68th IAEA General Conference

Could you listen to a delegate talking about nuclear issues in Arabic while relating their words live in Chinese at the same time? The UN’s impressive team of interpreters at the VIC do this for the General Conference and over 700 other meetings each year.

Delegates at the GC can listen to key debates live in the six official UN languages thanks to the skills of the Interpretation Section at the United Nations Office in Vienna. They provide an almost-real time interpretation services in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish, as well as other languages.

In this case, in order to deal with the nuclear-specific terminology at the general conference, the UN interpreters received detailed training from the IAEA’s internal language team in advance.

Together the 75 UN interpreters and 70 IAEA translators, have been providing language services for the GC plenary and other key meetings, 29 in total over 5 days, often back-to-back until midnight.  

In total, the IAEA team alone translated over 1 million words for the General Conference!

This included official documents, news articles, daily summaries and draft resolutions, to ensure that all documents were available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

This dedication from both teams of polyglots allows for real-time communication among delegates and ensures that participants have all the correct information available, irrespective of their native language.

AFRA members must work closely with the IAEA to help resolve Africa’s energy needs, to promote new opportunities in nuclear education, to mitigate the effects of climate change and to strengthen radiation protection, representatives at the 35th AFRA meeting heard.   

The African Regional Cooperative Agreement for Research, Development and Training Related to Nuclear Science and Technology (AFRA) plays a key role in promoting the peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology in Africa.

Forty participants joined the meeting held on the margins of the General Conference. An additional 30 attendees joined virtually. AFRA’s membership comprises 37 countries.  Delegates from four donor countries — Brazil, China, Japan and Sweden — as well as a representative of the European Union also participated in the annual meeting to better understand how additional resources might multiply the impact of IAEA activities in the region. 

The IAEA and Azerbaijan, holder of the COP29 Presidency, have held an event to build on the global nuclear energy momentum established at last year’s climate change conference.

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi spoke on the global support for nuclear power in mitigating climate change, and the commitment of the IAEA to partner with the Presidency and other stakeholders to maintain momentum on climate action.

Speakers from Azerbaijan including Elchin Allahverdiyev, Senior Negotiator of the COP29 Presidency, discussed the actions are required to fulfil their ambitious COP objectives.

COP28 was held in the UAE, COP29 will be held in Azerbaijan and COP30 is planned for Brazil.

Ricardo Maschietto Ayrosa, Deputy Permanent Representative of Brazil to the IAEA and Hamad Alkaabi, Permanent Representative of the UAE to the IAEA, joined the other speakers in a discussion on the role of the ‘Troika’ in facilitating collaboration among the COP28, COP29 and COP30 Presidencies to promote climate action continuity.    

The results of successful IAEA technical cooperation projects to analyze, transfer and store radioactive waste left from historic nuclear activities were shared by representatives of Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine at an IAEA General Conference side event.

“Safety and stabilization measures implemented in recent years have provided safe storage of radioactive waste,” said Kseniia Kostiuchenko, Central Enterprise for Radioactive Waste Management of Ukraine. “The IAEA technical cooperation programme plays a vital role in supporting Ukraine’s efforts to manage radioactive waste,” she added.

Managing legacy waste often poses challenges due to the uncertain nature of its characteristics and storage conditions. With IAEA support through the technical cooperation progamme, many countries in Europe and Central Asia have been able to tackle these challenges and make progress in managing their legacy radioactive waste inventories.

The side event also provided a platform for participants to learn effective waste management strategies and consider international collaboration opportunities to address legacy radioactive waste inventories on a global scale.

See an example of earlier IAEA support to monitor radiation at contaminated uranium legacy sites in Central Asia.

It’s been another eventful day at the 68th IAEA General Conference, with 11 countries elected to serve on the new 35-member IAEA Board of Governors for the 2024–2025 period. Today delegates visited the IAEA’s Nuclear Security Training and Demonstration Centre. At another event, newcomer nuclear countries had the chance to learn about IAEA support to strengthen their regulatory infrastructure.

Here are the highlights from Day 4

General conference delegates have just completed a tour of the Nuclear Security Training and Demonstration Centre at the IAEA laboratories in Seibersdorf – getting a close look at how we help countries strengthen their nuclear security regimes.  

