W. Kreutzer, Mr. A. Adler, jMr. R. Luttenfeldner, Mr. L. Nimetzki

: IAEA French Section,lation; Ms. V. I.augier-Yamashira, copyediting

: Equipo de Servicios

AfghanistanAlbaniaArgentinaAustraliaAustriaBelarusBrazilBulgariaCanadaCubaDenmarkDominican RepublicEgyptEl SalvadorEthiopiaFranceGermanvGreeceGuatemalaHaitiHoly SeeHungaryIcelandIndiaIndonesiaIsraelItalyJapanKorea, Republic ofMonacoMoroccoMyanmarNetherlandsNew ZealandNorwayPakistanParaguayPeruPolandPortugalRomaniaRussian FederationSouth AfricaSpainSri Lanka

SwedenSwitzerland

ThailandTunisiaTurkeyUkraineUnited Kingdom of Great

Britain and NorthernIreland

United States of AmericaVenezuelaViet NamYugoslavia

BelgiumCambodiaEcuadorFinlandIran, Islamic Republic ofLuxembourgMexicoPhilippinesSudan

Iraq

ChileColombiaGhanaSenagai

LebanonMaliZaire

Liberia

Saudi Arabia

Algeria

BoliviaCote d'lvoireLibyan Arab JamahiriyaSyrian Arab RepublicUruguay

CameroonGabonKuwaitNigeria

Costa Rica

CyprusJamaicaKenyaMadagascar

JordanPanama

Sierra LeoneSingaporeUganda

Lichtenstein

1969

MalaysiaNigerZambia

„

Ireland

Bangladesh

Mongolia

Eighteen ratifications were required to bring the IAEA's Statute into force. Bybold face had ratified t ie Statute.

1974Mauritius

? 6QatarUnited Arab EmiratesUnited Republic of

Tanzania

Nicaragua

1984China

Zimbabwe

1991LatviaLithuania

CroatiaEstoniaSlovenia

* •'? # 3ArmeniaCzech RepublicSlovakia

Former Yugoslav Republicof Macedonia

KazakhstanMarshall IslandsUzbekistanYemen

Bosnia and Herzegovina

GeorgiaMoldova

29 July 1957, the States in

Year denotes year of membership. Names of the States are not necessarily their historical designations.For States in italic, membership has been approved by the IAEA General Conference and will take effectonce the required legal instruments have been deposted.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, which cameinto being on 29 July 1957, is an independent inter-governmental organization within the United NationsSystem. Headquartered in Vienna, Austria, the Agencyhas more than 100 Member States who together workto carry out the main objectives of IAEA's Statute: Toaccelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomicenergy to peace, health, and prosperity throughoutthe world and to ensure so far as it is able that assistanceprovided by it, or at its request or under its supervisionor control, is not used in such a way as to further anymilitary purpose.

IAEA headquarters, at the Vienna International Centre.

Until now, one of the biggestproblems with reading personalexposure doses has been the size ofthe monitoring equipment. Which isprecisely why we're introducing theElectronic Pocket Dosimeter (EPD)"MY DOSE mini™" PDM-Series.

These high-performance

dosimeters combine an easy-to-read digital display with a widemeasuring range suiting a widerange of needs.

But the big news is how verysmall and lightweight they'vebecome. Able to fit into any pocketand weighing just 50-90 grams,

the Aloka EPDs can go anywhereyou go. Which may prove to bequite a sizable improvement, indeed.

SCIENCE AND HUMANITY

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Energy

60 keV -40 keV -40 keV ~20 keV ~thermal - fast40 keV -

Range

0.01 - 99.99 [iSv1 - 9,999 flSv0.01 - 99.99 mSv1 - 9,999 /JSV0.01 - 99.99 mSv0.001 - 99.99 mSv

ApplicationHigh sensitivity, photonGeneral use, photonGeneral use, photonLow energy, photonNeutronWith vibration & sound alarm, photon

ALOKA CO., LTD

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M

Safety, convenience and a varietyof styles to choose from.

PDM-107

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• U.U U mSv

INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENC

Ali

SUPPLEMENT TO THE IAEA BULLETINSEPTEMBER 1997

V,

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This chronology and associated links to selected historical material are available electronically over theIAEA's WorldAtom Internet services at http://www.iaea.org.

Compiled and written by Lolhar Wedekind, based on staff reports published in Agency periodicals andpublications, including the lAEABulletin, lAEANewsbriels, IAEA Yearbook, and Annual Reports, various mediasources covered in the IAEA's Daily Press Review, as well as information from the law & Practices of theInternational Atomic Energy Agency by Paul Szasz, and external sources including David Fischers two recentbooks, Towards 1995: The Prospects lor Ending the Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (UNIDIR, 19931, andA History of the International Atomic Energy Agency: The First Forty Years (IAEA, 1997), Lawrence ScheinmansThe International Atomic Energy Agency and World Nuclear Order (RFF, 1987), and the International Lawof Nuclear Energy, edited by Mohamed ElBaradei, Edwin Nwogugu, and John Rames Nijhof Publishers, 1993).

Presentation, layout, and editorial presentation by the IAEA's WDrldAtom Internet team in the Division ofPublic Information. Rodolfo Quevenco (design, layout and coordination); Jennifer Ahrens (editorial/graphicsupport]; and Horace Agbogbe (computer support].Editorial assistance: Ms. Ritu Kenn, IAEA Division of Public Information.

Photo credits: Peter Pavlicek (Pages 3, 9, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23); Vadim Mouchkin (pages 11, 13); Rodolfo

Quevenco (page 14); Electricite de France ( page 20) European Space Agency (Globe on page 22). All

black and white prints are from the IAEA Photo Archive.

Photo support: Ms. Brenda Blann, Division of Public Information.

International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Austria (July 1997)

YEARS IN REVIEW: THE IAEA TURNS 4 0

THE FORTIES O * THE TERRIBLE SWORD

Turning

atomic

swords into

ploughshares, long

a symbol of global

efforts against nuclear

weapons. South Africa

presented this sculpture to

the IAEA in 1994.

(Pavlicek/IAEA)

JULY/AUGUSTDuring the final weeks of the Second World War, the United States tests the

first atomic bomb in Los Alamos, New Mexico, in July 1945.The test comes

nearly three years after Enrico Fermi's team achieved the world's first

controlled nuclear chain reaction in Chicago in December 1942 and not

long after Heads of State signed the United Nations Charter on 26 June

1945 in San Francisco. In August, the USA explodes two atomic bombs on

Hiroshima and Nagasaki, marking nuclear energy's destructive debut.

Second World War ends. »

JANUARYInternational attention starts to focus on harnessing and controlling

the atom, as the ideologically driven "Cold War" begins to unfold.

The United Nations Atomic Energy

Commission (UNAEC) is formed (repre-

sentatives from USA, USSR, Canada,

United Kingdom,

others) in efforts to seek

solutions.

MARCHUS delegation to UNAEC

proposes Baruch Plan with the

Soviet delegation later presenting an

alternative proposal. US plan seeks creation of international atomic

development authority entrusted with all phases of the development

and use of atomic energy and managerial control/ownership of all

potentially dangerous atomic energy activities. Soviet proposal calls for

international convention prohibiting production and use of atomic weapons for

mass destruction. UNAEC over the next three years fails to reach agreement.

SEPTEMBER

The Soviet Union carries out its first nuclear weapons test, signalling arms race and

effectively ending UNAEC's role.


THE FIFTIES «K ATOMS FOR PEACE

1952UN General Assembly formally dissolves the UNAEC,

which had been inactive since July 1949. In October, the

UK tests a nuclear weapon. The USA tests the first

hydrogen bomb in November.

1 9 5 3 DECEMBER"Atoms for Peace" speech by US

President Eisenhower before UN

General Assembly. Its main proposal

calls for"the governments

principally involved"(naming the

USA and Soviet Union) to make joint

contributions from their stockpiles

of normal uranium and fissionable

materials to an international atomic

energy agency set up under the UN. Among the agency's

responsibilities would be to store and safeguard the

material and to "devise methods" whereby it would be

allocated to serve the"peaceful pursuits of mankind"

1954The USA amends its Atomic Energy

Act to permit peaceful international

nuclear cooperation, leading to

bilateral agreements with a number

of States. In the USSR, the world's first nuclear power

plant is commissioned at Obninsk.

1955In Washington, DC, work begins on drafting the Statute of

the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with the

participation of governmental representatives from

Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Portugal, South

Africa,United Kingdom, and USA. Later, in early 1956,

group expands to twelve with representatives from the

USSR, Czechoslovakia, India, and Brazil.

1955 AUGUST

Beneficial uses of nuclear power are showcased at the

UN's First International Conference on Peaceful Uses of

Nuclear Energy in Geneva, a landmark scientific meeting

of more than 1500 delegates. Dr. Homi Bhabha,the

eminent Indian physicist, serves as President.

1 9 5 6 OCTOBERIn New York, States approve the Statute of the IAEA at a

conference of 82 States at the UN.lt incorporates

responsibilities for both the control and development of

nuclear energy for exclusively peaceful purposes. Global

political crises make headlines: in the Middle East,

conflict over control of the Suez Canal, and in Hungary,

the Soviet Union's intervention.

