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Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA
IAEA scientists and experts from international laboratories are visiting Japan this week to take marine samples near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. This short video shows the IAEA marine radioactivity experts and independent experts from partner laboratories in the ALMERA network observing the collection of samples of fish, seawater, seaweed and sediment.
Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA
Experts from the imPACT Review Mission met with a range of stakeholders and visited different public and private hospitals and primary healthcare centres. (Photo: I. Veljkovikj/IAEA)
Over the course of the visit, the team held meetings with a wide range of national and international cancer stakeholders, including the National Department of Health, provincial health authorities, the national regulatory body responsible for radiation safety, local United Nations agencies, development partners and civil society organizations. They also visited different public and private hospitals and primary healthcare centres and attended the 57th Annual Medical Symposium of the Medical Society of Papua New Guinea, where they led four sessions on cervical and childhood cancer planning, cancer registration and on key findings from the imPACT Review Mission.
One such finding highlighted the need to integrate childhood cancer care more fully into the new national plan for cancer control.
“Considering its favourable prognosis and potential of life years saved, childhood cancer should be prioritized in national cancer control plans. Focusing on early detection and referral as well as building capacity at referral centres can result in more children being diagnosed and cured of their cancer,” said Jeremy Slone, paediatric oncologist from St Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Another recommendation focused on the need for reliable data to support informed decision-making and resource allocation. “A comprehensive cancer registration and surveillance system is essential to evaluate the success of different cancer control strategies,” confirmed Les Mary from IARC.
“The conduct of this Review is very timely, as we expect its findings to inform the development of Papua New Guinea’s new cancer control programme,” said Javier Romero, IAEA Programme Management Officer for the country. “We also look forward to seeing some of our recommendations implemented under the next cycle of projects that are supported by the IAEA,” he added.
The IAEA has been providing Papua New Guinea with assistance in the field of radiation medicine through its technical cooperation programme since 2012, including through the earlier 2013 imPACT Review.
Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA
We find ourselves in an unprecedented time, where hunger and malnutrition are on the rise, posing a threat to humanity.
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report unveiled that in 2022, between 691 and 783 million people across the globe experienced hunger. This number represents an alarming increase of 122 million more people facing hunger in 2022 compared to 2019, before the global pandemic. Africa remains the worst-affected region with one in five people facing hunger on the continent, more than twice the global average and disproportionately affecting women and people living in rural areas.
Food and agriculture are still facing significant challenges that must be addressed if we are to achieve our mission to eradicate hunger and poverty, and ensure the sustainability of agrifood systems. Global food security faces mounting pressures due to the escalating demands on natural resources and risks associated with the impacts of the climate crisis, both of which threaten the overall sustainability global agrifood systems.
The urgency of agrifood systems transformation is now irrefutable. Achieving an expanding, stable, and secure food supply capable of meeting the challenges requires more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems for the Four Betters: better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind.
Science, technology and innovation (STI) is indispensable for achieving a world free from hunger and malnutrition. STI has the capacity to address the four dimensions of food security, including food availability, accessibility, utilization and stability, as well as affordability.
The Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture is unique in the UN System, combining complementary mandates, common objectives, joint programming, co-funding and coordinated management. Leveraging its associated laboratories, it serves as a powerful example of interagency cooperation within the UN family, demonstrating remarkable synergy in action.
To further strengthen the strategic partnership between FAO and IAEA, the two organizations jointly launched the flagship initiative on food security – Atoms4Food.
The Atoms4Food Initiative seeks to provide Member States with ground-breaking solutions, tailored to their specific needs and circumstances, by harnessing the advantages of nuclear techniques along with other advanced technologies.
The Initiative will focus on the role of these technologies as drivers of agrifood systems transformation in various areas, including cropping systems, livestock productivity, natural resource management, and food safety, in order to adapt to a rapidly changing climate and anthropogenic impacts, to better support Member States to achieve the SDGs.
Partnership and collaboration will be the cornerstone for implementing the Initiative. Collaborating with traditional and non-traditional partners , including other UN Agencies, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), International Financial Institutions, development agencies, foundations, industry, national academia and research institutions, and other relevant partners, will contribute to the long-term sustainability of the Initiative’s outcomes.
Together, and with Atoms4Food adding a new impetus, FAO and IAEA remain committed to elevate their long-standing strategic partnership towards achieving common goals, seeking to foster a multi-disciplinary approach to develop a holistic Action Plan addressing the challenges to food security and expediting progress towards the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA
(As prepared for delivery)
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
It’s good to be with you at this very important World Food Forum, 2023. I want to thank Director-General Qu Dongyu for inviting me to launch, here today, the IAEA/FAO joint initiative, Atoms4Food.
