Chair,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States. The candidate countries Türkiye, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Ukraine, Republic of Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina[1] and Georgia, the EFTA countries Iceland and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as well as Armenia and San Marino, align themselves with this statement.

The European Union would like to thank the Director General for the Agency’s “Nuclear Technology Review 2024”. We recognize the significant contribution of radiation and nuclear technology applications to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world. The Agency’s work on nuclear science, technology and applications underpins the inalienable right of all States Parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination and in accordance with Article IV of the NPT.

The EU remains committed to ensuring the responsible, safe and secure development of peaceful uses of nuclear energy. We recognize that nuclear technologies can be of great help to fight global warming, mitigate its consequences and monitor its impact.  We strongly support the Agency’s commitment to contribute to tackling climate change. We also support its participation to COP28 and planned contribution to COP29. We acknowledge the need to ensure energy security at affordable cost and respect the right of Member States to decide on their energy mix and choose the most appropriate technologies to collectively achieve our climate target.

Chair,

We appreciate the IAEA’s support to make the most of nuclear science and technologies for achieving sustainable development and addressing current and emerging future development challenges. We welcome the Director General’s initiatives on ZODIAC, NUTEC Plastics, Rays of Hope and Atoms4Food. The next IAEA Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Science, Technology and Applications and the Technical Cooperation Programme to be held in November 2024 in Vienna, offers an opportunity to draw further attention to the IAEA’s work in this area.

Given the ongoing constructions of research reactors in some EU Member States, we welcome the IAEA’s work related to the applications of accelerators and research reactors in the medical field and cultural heritage characterisation, amongst others. They are examples of the societal relevance and the impact of nuclear technologies.

We further support the numerous advances made in the field of nuclear medicine and human health, including diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The EC’s Joint Research Centre collaborates with clinical partners for the joint development and testing of radionuclide-labelled pharmaceuticals. It is also working closely with the IAEA to transfer knowledge and training to hospitals in Europe, Africa, South America and other regions. More than 1000 patients have received treatment thanks to these collaborations, including more than 300 South African patients with prostate cancer. We also welcome the developments on innovative radiation technologies and isotopic tracing techniques for improving food security and nutrition, water management and marine environment protection.

Chair,

The EU takes note of the global trends in the field of nuclear power as highlighted in the Agency’s report. We reaffirm that when using nuclear technology, it is essential that countries firmly comply with international legal instruments, especially their safeguards agreements, and act in accordance with the IAEA safety standards and security guidelines. We strongly encourage all Member States to take advantage of the IAEA peer reviews and advisory services, to publish the findings and to timely implement the recommended actions. In this regard, we note with appreciation the INIR Phase 1 mission held in Estonia in October 2023.

As some EU Member States continue to monitor developments in Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) or have included them in their technology considerations, we attach importance to the Agency-wide platform on SMRs and their Applications and support the Secretariat in its efforts to ensure coordination between the platform and the Nuclear Harmonization and Standardization Initiative (NHSI). The European Commission has established a new “European Industrial Alliance” aiming to accelerate the development, demonstration and deployment of SMRs in full respect of the highest standards of nuclear safety and environmental sustainability. We look forward to the discussions during the International Conference on Small Modular Reactors and their Applications in October 2024. Ahead of the next stocktaking of the NHSI in June, we renew our call to the Secretariat to provide more information to Member States on this initiative.

Chair,

Nuclear power plants and research reactors worldwide are increasingly operating for longer timeframes. Timely and adequate implementation of measures related to ageing management and long-term operation as well as reasonably practicable safety improvements, are of growing importance. We appreciate the Agency’s support to Member States on long-term operation, ageing and obsolescence management.

Important decommissioning projects are underway in the EU and the efforts of the Agency to deepen the understanding of all aspects of the decommissioning programmes are extremely valuable. Projects aiming at the deep geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste and long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel are also progressing in several EU Member States. We welcome the Director General’s visits last year to the Deep-Rock Laboratory in Sweden and Andra’s Underground Research Laboratory in France.

Looking at the future, we will continue our involvement in fusion research, in particular through our support to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility– [Demo Oriented NEutron Source] (IFMIF-DONES) and the Demonstration Fusion Power Plant (DEMO) projects.

With these comments, we support the recommended Board action set forth in GOV/2024/2.

Thank you, Chair.

[1] North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.