1957

Mr. Sterling Coie

The Agency's Preparatory Commission

begins work in February toward the first

General Conference in October.The IAEA

Statute enters into force 29 July, by which

time 26 States had deposited their

instruments of ratification. In October,

delegates from 59 States attend the first

General Conference of the IAEA in Vienna,

Austria, for three weeks.They appoint Sterling Cole, from

the United States, as first Director General and approve

$4.1 million programme of activities. Mr. Cole assumes

post, after the interim term as Acting Director General of

the Preparatory Commission's Executive Director, Paul

Jolles of Switzerland.The former Grand Hotel on Vienna's

Ringstrasse is selected as the temporary headquarters of

the Agency. Board of Governors: Dr. Pavel Winkler, of

Czechoslovakia, is elected as the IAEA's first Board

Chairman. As provided by the Agency's Statute, the first

Board includes 23 Member States: Argentina, Australia,

Brazil, Canada, Czechoslovakia, France, Guatemala, India,

Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Pakistan, Peru, Portugal,

Romania, Sweden,Turkey, Union of South Africa, USSR,

United Arab Republic (Egypt), United Kingdom, and USA.

Regional nuclear bodies: In March, six European

countries sign the "Rome treaties" establishing the

European Atomic Energy

Community (Euratom) and the

Common Market. In December,

countries agree to set up the

European Nuclear Energy Agency of

the Organization for European

The former Grand Hotel, the IAEA's firstheadquarters.


Economic Cooperation (today the NEA of the OECD).

Actions led to formation of other regional nuclear bodies

around the world. Global events:The Soviet Union

announces the launching of the first satellite into outer

space, the unmanned Sputnik-I.

1958In July, the Soviet Union and Western countries meet in

Geneva on nuclear arms control, discussing the feasibility

of detecting underground tests. Also in Geneva, the UN

convenes the Second International Conference on

Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy, which opens more

technical and scientific information to the international

community about most aspects of the civil nuclear fuel

cycle except for uranium enrichment. IAEA

developments:The IAEA initiates its technical assistance

programme with a modest fund of $125,000 — which

includes $2.01 a New York school boy and his classmates

voluntarily contributed to the Agency.The IAEA sends its

first mission to Latin America to study need for a regional

centre. A panel of health and safety experts is set up for

preparation of a manual on the safe use of radioactive

sources. Canada offers to provide to the IAEA at no cost

three tons of natural uranium to meet the first request

for nuclear fuel, which was made by Japan for a research

reactor.The United States donates two mobile

radioisotope laboratories to the Agency that can be

transported for use by researchers in other countries.The

IAEA begins concluding research contracts with

laboratories and other scientific institutes, awarding its

first contract to the Vienna Chemical Institute for a study

of the factors controlling the distribution of fission

products in the biosphere. In November, the first

Scientific Advisory Committee to the IAEA's Director

General is formed, composed of Dr. Homi Bhaba of India,

Sir John Cockcroftof the UK, Prof.

Vasilij S. Emelyanov of the Soviet

Union, Mr. Bertrand Goldschmidt

of France, Dr. Bernhard Gross of

Brazil, Dr. Wilfrid B. Lewis of

Canada, and Dr. Isidor Rabiof the

USA.

One of the two mobile radioisotopelaboratories donated by the USA.

In 1958, the IAEA received a gift of $2.01 from JosephSantore, a schoolboy in New Rochelle, New York,who organized a collection among his classmates tohelp the development of nuclear science. He is shownhere with his mother; Dr. Ralph Bunche, UnderSecretary General of the United Nations; and Mr.Sterling Cole, Director General of the IAEA.

1959In February, the issue of liability for nuclear accidents appears

on the global agenda, as the IAEA convenes the first

meetings of a panel of experts examining the question of

civil liability and State responsibility

for nuclear hazards.The IAEA and

World Heath Organization (WHO)

jointly sponsor the Agency's first

scientific meeting, with thirty-eight

experts from 22 countries attending

• I ' fivM^r T l the seminar on medicali^ M J H H L J J I radioisotope scanning. In April,the

first edition of the IAEA Bulletin, the

International Atomic Energy Agency's quarterly journal, is

published. By mid-year, the IAEA becomes a scientific

publisher, having issued nine publications.They include the

first manual in the IAEA's Safety Series, Safe Handling of

Radioisotopes;the first volume of a three-volume

International Directory ofReactors;and the first volume of a

two-volume International Directory ofRadioisotopes and

Labelled CompoundsAn September,the Agency convenes its

first scientific conference, on the application of large

radiation sources in industry, in Warsaw. In Monaco in

November, the IAEA, jointly with the United Nations

Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO),

convenes a pioneering scientific conference on the disposal

of radioactive wastes. In Switzerland, a team of IAEA experts

conducts the Agency's first safety evaluation of a nuclear

research reactor. In the Soviet Union, the first nuclear-

powered ship, the Lenin, is built.


&THE SIXTIES O t THE RISING HOPES

lOArtFrance explodes a nuclear weapon in

tests, becoming the fourth State to

declare itself a nuclear-weapons

power. IAEA developments:The

Agency awards its first research grant to

an Indian scientist for research at the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology in the USA on solid state physics.

In April, the IAEA Board of Governors adopts the Agency's

official emblem and seal. In October, the Agency begins

publication of its first scientific periodical, the quarterly

Nuclear Fusion journal.

Dr. Sigvard Eklund from Sweden, a physi-

cist who served as Secretary General of

the 1958 UN Conference in Geneva, is

appointed as the IAEA's second Director

General.The scientific and technical char-

acter of the Agency comes more sharply

into focus. First nuclear inspections under

Dr Sigvard Eklund , A E A safegUards system take place at a

research reactor in Norway.The IAEA's Laboratory opens

in Seibersdorf,Austria,nearVienna,opening a novel

channel for cooperative global nuclear research.The

Agency signs a trilateral agreement with Monaco and the

Oceanographic Institute headed by Jacques Cousteau for

research on the effects of radioactivity in the sea, an

action that eventually leads to creation of a Laboratory

today known as the IAEA's Marine Environment

Laboratory. In September, the IAEA convenes the first

major global conference on plasma physics and

controlled nuclear fusion in Salzburg, Austria; more than

500 scientists attend.Through various programmes, the

Agency emphasizes the development of radiation health

and safety standards; sharing experience in areas of

waste disposal; and explaining the beneficial uses of

First nuclear inspections

under IAEA safeguards

system take place in 1961 at

a research reactor in

Norway.

radioisotopes in medical, agricultural, industry, and other

fields. It issues the first international regulations for the

safe transport of radioactive waste. Nuclear-weapon-free

zone: At a time when atmospheric testing of nuclear

bombs is growing to average more than one explosion

per week, States adopt the Antarctic Treaty, the first

regional approach to non-proliferation. It demilitarizes

that vast, but unpopulated area, and bans all nuclear

weapons and nuclear testing in the region. Environment:

The IAEA and World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

initiate a joint global network for surveying the content

of hydrogen and oxygen isotopes in precipitation, which

serves to monitor tritium releases associated with

nuclear testing and today is widely used in studies of

water cycles and global climate change. Global events: In

Berlin, East Germany begins to build the wall dividing the

city and symbolizing the Cold War.

In May, the IAEA convenes its first major symposium on

nuclear reactor safety, reviewing the safety picture from

the global perspective. In June, the IAEA Board approves

the Agency's Basic Safety Standards for Radiation

Protection, upon which countries can, and do, base their

national standards and regulations (subsequent editions,

the latest in 1994, update the standards). Global events:

In October, in the Caribbean, the Cuban missile crisis riv-

ets international attention on the proliferation dangers of

the nuclear age, and initiates a consultation process

among Latin American countries for denuclearizing the

region. Reflecting a global concern about the possible

spread of the bomb, US President Kennedy warns that

the world could see more than twenty countries acquir-

ing nuclear-weapons capabilities by the mid-1970s.

The USA and Soviet Union, in the aftermath of the Cuban

crisis, begin to seek common ground in areas of nuclear

arms control.The Partial NuclearTest Ban Treaty is

negotiated, co-sponsored by the USA, Soviet Union, and

UK. It bans nuclear tests in the atmosphere, underwater,

and in outer space. IAEA developments: The IAEA

safeguards system is extended to large reactors, an

important step in the internationalization of bilateral

safeguards agreements. In Cairo, the first regional

Y E A R S I N R E V I E W : T H E I A E A T U R N S 4 0

radioisotope centre is established under IAEA auspices

for training researchers from countries in the region.

The Oyster Creek nuclear plant in the USA is built for

electricity generation at price many countries find

affordable. It heightens interest in nuclear power plants

for electricity generation.The IAEA moves to establish

greater capabilities in areas of technology transfer,

setting up its Department of Technical Assistance as well

as a Joint Division with the Rome-based Food and

Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. In

Trieste, Italy, the IAEA inaugurates the International

Centre for Theoretical Physics, which serves as a research

and training centre for scientists from developing

countries. (Today it is operated by UNESCO with the

Agency's support.) In Geneva, the Third UN International

Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy

convenes in August, under the presidency of Prof.

Emelyanov of the USSR. Nuclear testing: China becomes

the fifth country to test a nuclear weapon.

The Tlatelolco Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear

Weapons in Latin America opens for signature (enters

into force 25 April 1969) in Mexico. It establishes a

nuclear-weapon-free zone covering Latin America and

the Caribbean. Requires comprehensive IAEA safeguards.

