Category: Nuclear Control

Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA

NUTEC Plastics helps countries integrate nuclear techniques when addressing the challenges of plastic pollution. It builds on a portfolio of IAEA research and technical cooperation projects around plastic recycling using radiation technology and marine monitoring of microplastics using isotopic tracing techniques.

Countries face a number of interrelated challenges in relation to monitoring the ocean environment. There is a deficiency in data: a lack of comprehensive and reliable information on microplastic abundance, origin and trends. This scientific evidence is vital for robust policy development.  

Finally, there is insufficient awareness among the general public, scientific community and policy makers about the scale and impact of microplastic pollution, including the potential effects on human health. 

The meeting was opened by IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, the Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee, Jyoti Mathur-Filipp of UNEP, and the United Nations Special Envoy for the Ocean, Peter Thomson.  

Director General Grossi said that the IAEA will focus on building a global network of laboratories to monitor microplastics, share best practices, and develop protocols. “Nuclear technology can help us address the challenge of microplastics with unprecedented precision and effectiveness,” Mr Grossi explained.  “The global threat posed by plastic waste requires a global approach. It requires collaboration, partnerships and coordinated action,” he added.

“Innovative partnerships such as the IAEA NUTEC Plastics initiative bring together the human, technological and financial capital to help the world monitor and develop targeted solutions to the plastic pollution crisis,” said UNEP’s Ms Mathur-Filipp. “These are exactly the kinds of alliances we need to stem the tide of plastic pollution as members work towards agreeing on the instrument by the end of this year.” 

“Once pristine shorelines and rivers are now littered with plastic debris…meanwhile, unseen to the naked eye, microplastics are making their way into our bloodstreams, crossing placental and blood brain barriers,” explained Peter Thomson. 

“NUTEC Plastics is a new way of thinking, an innovative way of measuring our problem, and through its comprehensive deployment, I am confident we will find our way towards a cure for the plague of plastic pollution,” he added. 

Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA

An IAEA-led team of international experts in Uganda has concluded the Agency’s inaugural review of a uranium production cycle. Performed at the request of the Ugandan government, the mission assessed the East African country’s capabilities to develop their uranium exploration programme and eventually mine uranium for a domestic nuclear power programme. 

Uganda is looking to use nuclear power as part of its plan to meet its clean energy goals and increase access to electricity for its population of nearly 50 million people. For now, only about half of Ugandans have access to electricity, but its government has set a goal of achieving an electricity access rate of more than 99% by 2030. The country is aiming for nuclear power generation by 2031, with the help of domestically sourced uranium.  

This first ever Integrated Uranium Production Cycle Review (IUPCR) mission, conducted with the support of the IAEA’s technical cooperation programme, evaluated the status of the infrastructure Uganda will need to support uranium exploration, the first phase of a uranium production cycle programme. Eighty-two participants, primarily from Uganda’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, were involved in mission activities, including a field visit to a site where exploration activities have been taking place. The mission team, comprised of experts from Argentina, Australia, France, Namibia and the IAEA, reviewed the status of 16 key aspects, including human resource capacity and the regulatory framework, and recommended steps that can be taken to bring the country closer to realizing its nuclear energy goals, which include a domestic supply of uranium. 

“The potential discovery of a uranium deposit and subsequent development of uranium resources in Uganda presents an exciting opportunity for the country to support its ambition to introduce nuclear power into its energy mix,” said Adrienne Hanly, the IAEA’s Technical Lead for Uranium Resources and Production. “While significant work remains to be done, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development now has a solid understanding of what is required to succeed in evaluation of the country’s uranium occurrences and the next steps needed to get there.”   

Several areas in Uganda have been identified as potentially uranium-rich, though no proven resources are currently known to exist. Exploration practices to make a final determination involve activities such as radiometric surveys and taking geochemical samples.  

“The government of Uganda is committed to adopting international best practices and this IAEA mission will ensure uranium exploration is done according to international standards,” said Ruth Nakabirwa Sentamu, Uganda’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Development. 

The IUPCR team made several recommendations to facilitate the success of the budding uranium exploration programme. These included that Uganda should ensure the development of skilled personnel for uranium exploration and that the discovery, assessment and development of potential uranium resources are accelerated by establishing a robust and well-funded exploration programme. 