It fits well into the theme of “Innovations Breakthroughs” because it is a concrete, action-oriented response to our shared goals of eradicating poverty, ending hunger and malnutrition, fighting climate change and adapting to its consequences.
Before I explain what Atoms4Food is all about, I would like to say a few words about the IAEA and FAO’s indispensable collaboration.
The FAO is one of our closest partners. For almost 60 years, the two organizations have run the FAO/IAEA Centre for Nuclear Techniques.
Our collaboration is exemplified by complementary mandates, common targets, joint programming, co-funding and coordinated management.
FAO and IAEA staff are based at the IAEA’s Headquarters in Vienna and work on cutting-edge research at our unique laboratories in nearby Seibersdorf.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I do not need to repeat the dire statistics about food insecurity and climate change that others have already elaborated on. The bottom line is this: We need to use every tool we have to grow more highly-nutritious food in an environmentally sustainable way.
Nuclear techniques and applications are powerful tools with which we can do just that, and Atoms4Food will maximize their positive impact.
Ensuring food security and healthy diets amid a variety of shifting challenges and the enormous burden of climate change is a complex endeavour with many moving parts.
It requires a multi-disciplinary approach that is in harmony with other global initiatives, such as the One Health Approach and FAO’s Hand-in-Hand Initiative.
And it must be based on careful assessment of prevailing capacities and needs amid a true partnership with Member States.
In very close collaboration with each of our partner countries, Atoms4Food will provide seven specific services:
1. The Atoms4Food Assessment Mission will map out a country’s status, needs and activities to determine priorities and develop tailor-made solutions.
2. The Atoms4Food crop variety improvement service will use plant mutation breading to develop better crop varieties based on an assessment of the country’s major crops, agricultural zones, diseases and pests, farmer and consumer preferences, and prevailing gaps in capacities.
3. The Atoms4Food soil and water management, and crop nutrition service will use the precision of nuclear and isotopic science to gather information about soil fertility, major crops, and their
average yield. We’ll look at the availability of fertilizer and water irrigation systems, as well as the farming practices used for each crop.
Getting the balance right here, can vastly improve yields.
4. The Atoms4Food animal production and health service will develop carefully calibrated nutritional packages to improve animal production. This will be done following a country assessment
of the current epidemiological situation of animal diseases; interventions and services already in place; and gaps that still need to be filled.
5. The Atoms4Food insect pest control service will use approaches such as the Sterile Insect Technique to reduce the populations of harmful pests that destroy crops and carry diseases. It will be informed by a careful assessment of the pest and control situation in the country. This technique already has a long history of proven results.
6. The Atoms4Food food safety and control service will assess and widen the capacity of a county to use tools like food irradiation technology to improve the longevity and safety of food for domestic consumption and exports.
7. The Atoms4Food public health nutrition service will support countries in assessing and improving the nutritional value of foods and diet quality by using stable isotope techniques.
Dear colleagues,
This is Atoms4Food!
Atoms4Food aims for Four Betters: better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind. The FAO and IAEA are ready. We will be delivering it on the ground very soon.
I call upon all those in a position to support us, to do so. Atoms4Food is action, not words. It is less hunger, less poverty, with dignity and equality for all.
Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA
The IAEA’s Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi opened the IAEA’s 29th International Fusion Energy Conference (FEC) in London on Monday, with the announcement an inaugural meeting of the World Fusion Energy Group will be convened next year. This group aims to bring together not just scientists and engineers from laboratories and experimental centres, but also policy makers, financiers, regulators and private companies. This collaboration will enable these stakeholders to keep pace as the fusion energy journey continues from the experimental stage towards demonstration, with the eventual goal of commercial fusion energy production.
The announcement comes as interest in fusion energy research gains momentum around the world. Fusion has the potential to provide a source of limitless, inherently safe, clean and affordable energy.
“Big science needs collaboration, and it doesn’t get much bigger than fusion energy,” Director General Grossi said in his opening statement on 16 October.
“I will shortly invite fusion experts to work with the IAEA to outline Fusion Key Elements such as fusion-related definitions, characteristics and criteria for fusion energy to help develop common understanding among stakeholders essential for global deployment,” he added.
The Fusion Key Elements are expected to be identified in time for the inaugural gathering of the World Fusion Energy Group next year.
The IAEA also launched a new publication at the opening of the conference, the IAEA World Fusion Outlook, a comprehensive guide on fusion’s journey from vision to reality. The publication aims to become a global reference for authoritative information regarding the latest developments in fusion energy.
The IAEA supports fusion research by providing atomic and physics data through seven fusion databases, as well as other opportunities for scientific collaboration through its Fusion Portal and Fusional Device Information System.
In the past weeks, the IAEA signed a partnership with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to set up the first Collaborating Centre focussed on fusion. The IAEA is also collaborating with companies such as Eni, Commonwealth Fusion Systems, General Atomics, Tokamak Energy and First Light Fusion who are at the forefront of fusion research and development.
Around 2000 people will gather at this year’s FEC to discuss the achievements made over the past two years since the previous conference. These include the Joint European Taurus (JET)’s world energy record; the National Ignition Facility’s scientific energy gain; MIT and Commonwealth Fusion Systems’ high-temperature semi-conducting magnet and the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak’s long-pulse operation. In addition, billions of dollars have been invested into private sector fusion research, reflected in the FEC session, Pathways to Fusion, bringing together public and private sector developments.
A Women in Fusion side event will be held as part of the FEC conference on Tuesday. The event promotes greater gender equality and diversity in the fusion energy workforce, which currently stands at 20 per cent women. In March, the Women in Fusion launched a mentoring programme to support the professional development of women working in all aspects of the fusion sector – from research to engineering to communications.
Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA
On 11 October 2023, Japan provided the IAEA with a copy of a report during July and August, on the discharge record and the seawater monitoring results at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sent to all international Missions in Japan.
The reports contain information on discharges from the subdrain and groundwater drain systems, as well as on groundwater bypassing conducted during the months of July and August respectively. In both cases, in advance of the action, TEPCO analyzes the quality of the groundwater to be discharged and announces the results. These results confirm that the radiation level of sampled water are substantially below the operational targets set by TEPCO.
Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has completed an International Physical Protection Advisory Service (IPPAS) mission in the Netherlands today. This peer review mission aimed to assess the country’s nuclear security regime and provide recommendations to enhance its effectiveness.
The thirteen day mission was carried out at the request of the Government of the Netherlands and hosted by the Dutch Authority for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection (ANVS). It is the fifth such mission in the Netherlands.
The team reviewed the nuclear security regime for nuclear and other radioactive material and associated facilities and activities, including computer security. It also assessed the Netherlands’ implementation of the Convention on Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (CPPNM) and its Amendment.
The IPPAS team – composed of 10 experts from Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, as well as one IAEA staff member – met in The Hague with senior officials and representatives from the ANVS. The team also assessed physical protection systems at the Petten High Flux research reactor, the Netherlands Cancer Institute (Antoni van Leeuwenhoek) in Amsterdam and Applus RTD in Rozenburg.
The team observed that the Netherlands is committed to a high level of nuclear security and that it has further strengthened its nuclear security capabilities since the last IPPAS mission in 2012. The team provided recommendations and suggestions to support the Netherlands in further enhancing and sustaining nuclear security. Good practices were identified that can serve as examples to other IAEA Member States to help strengthen their nuclear security activities.
“This fifth IPPAS mission in the Netherlands confirms the country’s continuous commitment and efforts on building a strong nuclear security regime. The mission’s findings indicate a well-established national nuclear security regime and alignment with the IAEA nuclear security guidance,” said Arvydas Stadalnikas, Head of the Integrated Nuclear Security Approaches Unit at the IAEA’s Division of Nuclear Security, during the mission closing ceremony.
“The 2023 IPPAS mission is an enriching experience for the ANVS, with a long period of intense preparation and two weeks of thorough review by a great team of international experts during the mission itself. The feedback helps us to further improve the level of nuclear security in The Netherlands,” said Annemiek van Bolhuis, chair of the board of the ANVS. “As an independent regulator, it is crucial to commit to international peer reviews and to follow up on the recommendations that we received.”
Background
The mission was the 101st IPPAS mission conducted by the IAEA since the programme began in 1995.
IPPAS missions are intended to assist States in strengthening their national nuclear security regime. The missions provide peer advice on implementing international instruments, along with IAEA guidance on the protection of nuclear and other radioactive material and associated facilities.
During missions, a team of international experts observes a nation’s system of physical protection, compares it with international good practices and makes recommendations for improvement. IPPAS missions are conducted both on a nationwide and facility-specific basis.
Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Task Force set up to review the safety of the treated water discharge from Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS) will next week conduct its first mission to the country since the water discharges began.
During the 24-27 October mission, the Task Force will visit the FDNPS to observe the facilities and equipment installed at the site for the purposes of discharging ALPS (Advanced Liquid Processing System) treated water. The Task Force will also meet with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) in Tokyo to discuss technical topics relevant to safety.
The IAEA’s comprehensive report on the safety review of the ALPS-treated water at the FDNPS – compiling nearly two years of work by the IAEA Task Force and released on July 4 this year found the plan to be consistent with international safety standards. The Agency concluded that the discharge of the ALPS-treated water to the sea which began on 24 August will have a negligible radiological impact to people and the environment.
Following the start of the discharge, the IAEA will, in the coming years, continue its work to review the continued application of the relevant international safety standards by TEPCO – the operator of the FDNPS – and the Government of Japan. This includes monitoring and assessment, the activities at the continuously staffed IAEA Fukushima NPS Office, regular Task Force review missions, corroboration of Japan’s source and environmental monitoring programmes, and outreach and awareness activities.
The visit is preceded by the IAEA’s first extensive sampling of the marine environment near FDNPS since start of treated water release. As part of the overarching safety review of the water discharge, the Agency’s sampling activities are used to corroborate Japan’s environmental monitoring and assess Japan’s relevant technical capabilities.
Press Opportunities
Lydie Evrard, IAEA Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Nuclear Safety and Security, and Gustavo Caruso, Director and Coordinator of the IAEA’s safety review within the IAEA Department of Nuclear Safety and Security and Chair of the Task Force, will hold a press conference on 23 October at 16:30–17:30 local time (GMT+9).
The press conference will be hosted by the Foreign Press Center Japan in Tokyo and will be streamed live. Further details on attendance can be found on their website here.
More details on the Fukushima Daiichi ALPS Treated Water Discharge can be found on the IAEA’s dedicated webpage.
Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA
(As prepared for delivery)
Ladies and gentlemen,
It’s a pleasure to open the IAEA’s Fusion Energy Conference and to be back here in the United Kingdom, host of the second Fusion Energy Conference in 1965, the 10th in 1984 and the 29th, today in 2023.
It is good to be here in this home of so many important fusion endeavours: Mast Upgrade, STEP, JET, RACE, Tokamak Energy, First Light Fusion and General Fusion, to name a few.
Before I begin my remarks, let me wish a happy 40th anniversary to JET, the first tritium experiment in Europe, breaker of scientific records, producer of generations of accomplished scientists and engineers, and a true magnet for international collaboration.
Big science needs collaboration and it doesn’t get much bigger than fusion energy. In fusion energy, it doesn’t get bigger than the IAEA Fusion Energy Conference.
Since the early 1960s, this conference has been the marker of many milestones; a place where Nobel prize winners, inventors and scientists have come to unveil their achievements, often months and years in the making. For decades, the Fusion Energy Conference has been setting the direction of fusion research – from the shift to the tokamak after the 1968 conference to the discovery of H-mode after the 1982 conference.
I hear many in the fusion community call the Fusion Energy Conference simply “the IAEA”. I don’t want to spoil the party, but I have to tell you…there are a few other things the IAEA does too.
And that is a good thing because it gives us many years of experience, not only bringing scientists and engineers together, but also bringing policy makers, regulators, investors and other key stakeholders to the table.
This year’s FEC has 2,000 participants and our always-evolving programme includes a session on the “Pathways to Fusion” – which brings together both public and private sector developments.
Fusion is making progress. Progress is being made at ITER. It is being made here in the UK and all around the world, in Europe, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Russia, and the USA. Since the last Fusion Energy Conference, in 2021, there have been momentous achievements in the field. Today you will hear about: JET’s world energy record; NIF’s scientific energy gain; MIT and Commonwealth Fusion Systems’ high-temperature superconducting magnet; and EAST’s long-pulse operation. Meanwhile, more than $6bn has gone into the private sector.
Young entrepreneurs I have met from England to New England, talk about their plans to get their projects up by 2025. Such ambition and enthusiasm is catching and the FEC has always been a place where ideas and enthusiasm are shared.
Now is the time to use the momentum and the enthusiasm and ride it to more breakthroughs.
The world is in urgent need of reliable energy sources that mitigate climate change and provide energy security. Governments know it, the public is demanding it, and people are becoming better informed about fusion.
The FEC will always be a place dedicated to science and engineering in fusion. But the fusion community is growing. We are at a crucial moment in the development of the field and there are new stakeholders who want to be – and need to be – part of the dialogue. I want you to be the first to hear the news from me: the IAEA will convene the inaugural World Fusion Energy Group next year. It will bring together you, the indispensable scientists and engineers, policy makers, financiers, regulators and civil society. This next leg of the fusion energy journey will get us from experiment to demonstration to commercial fusion energy production.
It is time to tell the story of fusion widely and with confidence. Fusion can provide stable, baseload power, and complement intermittent renewable sources like solar and wind. Fusion could help address the challenges of grid stability and energy storage. Fusion technology will be inherently safe with no long-lived radioactive waste. Fusion could revolutionize the way industries produce high-grade heat, to achieve more sustainable and environmentally friendly industrial practices. Fusion can provide enhanced energy security and independence from market fluctuations because its inputs are widely available or produced in situ.
There is of course the question of timing – that old quip that fusion will always be the energy of the future. But with every breakthrough we are experiencing, that belief sounds more and more outdated.
Will fusion get us to our climate goals of 2050? That is being debated. But the world will continue after 2050, and it will need clean energy on a massive scale beyond that date, to be sure.
No energy is more expensive than no energy, as the distinguished Indian nuclear physicist Homi Bhabha, said.
Today, nearly 800 million people still have no access to electricity. If billions of people are to be lifted from poverty, developing countries will be requiring much bigger energy budgets by the second half of this century. Meeting those needs requires investments made today. Here, I am not only talking of financial investments. Let me tell you a bit about how the IAEA is investing in the future of fusion.
We have brought together experts from across the IAEA’s disciplines to address all aspects of fusion, from research and development to future demonstration and deployment. We are also looking at safety and regulation, and even proliferation aspects of fusion and its interrelation with international law. We will draw from our long experience, deep knowledge and wide network in fission energy systems.
And we are reaching out beyond our hallways. Just a few weeks ago, I travelled to Massachusetts and signed a partnership with MIT to create the first Collaborating Centre focussed on fusion. We are also collaborating with companies, including Eni, Commonwealth Fusion Systems, General Atomics, and Tokamak Energy and First Light Fusion, here in the UK.
The IAEA will continue to support research in fusion through its Coordinated Research Programmes. We will continue to provide and manage important atomic and plasma physics data through 7 fusion databases. The Agency’s Fusion Portal has more than 10,000 users a year. It is the single access point to the Agency’s work in fusion and it is the home of the Fusion Device Information System, which has been visited more than 40,000 times.
Nuclear Fusion – the first and premier scientific journal in the field – continues strong after more than 60 years.
But the community and the public still lack a regularly published, recognized reference that tells us exactly where we are and what is happening on all the world’s continents in fusion. This is why, today in London, I am proud to introduce the IAEA’s World Fusion Outlook.
I am confident it will become the global reference for authoritative information and updates on fusion energy, its developments and its prospects.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Fusion is not to be confined to the laboratories and experimental centres. They, of course, are indispensable. But the ambition is to bring fusion energy to the economy. To make it part of the energy mix of the not-to-distant future, credible pathways must be identified, encouraged and supported.
I believe private-public partnerships will become increasingly important as the emphasis on R&D for fusion power plants grows.
We are seeing more and more start-ups enter this space. Many, like Kyoto Fusioneering, will become important parts of the supply chain that builds the fusion power industry.
But like a puzzle, these pieces only become a coherent picture when you align them. With its global reach, the IAEA is able to align fusion energy R&D programs to give us a clearer picture of where the sector is heading. This clarity and alignment will help make the most of existing facilities and optimize the development of new ones. It will support the testing and qualifying of crucial fusion technology components, in parallel with DEMO designs and constructions. Global cooperation, public-private partnership and effective regulation will all play crucial roles in fusion’s progress.
The IAEA has been, is and will be the central hub for international cooperation and coordination in fusion, just as it is for fission. That is why I believe we should not only discuss where we are today. Let us pave the way, support each other, and nurture projects and groups around the world. This is what the World Fusion Energy Group is all about.
The World Fusion Energy Group will bring together a set of diverse stakeholders in a dialogue that will drive fusion development forward.
I will shortly invite fusion experts to work with the IAEA to outline Fusion Key Elements such as fusion-related definitions, characteristics and criteria for fusion energy to help develop common understanding among stakeholders essential for global deployment. I expect these Fusion Key Elements to be ready by the inaugural gathering of World Fusion Energy Group.
In closing, let me thank you. I am inspired by your determination and enthusiasm. It is a privilege to be working together on this grand engineering endeavour of the 21st Century. We all are benefiting from the scientific and engineering feats of generations past. Standing on the shoulders of those who preceded us, we can see further and accomplish more.
Dear colleagues, dear friends,
While we may have different views on how exactly the global energy landscape will look in the coming years, we all see a place for fusion. Making this possibility a reality, is up to all of us.
Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) fosters the exchange of scientific and technical results in nuclear fusion research and development through its series of Fusion Energy Conferences. The 29th Fusion Energy Conference (FEC 2023) aims to provide a forum for the discussion of key physics and technology issues as well as innovative concepts of direct relevance to the use of nuclear fusion as a future source of energy. This video introduces the current state of the field.