A year later, Mexico becomes the first country to place its

entire nuclear programme under IAEA safeguards in

accordance with the Treaty.

An idea that Ireland first formally proposed as early as

1958 bears fruit: following extensive negotiations, the

Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

(NPT) is finalized and opens for signature. It essentially

freezes the number of declared nuclear-weapon States at

five (USA, Soviet Union (now Russia), UK, France, China),

who are obligated to make "good faith" efforts toward

disarmament. Other States grouped as non-nuclear

weapon States, who are required to forswear the nuclear

weapons option and to conclude comprehensive

safeguards agreements with the IAEA on their nuclear

materials.TheTreaty provides for these States to receive

The opening of theIAEA SeibersdorfLaboratories in 1961opened a newchannel forcooperative globaresearch.

assistance for the transfer of

technology for peaceful applications of nuclear energy.

Treaty review conferences are set at five-year intervals

over 25-year period. (Treaty enters into force in March 1970

and in 1995 is indefinitely extended by Parties. Membership

in July 1997: 185 Parties; non-members include Brazil,

Pakistan, India, Israel, who refrain for specific political or

security reasons. By mid-1997, Brazil had taken steps to join

the Treaty.) Health care: The WHO joins the Agency's

programme for the postal distribution of dosimeters for

measuring radiation doses to patients at radiotherapy

centres, strengthening efforts to promote achievement

of international standards.

Applications of nuclear and radiation technologies in

fields of agriculture, medicine, industry, and other fields

continue to make inroads globally, particularly in

developing countries. Nuclear power serves as an energy

source during the historic Apollo missions, as three

astronauts place an atomic generator on the moon.

The 1960s saw growing usein developing countries of

nuclear and radiation

technologies for health care.


THE SEVENTIES WHL THE DUAL CHALLENGE

1970The IAEA sets up a Safeguards Committee to advise the

Agency on its responsibilities under the NPT, which

enters into force in March. In May, the IAEA begins oper-

ating the bibliographic reference database, the Inter-

national Nuclear Information System (INIS), with

participating Member States, distributing Atomindex,

computer tapes, and microfiche.The IAEA Board had

given the green light for its establishment in February

1969, but imposing restrictions (lifted in 1972) for con-

trolling the growth and cost. By mid-decade, thirty-five

countries had agreed to take part in INIS, thus ensuring

that the system would cover at least 90% of the sources

of the world's nuclear publications.

1971The Zangger Committee (named

after Swiss Prof.Claude Zangger) is

formed, composed of NPT States

engaged in major exports of nuclear

plant equipment or materials, in

efforts to interpret NPT provisions

related to exports of nuclear mate-

rial. Committee draws up trigger list

of items whose export would

require IAEA safeguards. In Geneva,

the UN convenes the Fourth

International Conference on the

Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy in

September, drawing 1800 delegates

from 79 countries. In Vienna, the IAEA Safeguards Committee

completes its work, which includes a model comprehensive

safeguards agreement for non-nuclear-weapon States party

to the NPT. Finland becomes the first country to sign an NPT

safeguards agreement with the IAEA.

i h_rt V'Valdheim ,who later became UNSecretary General andPresident of Austria, wasChairman of theSafeguards Committee.

1972UN Conference on the Human Environment is held in

Stockholm. Discussions include nuclear energy's environ-

mental benefits;"greenhouse effect" The IAEA starts a

two-year "market survey" to assess nuclear power pros-

pects in developing countries, with a focus on the

demand for smaller-sized power reactors, and launches

its first agreement for standing regional technical co-

operation in the nuclear field, the Regional Cooperative

Agreement (RCA) for Asia and the Pacific, which today

has 17 participating countries.The Agency further

intensifies programmes on environmental protection

and the safe management of nuclear wastes. In London, a

Conference under the auspices of what today is the Inter-

national Maritime Organization (IMO) adopts a conven-

tion banning sea dumping of wastes, identifying the IAEA

as the competent body regarding recommendations on

radioactive wastes.

1973

Apollo-12 astronautCharles Conrad atthe IAEA.

The oil crisis puts energy issues at the top of the global

agenda, as oil supplies from members of the

Organization of Petroleum Countries

(OPEC) are restricted and prices

quadruple. Nuclear power prospects

initially brighten, then wane as high

energy prices change economic con-

ditions and lead to energy measures

that over time help to slow demand.

IAEA developments: In April, the IAEA

and Euratom sign an agreement for

the implementation of safeguards pro-

visions under the NPT, a major step forward in interna-

tional verification.The IAEA Board of Governors is

expanded to 34 Member States, including the Federal

Republic of Germany and Italy as designated members

and permitting election of more developing countries.

The Agency hosts three Apollo-12 astronauts who placed

the first atomic power generator on the moon in 1969.

With the WMO.the IAEA launches a postal dosimetry ser-

vice for intercomparisons using data from weather sta-

tions around the world;this complements the global

network of hydrology laboratories for isotope analysis of

the world's water resources.

1974With the first NPT review conference on the horizon,

nuclear safeguards and non-proliferation issues rise higher

on global agenda.On 18 May, India explodes what it des-

cribes as a "peaceful" nuclear device in tests. In the United

States, steps are taken to reinforce the non-proliferation

regime and policy on nuclear exports, a process leading to

review of nuclear fuel cycles from the standpoint of prolif-

eration risks they may pose. Nuclear safety: The IAEA

inaugurates its Nuclear Safety Standards Programme

(NUSS) to develop codes and guides that would be revised

over time for nuclear power plant safety in design, con-

struction, operation and other areas. Nuclear power: For

the first time, the IAEA serves as a channel for supplying

nuclear fuel for power reactors, concluding contracts for

enriched uranium with the US Atomic Energy Commission

for supply to Mexico and Yugoslavia. Nuclear fuel cycle:

The IAEA begins studying the possibility of regional

nuclear fuel cycle centres for reprocessing nuclear fuel and

for waste management.

1975In London, the US and other major suppliers of nuclear

materials from industrialized countries meet secretly for

the first time to draw up new rules for nuclear exports.The

meeting follows discussions in Moscow in late 1974

between the USA and Soviet Union on the establishment

of such a group, which would come to be called the

"London Club". At the IAEA's Seibersdorf Laboratories, con-

struction is completed on special facilities for the

Safeguards Analytical Laboratory, the coordinating centre

of a global network of analytical laboratories for analyzing

samples of plutonium, uranium, and other materials.

1976Jointly with the WHO, the IAEA establishes a global

network of Secondary Standards Dosimetry Laboratories

for promoting global standards in the safe use of

radiation sources in medicine, industry, and other fields.

1977In September, the Nuclear Suppliers' Group reaches

agreement on export controls of sensitive nuclear tech-

nology, issuing a list called the' london Guidelines"

(Fifteen years later, after the Iraqi case, the Group agreed

to require full-scope IAEA safeguards as a condition of

supply to non-nuclear-weapon States.) In Vienna, the

International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Evaluation (INFCE)

begins to assess the interrelated problems associated

with peaceful uses of nuclear energy and any risk they

may pose of further proliferation; concludes in 198O.The

work further reinforces support for IAEA safeguards as a

central element of the non-proliferation regime.The safe-

In 1979, the IAEA moved from downtown Viennato its new headquarters at the Vienna InternationalCentre.

guards agreement between the IAEA and Euratom enters

into force, coordinating their respective inspection res-

ponsibilities and bringing under IAEA verification all

nuclear plants and reprocessing and enrichment facilities

in Euratom non-nuclear-weapon States. Nuclear power

conference: Following up the previous four UN

conferences, the IAEA convenes a major global

conference in Salzburg on nuclear power and its fuel

cycle; nearly 2000 delegates attend.

1978The United States enacts the Nuclear Non-Proliferation

Act, setting restrictions on exports of nuclear technology

and reaffirming support to strengthening the IAEA and

its system of comprehensive nuclear safeguards. Requires

full-scope safeguards as a condition of nuclear supply.

Fusion:The IAEA launches a series of workshops, known

as INTOR, on the concept of a large/'next generation"

fusion reactor.

1979Opening of Vienna International Centre along the

Danube.The IAEA moves to new headquarters from

downtown Vienna. In the United States, headlines report

a nuclear power plant accident on 28 March at the Three

Mile Island site, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Becomes

the first nuclear plant accident to draw extensive interna-

tional attention. Post-accident studies report negligible

radiation releases.The accident causes no loss of life or

injury, but leaves the nuclear unit destroyed, and the util-

ity with extensive and lengthy cleanup operation at costs

estimated at exceeding $1 billion. In Vienna, an IAEA

expert group is formed and establishes guidelines on

emergency planning and response.


THE EIGHTIES O* THE CHANGING AGENDA

In Geneva, the Second Review Conference of the NPT is

deadlocked, arriving at no agreed concluding

declaration.Two issues dominate: nuclear supplies and a

nuclear test ban. Later that year, the UN General

Assembly adopts a resolution to convene an

International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear

Energy (PUNE) with the IAEA's contribution. (The

Conference, which was to take place in 1983, is not

actually held until 1987.) At the IAEA, Member States

create the Committee on Assurances of Supply (CAS) to

establish procedures in global nuclear commerce and

cooperation of transfers for peaceful uses in line with

non-proliferation aims.The Agency launches the Power

Reactor Information System, a computerized database

that becomes the world's most authoritative source of

nuclear power status and trends.

