At the IAEA in Vienna, hundreds of delegates attend the International Chernobyl Conference that sums up what’s known about the 1986 accident’s radiological consequences one decade later. The IAEA Board agrees to negotiations on a new legal instrument attached to comprehensive safeguards agreements that would grant Agency inspectors greater authority.  In September, a “Trilateral Initiative” is launched between the IAEA, Russia, and the USA to consider practical measures concerning IAEA verification of weapon-origin fissile materials, which represents an important first step for international verification of nuclear disarmament. At the United Nations in New York on 10 September, the General Assembly overwhelmingly approves the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty by a vote of 158 to three. Vienna is to host the implementing organization. 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. The UN announces that the Chemical Weapons Convention will enter into force 29 April 1997. The IAEA completes a study of radiological risks in the Arctic Seas related to waste dumping, finding no need for remedial actions. The world marks the 100th anniversary of the discovery of radioactivity in January 1896 by French scientist Henri Becquerel.