Since it opened at the end of last year, the centre has hosted 50 events, with 700 participants and 200 experts, from nearly 100 countries.  

The visit included a tour to the Demonstration Control Centre, which is a simulation of the central alarm station found at nuclear facilities, and the Physical Protection Demonstration Room where hands-on training on the state-of-the-art physical protection technologies is conducted.  

If you missed the tour, then watch this video to learn more about the important work of the centre to combat nuclear terrorism. 

🚍 Delegates hopped on the #IAEAGC tour bus to Seibersdorf, near Vienna, where they visited the IAEA's Nuclear Security Training and Demonstration Centre. There, they got an up-close look at how we help countries strengthen their nuclear security regimes. https://t.co/aRBBttZLKQ pic.twitter.com/p2MNAgUzyK

— IAEA - International Atomic Energy Agency ⚛️ (@iaeaorg) September 20, 2024

The ‘Sharing Experience of Communities Hosting Nuclear Facilities’ side event featured speakers from governments in Argentina, Canada, Hungary, Japan, and the United States of America sharing valuable perspectives on the role of local communities and how they can cooperate effectively with other stakeholder groups, including those in government and nuclear industry.

Facilitating transparent, direct communication through continuous, open dialogue among stakeholders is essential for the long-term sustainability of nuclear power programmes. Communities hosting nuclear facilities, or who are being considered for a future project, can have a diverse range of concerns and needs that should be understood and addressed in order to foster trust throughout facilities’ life cycles.

The IAEA has entered into strategic partnership agreements with three companies in the field of dosimetry and quality assurance as part of efforts to enhance access to radiation medicine for cancer care. Signed under the umbrella of the IAEA’s Rays of Hope initiative, the agreements with IBA Dosimetry, PTW-Freiburg and Standard Imaging will enhance access to calibration and dosimetry services and will strengthen training in quality assurance and dosimetry for low and middle income countries.

Contributions from all three — which include dosimetry and quality assurance tools, alongside substantial support through cost-free or significantly subsidized vendor-agnostic training — will be instrumental in enhancing the training and research capabilities of Rays of Hope Anchor Centres and hospitals around the world. During the signing ceremony, which took place during the IAEA’s 68th General Conference, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said: “I'm proud the IAEA is collaborating with IBA Dosimetry, PTW-Freiburg and Standard Imaging to improve access to radiation medicine where it is needed most. Collaboration makes the most of our strengths in our shared effort to support communities in the fight against diseases like cancer."

Hello again and welcome to Day 4 of the IAEA General Conference. Please see the highlights from yesterday here. Today some delegates are heading out to Seibersdorf for a tour of our incredible labs there, and others are checking out the IAEA archives for a trip down memory lane, or the Incident and Emergency Centre to see how the Agency provides support during a crisis. Meanwhile, important discussions continue in the plenary and the Committee of the Whole, setting the direction for the Agency’s work. 

As usual, we will bring you highlights from the day as they happen. 

At the annual Treaty Event on the sidelines of the 68th General Conference, Liberia and South Africa joined multiple multilateral treaties under IAEA auspices. Liberia pledged its commitment to nuclear safety and security by depositing instruments expressing consent to be bound by six legal instruments. South Africa deposited an instrument of acceptance of the African Regional Co-operative Agreement for Research, Development and Training Related to Nuclear Science and Technology (AFRA), established by African Member States to strengthen the contribution of nuclear science and technology to socioeconomic development on the African continent. 

Read the full story

IAEA radiation safety experts have once again opened the doors to the Radiation Safety Technical Services Laboratory during the General Conference, showing visitors the equipment and techniques used to protect more than 3000 occupationally-exposed workers per year.  

If you missed the chance to join the tour in person, visit the laboratory on a virtual tour! 

Workers involved in IAEA activities, such as technical cooperation events and peer review missions that involve visits to nuclear power plants, research reactors and other sites that contain nuclear and radioactive material, are sent to the laboratory for internal and external radiation monitoring. This helps to ensure their exposure does not go above safe levels, complying with the recommendations of IAEA General Safety Requirements.  