In June, Israel attacks the French-

built Tamuz nuclear research reactor

p in Iraq on the suspicion that it was

being used for nuclear weapons

research.The reactor was under

IAEA safeguards.The attack draws

harsh international criticism. In

November 1981, IAEA Director General Eklund reports to

the UN Security Council on the Tamuz matter. IAEA

leadership: In September, the General Conference appoints

Dr. Hans Blix, former Minister of Foreign Affairs in Sweden,

as Director General for an initial term of four years

beginning in December 1981.

Progress in global nuclear cooperation is assessed as the

IAEA marks its 25th anniversary in Vienna.Taking further

steps in support of regional cooperation, the Agency

concludes the ARCAL agreement for promotion of nuclear

science and technology in Latin America, which today has

nineteen member countries.The IAEA and NEA work to

expand the operation of the Incident Reporting System, a

databank for analyzing plant events of significance to

safety that today is jointly operated by the two agencies. In

September 1982, the Israeli delegation's credentials are

Dr. Eklund and Dr. Blix.

rejected by the IAEA General Conference.The United

States, in a reaction to the rejection, temporarily withdraws

support from the IAEA.

In February, Director General Blix reports to the Board on

the outcome of discussions concerning the USA's

withdrawal, welcoming the USA's decision to resume its

participation in the Agency. A landmark IAEA Conference

on Radioactive Waste Management is convened in

Seattle, USA, at which international experts agree that

the technology is available for the safe disposal of

radioactive waste.

China joins the IAEA, as part of its policy of opening to

the international community.The Joint Division of the

IAEA and FAO marks its 20 t n anniversary of cooperation

for agricultural development.The Agency carries out a

new global survey to determine the availability of and

market for smaller-sized nuclear power plants.Three

organizations — the IAEA, WHO, and FAO —set up the

International Consultative Group on Food Irradiation to

advise governments on safety, regulatory, ^ ^

and other aspects of applying the

technology, in which interest is

heightened for reasons related to

public health and global trade.

At theThird Review Conference of the NPT in Geneva,

Parties do not adopt a final declaration because of

disagreement on key issues related to

disarmament and the transfer of peaceful

nuclear technologies. In November, the

first summit meeting takes place

between newly elected leader of the

Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev and US President

Ronald Reagan.

On 26 April, a disastrous nuclear power plant accident at

the Chernobyl site in the USSR destroys unit-4 of the

reactor,causes deaths and injuries.and releases radiation

across national boundaries; it is first internationally


detected and reported by experts in Sweden and

Finland. In August, the IAEA becomes the site for post-

accident review conference, which provides the world's

first authoritative account of the accident. Analytical

services of the IAEA's Laboratories in Vienna, Seibersdorf

and Monaco are mobilized to support assessments of

Chernobyl's radiological impact. In September, following

work of preparatory groups of experts, IAEA Member

States adopt two international conventions on early

notification of a nuclear accident and emergency

assistance and response, and endorse an expanded

nuclear safety programme. An Emergency Response

System is set up at the Agency in support of the

conventions. Issues of nuclear plant safety, radiological

protection, waste management, health, and environment

begin to dominate global,and IAEA,agendas,and

nuclear power's future is reassessed in many countries.

Non-proliferation: In December, the Rarotonga Treaty

enters into force,for establishing a nuclear-weapon-free

zone in the South Pacific. Requires comprehensive IAEA

safeguards. Health care:The IAEA initiates the first

regional project on radioimmunoassay of thyroid-related

hormones, involving 123 laboratories in 13 Asian and

Pacific countries, that over a 10-year period would

significantly enhance diagnostic services and screening

programmes for thyroid deficiencies.

The IAEA Board of Governors expands from 34 to 35

Member States so as to provide a seat to China.The

Convention on Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials,

under IAEA auspices, enters into force. It requires Parties

to ensure the protection of nuclear materials during

international transport on their territories or under their

jurisdiction. In October, delegations of the world's four

major programmes in nuclear fusion — from the

European Community, Japan, USA,and USSR — agree to

recommend to their respective governmental authorities

the start of collaborative work under IAEA auspices on

the design of an international thermonuclear

experimental reactor (ITER), with preliminary studies to

start in early 1988. In November, the Agency works to

mobilize resources in Member States in response to a

request from Brazil for emergency assistance following a

radiological accident at Goiania involving an old

The IAEA becomes the site for post-accidentreview conference following the catastrophicnuclear power plant accident at Chernobyl in April1986. The review provided the worlds firstauthoritative account of the accident.

radiation source whose mishandling claimed the lives of

four people and hospitalized others. Extensive cleanup

activities are foreseen and initiated at the site.

&-» - ^ JBBH| A deadly livestock disease spread

f " ^ J l b t S M M by the New World Screwworm

surfaces in Libya and threatens

North Africa.The IAEA, FAO, and

other agencies join forces to

eradicate the insect using a radiation-based technology

(sterile insect technique) developed at the Agency's

Seibersdorf Laboratories in the 1960s, and since

effectively used in Mexico, Chile, Guatemala,Tanzania,

and other countries.They launch a programme in 1989

that rids Libya of the pest by June 1992, about a year

earlier and millions of dollars less than estimated.

The IAEA submits a report to the United Nations on the

practical contributions of nuclear energy and the

Agency's activities to environmentally sound and

"sustainable development"The document critically

examines the conclusions of the World Commission on

Environment and Development with respect to nuclear

energy, which were submitted to the UN in 1987.

Radiological safety: For the first time, the USSR issues a

public report on the 1957 radiological accident at a

military site at Khshtym in the Southern Urals.

THE NINETIES THE NEW REALITIES

1990The Fourth NPT Review Conference takes place in Geneva;

no final declaration is issued. October sees the

reunification of East and West Germany. Reflects political

developments in Eastern Europe that dramatically signal

the closing period of the Cold War and the dissolution of

the Soviet military and political bloc. Nuclear safety: In

May, the IAEA and Nuclear Energy Agency of the

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

initiate the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) to

standardize the reporting of nuclear incidents and

accidents worldwide. Radioactive waste: The IAEA Board

approves preparation of a series of safety standards

covering radioactive waste management. In September,

IAEA Member States adopt a Code of Practice on the

International Transboundary Movement of Radioactive

Waste. Nuclear non-proliferation: Argentina and Brazil

issue a Declaration on Common Nuclear Policy. Regional

cooperation:The African Regional Cooperative

Agreement for Research, Development and Training

Related to Nuclear Science and Technology (AFRA) enters

into force; its membership today includes 21 countries in

the region.

1991China, France announce intention to sign the NPT;

Zambia,Tanzania, South Africa, and Zimbabwe accede in

May, June, July, and September, respectively. In Septem-

ber, South Africa signs safeguards agreement with IAEA.

Argentina and Brazil move to set up common system of

verification for the peaceful use of nuclear energy,

including acceptance of comprehensive IAEA safeguards.

1 9 9 1 JANUARY/FEBRUARYGulf War. UN coalition of States militarily moves against

Iraq to enforce UN Security Council resolutions

demanding Iraq's withdrawal from Kuwait, which it

invaded in August 1990. In the battles, Iraqi nuclear

facilities are significantly destroyed.

1 9 9 1 APRIL/MAYIn April, as part of ceasefire terms of the Gulf War, nuclear

inspections in Iraq are required under UN Security

Resolution 687, which demands dismantling Iraq's

nuclear, chemical and biological weapons capabilities, to

be overseen by newly formed UN Special Commission.

The IAEA sets up Iraq Action Team to carry out its respon-

sibilities under the Security Council resolution and

nuclear inspections begin in May 1991. Safeguards

strengthening measures are discussed by IAEA Board of

Governors.

1 9 9 1 MAY/JUNEIn May, global experts meet at the International

Symposium on Electricity and Environment, in Helsinki,

which the IAEA sponsors with international partners.

Discussions focus on comparative assessments of nuclear

and other major electricity generation sources. In late

May, the results of International Chernobyl Project are

reported (year-long project involving more than 100

scientists and four international organizations, including

the World Health Organization, Food and Agriculture

Organization, Commission of European Communities,

and United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects

of Atomic Radiation). Study assesses the radiological

situation in 2225 settlements in three republics (Belarus,

Russia, Ukraine), covering about 825,000 people. Not

included are the"liquidators','or decontamination

workers at the Chernobyl plant after the accident.

Among the people surveyed, the project teams find

significant health disorders, but no health effects that

could be attributed to radiation exposure.They caution,

however, that increased thyroid cancers among exposed

children are possible in the future.and they urge

continued monitoring. Nuclear safety in Eastern Europe:

In June, an IAEA project on the safety of older Soviet-

designed nuclear plants in Bulgaria,Czech Republic,

Slovakia and Russia reports serious safety deficiencies at

most plants compared to Western levels.Technical and

financial assistance is expanded through the Commission

of the European Communities, World Association of

Nuclear Operators, and other avenues.

1 9 9 1 SEPTEMBER/DECEMBERNuclear inspections in Iraq: In September, international

headlines are made by sixth IAEA inspection team, which

is detained for four days by Iraqi authorities who ques-

tion their rights of access to documents and buildings

the team wants to inspect. Security Council is engaged to

resolve dispute and team subsequently leaves with evi-

dence of a clandestine Iraqi programme for the enrich-

ment of uranium, including global procurement efforts

to obtain key components for centrifuge process. IAEA

membership: In September,the General Conference

approves membership of newly independent Baltic

States — Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. Ukraine and Belarus

inform IAEA of change of official designations. USSR

informs IAEA that it will not be able to pay its member-

ship dues (about $20 million for 1991), precipitating

financial crisis. IAEA 1992 budget is cut 13% overall. In

December, USSR officially dissolves; Confederation of

Independent States is announced. Breakup of Soviet

Union signals end of Cold War period.

1 9 9 2 JANUARY/FEBRUARYIn New York, the Security Council, in a Summit Declaration

of 31 January, states that "the proliferation of all weapons

of mass destruction constitutes a threat to international

peace and security." It specifically underscores the "inte-

gral role" of fully effective IAEA safeguards and its mem-

bers' resolve to take "appropriate measures" in case of any

violation brought to the Council's attention by the IAEA.

From Moscow, new Russian President Boris Yeltsin informs

IAEA that the Russian Federation will continue former

USSR's membership in Agency; officials state they will

take all feasible measures to pay dues. Disarmament/

nuclear security: End of Cold War is seen as generally

warming international political climate, improving

prospects in areas of non-proliferation and arms control.

President Yeltsin announces major arms reductions; states

that Russian Federation has control of nuclear weapons

(strategic A-bombs are also located in Ukraine,

Kazakhstan, Belarus). IAEA proposes assistance in verifica-

tion of nuclear materials from dismantled nuclear

weapons in former USSR.Safeguards: In February, the

IAEA Board considers various measures, and adopts sev-

eral, for strengthening the Agency's safeguards and verifi-

cation system. Significantly, the Board reaffirms the

Agency's right to request special inspections in States

having comprehensive safeguards agreements.

1992

In April 1991, theAgency set up itsAction learn toconduct nuclearinspections in Iraq asrequired under UNSecurity Resolution687. Nuclearinspections began amonth later.

into force in April 1992. IAEA inspections begin in the

DPRK in May 1992. Syria states it agrees to conclude NPT-

safeguards agreement. Libya, Iran give assurances to

IAEA senior officials that their nuclear programmes are

only for peaceful purposes. China and France accede to

the NPT in March and August, respectively. Among newly

independent States emerging from the former USSR,

Estonia, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan become parties to

the NPT. Working with authorities in these and other

countries, the IAEA initiates preparatory activities for the

future application of safeguards in newly independent

States. In Brussels, the IAEA Director General and

Commissioner of Euratom endorse an agreement for a

"New Partnership Approach"in the application of

safeguards within the European Union designed to be

more effective and efficient.

1992 JUNE

APRIL

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) signs

NPT-safeguards agreement with the IAEA, which enters

The UN Conference on Environment and Development

— the"Earth Summit"— in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June

adopts Agenda 21, a document calling for action to

ensure the world's sustainable development.The IAEA is

made the focal point for issues related to nuclear waste.

The environmentally conscious Club of Rome (group

studying global issues) announces it has reversed its

earlier opinion and now supports the future

development of nuclear energy, with qualifications on

safety, in light of the environmental problems associated

with burning of fossil fuels.The IAEA launches a major

inter-agency project, called Decades, on the comparative

assessment of different energy sources for electricity

generation. It builds upon global expertise and computer

tools and models developed through IAEA-supported

YEARS IN REVIEW: THE IAEA TURNS 40

After the government's decision to abandon a formernuclear-weapon programme, South Africa in 1994presents a symbol to the IAEA of its commitment topeaceful uses of nuclear energy.

activities since the early 1970s. Also drawing greater

interest are IAEA-supported programmes for radiation

and nuclear applications targetted at industrial efficiency

and environmental protection. Nuclear safety:

Multilateral assistance package is formulated for nuclear-

safety improvements at Soviet-designed nuclear plants

operating in Central and Eastern Europe (includes IAEA

technical support, with overall co-ordination by CEC on

behalf of OECD Group of 24 industrialized countries).

I900NOVEMBER/DECEMBER

In Rome, the first global conference on nutrition, co-

sponsored by the FAOand WHO, issues a "world declara-

tion" squarely focusing on the problems of nutrition and

health. It is adopted by government ministers and senior

policymakers from more than 150 countries. Interest fur-

ther increases in IAEA-related work in this field, through

applications of isotopes in health and nutrition studies,

which today extends beyond 30 countries.

1993NPTConference preparaf/ons: With the question of its

extension on the line, the Fifth NPT review conference

takes on greater importance.The Preparatory Committee

holds first meeting in New York in May. Support is voiced

for work of IAEA, and efforts to strengthen international

safeguards. In April, the 28-member Nuclear Suppliers

Group adopts stronger controls on nuclear exports, requir-

ing comprehensive IAEA safeguards. Belarus joins the NPT

in February. In December, Algeria's Foreign Minister

declares that his country resolves to adhere to the NPT, a

step it later takes. Nuclear safety/radiation protection in

former USSR: A co-operative IAEA/UNDP programme is

launched to assist newly independent States in building

up their systems for radiation protection and nuclear

safety, specifically with respect to the control and use of

radiation sources. Radiological assessments: A four-year

project is launched by the IAEA in co-operation with

Russia and Norway to assess the effects of sea dumping of

radioactive wastes in the Arctic Seas. Arms control/disar-

mament:Jbe United States and Russia sign the second

Strategic Arms Control Reduction Treaty (START-2), under

which their respective nuclear arsenals would fall to about

3500 warheads by the year 2003. Under START-1, the two

sides had committed to reducing their strategic nuclear

weapons to about 6500 each by the year 2000.Though

both treaties require destruction of missiles and bombers,

not their warheads, the two countries begin to voluntarily

dismantle surplus nuclear weapons.

J A N U A R Y

The long-awaited Convention on the Prohibition of

Chemical Weapons, which had been debated over the past

25 years, opens for signature. Its provisions indicate a

greater willingness among States to grant strong rights

and responsibilities to an international verification author-

ity, holding some implications for the evolution of the

IAEA's safeguards system.The Convention's Secretariat is

headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands.

1 9 9 3 FEBRUARY/MARCHNuclear non-proliferation and safeguards issues move

higher on the global agenda, following developments in

the DPRK and South Africa. Regarding the DPRK,

"inconsistencies" emerge from the IAEA's analysis of

samples and measurements from its safeguards

inspections, opening the question of whether the DPRK

has more plutonium than it declared to the Agency. IAEA

seeks to resolve differences with authorities, to no avail.

The government in March announces its intention to

withdraw from the NPT because of what it called threats

to its supreme interests.The move follows the IAEA Board

of Governors' adoption of a resolution holding the DPRK

in non-compliance with its safeguards agreement

because the Agency is not being allowed to verify the

completeness and correctness of the DPRK's previously

declared nuclear inventory. Specifically, DPRK authorities

YEARS IN REVIEW: THE li

denied the IAEA access to sites that are considered

critical to the Agency's verification activities in the

country. In May 1993, the UN Security Council backs the

IAEA's position and urges the DPRK to reconsider its

intended NPT withdrawal. In June 1993,following

bilateral talks between the USA and DPRK, it is

announced that the DPRK had "suspended" its

withdrawal decision. More talks ensue and the IAEA

continues its efforts to carry out its verification activities.

Regarding South Africa, President de Klerk announces in

March that the country abandoned its former nuclear-

weapons programme before signing the NPT because

the reasons for keeping the nuclear option had

disappeared. He invites the IAEA to visit sites involved in

the former programme, as part of its overall verification

in the country. IAEA technical teams visit South Africa for

that purpose in May and June.

JUNE

The IAEA Board begins consideration of a safeguards

development programme called "93+2"to strengthen

the effectiveness of safeguards and improve the system's

efficiency. Among other aims, the proposals seek broader

IAEA access to information and sites under comprehen-

sive safeguards agreements so as to verify the absence or

existence of undeclared nuclear activities.

^ SEPTEMBER

The IAEA General Conference adopts resolutions sup-

porting actions to strengthen the Agency's safeguards,

nuclear and radiation safety,and technical cooperation

activities. IAEA membership: Seven countries move to

join the IAEA: Slovakia, Czech Republic, Marshall Islands,

Armenia, and Kazakhstan are approved by General

Conference in September; Lithuania and Uzbekistan offi-

cially become members in November 1993 and January

1994, respectively. Physical protection: A conference in

Vienna on the Convention on the Physical Protection of

Nuclear Material reaffirms the Parties'full support of the

agreement and the sound basis it provides for physical

protection during international transport.

1994Possible new verification tasks: Steps under the auspices

of the Conference on Disarmament are taken to negotiate

Protecting cattleagainst the plagueknown asrinderpest, targetedfor eradicationsoon throughoutAfrica.

a Comprehensive NuclearTest Ban Treaty, under which

some States then see a verification and supporting role for

the IAEA.Consultations also continue between the USA

and the IAEA concerning the US initiative to place under

IAEA safeguards some of the excess nuclear material

released from weapon programmes. Separately, the USA

and Russia announce the establishment of a working

group on the subject of nuclear arms reduction and the

possibility of putting a portion of fissionable material

under IAEA safeguards.Talks also continue regarding the

possible IAEA role for plutonium storage, in light of the

material's release from dismantled nuclear-weapons and

the high level of existing commercial stocks. In Africa,

prospects brighten that a nuclear-weapon-free zone treaty

will be concluded. Radiological assessments: The Agency

completes a preliminary radiological assessment of the

Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in Kazakhstan at its request.

Results show that radiation doses to people in the area are

low, but that certain areas should continue to be restricted

and that more studies are needed on levels of plutonium

in soil and of radionuclides in drinking water. Technical

cooperation: As part of efforts for strengthening pro-

grammes, a Policy Review Seminar sets in motion the pro-

cess of redefining the Agency's strategy for technical

cooperation.The meeting focuses on three themes:

strengthening radiation protection and waste manage-

ment infrastructures; the need for systematic country plan-

ning;and increasing the impact of IAEA technical

cooperation by reaching the end users of technology.

Among the results are newly defined Model Projects,

Country Programme Frameworks, and thematic planning

as major elements of the new strategy. Animal health: An

extensive joint project of the IAEA and FAO in Africa

reports significant results in helping countries eradicate

"cattle plague"or rinderpest, a deadly viral livestock dis-

ease devastating to their agricultural economies.

In February 1994, the IAEA supervised the shipment of thefinal consignment of spent fuel from Iraq to the RussianFederation. • •

1 9 9 4 JANUARY/FEBRUARYIraq nuclear inspections: In February, the IAEA supervises

the shipment from Iraq of the final consignment of spent

fuel, which is sent to Russia under contract.The operation

removes all declared nuclear-weapons-grade materials

from Iraq; the IAEA's work continues under a long-term

plan for monitoring and verification of Iraq's nuclear activ-

ities. Waste dumping: In Februarys ban on sea dumping

of radioactive wastes at sea takes effect under the London

Dumping Convention; the IAEA's technical role under the

Convention is to define radioactivity levels below which

material may be considered exempt from this provision.

Safeguards & non-proliferation: Kazakhstan joins the

NPT in February. In March 1994, the quadripartite safe-

guards agreement (IAEA, ABACC, Argentina, Brazil) enters

into force, under which the two countries accept compre-

hensive IAEA safeguards on all their nuclear activities.

Further steps are taken with respect to the Tlatelolco

Treaty in Latin America for establishing a nuclear-

weapon-free zone; the Treaty enters into force for

Argentina and Chile in early 1994, bringing closer into

view the Treaty's full implementation.

1994 JUNE/JULYThe DPRK announces its withdrawal from the IAEA; its

safeguards agreement with Agency remains in force.The

action follows the Board of Governor's resolution of 10

June, in which it again urged the DPRK to fully co-operate

with the IAEA in its attempts to verify nuclear activities

and suspended non-medical technical assistance to the

country.The UN Security Council, which had been kept

informed of safeguards developments in the DPRK,

continues to back the IAEA's position. Following the

private visit of ex-US President Jimmy Carter to the DPRK

for talks, the governments of the USA and the DPRK

schedule further talks on the nuclear situation and other

matters in Geneva; the USA states no progress can be

made unless the DPRK fully accepts IAEA international

safeguards. IAEA safeguards inspectors remain in the

DPRK to monitor operations at the experimental nuclear

power plant, which was refuelled in May/June. Because of

restrictions on its access during the refuelling campaign,

the IAEA states that it can no longer verify the history of

the reactor's core and that it cannot rule out the possible

past diversion of nuclear material. Regarding the fuel that

was removed over the summer, the Agency states it is

under safeguards and has not been diverted.

1 9 9 4 SEPTEMBERTwo milestones in nuclear safety are reached: One is the

Convention on Nuclear Safety, adopted in June, which

opens for signature at the IAEA General Conference in

Vienna. Stands as the first international legal instrument

[that binds countries to basic safety

[Standards for land-based nuclear

power plants. Forty nine countries

I sign it.The Conference adopts a

I resolution for starting preparations

'on an international convention on

the safety of radioactive waste

management and disposal.

I Second, the IAEA Board approves

Austria was among the the new edition of the International

•irst signatories of the Basic Safety Standards for Protection

Against Ionizing Radiation and the

Safety of Radiation Sources, which

the Agency developed working with five other

organizations.The Standards incorporate international

consensus on key issues of radiation safety.

1 9 9 4 OCTOBER/NOVEMBERBilateral talks between the USA and the DPRK result in an

"agreed framework"concluded in Geneva 21 October.

The DPRK agrees to "freeze" its present nuclear pro-

gramme and the USA agrees to assist in efforts to pro-

vide light-water reactors, which would be under

full-scope IAEA safeguards, for electricity generation.The

IAEA-DPRK safeguards agreement remains valid and in

Convention on NuclearSafety.

full force but full compliance is not foreseen until a signi-

ficant portion of the reactor project is completed. In

November, an IAEA team visits the DPRK and confirms

that facilities subject to the freeze are not in operation

and that construction has stopped.The Agency estab-

lishes the continuing presence of its safeguards inspec-

tors in the DPRK. Radiation issues: In October, the IAEA

International Conference on Radiation and Society held

in France, draws 400 governmental policymakers, special-

ists, and media from 51 countries. Sessions explore ways

to improve communication and comprehension of radia-

tion risks. Trafficking: In November, the IAEA brings

together governmental experts on issues of illicit traffick-

ing in nuclear materials, in response to growing concerns

over reports and an IAEA General Conference resolution

of September 1994. Role of IAEA examined in assisting

States to counteract such trafficking.

| 9 9 5 JANUARY/FEBRUARYArgentina and Algeria officially join the NPT, on 10 and 12

January respectively. Following its accession to the NPT

in 1994, Ukraine concludes an agreement with the IAEA

on the application of safeguards. Food & agriculture:

Gauging progress over the past decades, reports indicate

that nearly 1800 new mutant varieties of 150 crop

species have been released for planting in 52 countries,

mostly by national plant breeders and frequently with

FAO/IAEA support, using radiation-based techniques.

1 9 9 5 MARCH/APRILAt meetings in March, the IAEA Board endorses the

Director General's proposal for a Standing Advisory

Group on Technical Assistance and Cooperation

(SAGTAC), whose twelve members from developing and

industrialized Member States will provide advice on

programme strategy, policy, and effectiveness. In April,

Belarus, which along with Kazakhstan and Ukraine

inherited nuclear weapons on its territory following the

dissolution of the Soviet Union, officially signs its

comprehensive safeguards agreement with the IAEA.

1 9 9 5 MAY/JUNEThe NPT, under which most safeguards agreements with

the IAEA are concluded, is indefinitely extended on 11

May at the Review and Extension Conference in New

WorldAtom, the IAEA's Internet services on the World WideWeb was officially launched in June 1995 and featured duringthat year's regular session of the General Conference inSeptember.

York. Although Parties do not agree on a Final

Declaration, they adopt a set of principles that include

statements reaffirming support for Agency safeguards

and technical assistance programmes, and the need to

adequately fund them.The Conference sets 1996 as the

target date for the conclusion of a Comprehensive Test

Ban Treaty (CTBT), which States are negotiating at the

Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, and underlines

the aim of achieving a nuclear-weapons-free world.

Information technology:Jhe Agency's pioneering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS) marks its

25th year of operations.The IAEA officially launches its

public Internet services on the World Wide Web. Called

World Atom, the service features a range of information

and documents about global nuclear developments and

the Agency's work.Safeguards:The IAEA Board approves

the Agency's implementation in consultation with

Member States of certain measures (Part-1 measures)

proposed under the safeguards "93+2" development pro-

gramme.They include,for example, broader access to

information regarding sites and activities relevant to

States' nuclear programmes, and environmental sam-

pling at locations to which the IAEA has access under

comprehensive safeguards agreements. It agrees to con-

sider Part-2 measures, namely those requiring comple-

mentary legal authority, later in the year.

1 9 9 5 JULY/AUGUSTShortly after the NPT Conference concludes, China

conducts a nuclear test, and France, in line with its stated

intention to sign the test ban treaty, announces its "final"

YEMS If I .E* TWIST

A study to assess the radiological conditions atformer nuclear test sites in the South Pacific tookroot in late 1995.

series of nuclear tests in the South Pacific.The testing is

strongly criticized and opposed by countries in the

region. In a letter to IAEA Director General Blix, France

asks the Agency to conduct a radiological study of the

Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls once the tests have been

completed; the Agency studies the request.Inspections

in Iraq: New disclosures emerge concerning Iraq's former

secret nuclear programme, following information

provided by a high-level defector, Iraqi Gen. Hussein

Kamel. Revelations include that Iraq had embarked on a

"crash" nuclear-weapon programme in 1990-91 but that

plans were thwarted for technical and other reasons.

Withheld documents and data are received by the IAEA

Iraq Action Team for examination.

1 9 9 5 SEPTEMBERStates meeting at the IAEA General Conference adopt a

resolution expressing grave concern over resumption of

nuclear testing and stating their expectation that a

Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty will be concluded in

1996.Other adopted resolutions endorse the Agency's

efforts to strengthen safeguards and technical co-

operation programmes,and condemn Iraq for

withholding information from the IAEA about its nuclear-

weapon programme in violation of its obligations under

Security Council resolutions. Nuclear data services:

Following a meeting at the IAEA, global experts

emphasize the ongoing importance of the IAEA's nuclear

data services developed over the past decades.The

services today include a global network of data used by

researchers in more than 40 countries in fields such as

medicine, industry, and energy, and a data centre

maintaining the world's most comprehensive collection

of nuclear and atomic data libraries. Safeguards

laboratories: A new "clean" laboratory is set up at the

Agency's SAL facilities in Seibersdorf, for analysis of

environmental samples collected during safeguards

inspections. Nuclear medicine: More than 95% of the

Agency's developing Member States are reported to

have set up nuclear medicine services for improved

health care and diagnosis. An IAEA survey finds that

more than 2000 gamma cameras for medical uses have

been installed in 78 developing countries.