The mission was implemented as part of a four-year project IAEA Technical Cooperation Project on supporting uranium exploration and evaluation, which commenced in 2022. Uranium exploration is highlighted as an important priority in Uganda’s new Country Programme Framework for the 2024-2029 period. “We are very supportive to strengthening the technical capacity of the Directorate of Geological Survey and Mines to explore and evaluate Uganda’s uranium occurrences in terms of skills development and exploration tools,” said Anna Grigoryan, IAEA Programme Management Officer for Uganda. 

Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA

The IAEA announced its commitment of €13.7 million in support to Small Island Developing States (SIDS) at the United Nations 4th International Conference on SIDS in May 2024. Conference delegates heard how 26 SIDS will benefit from these funds in 2024–2025 through 49 technical cooperation projects addressing ocean pollution; microplastics monitoring; cancer care; nutrition; and water resource management.

“The IAEA has long recognized the urgent need to assist SIDS in building their capacity to address their challenges and vulnerabilities. Through the IAEA commitment, we want to unlock the full potential of our innovative solutions and help concretely build a more resilient, sustainable and prosperous future for SIDS,” said Hua Liu, Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Technical Cooperation, IAEA, addressing the official conference plenary.

Convened every ten years, the International Conference on SIDS brings together SIDS representatives and members of the international community to take stock of small islands’ pressing needs and find new paths to tackle common obstacles. SIDS delegates described unique and increasing barriers to development. The COVID-19 pandemic and disasters, including those caused by climate change, are disproportionately affecting SIDS.

This latest IAEA commitment to SIDS follows years of support at the national and regional levels. At the ‘Interactive Dialogue’ session on addressing SIDS’ health crises, the IAEA further emphasized the pivotal nature of nuclear techniques in supporting human health, from improving cancer care and non-communicable disease diagnosis, to tackling nutrition and ensuring food safety by monitoring harmful contaminants and residues in food.

Although the severe effects of converging crises on SIDS are evident, there is a distinct lack of comprehensive historical data to fully understand the implications over time and across regions. At the conference, the IAEA organized a side event with UN Environment Programme, UN Office for South-South Cooperation, Antigua and Barbuda and the United States, to discuss with SIDS delegates how best to harness environmental data for the benefit of SIDS.

Panellists considered solutions through a lens of South-South and triangular cooperation to help scale up successes. The IAEA employs this methodology in its Sub-Regional Approach to the Pacific Islands (SAPI), through which tailored support is provided at the sub-regional level, encouraging the sharing of resources and expertise among neighbouring countries. Side event attendees heard how a South-South approach to data helps the harmonized collection of data that can easily be compared for analyses at the regional level. This is particularly important for studying shared resources such as the ocean.

Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA

The World Bank and other MDBs currently do not contribute financing to nuclear power new build projects, although some MDBs have provided lending for upgrades to existing nuclear power reactors or their decommissioning. Mr Grossi said that financing nuclear power would better align MDBs with the “new global consensus” forged at last year at COP28 in Dubai, where the world called for accelerating the deployment of nuclear power along with other zero emission energy technologies to achieve deep and rapid decarbonization.

Dozens of countries have also signed on to a pledge made at COP28 to work towards tripling global nuclear power capacity to achieve net zero by 2050. The pledge also called on the World Bank, regional development banks and international financial institutions to include nuclear in their lending. That call was echoed by scores of countries at the first-ever Nuclear Energy Summit organized by the IAEA and Government of Belgium in March.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) says nuclear power global capacity, which provides a quarter of the world’s low carbon electricity, must at least double by mid-century to meet climate goals, in line with the IAEA’s 2023 high case nuclear projections. Doubling nuclear capacity by 2050 will require a more than doubling of investments in nuclear power to 100 billion USD annually, the IAEA estimates.

Around 30 so-called newcomer countries are either considering or already embarking on nuclear power to accelerate their development and reduce emissions. In nuclear energy, they see a technology that can provide the backbone of a modern energy system with 24/7 electricity as well applications such as industrial heat needed to cleanly power a modern economy, including by enabling greater deployment of variable solar and wind.