The visitors to the tour learned about the IAEA’s state-of-the-art technology that can detect, identify and measure radioactive material in and on the human body. This includes the whole-body counter (pictured) — a large and sophisticated steel chamber with high resolution detectors that electronically measure the photon radiation emitted from inside a person.  

They also visited the radiochemistry and in-vitro monitoring laboratories for processing and measuring radionuclides in urine, faeces and saliva, as well as the external dosimetry laboratory, where personal dosimeters are assembled, issued and read. These techniques provide other essential radiation safety services for monitoring internal and external radiation exposure.  

Today, the IAEA showcased how machine learning and similar technologies can be used to collate millions of nuclear documents. 

There is a vast array of published information on nuclear science and technology topics. Since 1970, the IAEA has played a pivotal role in managing many of these publications through its International Nuclear Information System (INIS). The INIS Repository, supported by literature contributions from Member States and international organizations, contains over four million bibliographic records and provides access to more than two million full text documents. Many Member States also have considerable nuclear information archives, and efficiently organizing all of this material can be a challenge.  

In focus was INIS’s NADIA project, which is used to help categorize and index the INIS Repository’s extensive archives. Other applications of NADIA were also discussed, including for uses outside the IAEA’s portfolio. Advanced techniques such as Retrieval-Augmented Generation and large language models were also examined, with in-depth discussions on these nascent technologies.   

Proud to witness the growth from 5 to 10 #RaysOfHope Anchor Centres centres since our last #IAEAGC.
Today, we welcomed 🇹🇭 @IR_Ramathibodi & I look forward to seeing how our efforts in training, innovation, and quality management will continue to strengthen cancer care 🌎. pic.twitter.com/i8To6DmIp6

— Rafael MarianoGrossi (@rafaelmgrossi) September 18, 2024

Today, delegates were shown a demonstration of how the State Declarations Portal can make their safeguards correspondence simpler to deliver, by providing a direct line of communication with the IAEA. 

The portal eases the submission and receipt of declarations and other reports through a secure, multi-layered channel, ensuring timely and efficient communication, and streamlining exchange between countries and the IAEA Department of Safeguards.

“Currently, 117 state and regional authorities use the State Declarations Portal on a regular basis,” said the IAEA’s Jess Border during the event. “By reducing paper-based processes and enhancing institutional memory, the portal has significantly improved both the efficiency and security of safeguards-related information exchange with the IAEA.”

Find out more about the State Declarations Portal here.

The IAEA has laid out the ways it is helping to build the future nuclear workforce - as the field is expected to need an additional one million people within the next decade. 

To meet these needs and make significant nuclear power expansion feasible, capacity building and human resource development must be central components of long-term energy planning strategies. 

At the ‘Creating the Future Global Nuclear Workforce through Exchange and Practice: Lise Meitner Programme and Beyond’ side event earlier today, IAEA experts provided an overview of support offered by the Agency, including Knowledge Management Assist Visits, the International Nuclear Management Academy initiative and other human resource development activities. The event also highlighted flagship projects including the Lise Meitner Programme, which was launched in 2023 to provide early- and mid-career women professionals with opportunities to participate in a visiting professional programme and bolster their technical and soft skills, as well as the Open-source Nuclear Codes for Reactor Analysis (ONCORE) initiative, a framework for simulation tools which supports research, education and training for the analysis of advanced nuclear power reactors. 

From seed banks to nuclear medicine to cultural heritage – delegates from the Arab States in Asia have been discussing the achievements of over 60 IAEA cooperation projects over the last 20 years.

At the annual meeting for the Cooperative Agreement for Arab States in Asia for Research, Development and Training related to Nuclear Science and Technology (ARASIA), participants reviewed the successes since the agreement’s adoption and planned future technical cooperation activities in the region.  IAEA Deputy Director General Hua Liu also launched a new nuclear medicine reference document at the meeting.

Hello and welcome to Day 3 of the IAEA’s General Conference. Today is the second and final day of the Agency’s premier side event – the Scientific Forum, focused on ways nuclear techniques help combat global hunger. You can attend in person or follow on the livestream. The open plenary debate between Member States will carry on continues, as will the closed discussions in the Committee of the Whole.