1 9 9 5 OCTOBEREnergy issues. In Vienna, the Agency and other organiza-

tions jointly convene the International Symposium on

Electricity, Health, and the Environment, where experts

review the record and options for sustainable energy

production and electricity generation.They specifically

review results of the inter-agency Decades project for

assessments of energy options and their impacts. UN

anniversary:Jhe United Nations officially marks it's 50th

anniversary on 24 October as the international commu-

nity critically assesses its achievements, roles, and future

directions.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER

At the request of governmental delegates in Geneva, the

Agency responds to questions about legal,

organizational, and financial matters relative to the

administration and verification of a Comprehensive Test

Ban Treaty. Any substantive functions that might be

assigned to the IAEA would require prior approval of the

Agency's policy-making bodies. Radiological

assessments:The IAEA advises the French Foreign

Minister that in principle it will conduct the requested

radiological study of the Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls,

pending conclusion of a formal agreement on how the

study would be organized and conducted. In December,

the IAEA convenes an Advisory Group in response to a

request from the Marshall Islands to review the current

radiological conditions at Bikini Atoll, former site of

nuclear testing by the USA.The scientific group reviews

existing data on the radiological situation there to

further reassure the local people, and recommends

additional tests on various foods from Bikini at the IAEA's

Seibersdorf Laboratories as part of remedial measures

that could be taken. NWFZs: In New York, the UN General

Assembly adopts a resolution inviting States to sign and

ratify the Treaty on the African Nuclear-Weapon-Free

Zone (called the Pelindaba Treaty), under which the IAEA

is the verification body. At the fifth summit meeting in

Bangkok, leaders of seven countries belonging to the

Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) sign the

text of a South East Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone;

the "Bangkok Treaty" obliges States to conclude a

comprehensive safeguards agreement with the IAEA.

DPRK: In New York on 15 December, the DPRK and the

Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization sign

a contract on the supply of two 1000-megawatt light-

water reactors, at a total cost of $4.5 billion. Construction

is expected to be completed in 2003. Contractual terms

also obligate the DPRK to permit the IAEA to resume

safeguards inspections of facilities not covered by the

nuclear freeze; to remain a party to the NPT;and to

comply fully with the IAEA safeguards agreement when a

significant portion of the project is completed but before

delivery of the key nuclear components. Safeguards and

non-proliferation: AX the December meeting of the IAEA

Board of Governors, Mexico reports that Cuba on 5

December signed amendments to the Tlatelolco Treaty,

brightening prospects for the Treaty's full entry into

force.The IAEA Board discusses details of Part-2 measures

for strengthening Agency safeguards, including a

proposed protocol to existing comprehensive safeguards

agreements under which measures could be

implemented. Scientific events: The scientific world

marks the 100th anniversary of the discovery of X-rays on

28 December 1895 by German scientist Wilhelm

Roentgen.

1 9 9 6 JANUARYThe world marks the 100th anniversary of the discovery

of radioactivity in January 1896 by French scientist

Henri Becquerel.IAEA developments:lhe IAEA restruc-

tures its former Department of Nuclear Energy and

Safety into two separate Departments -- the

Department of Nuclear Energy and the Department of

Nuclear Safety.The Agency publishes the latest edition

(1996) of its advisory Regulations for the Safe Transport

of Radioactive Material, which were first issued in 1961

and form the basis of national, regional, and interna-

tional regulations worldwide.

Some of the 800 governmental delegates at the widely coveredChernobyl Conference held at IAEA headquarters in Vienna in1996.

1996 MARCHThe UN Security Council on 27 March unanimously

adopts a resolution to bring into force a mechanism for

monitoring sales or supplies to Iraq of certain items or

technologies that could be used for the production or

acquisition of banned biological, chemical, and nuclear

weapons.The mechanism, developed by the Sanctions

Committee, UNSCOM, and the IAEA under previously

adopted Security Council resolutions, is to be operated

by a joint unit of UNSCOM and the IAEA. Rarotonga

Treaty: At a ceremony in Fiji on 25 March, France, the

USA, and the UK sign protocols to the South Pacific

Nuclear Free Zone Treaty that bind them not to use

nuclear force or the threat of its use in the region; ban the

stationing of nuclear weapons on any territory in the

region; and prohibit testing of nuclear weapons there.

(The world's other two declared nuclear-weapon powers,

Russia and China, already are party to the protocols

relevant to them.)

MARCH/APRILIn March, a four-member IAEA technical team completes

a mission to the Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls to help

lay the groundwork for the radiological study of the

French nuclear test site. In April, the study's International

Advisory Committee holds its first formal meeting at

IAEA headquarters to outline action plans for its task and

working groups.

1996At a ceremony in Cairo on 11 April, the African Nuclear-

Weapon-Free Zone Treaty opens for signature. Among

those invited to attend are IAEA Director General Hans

Blix and IAEA Assistant Director General Mohamed

I

Safety and safeguards: A globalconvention on nuclear safety takeseffect in October 1996, and newverification measures are approved inMay 1997.

EIBaradei;the Agency's support of the negotiations onthe Treaty included adoption of relevant GeneralConference resolutions and the provision of advice ontechnical and legal aspects. Nuclear and radiationsafety: Hundreds of delegates attend the InternationalConference One Decade After Chernobyl: Summing upthe Radiological Consequences, in Vienna organized bythe IAEA, European Commission, WHO, and a number ofother organizations. Results document the actualconsequences, drawing upon conferences held by WHOin November 1995 and by Ukraine, Russia, Belarus andthe European Union in March 1996, and recommendadditional steps that are needed to assist the victimsand improve the safety of Chernobyl-type plants (RBMKreactors). At a nuclear safety forum preceding theConference, international experts review remedialmeasures that have been taken over the past decadeand issue recommendations for further safetyimprovements, and associated financial support toupgrade RBMK safety. Moscow Summit: Leaders of theGroup of Seven countries and the Russian Federationmeet in Moscow at a Nuclear Safety and SecuritySummit hosted by President Yeltsin 19-20 April. Amongits conclusions, the Summit recognized the importanceof nuclear power as an energy source consistent withgoals of sustainable development; emphasized

commitments to an international nuclear safety cultureand to strengthening the IAEA safeguards andverification system; and noted the importance of globalcooperation against illicit trafficking in nuclear materials.

1 9 9 6 JUNEIn its consideration of the second part of measures tostrengthen safeguards, the IAEA Board of Governorsagrees to establish a special Committee to negotiate anew legal instrument that would be attached to existingcomprehensive safeguards agreements.The instrumentwould define, among other things, the nature ofadditional access to information and to nuclear-relatedlocations for the Agency's safeguards inspectors.TheCommittee begins its work in July.

1 9 9 6 JULY/AUGUSTInternational teams of scientists collect terrestrial andmarine samples at the Mururoa and Fangataufa atollsunder the IAEA's radiological study. Samples will beshared with a range of laboratories for analysis, includingthe IAEA's Laboratories in Seibersdorf, Austria, and inMonaco.The study's International Advisory Committeestates that its members intend to visit the sites in late1996 and to report on the study's progress at that time.

1 9 9 6 SEPTEMBERUshering in the 40th year of the Agency's internationalservice, delegates from more than 100 countries attendthe IAEA General Conference in Vienna 16-20 September.The Conference adopts resolutions on a range of subjects,including the strengthening of safeguards and technicalco-operation activities. At the Conference, a "TrilateralInitiative" is launched at a meeting of IAEA DirectorGeneral Hans Blix, US Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary,and Russian Minister of Atomic Energy Viktor Mikhailov.They consider practical measures to fulfill statementsmade by the US and Russian Presidents in April 1996concerning the IAEA's verification of weapon-origin fissilematerials, which represents an important first step forinternational verification of nuclear disarmament. Nucleartest ban: At the United Nations in New York on 10September, the General Assembly overwhelminglyapproves the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty by a vote of158 to three.The Treaty will have its own verification arm,

YEARS IN R E .

the implementing organization will be located near IAEA

headquarters in Vienna. IAEA leadership: Director

General Blix advises the Board that he will not be

available to serve beyond his present term which expires

in December 1997.

1 9 9 6 OCTOBERThe Convention on Nuclear Safety enters into force on 24

October, with 27 States Parties and 65 signatories.

Preparations continue for a first meeting of Parties in early

1997 to discuss the Convention's review process and

periodic reporting requirements, among other matters.

IAEA Statute: On 26 October, the IAEA marks the 40th

anniversary of the opening for signature of its Statute. More

than 70 countries signed the Statute at a conference in

New York on 26 October 1956; the Agency officially came

into existence ten months later, in July 1957.Information

technology:The Agency introduces an Intranet computer

service called Oasis for more efficiently disseminating

administrative and programme-related information to staff.