Around two-thirds of the nuclear newcomers are in the developing world, and according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), nuclear power will need to significantly expand in such countries if the world is to have a reasonable chance at meeting climate goals under the Paris Agreement.

But financing such projects there remains a major hurdle. While some newcomers such as Bangladesh and Egypt are already building their first nuclear power plants with the help of government-backed nuclear reactor vendor financing, other countries may need to pursue different financing options. Several newcomers are interested in emerging technologies such as small modular reactors (SMRs).

Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA

The IAEA and the OPEC Fund for International Development (OPEC Fund) have formally agreed to strengthen joint efforts to tackle the world’s growing health, food, energy and climate development challenges with nuclear science and technology under a new Practical Arrangement (PA). The PA will focus on the key IAEA initiatives to improve cancer care through Rays of Hope: Cancer Care for All; use nuclear science to boost agriculture through Atoms4Food; and to cooperate in areas related to water scarcity, environmental monitoring and energy planning.

Speaking at the OPEC Fund Development Forum on 25 June on the role of nuclear technology in combating disease, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi highlighted the need for action to combat the growing global cancer burden. It is estimated that by 2030, 70 per cent of cancer deaths will occur in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs) however, at present, these countries only represent 5 per cent of global spending in this area.

“Around 80 per cent of the African population does not have access to radiotherapy at all,” said Mr Grossi.

The IAEA’s Rays of Hope: Cancer Care for All initiative supports countries, especially LMICs, to establish, or expand, their radiation medicine capabilities. These include medical imaging, nuclear medicine and radiotherapy. The initiative builds on the IAEA’s six decades of experience in this field.

“I invite you to see the IAEA in this ecosystem of financial institutions and technical institutions, as your technical instrument,” Mr Grossi told the OPEC Fund audience.

“What we are doing is providing the science behind all of these projects. We are the ones developing the methodologies, we are the ones training the technicians … the medical oncologists, the radiotherapists, in different parts of the world… It’s a huge area where the IAEA is bringing its expertise to work together in a very effective way.

“Thanks to this partnership with the OPEC fund, we hope to be working in a scope commensurate with the dramatic needs we are facing.”

Together with the OPEC Fund, the IAEA is in the process of finalizing a plan to support around a dozen countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and in Latin America and the Caribbean regions. Under the plan, countries in these regions will be provided with capacity to sustainably improve their medical health infrastructure under the Rays of Hope initiative.

The OPEC Fund, in collaboration with the IAEA, has significantly supported Malawi in starting construction work on radiotherapy and brachytherapy bunkers, work expected to be completed by the end of June 2024. This project also includes the delivery of cancer care equipment and ongoing training of medical professionals under the IAEA Rays of Hope initiative.

Mr Grossi also spoke of the role of nuclear technology in enhancing food safety and addressing water scarcity around the world.  “With nuclear techniques you can develop crops which are drought resistant, that are resistant to pesticides, that require less fertilizer … through isotope hydrology, which is a nuclear technique, we can determine the soil fertility and the amount of water we might need,” he said.

“We are so happy to be partnering with the OPEC Fund because the development needs are so huge. This is why we decide to work together.”

A High-Level Energy and Food Security Investment Roundtable on Sierra Leone was also held on the margins of the OPEC Fund Development Forum on 24 June, titled “Partnering to Accelerate and Unlock Green Investment Opportunities”. High-level representatives from the international development community, alongside the IAEA, emphasized the need to join efforts to support Sierra Leone in accelerating investment opportunities to address the country’s challenges of energy access and food security. At the event, Mr Grossi underscored the crucial role the IAEA can play under its Rays of Hope and Atoms4Food initiatives, highlighting the importance of collaborative efforts to drive sustainable development and improve living conditions in Sierra Leone. DG Grossi also met with Sierra Leone’s President, Julius Maada Wonie Bio, and explained how nuclear science and technology can contribute to Sierra Leone’s development in the areas of energy, food safety and security and better cancer care.

DG Grossi also expressed the IAEA’s readiness to support Sierra Leone in creating a legal framework and strengthening capacity building in the field of peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology.

Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA