VIENNA, September 26. /TASS/. The 60th session of the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) opens in Vienna on Monday. The Russian delegation will be headed by Sergey Kiriyenko, head of the Rosatom state nuclear corporation. During the whole week, representatives of 168 countries will discuss prospects of developing nuclear energy.
The IAEA General Conference is a platform for discussing strategic issues and holding scientific debates. This year the scientific forum will be held in the framework of the conference on September 28-29. It will be devoted to using nuclear energy to attain sustainable development.
Special attention will be paid to increasing effectiveness of the IAEA’s regime of guarantees applied to member countries of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), as well as to observing IAEA’s guarantees in the Middle East. The participants will discuss measures to strengthen international technical cooperation in nuclear security, radiation security, physical protection of nuclear materials and safe handling of radioactive waste. They will also traditionally discuss North Korea’s nuclear program.
The preliminary agenda of the session also included the topic on Israel’s nuclear potential, proposed by Arab states - members of IAEA.
The Agency will also conclude the results of its work over the last year, set priorities for the future and renew the budget. The participants in the IAEA’s General Conference will also vote on final documents in the last days of the 60th session.
Russia and IAEA
Russia’s Rosatom state-run nuclear energy corporation head Sergey Kiriyenko will head the Russian delegation at the 60th General Conference of IAEA. "Sergey Kiriyenko will give a speech at the General Conference’s plenary meeting and will hold a number of bilateral meetings, including with IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano and with heads of some countries’ nuclear energy bodies," Rosatom told TASS earlier.
Besides, intergovernmental agreements on peaceful use of nuclear energy are expected to be sealed between Russia and Cuba and between Russia and Tunisia.
Apart from it, Kiriyenko will hand a sculpture of Academician Igor Kurchatov, the head of the Soviet Union’s nuclear project, as a gift to Russia’s permanent mission to the international organizations in Vienna and award veterans of atomic sector from Central and Eastern European countries.