Our range of exciting side events also continue, from the annual treaty signing event, to discussions on SMRs, a trainee programme for Safeguards, and a presentation of the impact of our flagship cancer initiative Rays of Hope. See here for all today’s side events.

Keep checking this blog throughout the day for updates, photo essays, videos and more.

The IAEA Scientific Forum 2024 kicked off today under the theme Atoms4Food: Better Agriculture for a Better Life. Running alongside the IAEA’s 68th General Conference, the Forum opened with a packed house of over 260 participants, including ministers and food experts from around the world. IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi set the tone, highlighting the urgency of the global food crisis and how nuclear technology can offer real solutions. “Countries don’t need more speeches—they need solutions,” he emphasized, pointing to the IAEA’s Atoms4Food initiative, which uses nuclear science to improve agriculture.

From drought-resistant crops to advanced water management, these innovations are designed to boost productivity and sustainability. Key speakers like Abdulhamid Alkhalifa from the OPEC Fund and Musalia Mudavadi, Kenya’s Prime Cabinet Secretary, echoed this sentiment. They stressed the importance of partnerships and innovation, particularly in vulnerable regions like Africa, where food security is a major challenge. As the Forum continues, the conversation will dive deeper into the role of nuclear science in creating a more resilient global food system. Read the full report of the day here. Stayed tuned on Wednesday by following the livesteam!

The IAEA has hosted a panel discussion to showcase how nuclear security networks successfully build capacity and collaboration. 

“While the responsibility for a State’s nuclear security regime rests entirely with that Sstate, the IAEA has a vital role providing an inclusive platform for global cooperation in nuclear security. Establishing networks as communities of practice is part of our efforts to further strengthen international cooperation for nuclear security,” said Lydie Evrard, IAEA Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Nuclear Safety and Security.

The invited event panelists represented the International Network of Front Line Officers and Organizations for Nuclear Security Detection (FLO Network), the International Nuclear Security Education Network (INSEN), and the International Network for Nuclear Security Training and Support Centres (NSSC Network).

Non-nuclear power countries have been learning how to manage the spent fuel from research reactors, as well as disused sealed radioactive sources, at a General Conference side event. Today’s event provided an overview of the factors that go into deciding on spent fuel and source management options, including the cost, environmental impact and human resource requirements, and demonstrated how IAEA tools can help simplify these decisions.

The IAEA has developed several tools, including Back End Research Reactor Integrated Decision Making Evaluation (BRIDE) and Disused Sources Integrated Decision Evaluation Support Tool (DSIDES), to assist in the process of choosing a path forward.

Before the IAEA General Conference even started this year, 44 national representatives of 21 countries attended the annual meeting of stakeholders to the Asian Regional Cooperative Agreement. They gathered to lay the ground work before the General Conference to consider new challenges facing the region and to prepare for the implementation of the next technical cooperation cycle. 

IAEA Deputy Director General Hua Liu stressed the important of close cooperation between the Technical Cooperation programme and the Reional Cooperative Agreement. “This integration will enhance the effectiveness and reach of our efforts, enabling us to leverage our resources for maximum benefit and sustainability.”

IAEA General Conference participants have been taking out their mobile devices to explore the IAEA’s database on discharges of radionuclides to the atmosphere and the aquatic environment, at a side event that demonstrated how the recently upgraded tool supports transparency and monitoring of global discharge data.

During the event, attendees checked out data on discharges from nuclear power plants, reprocessing facilities and research reactors. The presentation showcased the accessibility and functionalities of the database, known as DIRATA, such as the data visualization map and the option to download data for further analysis.  Currently, 24 out of 34 nuclear countries voluntarily provide data on more than 500 nuclear installations for DIRATA, contributing to a comprehensive global resource for tracking discharges. The event also informed visitors on the sources of nuclear discharges and the regulations that control them.  

Every night, around 800 million people go to bed hungry. Every 10 seconds, hunger takes the life of a child. Yet, 1/3 of food is lost or wasted.
This is an obscenity.
At this year's @IAEAorg #Atoms4Food #ScientificForum we’re exploring how nuclear science is helping change this. pic.twitter.com/MToiqmOeC9

— Rafael MarianoGrossi (@rafaelmgrossi) September 17, 2024

The IAEA Scientific Forum on improving agriculture and nourishing the future has just begun, on the sidelines of the General Conference. You can watch the opening film here, to get a taste of the ways nuclear science is helping combat global hunger. 

Welcome to Day 2 of the IAEA’s General Conference! The packed schedule continues this morning, with the Agency’s flagship side event – the Scientific Forum starting right now. The topic is Atoms4Food – Better Agriculture for Better Life. The event is taking place today and tomorrow in Board Room D, C building, 4th floor. Come and join us to learn about all the ways nuclear science supports sustainable agriculture. Or watch online if you’re not in the building.

Earlier this year, two IAEA scientists set out to identify the source of microplastics polluting the Antarctic. Today, at the #IAEAGC, we showcased the results of this important mission as part of the IAEA's #NUTECplastics Initiative. Read on: https://t.co/aRBBttZLKQ pic.twitter.com/rZEPMesBdK

— IAEA - International Atomic Energy Agency ⚛️ (@iaeaorg) September 16, 2024

A NUTEC Plastics event gave conference delegates a chance to see the results from this year's mission to Antarctica, where two IAEA scientists set out to identify the source of microplastics polluting the Antartic and discuss the initiative's future directions. Argentine Foreign Minister Diana Mondino and the IAEA’s Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi opened the event.  Participants were introduced to a new NUTEC Plastics Portal that tracks progress, facilitates consultation and improves coordination and access to periodic progress reports for countries. They also heard unique experiences and insights from different Member States.  

Established in 2020 to fight plastic pollution with nuclear technologies, NUTEC Plastics builds on the IAEA's efforts to tackle plastic pollution with innovative recycling techniques using radiation technology and by marine monitoring using isotopic tracing techniques. 

Check out the video on the First IAEA Antarctic Research Mission 

Thousands of delegates are at the Vienna International Centre for the general conference. 

Almost 3,000 participants from 139 countries are registered for the conference so far. Interestingly, this year also has the most ever participants from NGOs, showing how the IAEA has been growing its engagement at all levels of the society.

The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, called the IAEA’s work “more vital than ever” in his statement to the opening of the General Conference. 

In the statement, delivered by the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna Ghada Fathi Waly, Guterres called on all countries to “support the Agency’s role in ensuring the strictly peaceful use of nuclear energy”. 

The Secretary-General said, “As the war continues to rage in Ukraine, the risk of an accident at a nuclear power plant remains a daily possibility that must be avoided at all costs. The IAEA continues to provide invaluable support to ensure the safety and security of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and other nuclear facilities affected by the war”.

Guterres described how the Agency continues to ensure that nuclear energy benefits people around the world, through 1,000 active technical cooperation projects worldwide. Read the full statement here.

Alongside all the important national deliberations taking place this week there will be almost 100 side events held by the IAEA, member countries and partners – all showcasing the latest in nuclear science and technology.  

See the full list of side events here and read more here about how the IAEA is highlighting its flagship initiatives —addressing challenges like climate change, food security, energy sustainability, zoonotic diseases and gender parity in the nuclear sector — reviewing progress, building partnerships and outlining the way forward. 

For more information on the IAEA’s other flagship initiatives please see: www.iaea.org/services/key-programmes.  

“Since we last gathered, social, political and ecological challenges across the world have grown no lighter. Through the IAEA’s unique mandate, we have the responsibility of addressing issues that affect all of humanity. Our priorities include reinforcing and preventing the erosion of a non-proliferation regime that has underpinned international peace and security for more than half a century; the ever-more-present existential threat of climate change, and the ongoing injustice of poverty, disease and hunger,” Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in his written remarks to the General Conference this morning. Read the full statement here.

The 68th #IAEAGC is underway.
As global challenges grow, our mission is more critical than ever: uphold non-proliferation, tackle climate change, and fight disease & hunger.
The @IAEAorg is all of us—united in a commitment to nuclear safety & security, beyond borders & tensions. pic.twitter.com/cXlP0fUYNJ

— Rafael MarianoGrossi (@rafaelmgrossi) September 16, 2024