Chemical weapons:The UN announces that the Chemical

Weapons Convention will enter into force on 29 April 1997,

having attained the necessary 65 ratifications; it has been

signed by 160 countries, including all five declared nuclear-

weapons powers.

1996 NOVEMBER

Under their Trilateral Initiative, the USA, Russia, and the

IAEA take the first steps to expand international

verification of weapons-usable nuclear materials through

the application of IAEA safeguards. Delegations including

Bruno Pellaud, head of the IAEA's Department of

Safeguards, and senior Russian and US officials visit three

sites in the US for demonstrations of technology and

discussions on the inspection process. UN Security

Council: IAEA Director General Blix briefs the Security

Council on the Agency's ongoing nuclear inspections in

Iraq and in the DPRK, where the Agency maintains a

continuous inspector presence. He emphasizes that the

technological know-how for weapons production

remains in Iraq and that the IAEA is continuing its

rigorous implementation of the long-term monitoring

and verification plan, and with its in-depth appraisal of

Iraq's reissued "full, final, and complete"declaration of its

nuclear programme. Concerning the DPRK, he reports

A scientific projectassessing former nuclear

waste dumping in the ArcticSeas concluded in 1996.

that technical talks to date have not resolved

outstanding issues, and the country remains in non-

compliance with its IAEA safeguards agreement. Waste

management: In London at the IMO, States adopt a

protocol that supersedes the original Convention on the

Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes

and Other Matter ("London Convention 1972"); the IAEA

has some responsibilities under the Convention related

to radioactive wastes. Radiological assessments: The

Agency completes its three-year study, the International

Arctic Seas Assessment Project, and submits its summary

report to the Parties of the London Convention.The

study concludes that the current radiological risks

represented by the dumped wastes are small and the

future risks to typical local population groups also are

small.lt finds no justification on radiological grounds

alone for a programme of remedial action.

1 9 9 6 DECEMBERIn Suva, Fiji, the International Advisory Committee for the

Study of the Radiological Situation at the Atolls of

Mururoa and Fangataufa meets for technical visits and

assessment of progress. Members report that analysis of

samples taken earlier in 1996 is continuing, and that the

study's results are expected in 1998.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY

The Board Committee negotiating the draft protocol to

expand the IAEA's legal authority for implementing

strengthened safeguards measures nears completion of

a final draft document for the IAEA Board in May.

Radioactive waste convention. The sixth session of the

VS. i

UN Secretary

General Kofi Annan

open-ended Group of Legal andTechnical Experts preparing the

draft of a convention on the safetyof radioactive waste managementprepares to submit the draft docu-

ment to the IAEA Board in June.Unresolved issues include the ques-

tion of whether the convention should cover the safemanagement of both spent fuel and radioactive waste inone text. Nuclear liability: The final stages are reached inextensive preparatory work on a draft protocol to amendthe 1963 Vienna Convention on Nuclear Liability and todraft a Convention on Supplementary Funding.TheStanding Committee which is preparing the two instru-ments - which together will revise the internationalnuclear liability regime -- submits the draft textsto the IAEA Board for consideration at itsMarch meetings, with a view to theAgency's convening of a DiplomaticConference later this year. UnitedNations: In New York, Mr. Kofi Annanof Ghana takes office as UnitedNations Secretary-General, succeed-ing Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali ofEgypt.

1 9 9 7 MARCH/APRILAt its March meeting, the IAEA Board considers the firstcandidates for appointment of the next IAEA DirectorGeneral to succeed Dr. Blix, who is retiring after four con-secutive four-year terms. Disarmament: At their HelsinkiSummit in March, Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin agreeto start negotiations on cutting nuclear arsenals to 20%of Cold-War levels, in an accord to be called START-3,once the Russian Duma ratifies START-2.They agree toextend the deadline for destroying missiles and silos setout in START-2 from the year 2003 to the end of 2007.UN reform: In New York, UN Secretary-General Annanannounces a 10-point process for structurally andadministratively reforming the United Nations.Trafficking: In April, Namibia becomes the 50th countryto join the IAEA's programme on illicit trafficking innuclear materials, which supports efforts in MemberStates. Nuclear safety: At their first preparatory meetingin April, Parties to the Convention on Nuclear Safety set

the framework for their respective peer reviews ofnational reports on measures for ensuring the safety ofnuclear power plants.The first review meeting is set forApril 1999. Climate change: Global experts meet inVienna at an IAEA symposium to examine the role thatisotopes play in understanding the complex processesaffecting climate changes, and in investigating historicalrecords.

1997 MAYOpening a new chapter in nuclear safeguards, the IAEABoard takes a major step by granting the IAEA's safe-guards inspectorate broader rights. At meetings on 15-16 May, it approves a Model Protocol additional tosafeguards agreements setting out new measures

through which countries would accept stronger,more intrusive verification on their territory.

Chemical weapons: In The Hague, IAEADirector General Hans Blix speaks at thefirst session of the Conference of StatesParties to the Organization on theProhibition of Chemical Weapons, call-ing for greater cooperation among inter-

national verification bodies in yearsahead. Nuclear power status: The world's

number of operating nuclear power plantsclimbs above 440, with new plants starting up in

three countries in 1996, the IAEA reports. Worldwide,seventeen of the 32 countries with plants rely on nuclearpower for 25% or more of their total electricity produc-tion.

1997 JUNE

At its meetings in June, the IAEA Board receives reportsfrom the Director General on developments related tosafeguards and technical cooperation. Among othermatters, the reports note the Agency's continuinginability to verify the correctness and completeness ofthe DPRK's initial declaration of nuclear material; theongoing work to clarify aspects of Iraq's past nuclearprogramme; and progress through the TrilateralInitiative on the verification of fissile materials releasedfrom the military sector. Dr. Blix further informs theBoard that he has sent letters to Foreign Ministers ofStates having IAEA safeguards obligations to initiate the

TEARS IN REVIEW: THE IAEA TURNS 40

IAEA DirectorGeneral-DesignateMohamed ElBaradei

acceptance process for the newmeasures under the ModelProtocol. Regarding technicalcooperation, the reports point tothe continuing record-high levels ofimplementation of the Agency'sprojects in more than 90 countries,and to the need for greater andmore stable resources to maintain and strengthen theprogramme. On other matters, the Board approves twoDiplomatic Conferences for early September: theDiplomatic Conference on Liability for Nuclear Damage,at which States will be asked to adopt a draft protocol toamend the 1963 Vienna Convention and the text of aConvention on Supplementary Funding; and theDiplomatic Conference on the Joint Convention on theSafety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety ofRadioactive Waste Management, which coversapplications in the civilian sector. Director Generalappointment:The Board selects Dr. Mohamed ElBaradeiof Egypt as its candidate to succeed IAEA DirectorGeneral Blix. Dr. ElBaradei is presently the IAEA'sAssistant Director General for External Relations.Theappointment moves for approval by the IAEA's 125Member States at the IAEA General Conference inSeptember. Energy & plutonium: The changing realitiesaffecting nuclear power development and its fuel cycle,including issues related to the disposition of risingplutonium stocks, are examined at an IAEA symposiumin June. Water needs: Options for the use of nuclearenergy at plants for desalting seawater are reviewed inthe Republic of Korea at an IAEA symposium. EarthSummit revisited:The UN General Assembly convenes aspecial session on sustainable development in New York.Addressing the session. Dr. Blix emphasizes thefundamental importance of energy, issues of wastesafety and nuclear energy's environmental benefits.Denver Summit of the Eight: In a final document, leadersof the world's eight major industrialized countriesunderline their commitments to nuclear safety andsecurity, and to the IAEA's global role.

1997On 29 July, the IAEA officiallyturns 40.

INTERNATIONALATOMICENERGYAGENCY

A fortieth anniversary publication

I o mark the fortieth anniversary of its founding, the IAEA is issuing a set of two books: a history and acollection of personal reflections.

I he history was undertaken in conjunction with the Monterey Institute of International Studies, Monterey,California, which commissioned David Fischer as author. David Fischer took part in the negotiations on the-Statuteof the IAEA in Washington in the mid-1950s and served on the Preparatory Commission for the Agency. From 1957to 1976 he was the Agency's Director for External Relations and subsequently Assistant Director General. The textof the history covers the period since the time of the Atoms for Peace speech by US President Eisenhower at theGeneral Assembly of the United Nations in December 1953. The author assesses the main achievements andsetbacks in the history of the IAEA and what can be learned from them.

I he reflections in the second book are written by a group of distinguished scientists and diplomats who wereinvolved in the establishment or subsequent work of the IAEA. It represents a collection of less formal "essays"which offer a complementary and personal view on some of the topics considered in the full history.

I he books will be issued in September 1997 to mark the anniversary of the first meeting of the IAEA's

General Conference. They are available separately or as a set.

History of the International Atomic Energy Agency:

The First Forty Years by David Fischer(18 x 24 cm; hard cover; approx. 550 pages) AS 480

The International Atomic Energy Agency:Personal Reflections

(18 x 24 cm; hard cover; 311 pages) AS 260

Special price for the'set of both: AS 560

ORDER NOWIUSend requests to:Sales and Promotion UnitInternational Alomic Energy Agency

P.O. Box 100, Wagramerstrasse 5A-1400 Vienna, AustriaTel.: (43.1) 2060-22529; 2060-22530Fax: (43.1) 2060-29302E-mail: [email protected]

THEN&NOW - International Atomic Energy Agency

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